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by: Bruce Sterling  Amazon.com's Price: $7.99 Prices subject to change.Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: Mass Market PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780553576399 ISBN: 0553576399 Label: Spectra Manufacturer: Spectra Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 544 Publication Date: October 05, 1999 Publisher: Spectra Release Date: October 05, 1999 Studio: Spectra Related Items: Alternate Versions: Click to Display Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: It's the year 2044, and America has gone to hell. A disenfranchised U.S. Air Force base has turned to highway robbery in order to pay the bills. Vast chunks of the population live nomadic lives fueled by cheap transportation and even cheaper computer power. Warfare has shifted from the battlefield to the global networks, and China holds the information edge over all comers. Global warming is raising sea level, which in turn is drowning coastal cities. And the U.S. government has become nearly meaningless. This is the world that Oscar Valparaiso would have been born into, if he'd actually been born instead of being grown in vitro by black market baby dealers. Oscar's bizarre genetic history (even he's not sure how much of him is actually human) hasn't prevented him from running one of the most successful senatorial races in history, getting his man elected by a whopping majority. But Oscar has put himself out of a job, since he'd only be a liability to his boss in Washington due to his problematic background. Instead, Oscar finds himself shuffled off to the Collaboratory, a Big Science pork barrel project that's run half by corruption and half by scientific breakthroughs. At first it seems to be a lose-lose proposition for Oscar, but soon he has his "krewe" whipped into shape and ready to take control of events. Now if only he can straighten out his love life and solve a worldwide crisis that no one else knows exists. --Craig E. Engler Product Description: It's November 2044, an election year, and the state of the Union is a farce. The government is broke, the cities are privately owned, and the military is shaking down citizens in the streets. Washington has become a circus and no one knows that better than Oscar Valparaiso. A political spin doctor, Oscar has always made things look good. Now he wants to make a difference. But Oscar has a skeleton in his closet. His only ally: Dr. Greta Penninger, a gifted neurologist at the bleeding edge of the neural revolution. Together they're out to spread a very dangerous idea whose time has come. And so have their enemies: every technofanatic, government goon, and laptop assassin in America. Oscar and Greta might not survive to change the world, but they'll put a new spin on it. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Vintage SterlingDistraction by Bruce Sterling will make you think until your dendrites grind while scaring the @#$% out of you, but you'll be laughing so hard you won't notice. By just nudging reality a tiny bit, Sterling shows us a possible and plausible scenario of what can happen when everybody's distracted by what's doable. In this future world with limitless internet and knowledge transmission the government becomes frightening and ridiculous at the same time, sort of like a rabid dog on roller skates ... Read More Rating:  - Masterful writing undermined by gross implausibilities.------------------------- Rating: "B": masterful writing and funny/clever satire, undermined by gross implausibilities and clunky auctorial manipulations. Distraction has a more mature, less headlong feel than Holy Fire, Sterling's previous novel. And the premise is grimmer -- the mid- 21st century USA, bankrupted by a Chinese netwar, is coming seriously unglued. could almost see the footnotes in the catalog of "what went wrong": Military ... Read More Rating: - It's okayThe story here is decent but not exactly what it's pitched as. To read the description would lead you to believe that you're going to read a book about two people trying to change a corrupt, lost America. But by the time you finish, it's obvious that the story is more about two people who are caught up in their own bubble and have not really made an effort to fix America. Instead they have played a bunch of "dangerous" games with a few politicians and some crazies who have dropped out of society ... Read More Rating:  - A work of precision intensity and intelligenceBruce Sterling addresses every major topic of our time. It is a transformational futurists view of the social impact that biotechnology, nanotech, and a global network may have. The sheer number of concepts that have been intertwined and projected into the future are staggering. It is a massive vision, and yet it is told simply and with a sensitivity for suspense and overall appeal. Rating: - Great Near Future Sci-FiSterling does it again with this book, prescient and witty. It tells the tale of two people stuck in a civil war of sorts between the old world and the new. It is a great read if you are into "Emergence Theory," as you watch the city of Buna unfold. 
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