The Difference Engine

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, two major SciFi powerhouses, joined forces to produce The Difference Engine, a classic steampunk novel which was nominated for the 1990 British Science Fiction Award, the 1991 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award and Prix Aurora Award. I listened to Brilliance Audio???s version which was produced in 2010 and read by the always-wonderful Simon Vance.

The Difference Engine takes place in a nearly unrecognizable Victorian England. The fundamental ???difference??? between this alternate history and the real one is that Charles Babbage succeeded in building his Difference Engine ??? the first analytical computer. Thus, the information age develops (along with the industrial revolution) in the social, political, and scientific milieu of the 19th century. This little historical event ??? the development of the steam-powered computer ??? has a vast impact on subsequent history: Meritocracy takes hold in England (you???ll recognize many of England???s new ???savant??? lords), the American states never unite, Karl Marx makes Manhattan a commune, Benjamin Disraeli becomes a trashy tabloid writer, and Japan begins to emerge as a world power with England???s help.

The idea of an earlier technological revolution affecting the course of history is fascinating. But the best part of The Difference Engine is the flash steampunk setting: full of gears and engines, pixilated billboards and slideshows, unreliable firearms, and lots of rum slang that???s right and fly.

The problem with The Difference Engine is the plot. It meanders slowly and strangely and is vaguely focused on a box of computer punch-cards which contain unknown important information. Several people are interested in the cards including Sybil, a courtesan who???s based on Benjamin Disraeli???s Sybil, mathematician Ada Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron), a paleontologist nicknamed Leviathan Mallory, and the author Laurence Oliphant. Unfortunately, Mallory, who ends up being an Indiana Jones type of character, is the only one who???s interesting or likable. His segment of the novel has some exciting moments, but they seem only tangentially related to what comes before and after.

Most of the events seem random, obscure, and unconnected. Perhaps the book is not at all about plot, though, because the authors seem to be trying to make a clever association between G??del???s mathematical theorems, chaos theory, punctuated equilibrium, and artificial intelligence. I???m not really sure... If this is truly their intention, it is too thickly veiled and probably imperceptible to many readers. The Matrix-like ending will leave most people scratching their heads and wondering why they spent so many hours reading such inaccessible stuff.

The Difference Engine is a smart and stylish concept novel that just doesn???t quite work.

Quand William Gibson et Bruce Sterling, deux géants du genre cyberpunk, décident de s'intéresser au steampunk, cela donne ce roman au principe étonnant : imaginez une Angleterre victorienne où Charles Babagge aurait réussi à construire sa fameuse machine à différences, l'ancêtre de nos ordinateurs, et aurait ainsi déclenché une révolution industrielle basée sur des ordinateurs mécaniques. Une ère de l'information aurait ainsi commencé un siècle plus tôt.

L'idée de départ est excellente et riche de promesses, mais le résultat m'a un peu laissé sur ma faim. Le récit m'a semblé confus, difficile à suivre et à comprendre, et pas toujours passionnant. Je dois avouer que j'ai eu du mal à maintenir mon intérêt lors de certains longs passages, que ce soit par manque de rythme du récit ou d'attachement aux personnages.

Si je devais résumer ma pensée, je dirais que le cadre imaginé par William Gibson et Bruce Sterling m'a beaucoup plu, mais que l'histoire qu'ils y racontent ne m'a pas intéressé plus que cela. A vrai dire, je ne suis pas certain d'avoir compris où les deux auteurs voulaient en venir, et j'ai l'impression d'être passé à côté de ce roman.

Soon after starting this book, I thought I had a masterpiece in my hands. The quality of writing, the characterization, and the period details are all excellent; the story is initially exciting and gripping.

Unfortunately and frustratingly, somewhere along the line the authors seem to lose their sense of direction, the story wanders, and eventually just peters out aimlessly. What a shame. I can well understand that this book was nominated for the Nebula Award, but failed to win it.

It's an alternative-history story, set mostly in England in the mid-19th century, an England transformed by the Industrial Radical Party that has taken over the country and accelerated the industrial revolution with the aid of mechanical steam-powered computers descended from Babbage's designs.

The story mostly deals with the lives of more-or-less ordinary people caught up in the events of the times, although there is a common thread to it: the pursuit of a lost computer program of mysterious properties, stored on a set of punched cards as all programs are in that scenario.

It's worth mentioning that the two American authors have done their research thoroughly and made a very creditable job of portraying an altered Victorian England. The regional and class differences that would be so significant in that world are given due weight. Of course I have no personal experience of the 19th century, but nothing struck me as obviously wrong, and the level of detail is impressive.

However, in the end the story failed to live up to its potential.