The Difference Engine
John W. Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel nominee 1992, Nebula Best Novel nominee 1991.
1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his
Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its
time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with
history – and the future:
Sybil Gerard – a 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 is the collaborative masterpiece by two of the most acclaimed science
fiction authors writing today. Provocative, compelling, intensely
imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson’s and Sterling’s unique
visions – and the beginning of movement we know today as “steampunk!”
Bruce Sterling
Born in Texas, US, in 1954, Bruce Sterling has traveled the globe writing and working for The New York Times, Nature, Wired, Newsday, and a number of industrial design magazines. His first story appeared in in 1976. His short fiction has appeared in almost every major publication in the science fiction field. One of his most memorable novels is far future adventure Schismatrix. His stories were an essential part of the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s. The Difference Engine, co-written with William Gibson, was a bestseller. In 1999, he won the Hugo Award in the short-story category. He lives in Austin, Texas.Other worksThe Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992) Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years (2002) Custer's Last Jump And Other Collaborations (2003) (other writers: A. A. Jackson, Leigh Kennedy, George R. R. Martin, Joseph F. Pumilia, Buddy Sanders, Steven Utley, Howard Waldrop).
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