Bruce Sterling is one of the finest writers working these days, and William Gibson, while something of a one-trick pony, can write a good novel. You would expect The Difference Engine to be pretty good. Certainly the concept (alternate history Victoriana with Babbage's machine a reality) is fertile. Sterling and Gibson did their homework (almost too well--the references to Disraeli's books are likely to fall very flat for most readers). The prose is nothing special, but is certainly readable.

And yet the novel doesn't hold together. It's difficult to put a finger on just what's wrong with The Difference Engine. The ending is both weak and contrived, but that isn't really the fatal flaw. Somehow, a lot of inventive sound and clever fury adds up to nothing much, and even leaves a slightly distasteful sensation in the reader's mind.

Read Gibson's Neuromancer, or pretty much anything by Sterling, and you'll be much better off than you will be reading this book.

Reviewer: Alex David Groce