jkb reviewed The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling
Review of 'The difference engine' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
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 …
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 entire story just seemed long overly descriptive paragraphs signifying not much is truly happening and when it does it too is drawn out until the action is so muted that the reader is bored. I gave this book an extra star just because I know William Gibson can do better and has done better.
