The Difference Engine

By: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It is a prime example of the steampunk sub-genre; It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer called Engines.

The fierce summer heat and pollution have driven the ruling class out of London and the resulting anarchy allows technology-hating Luddites to challenge the intellectual elite.

A set of perforated punch cards come into the hands of the daughter of an executed Luddite leader who sets out to keep them safe and discover what secrets they contain.

©1991 William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Not worth it.

I know this is on every "must read" Steampunk list, but it was boring. Simon Vance's voice was the only thing that kept me going. Meh.

lowest review I have ever given.

I love the language, composition, and word play of this book. minute by minute was a wonderful word puzzle that could only be solved with a time machine. The problem is that I could not follow or understand the story. Being a somewhat feral boy,raised in the rural wields of 1980's Idaho, I may not have the intellect to understand this book.
All in all, if you are the type of person that dates total psychotic people and then wonder what the hell went wrong with fond memories in your heart, you should get this book.

Boring!

This was a hard break to get through, it was totally boring. There was no real plot to grab a hold of and get interested in. Simon did a wonderful job of narrating this boring story. I wish he had better material to work with on this one.

Uncompelling

Narrator did well, but story felt disjointed and overall, boring. No personal resonance with any of the characters. After I struggled.so long to.finish, ending was unexpected and anticlimactic.

What could have been.

First of all the British accent was spot on with all characters, by far the best part of this audiobook. If they truly focused in on the engine-computers element of this story it would have been better. We never get to understand what they can really do and the punch cards being fought over were never explained to satisfaction. The story was ultimately a bad Sherlock Holmes story.

Moves at a snail's pace (no offense to snails)

Would you try another book from William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and/or Simon Vance?

Simon Vance is good.
But will never touch anything from Gibson & Sterling

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The period and atmosphere are done well.

Any additional comments?

Rambling & incoherent, the story moves very very slowly. After a couple of hours, decided to cut my losses and gave it up as a wash.

Not Worth It

The story is dry, confusing and not entertaining. Was only able to get through about an hour of audio before deciding the story was not worth finishing.

a bit wordy

the title really says it all . performance is great though. just not a title for the impatient

Seems like a draft

Tepid unpolished work like fragments not yet knitted into an entertaining work . Skip this one

Not all that good

Would you try another book from William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and/or Simon Vance?

I have read (listened to) some other Gibson books, and I quite liked them. However, this one was difficult to get thru, hard to follow the storyline, and in the end the storyline seemed to be completely useless. Not gripping at all.

The readed did do a good job, it is just the story that didnt....

Has The Difference Engine turned you off from other books in this genre?

Probly not

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Good characterization

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

A Nap

Any additional comments?

Don't.