Just Read: Zenith Angle, by Bruce Sterling
Ahhh.. Bruce. I really liked most of your stuff.
Schismatrix
- wonderful. Heavy
Weather - terrific. Even
Distraction
I liked. All these are
either
far future books, or have tech that's at least plausible. Zenith Angle is just
painfully bad. Like a low-budget Sci-Fi channel movie, you get things like a
SPAM (as in email) powered laser (?!?!?!) capable of gently disrupting some
satellite communications. Or something. Oh, yeah, there is some sort of super
glue gun involved too that like a miniature jet engine that can fire
bullets.
Presumably the book is trying to point out (and lampoon perhaps?) how difficult it is for a Bond-style bad guy (aka, Blofeld) to build and sell to the highest builder some sort of global super weapon. Which may be a good premise - except that the execution here is so bad, so drawn out, and so completely dull as to boggle the mind. I gave it chance - reading through the entire thing hoping it would take good turn. I should have quit after the first quarter of the book involved tracking down a long-lost grandfather who's contribution to the plot is some clichéd advice and the aforementioned super glue gun.
Stay away. Bruce - you can do way better. You contribute great stuff to Wired all the time. I'm convinced that this book was written in a caffeine-induced trance shortly after 9/11. If you're going to go with techno-thrillers, please keep the tech semi-plausible.
either
far future books, or have tech that's at least plausible. Zenith Angle is just
painfully bad. Like a low-budget Sci-Fi channel movie, you get things like a
SPAM (as in email) powered laser (?!?!?!) capable of gently disrupting some
satellite communications. Or something. Oh, yeah, there is some sort of super
glue gun involved too that like a miniature jet engine that can fire
bullets.Presumably the book is trying to point out (and lampoon perhaps?) how difficult it is for a Bond-style bad guy (aka, Blofeld) to build and sell to the highest builder some sort of global super weapon. Which may be a good premise - except that the execution here is so bad, so drawn out, and so completely dull as to boggle the mind. I gave it chance - reading through the entire thing hoping it would take good turn. I should have quit after the first quarter of the book involved tracking down a long-lost grandfather who's contribution to the plot is some clichéd advice and the aforementioned super glue gun.
Stay away. Bruce - you can do way better. You contribute great stuff to Wired all the time. I'm convinced that this book was written in a caffeine-induced trance shortly after 9/11. If you're going to go with techno-thrillers, please keep the tech semi-plausible.
Posted: Sat - July 10, 2004 at 09:52 PM
Quick Links
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- H.L. Mencken
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
PHOTO ALBUMS
The Photo Galleries are offline at the moment. I've moved the site to a new provider and haven't had time to set them up.
OS X Software
Windows Software
Miscellaneous Stuff
RSS Feed