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    The Difference Engine
    The Difference Engine
    The Difference Engine
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Difference Engine

    Written by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

    Narrated by Simon Vance

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. Three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with the future: Sybil Gerard—fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward “Leviathan” Mallory—explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant—diplomat, mystic, and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for.

    Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine took the science fiction community by storm when it was first published more than twenty years ago. Provocative, compelling, and intensely imagined, this novel is poised to impress a whole new generation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateNov 6, 2010
    ISBN9781441890771
    The Difference Engine
    Author

    William Gibson

    William Gibson (1914-2008) was a playwright and author whose many works include Golda’s Balcony and Two for the Seesaw. The Miracle Worker, his most famous play, won several Tony Awards, including Best Play, and was made into an Academy Award-winning film starring Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.

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    Reviews for The Difference Engine

    3.5/5

    51 ratings3 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Generally quite a fan of Mr Gibson, but this one was a bit of a stinker. Difficult to follow, many loose ends, and at the same time kinda predictable.
    • 3/5
      I think there was a missed opportunity to talk about an interesting path of computer science in mechanical terms that would be more accessible.
    • 3/5
      The technological innovations in this book were fun and interesting, but the sprawling story was difficult to parse.