Schismatrix Plus, Bruce Sterling
Schismatrix Plus, Bruce Sterling
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Schismatrix Plus

Author: Bruce Sterling

Narrator: Pavi Proczko

Unabridged: 17 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/29/2020


Synopsis

The Nebula-nominated novel of “a brave new world of nearly constant future shock”—plus all the short fiction of the Shaper/Mechanist universe (The Washington Post).Acclaimed science fiction luminary and a godfather of the genre’s remarkable offspring—cyberpunk—Bruce Sterling carries readers to a far-future universe where stunning achievements in human development have been tainted by a virulent outbreak of prejudice and hatred.Many thousands of years in the future, the human race has split into two incompatible factions. The aristocratic Mechanists believe that humans can only achieve their greatest potential through technology and enhancing their bodies with powerful prosthetics. The rebel Shapers view these “improvements” as abominations, and their faith in genetic enhancements over mechanical ones has led to violent, even murderous, clashes between the two sects.One man is caught in the middle. The child of Mechanists, Abelard Lindsay is a former Shaper diplomat who was betrayed and cast out of the fold. Scrupulously trained in the fine art of treachery and deceit, he travels freely between the warring camps during his never-ending exile, embracing piracy and revolution all along the way. But while saving his own skin is Lindsay’s main motivation, a greater destiny awaits him, one that could offer a bold new hope for a tragically sundered humankind.A breathtaking flight of unparalleled imagination, Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix Plus also includes every subsequent excursion into the Mechanist and Shaper universe, complementing his acclaimed novel with the complete collection of mind-boggling Schismatrix short fiction. The result is is a total immersion into the Mechanist/Shaper universe from the Hugo, Campbell, and Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author called “a writer of excellent fineness” by Harlan Ellison and “one of the very best” by Publishers Weekly.

About Bruce Sterling

Bruce Sterling is an Austin-born science fiction writer and Net critic, internationally recognized as a cyberspace theorist who is also considered one of the forefathers of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction. He has won a John W. Campbell Award, two Hugo Awards, and an Arthur C. Clarke Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Terry on May 08, 2013

What a great read this was. I've never been much of a fan of cyberpunk and I'm not particularly a fan of the authors generally noted to be founders of the genre (William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, etc.), but I really loved this book and it has put Bruce Sterling near the top of my list for sci-fi writ......more

Goodreads review by Guillermo on July 25, 2016

The moment I read in Galactic North that Alastair Reynolds acknowledged Schismatrix as a huge influence in developing his Revelation Space series, I knew I had to eventually track it down. Four years later, eventually finally happened. So let me first of all clarify the difference between Schismatri......more

Goodreads review by Outis on May 27, 2013

A bizarre absurdist bourgeois epic set in the space kindgom of the posthuman con artists. Features hyperbole and sharp dark humor. As scientific and technological advances shatter the limitations which define modern thought and sustain the existence of a single human community, rugged individualists......more

Goodreads review by Adam on March 01, 2010

I had written Bruce Sterling off as a relic of the cyberpunk era, big mistake. The wow factor is pretty big on this. Mind mutating, WTF, idea per sentence science fiction with shades at time of Bester, Triptree jr. Delaney, Barrington J. Bailey(who blurbs it) William S. Burroughs, and Ballard. Dense......more

Goodreads review by Stuart on May 17, 2022

Neutron Star-Dense Cyberpunk, Hugely Influential, Hard to Digest Back in the 1980s, it was William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), Bruce Stirling's Schismatrix (1985), Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired (1985), and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) that gave birth to the concept of cyberpunk, shaking thin......more


Quotes

“A brave new world of nearly constant future shock . . . Ambitious . . . Fast-moving. Sterling’s real forte lies in the evocation of technological and human strangeness.” —The Washington Post“Spectacular . . . A marvelous feat of invention.” —Booklist“Absorbingly original . . . Highly imaginative . . . An arresting slice of future history.” —Kirkus Reviews