When The Difference Engine, by cyberpunk authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, came out in the early 1990s, it was radically different than anything else on the market at the time. Set in the not too distant past (1800s), but envisioned a world where the Victorian Era had steam driven computers. This environment is well-trod nowadays with the explosion of Steam Punk stories in the market, but in the early 1990s, this was different. With a nod to the era’s literary geniuses (such as Lord Byron) and computing pioneers (mainly Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace), the book is an interesting look at an alternate history which hadn’t been envisioned previously. It doesn’t seem as revolutionary now due to the explosion in Steam Punk titles currently on the market. But it was a nod to the past that many, many authors have picked up and moved forward with. Let’s see what the book is about.

The story starts with Sybil Gerard, daughter of Luddite agitator Walter Gerard (both of them are from Benjamin Disraeli’s novel Sybil) falls in with a group of Sam Houston (overthrown Texas Governor) followers and in a fray, a package of punch cards is lost and ends up in the hands of explorer/archaeologist Edward Mallory. Mallory believes the cards are the property of Lady Ada Byron (née Lovelace) and hides then within the skull of the Leviathan (the dinosaur he uncovered on his dig in America).

We follow Mallory around as someone else is following him also. The cards are a McGuffin (wanted by many people who believe Lady Ada has created a program for winning bets) and Mallory is framed, attacked and pursued throughout the book. The dry summer has created a devastating smell within London (referred to as the Big Stink, a real-life event in 1858) which drives most of the upper class out of London until it clears up. The Luddite underclass is planning on using this event to stage a revolution, take over London and block the upper class from returning. Meanwhile, Laurence Oliphant, a real life travel writer, enmeshed in schemes and interactions with Mallory and Gerard.

Overall, the book feels disjointed. Sybil appears near the beginning and the end with nary an appearance during the middle. Half the time, I wasn’t quite sure what Mallory was trying to do and Oliphant appears to help finish off the book after barely appearing until that point. It’s almost as if the writers were expecting the reader to know background of their story and fill in the blanks without explicitly writing it. The world building is tremendous, as they cover what happens in the US, Japan and Europe due to the advances in computer technology with Babbage’s Analytical Engine. The characters are interesting and there’s some sort of plot. But it’s ultimately too disjointed to follow at times and seems like it’s a thousand page book condensed down to half its size. Mildly recommended.