The Difference Engine: **Signed**

Gibson, William; Sterling, Bruce

ISBN 10: 0553070282 / ISBN 13: 9780553070286

Published by Bantam Spectra, New York, 1991

About this Item

SIGNED by WILLIAM GIBSON on the Title page. Signature only First edition, First printing. Book is in Near Fine condition. Boards are clean, not bumped. Fore edges have a tiny bit of shelf wear. Interior is clean and legible. Not remaindered. Dust Jacket is in Near Fine condition. Not chipped or crinkled. Not price clipped. Dust Jacket is covered by Mylar Brodart. Thanks and Enjoy. All-Ways well boxed, All-Ways fast service. Thanks.

Seller Inventory # 023858

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Difference Engine: **Signed**
• Publisher: Bantam Spectra, New York
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553070282
• ISBN 13: 9780553070286
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science Fiction / Fantasy
  • Signed First Editions

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.