In this alternate reality the once mighty USA is fragmented and divided into the United States, the Confederate States and the Republics of Texas and California and even a Communist Manhattan Island. Luddite anti-technological working class revolutionaries have been ruthlessly suppressed.
The Industrial Radicals led by Lord Byron and the scientists run things and the Tory Party and hereditary peerage have been eclipsed. Thanks to this huge leap in technology Great Britain with her calculating-cannons, steam dreadnoughts, machine-guns and information technology bestrides the globe like an unopposed colossus. It is set in London in 1855 where the computer age has arrived a century ahead of time with the great steam-driven (Charles) Babbage Engines powering the Industrial Revolution. This collaborative effort from William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (the only to date) is a prime example of the ‘Steampunk’ genre and a bold, imaginative ‘alternate history’ novel.
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