The Difference Engine, William Gibson
The Difference Engine, William Gibson
5 Rating(s)
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The Difference Engine

Author: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 13 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 11/06/2010

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. Three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with the future: Sybil Gerard—fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward “Leviathan” Mallory—explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant—diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for.Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine took the science fiction community by storm when it was first published more than twenty years ago. Provocative, compelling, and intensely imagined, this novel is poised to impress a whole new generation.

About William Gibson

William Gibson is credited with having coined the term "cyberspace," and having envisioned both the Internet and virtual reality before either existed. Many of his descriptions and metaphors have entered the culture as images of human relations in the electronic age, and he has an international reputation as the William Burroughs of the "wired" life. He is the author of Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Burning Chrome, Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties, Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. William lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife.

Reviews

Goodreads review by mark on October 20, 2011

STEAMPUNK SALAD 3 (5-ounce) cans solid Victorian Era packed in water 1/2 cup minced Bruce Sterling 1/2 cup minced William Gibson 1/4 cup Technological Speculation 1 hard-boiled Spy Thriller, chopped in large pieces 1 soft-boiled Detective Tale, finely minced 3 Major Characters, lukewarm 1 Mysterious Box of......more

Goodreads review by J.G. Keely on March 09, 2016

My Shakespeare professor was ravishing: clever and ebullient, and never to be found without knee-high leather heels. I drew playbill covers while she lectured, and gave them to her at the end of class. One day I went to her office hours and there they were, all arrayed upon the wall above her desk.......more

Goodreads review by Kat on May 17, 2011

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, two major SciFi powerhouses, joined forces to produce The Difference Engine, a classic steampunk novel which was nominated for the 1990 British Science Fiction Award, the 1991 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1992 John W.......more

Goodreads review by Mina on February 01, 2009

This book is pure brilliance. As all the other Gibson books I have read, the ending kind of.. dissolves into mist, leaving you with questions and giving you a lot of room to imagine and pursue ideas -this being a very positive thing, actually. I think Sterling's style gave Gibson a grounding tug, so......more

Goodreads review by Jim on February 16, 2014

Sometimes it *really* pays to re-read a book. I wasn't very impressed when I first read this book. My favorite character at the time vanished with about forty pages left, and I didn't find the end compelling. I can't remember when I first read the book, but it was years ago. Now that I'm older and hav......more

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