A re-read I began when Trump became an actual candidate. I first read Distraction many years ago. I thought "this is fascinating but bizarre--a colorful, violent, jaded, deeply fractured American dystopia that would never actually happen!" In fact, I grew impatient with the long-winded, detailed explorations of sociopolitical leaders' moods, moves, and motives because they felt so unrealistic.As the weeks and my re-read progressed, I realized I was absorbing it more as a survival manual. Some pa...

3.5 stars. It has been a while since I read this and it is on my list to re-read. My recollection is that this was an above average near-future, dystopian novel. Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1999)Nominee: John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1999)Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1999)Winner Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2000)

One word defines how bad this book is: repetition. The author has some interesting ideas about problems in American society, and tries to extrapolate their impact in the near future. However, he also likes to repeat those ideas. So, if you're not really excited and into his theories, the plot drags during these America-is-going-to-hell for [insert random thought here] moments. And in case you don't get them the first time, they are brought up over and over. Additionally, the plot is advanced not...

This is my favorite book.It's so much my favorite book that I wrote an article on its 20th anniversary for Slate. I interviewed Bruce Sterling on what inspired him while writing, and why this book is still relevant right before the 2018 midterms. ...Okay, that's not a review. Let me explain why this is my favorite book. Distraction paints a picture of a world gone down the tubes in an all too familiar way, but unlike the usual dystopian moanings, Sterling has the guts to imagine a way out; a cha...

I remember picking up this book in an airport back when it was newly published. It must have been in 1998, then.I didn't recall too much of it, but one thing stuck vividly with me. It's in chapter 3 (page 73-74 on in my edition):"Okay. Let's imagine you're a net-based bad guy, netwar militia maybe. And you have a search engine, and it keeps track of all the public mentions of your idol, Governor Etienne-Gaspard Huguelet. Every once in a while, someone appears in public life who cramps the style

Unbelievably futuristic, Bruce Sterling takes (what feels like) all of the modern day stressors and blows them up, to fifty-years hence, so we can see what's going on, as we speak. Whew! Few outside Christopher Buckley know how to make a political operative the center of one's narrative, let alone an appealing one — moreover, every character in the novel (barring the Senator, and his wife, or what-have-you) seem to have no use, no ability to grasp, no idea what Oscar is for— a neat riff on the u...

This one was hard to rate as I really liked it at the beginning but then it kind of fell into itself. The future didn't sound all that different from the present.

so far, it's either airport magazine rack crap, or pretentious elitist crap that's making a statement by parodying airport magazine rack crap.

Sterling is an ideas man (and one of my favorites), and this near future political thriller is filled with them. Although some people have rightly complained that the actual story doesn't really begin until about 90 to 100 pages in, I still love every page of this novel. Although much less silly (in a good way) than Neal Stephenson's classic Snow Crash, I'd imagine that those who enjoyed all the funny throw-away bits of social commentary in SC will find just as much to enjoy in Distraction.

I just read the best review of this book over on Boing Boing! and it reminded just why this is in my top ten favorite books list. It also reminded me why I like Cory Doctorow, the author of the following review as well as several fun works of science fiction, so much:http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/17/..."I just finished re-reading (for the nth time) Bruce Sterling's 1998 novel Distraction. I didn't mean to -- I picked it up in a used bookstore in Milwaukee on my way to a quick dinner in my ho...

From 2011, Sterling’s 1998 vision of 2044 is looking uncomfortably realistic. The US government is in a 20-year State of Emergency, half the population is unemployed, and the technological underclass have become scavenging nomads who rely on a classier Hot Or Not reputation servers to trust one another. Anyone who can afford to be a patron has their own krewe of flunkies. Environmental damage has physically reshaped the country. Ethically motivated bank robberies are crowdsourced.The lead charac...

Rating: "B": masterful writing and funny/clever satire, undermined by gross implausibilities and clunky auctorial manipulations. Distraction has a more mature, less headlong feel than Holy Fire, Sterling's previous novel. And the premise is grimmer -- the mid-21st century USA, bankrupted by a Chinese netwar, is coming seriously unglued.Sterling's eye for the absurd and powers of invention are unmatched, and you'll have a lot of fun reading Distraction. But -- the book never quite jells, and left...

I really liked this book. It's one of the best near-future science fiction novels I've read in a long time. You won't find any interstellar travel, artificial intelligence or spandex-clad sex droids here, just a world very much like our own but 8-10 years in the future. A future where things have gone a bit wrong. Some of the things you're missing by not reading this book include: Reputation Servers, Air Force Bake Sales, the Politics of Squatting and BioTechVoodoo Haitians if I remember correct...

I've enjoyed Bruce Sterling books in the past, so I was eager to start reading this one. The description of the book at Goodreads make it sound interesting. Unfortunately, the description of the book IS the book -- it's the entire plot boiled down to a few paragraphs. How Sterling got 500 pages out of this, I'll never know. I found it to be largely boring. There were some humorous moments, yes, but really, a book about a political spin doctor trapped in a Texas research facility just isn't that

In many ways this book is a product of its times written in the late 1990s -- yet its future (2040) today in 2021 looks to be really plausible. While Sterling doesn't have an idea of social media, he is able to talk about the political economy of the USA in a way that is really intriguing and seems likely. There are so many good lines in this book -- so many pontificative rants! Here's a few choice quotes (no spoilers) "Politics don't work anymore! We can't make politics work, because the system...

(I originally wrote this in 2000; this version is adapted from the one on my website.)Originally seen in a Seattle bookstore when it was brand-new, and put on my to-read list immediately. When I actually got a chance to read it (I'd been distracted, heh), my hopes were confirmed. Bruce Sterling's Distraction is perhaps the most perfect novel it's possible to write under that name, a marvelous political sleight-of-hand, a Primary Colors for the 21st Century.Oscar Valparaiso is a campaign manager

A near-future Sci-Fi novel about a political operative in a world that was probably meant to be absurd when the book was written in 1998, but which is surprisingly grounded and realistic now. There's a lot of humor that lightens the darker moments, and the silliness throughout the story seemed more realistic to me than the grimness that is more common in Sci-Fi. "Distraction" depicts a post-crash America in a world with dramatically rising sea levels and a completely non-functional Federal gover...

Just finished and it was a bit of an ordeal. The book is chock full of interesting ideas, some subtle wordplay and other fun with the language but I was disappointed with the shallow characterization and too pat interactions. Who talks like that? Why are all these people responding the way they do and changing against their nature so quickly? It got pretty exasperating. I sometimes felt like it would play better as a movie and that Sterling intended that all along. Moreover I never felt any conn...

I like data-heavy, hyperbolic stories and Bruce Sterling is the absolute master of this kind. I feel so close to the main character, Oscar (except the genetic background stuff; which was madly interesting by the way), that it completely positively biased me towards the book I think. His tendency to act like he is in control while actually going with the flow really reverberated with how I usually approach life.Aside from Oscar, the book was brimming with interesting characters; particularly Gree...

A dystopian future of the USA .... but one where there is still hope and humor. Sterling is a great writer. My full review is here: http://peterfsblogs.blogspot.com/2018...