The Difference Engine

Gibson, William; Sterling, Bruce

ISBN 10: 0553070282 / ISBN 13: 9780553070286

Published by Bantam Dell Pub Group, 1991

About this Item

This book is the Advanced Reading Copy of the First US Hardcover Edition. The book has slight tanning of the pages. 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 number line. Signed by the authors, Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, on the title page.

Seller Inventory # 005820

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Difference Engine
• Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553070282
• ISBN 13: 9780553070286
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st US Edition 1st Printing.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket as issued
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

In London of 1855, celebrated paleontologist Edward Mallory gets mixed up with Charles Babbage, the inventor of an advanced calculating machine run by his elite group of clackers

Reviews

In a surprising departure from the traditional view of cyberpunk's bleak future, Gibson ( Mona Lisa Overdrive ) and Sterling ( Islands in the Net ) render with elan and colorful detail a scientifically advanced London, circa 1855, where computers ("Engines") have been developed. Fierce summer heat and pollution have driven out the ruling class, and ensuing anarchy allows the subversive, technology-hating Luddites to surface and battle the intellectual elite. Much of the problem centers on a set of perforated cards, once in the possession of an executed Luddite leader's daughter, later in the hands of "Queen of Engines" Ada Byron (daughter of prime minister Lord Byron), finally given to Edward Mallory, a scientist. Mallory, who knows the cards are a gambling device that can be read with a specialized Engine, is soon threatened and libeled by the Luddites, and he and his associates confront the scoundrels in a violent showdown. A sometimes listless pace and limp conclusions that defy the plot's complexity flaw an otherwise visionary, handsomely written, unsentimental tale that convincingly revises the 19th-century Western world. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In a Victorian England run by steam-powered computing engines and governed by an intellectual elite led by Prime Minister Byron, an ambitious young paleontologist comes into possession of a dangerous set of program cards and begins running for his life. This first collaboration between cyberpunk legends Gibson ( Neuroman cer , Ace, 1984) and Sterling ( Islands in the Net, LJ 6/15/88) represents an ingenious (though not entirely successful) tour-de-force, as cyberpunk and the Victorian adventure novel meet with a vengeance. Recommended.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.