Bruce Sterling
Paperback | Pages: 396 pages Rating: 3.66 | 4805 Users | 119 Reviews
Describe Books Supposing Islands in the Net
| Original Title: | Islands in the Net |
| ISBN: | 0441374239 (ISBN13: 9780441374236) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1989), John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1989) |
Explanation During Books Islands in the Net
Laura Webster's on the fast track to success. A bright young star in a multinational conglomerate, she's living well in a post-millennial age of peace, prosperity, and profit.In an age of advanced technology, information is the world's most precious commodity. Information is power. Data is locked in computers and carefully rationed through a global communications network. Full access is a privilege held by few.
Now, Laura Webster is about to be plunged into a netherworld of black-market data pirates, new-age mercenaries, high-tech voodoo... and murder.
Identify Out Of Books Islands in the Net
| Title | : | Islands in the Net |
| Author | : | Bruce Sterling |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 396 pages |
| Published | : | March 1st 1989 by Ace (first published June 1st 1988) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Cyberpunk. Fiction. Speculative Fiction. Science Fiction Fantasy. Novels. Politics |
Rating Out Of Books Islands in the Net
Ratings: 3.66 From 4805 Users | 119 ReviewsCommentary Out Of Books Islands in the Net
Sterling's Islands in the Net is a sociopolitical exploration of our near-future. It demonstrates clairvoyant predictions about 21st century politics and technology. Global communications are conducted over The Net in a novel written before Tim Berners-Lee even invented the World Wide Web. Multinational corporations wield more power than governments. Financial institutions become data havens employing mad doctors, pirates and insurgent rebels. Drones, autonomous cars, watchphones andThis book predicts a lot (data havens, digital currency, smart watches) with a forgettable plot.I'm sure I read this in the 90s, but barely remember any of it. A great description I read elsewhere is "cyberpunk from the corporate side", and that seems a good fit. Sterling spends a lot of pages describing various near-future tech, though this tech often fails to advance the plot in any way. Just over half way through it becomes a suspenseful thriller, and finishes with observations on government.
This is definitely an 80's book full of 80's concerns, and some of the tech forecasting feels a little off (and would likely be a bit mystifying to readers who didn't live through the 80's and 90's).For all that though, Sterling must have a touch of prescience for how close he came on a lot of topics, including the effects of globalism. He couldn't foresee the advances in telecommunications, or the slow degradation of democracy (rather than the expansion of it to include economics, as in the
The theme here is how island developing nations might choose to become homes for illegal and quasi-legal information technologies and services, hence the title. The story deals with a particular type of dystopia that accurately mirrors the real world of island nations like Nauru, home of long-distance telephone scams, and Romanian PayPal scam artists operating out the the London suburbs. A similar theme is developed in Neal Stephenson's Economicon.
This book got off to an incredibly slow start. It was not until I was about 40% through it, that I finally found it interesting. It had an unusual sci-fi plot, and I enjoyed both the action and descriptive narratives in the latter half of the book. I would not rate it as a great book, but definitely a good book, and I do not regret reading it.
People seemed to miss the boat on this one. Badly in need of a reissue, ditch the atrocious cover and update the text a little bit and this would be cutting edge or at least comfortably contemporary. Like Brunner or Moorcocks Cornelius stories(and peer/co-conspirator Gibson) this takes a sci-fi lens to contemporary culture and stretches into plausible shapes. Sterling pretty much nails it(yes he gets some wrong but not enough to discredit the rest), with Globalism, the rise of the third world in
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