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 Bruce's work is hardly Sci-fi, rather, sociopolitical prediction. In 1989 when he published the short story, WE SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY, the author used the same gimmick. That time his narrator sneaked some carcinogenic into the rock star's hit of coke. This time it was a spore to produce a permanent mind altering schizoid condition -- but that is no more Sci-fi than a James Bond assassin's gadget is Sci-fi. There's nothing weak about this new genre of futuristic sociopolitical drama. The weakness is in the failure to transition his main character. Oscar, the political operative, finishes pretty much as he started -- unchanged even by the radical insemination of a second brain lobe. Although Sterling was super imaginative in dealing with the neurological technique for hatching a second brain center he strangely failed to give the condition a new name. In the old days they called this technique a lobotomy. Perhaps "cultured lobotomy" might have worked. The main distraction to me was his leaving out the role of the global conglomerate business world which in the real world has a talent for controlling political puppets like his Huey Long governor character of Louisiana, and his President Two Feathers. But after all these comments, I still thought the book was great.
If you are a first time Sterling reader, PLEASE don't start with Distraction. It'll sour you to his writing. Start with Heavy Weather, or even go back so far as Schismatrix. You'll be much happier.
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Please understand that I thoroughly enjoy Sterling as a writer. but Distraction was a bomb. I read it all the way through hoping that eventually a plot would emmerge. It didn't.
I'd expected more from Sterling. Distraction could have been a much better book, if the author had decided what exactly it was supposed to be about. Instead the book jumps from subject to subject, never spending enough time on any of them to convince, and none of the characters are well-enough drawn to make you care about them. Sure, Distraction is full of interesting ideas, but none of them are immediately, intuitively convincing, and because they're skipped over so rapidly, they just aren't supported. I've always found science-fiction to be most interesting when it deals with the results of scientific discovery or societal change, so Distraction should have been a bargain, since it includes about twenty times as many changes as most or SF novels. Instead, its very unsatisfying, because instead of exploring the effects of one idea, Sterling throws another one at you. I remain unconvinced.
This was my first Sterling novel... I can't figure out those who say that this ranks up there with Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Not even close. I did particularly enjoy Sterling's dissection of federal funding of science in the late 20th century and his projection of one possible future scenario. Being deeply involved in the frustrating, absurd and increasingly meaningless quest for public funding for science, I really appreciated this portion of the novel. Unfortunately, the whole didn't live up to that particular part. It was sometimes funny, but in the end was too disjointed and unfocused. I was glad when I finished it.
