The Quarter Century Project - Distraction by Bruce Sterling
Publisher - Gollancz
Near future Earth and a new cold war is in full swing - the Dutch Cold War. The US is a shadow of its former self and in hock to Europe, its infrastructure falling apart at the seams and with nomadic tribes roaming from state to state living according to no one's rules but their own. Oscar and his krewe are on newly elected Senator Bambakias's campaign bus making their way home to Washington when they are halted on the Texas/Louisiana border.
It is the beginning of a new life for the Senator's campaign manager. He finds himself one on one with Govenor Green Huey who wants to turn Louisiana into the centre of the USA, making a political move on the Nobel Prize winning Greta - a scientist at the one facility that all factions within US politics see as a prime gambling chip - only to fall in love with her, and suddenly after maneouvring for power on the behalf of others, National Science Council advisor to President Two Feathers. But Oscar will always be moving according to his own agenda, because unlike those he works for he is truly non-affiliated - he has no tribe, nomad or Hispanic, because he was genetically engineered over the border in Mexico. Though Oscar doesn't suspect it, meeting him, loving him, gives Greta the key to making America great again, the biggest scientific breakthrough that man might ever make.
So this week we turn to the Arthur C Clark Award and the winner was Distraction by Bruce Sterling. First time of reading for me and I’d not heard of it before. The wider shortlist too is a bit vague to me with lots of authors I’m aware of - Baxter, Ann Goonan, Robson and Vinge but only Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicom a title I’d previously read (I liked it as a beach thriller). Turning to Distraction while its another novel I didn’t enjoy it is interesting that this time I could see how it won.
Its 2044 and the US is a mess of politics and economics. There are wars, spies and internal conflicts to navigate. Oscar Valparaiso is a top fixer and with his ‘krew’ of experts can make a politician very powerful but Oscar gets fixated on a science lab and thinks his set of skills may be very important.
Yeah - really didn’t like this. Sterling seems to just like spitballing ideas to make a world up and weirdly what it reminded me the most was The West Wing. Now I liked that show but I can now see the downsides of shows where middle aged smart alecs are trusted to change the world and Oscar is that. He is also coincidentally incredibly attractive to women, strategically brilliant and wounded but in a way the ladies like. Yeah Sterling as with Aaron Sorkin has issues with women as a character and ultimately while this is a novel that I think wins acclaim at the time for saying politics is getting in the way of progress and if you just would listen to scientists everything would be ok; its more like Sterling in a deckchair with a loudspeaker shouting VERY LOUDLY. It jumps, it takes weird tangents and it’s an attempt at a comedic political satire and for me really failed to deliver that.
What is interesting is what the 1999 view of the world got right and wrong. Political turmoil in America (possibly not hat hard to see coming but effectively delivered); environmental collapse, the politicisation of science and spookily more Iraq Wars but none of this really comes together well as a realistic take more a satirical backdrop for hijinks. There have been better dystopian futures since and while exploring if science is itself political is an interesting theme for me it gets lost in a messy story.
Not one I can see lasting the years ahead of it and not recommended!
Have you read Distraction? What did you think?
