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Product Description
Review
“Sterling proves again that he understands technology’s present and future better than anyone in the field—and that he’s able to spin a gripping, compelling, mind-opening yarn whose sweep and majesty encompass all that humanity has to fear and hope for in the coming century. This isn’t just a novel, it’s a road map to humanity’s peaceful reconciliation with our mad, out-of-control technology.”—Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother
“A tour de force . . . Of all the horde of SF novels about clones written since that trope was pulled mewling from its artificial womb, The Caryatids is the first one that nails it.”—Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Ant King and Other Stories
Praise for The Zenith Angle
“Gleeful, shrewd, speculative, cynical, closely observed . . . The Zenith Angle offers wisdom and solace, thrills and laughter.”—Washington Post
“A comedic thriller for the Homeland Security era.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Not so much ripped straight from the headlines as it is an effort to process the blood, guts and greed of the new millennium . . . The entire novel is a setup for an extraordinary rant that reads as if the author had just taken over the podium at a hackers’ conference, fueled with tequila, frothing from ever pore.”—Salon
“A tour de force . . . Of all the horde of SF novels about clones written since that trope was pulled mewling from its artificial womb, The Caryatids is the first one that nails it.”—Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Ant King and Other Stories
Praise for The Zenith Angle
“Gleeful, shrewd, speculative, cynical, closely observed . . . The Zenith Angle offers wisdom and solace, thrills and laughter.”—Washington Post
“A comedic thriller for the Homeland Security era.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Not so much ripped straight from the headlines as it is an effort to process the blood, guts and greed of the new millennium . . . The entire novel is a setup for an extraordinary rant that reads as if the author had just taken over the podium at a hackers’ conference, fueled with tequila, frothing from ever pore.”—Salon
Product Description
Alongside William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling stands at the forefront of a select group of writers whose pitch-perfect grasp of the cultural and scientific zeitgeist endows their works of speculative near-future fiction with uncanny verisimilitude. To read a novel by Sterling is to receive a dispatch from a time traveler. Now, with The Caryatids, Sterling has written a stunning testament of faith in the power of human intellect, creativity, and spirit to overcome any obstacle–even the obstacles we carry inside ourselves.
The world of 2060 is divided into three spheres of influence, each fighting with the others over the resources of fallen nations and an environment degraded almost to the point of no return. There is the Dispensation, centered in Los Angeles, where entertainment and capitalism have fused with the highest of high-tech. There is the Acquis, a Green-centered collective that uses invasive neurological technology to create a networked utopia. And there is China, the sole surviving nation-state, a dinosaur that has prospered only by pitilessly pruning its own population. Products of this monstrous world, the daughters of a monstrous mother, and–according to some–monsters themselves, are the Caryatids: the four surviving female clones of a mad Balkan genius and wanted war criminal now ensconced, safely beyond extradition, on an orbiting space station. Radmila is a Dispensation star determined to forget her past by building a glittering, impregnable future. Vera is an Acquis functionary dedicated to reclaiming their home, the Croatian island of Mljet, from catastrophic pollution. Sonja is a medical specialist in China renowned for selflessly risking herself to help others. And Biserka is a one-woman terrorist network. The four “sisters” are united only by their hatred for their “mother”–and for one another.
When evidence surfaces of a coming environmental cataclysm, the Dispensation sends its greatest statesman–or salesman–John Montgomery Montalban, husband of Radmila, and lover of Vera and Sonja, to gather the Caryatids together in an audacious plan to save the world.
The world of 2060 is divided into three spheres of influence, each fighting with the others over the resources of fallen nations and an environment degraded almost to the point of no return. There is the Dispensation, centered in Los Angeles, where entertainment and capitalism have fused with the highest of high-tech. There is the Acquis, a Green-centered collective that uses invasive neurological technology to create a networked utopia. And there is China, the sole surviving nation-state, a dinosaur that has prospered only by pitilessly pruning its own population. Products of this monstrous world, the daughters of a monstrous mother, and–according to some–monsters themselves, are the Caryatids: the four surviving female clones of a mad Balkan genius and wanted war criminal now ensconced, safely beyond extradition, on an orbiting space station. Radmila is a Dispensation star determined to forget her past by building a glittering, impregnable future. Vera is an Acquis functionary dedicated to reclaiming their home, the Croatian island of Mljet, from catastrophic pollution. Sonja is a medical specialist in China renowned for selflessly risking herself to help others. And Biserka is a one-woman terrorist network. The four “sisters” are united only by their hatred for their “mother”–and for one another.
When evidence surfaces of a coming environmental cataclysm, the Dispensation sends its greatest statesman–or salesman–John Montgomery Montalban, husband of Radmila, and lover of Vera and Sonja, to gather the Caryatids together in an audacious plan to save the world.
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2.6 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
66 of 74 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
I can't believe I read the whole thing..., Mar 4 2009
By R. WEST "Heinleiner" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Caryatids (Hardcover)
I'd like that time back now...I'm a fan of Sterling's work, and I hate to say this, but this is just very, very poor.
There's no plot. It was never at all clear what the main conflict of the book is supposed to be, and although the POV jumps around there wasn't a single character sympathetic enough for me to care about, much less consider an interesting or worthy protagonist. None of the main characters seems to have any ethical code or system at all, nor do they "grow" at all, or seem to learn anything in the story. For that matter, neither did I.
There was apparently little if any editing, and zero proof-reading... spelling was fine, but grammar in some parts was both tortured and torture to read. There were sentences which were obviously missing words- as in, verbs or subjects. Several sections were repetitious to the point of having two successive paragraphs saying the same thing with different wording, as though they had been rewritten without removing the draft version, and there were several obvious continuity mistakes, some so glaring that they made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. For instance, in one sentence a dancer is referred to as "barefoot", and in almost the next sentence she has "slippered feet"... neither condition having anything to do with the plot. Like the visible zipper on the back of a monster costume in a bad movie, these obvious mistakes give the strong impression that nobody involved really cared at all.
If that weren't bad enough, the scenario of the future is the "More Politically Correct Than Thou Standard Man-Made Environmental Cataclysm #1" complete with preachy guilt-trip lectures, and the eventual "resolution" is about as satisfying and relevant as "and then they were all run over by a truck, or maybe not, the end". By the time I reached the last 25 pages, and it was clear the story just wasn't going to redeem itself, I was rather hoping they WOULD all just die. I was ready to help personally.
The ending, such as it was, takes the form of both an epilogue AND an afterword, giving the impression that the book was really a shortish rough-draft with no ending that had one hurriedly tacked on just to get it out the door.
Sometimes an author gets to the point where those doing business with him find it's not worth trying to improve the product, on the assumption that ANYTHING with his name on it will sell... and this IS "anything".
Unfortunately, that starts the pendulum going the other direction.. and I will be reading a lot of reviews before buying Sterling's next book. It won't be an impulse buy based on just the author's name again.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
All atmosphere, no plot, April 10 2009
By D. O'Dell - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Caryatids (Hardcover)
I usually like Bruce Sterling's books but this one left me wanting. Although well-written, it was all character development and atmosphere. I kept reading and waiting for a payoff that never came.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not his best, Mar 26 2009
By Robert M. Baird "BerkeleyBob" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Caryatids (Hardcover)
Bruce Sterling is an excellent SF writer. Particularly enjoyed Zenith Angle and Zeitgeist. His recent effort is at best, so-so. He plays with the concepts of different approaches to climate warming/ecological disaster and is wittier than, say Kim Stanley Robinson, who becomes overly didactic. But this is not the best Sterling is capable of, confusing multiplicity of characters, abrupt transitions and a idiosyncratic use of the full colon. Sorry, can't give it a whole hearted thumbs up.
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