🚀 go-pugleaf

<9204311.8562@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> richard@cs.mu.OZ.AU (Richard Hagen) writes:
>
>``The Difference Engine'' on the other hand, concerns itself with an
>alternate history from the same time, one where the Engines of Babbage
>are actually realised and technocracy rules, UK.

In essence, after this point Richard pans TDE. Now read on ...

>Now for the nasty part:
>
>This book *creaks*. The clumsy ``authentic'' touches (endless contrived
>use of cod Victorian slang, tedious description of Greater London of
>the day) rob the book of any momentum it might accidentally gather.

Indeed, the feel on England generated is one that might have leapt out of
1960s musicals or films. Much like the English scenes form Gibsons "Mona
Lisa Overdrive" sounded like they were based on watching episodes of
"Minder".

>Noone is *involved* in this ``alternate'' history. It's something that
>is always happened to someone else. And that someone else doesn't
>happen to get a part in this book. None of the characters has any real
>motivation, they just *wander around so the scenery may be described*.
>Characters are only distinguishable from each other by the gender of
>the pronoun references and whether they speak in ``Cor Blimey'' or
>``Queen's English''.

The book is _bad_. No - correct me - it's misdirected. Gibson and Sterling
(Sterling especially) have the bad habit of using their stories to
describe scenes rather than relate plot. (See Sterlings "We See Things
Differently" for a classic example of a story that spends all its time
demonstating his wealth of knowledge, and none on his power of narrative.)
TDE plucks storylines at random, meanders across them and hurriedly ties
them together in an epilogue. Worst still, the writing style is
pretentious and verbose. (Witness the seemingly endless and pointless
encounter of one of our characters with a prostitute in London.) Names and
characters are dropped in for no reason ("Karl Marx! We have to work him
in somehow ..."). An absurd Boys-own-adventure sequence is inserted that
allows our Victorian heroes to whip the butt of some lowly villains.

Ach, no more! It has so much potential, but it's so bad.

p-m

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au) Machine Intelligence Lab, La Trobe Uni

        "Teenage sex, nuclear winter, Junior Miss fashion 
					& the mechanics of emotional capitalism ..."