"The Difference Engine" by Gibson, Sterling

[Merowinger]

Anyone read this one? Here´s the story:

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.

 

[Flocculencio]

Read it but didn't particularly enjoy it.

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Ah, the first steampunk novel.

Personally, I thought it was an interesting concept, but I felt that the book could have been immeasurably improved with a good editor. I felt the non-Mallory parts of the book could have been safely dropped. After all, when you get down to it, it's more about the world than the punch cards.

On the technical side, the problem I found was that the Analytical Engines were acting as essentially modern computers. Most of what I've herad about them suggests that they would be even worse than the old ENIAC supercomputer.

And, of course, good little Russophile that I am, the stories of the Russians being driven out of the Crimea with Engine-guided artillery made me very sad.

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Ah, the first steampunk novel.

Personally, I thought it was an interesting concept, but I felt that the book could have been immeasurably improved with a good editor. I felt the non-Mallory parts of the book could have been safely dropped. After all, when you get down to it, it's more about the world than the punch cards.

On the technical side, the problem I found was that the Analytical Engines were acting as essentially modern computers. Most of what I've herad about them suggests that they would be even worse than the old ENIAC supercomputer.

And, of course, good little Russophile that I am, the stories of the Russians being driven out of the Crimea with Engine-guided artillery made me very sad.

 

[Justin Pickard]

I read it and, despite finding it unfocused and weak in terms of plot and character, the mileau and world in which it was set was enough to carry it through in my opinion. Something full of interesting ideas and concepts, I particularly liked the idea of an Egyptian architectural revival fueled by archaeological discoveries in British Egypt.

The most promising bits in the book are the flahes of that world's future contained within the prologue / epilogue if I remember correctly...

 

[NapoleonXIV]

Fascinating book, one of the first that got me involved with AH. More than a little hard to follow and the ending was inconclusive, was there ever a sequel?

 

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Fascinating book, one of the first that got me involved with AH. More than a little hard to follow and the ending was inconclusive, was there ever a sequel?

No, as far as I can tell, it was a one-off. Oddly enough, according to Uchronia.net, this book might be a rewrite of a Benjamin Disraeli novel, Sybil, or The Two Nations, since both books share characters.

However, I forgot to mention that I have a major beef with the paleontology in the book. You can search this site for the other Difference Engine thread for my rant.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

I read it, and for the first steampunk novel, it wasn't very much like cyberpunk. Not nearly depressing enough. Yes, there was a sense of alienation and a loss of tradition from the rapid development of technology, but then again the Victorian Era had the same thing happening. I actually thought that Peshawar Lancers was more interesting- the adventure bit around the middle of the Difference Engine was too strangely like something out of Terry Prachett's Discworld to me, though that may be because I've read the book where the cop goes back in time to old Ankh-Mopork. Only the last passage had something that was really bleakly posthuman. Other than that, I've read other Victorian Era-modified works, and they're much better.

I recommend these, instead:

That Darn Squid God, a parody of Lovecraft's works.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Anno Dracula, the best Victorian-era vampire novel, ever.

I still don't understand the ending.

1. Was the modus real?

2. What was in the cards that everyone cared so much?

3. What was Sybil's purpose in all of this?

4. Does anyone understand the ending?

5. Why were the chapter beginning and ending anecdotes so pointless and infuritatingly cryptic?

The map angers me, too- too much unexplained. Why is Liberia an Empire? How did a company come to own Nigeria? What's it like in the Californian Republic?

I really didn't like Mallory's character- he was too bland.

To everyone who's read the book and thought the U.S. coming apart was not detailed enough: I encourage you to read

Red Flag Falling - The Story of the Manhattan Commune and A House Demolished: A New England AAR by Voshkod on the Paradox forums, two AARs from the Victoria game.

 

[Duncan]

I read it, and for the first steampunk novel, it wasn't very much like cyberpunk.

I'd hardly call it the first steampunk novel. Isn't that ususally considered to be KW Jeter's Morlock Night (1979 to Difference Engine's 1990)? My 1989 edition of the Jeter calls it (on the back cover blurb) "the original 'Steam Punk' novel", so even the term steampunk is comfortably older than DE.

The map angers me, too- too much unexplained. Why is Liberia an Empire? How did a company come to own Nigeria? What's it like in the Californian Republic?

Map? There isn't one in my edition (the 1991 UK paperback). Anyone know its pedigree - was it in the original hardback, or is it a later addition?

As for Nigeria, the Royal Niger Company did own most of it in OTL - though not till some decades after the time of DE. Perhaps it's just intended to be one way that the new technologies and RadLib attitudes speed things up?

 

[Smuz]

Anno Dracula was indeed good.