[electronic resource] /, 363 pages

English language

Published Sept. 1, 1990 by Spectra/Bantam Books.

ISBN:
978-0-345-53258-9
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OCLC Number:
774566405

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(11 reviews)

Fictional speculation on what would have happened if the computer had been invented in the 19th century.

25 editions

World over story?

I will usually grab any SF Masterworks book I find in second hand book shops because so far every one I've read has been brilliant. Unfortunately The Different Engine has broken that run by coming across as confused and mediocre.

There's interesting world building (maybe more "world describing") at play, and quite a pacey, engaging story thread that pulls you through the middle of the book. Either side though almost feels like completely unrelated tales that never really join up with everything else.

Great idea but executed in a way that didn't do it for me. Read a review that suggested this would have been a great short story or novella if trimmed down, and I think they've got it spot on.

Review of 'The Difference Engine' on 'GoodReads'

Around the time this book was published and the term “Steam Punk” was being bandied about, and people were modding computers with Victorian facades, a university friend of mine mentioned the words to me, “The difference engine”. I never read the book but I used the term freely over the years to express the À rebours aesthetic taking place with new technologies. The concept overall, quite interesting, albeit twenty years later, I actually got round to reading the book. I couldn’t have felt flatter. It felt like Gibson and Sterling had over-researched the era and decided to throw in as much of this research as possible in order to either authenticate the world within or just let the reader know they had done their homework.

Consistency was lost through-out. Even some of the main character dialogue shifted from cockney brogue to received pronunciation without seemingly intending to do so, as …

None

I have lemmed this book twice. I have now finished it. The story is way too disjointed and there seemed to be no satisfactory ending to the story. Yes, all issues with all the main characters are resolved. The MacGuffan of the cards, and they are, is revealed. But there was so much going on that the characters had a thin thread between each other as to be bored when one thread took over and resolution of the other thread was never properly reached. I guess in the tradition of the Great Analytical Engines the book changed gears but there was never a reason to care about what was happening and how it happened.

To put simply I was bored throughout the entire book. I hope this is not representative of Steampunk genre but it was barely representative to the Cyberpunk genre. I have read both authors before and the …

Review of 'The difference engine' on 'Goodreads'

This is everything I want in a steam punk novel; the Victorian/Sci-Fi mix works really well in this book. It was nice to read a book with famous heroes like Lord Byron in it. Although at times it did drag on a little this is defiantly a recommended read for someone interested in getting a feel for the Steam punk genre.

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