Tag Archives: cyberpunk

Sterling: The Caryatids

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about Bruce Sterling, one of the founders of cyberpunk (along with William Gibson). I mentioned being underwhelmed. I enjoyed two of his novels, but the third one, The Caryatids (2009), is among the worst books I’ve read. I skimmed many, many info dump pages in search of a plot.

I make no pretensions of being a fiction writer, and my problems with the book may say more about me than the book. I may well have failed to appreciate some aspect that makes it great.

Regardless, I found it one of the most pointless science fiction novels I’ve read in recent memory. So, this post is a rant to vent my frustration.

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Whither Science Fiction?

Judy, Judy, Judy!

I’ve been a fan of science fiction since the early 1960s. I was already an avid fan and ready audience for Lost in Space (1966–68; Judy was one of my earliest childhood crushes), It’s About Time (1966–67), and I was glued to the TV set enthralled when Kirk, Spock, and the rest, first boldly went in 1966.

By then I’d already consumed all I could of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, along with Verne, Wells, and Burroughs (I didn’t discover Tolkien or Howard until high school a few years later).

Movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), and Forbidden Planet (1956), all had me avid for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

It’s been a whole lot of years, and a whole lot of science fiction, is my point.

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