Title: I couldn't put it down... fast enough.
Review: Nothing happened in the seventy pages I read. The author showed us around his hackneyed, dystopian future and introduced some characters with all the personality of storefront dummies who, like me, seemed to be waiting for something to happen (a.k.a., a plot).Science fiction is particularly vulnerable to having its storyline overpowered by concepts and gadgets. You see it in William Gibson's novels, a slow progression from storyline ("Neuromancer") to something more like an anthropologist's field study ("All Tomorrow's Parties").I am not partial to either "Islands in the Net" or "The Difference Engine"--two earlier Sterling efforts--but at least they were readable.
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