New Releases by Bruce Sterling

Fantascienza - romanzo breve (73 pagine) - Un capolavoro del maestro del cyberpunk, tra amore per l’informatica dei primordi e contrapposizione di culture agli antipodi. ROMANZO BREVE FINALISTA PREMIO NEBULA Ormai la tecnologia della comunicazione immadiata e pervasiva fa parte della nostra vita. Non è facile allora immaginare come possa essere trasferirsi in un paese dove l''informatica è ferma a decenni fa, dove un embargo impedisce la diffusione e l''uso di telefoni, telecomunicazioni, computer moderni. Turner Choi è un cittadino canadese che si trova in Brunei per motivi di lavoro. L''embargo non lo ferma e sfruttando le sue conoscenze informatiche riesce, con mezzi di fortuna, a mettere in piedi un modo per comunicare via rete, ma questo lo porta sulla strada di traffici loschi e pericolosi. Un''affascinante ambientazione retro-cyberpunk che è valsa a Bruce Sterling la finale al Premio Nebula 1985. Bruce Sterling, texano nato nel 1954, è stato il fondatore del movimento Cyberpunk ed è una della figure più influenti della fantascienza. Curatore della leggendaria antologia Mirrorshades, autore di romanzi come Isole nella rete, La macchina della realtà (con William Gibson, uno dei primi romanzi steampunk), Caos USA, ma anche di saggi seminali come Giro di vite contro gli hacker. Da sempre interessato alla tecnologia e ai suoi effetti sulla società e sull''essere umano, collabora con Wired, Repubblica, La Stampa. insieme alla moglie Jasmina Tešanović. Da alcuni anni vive a Torino. Ha vinto il Premio John Wood Campbell Memorial nel 1989, due volte il Premio Hugo (1997 e 1999), il Premio Locus e il Premio Arthur C. Clarke.

Chronology to the Hacker Crackdown.

Memory, morality, and immortality merge in this “haunting and lyrical triumph” from the bestselling author of Schismatrix Plus (Time). In the late twenty-first century, technology has lengthened lifespans far beyond what was once medically possible. Existence itself has become relatively easy—if boring. In this futuristic paradise, ninety-four-year-old Mia Ziemann longs for something different and undergoes a radical new treatment that restores both her body and mind to that of a twenty-year-old. After her dramatic transformation, Mia finds herself lost in an avant-garde world of passion, designer drugs, and creative expression . . . “Ideas—big ideas—lurk beneath Mia’s romp through Sterling’s delightfully imagined newly post-human Earth. Art, artifice, the pursuit of immortality, and youth and aging bounce around the story, the characters, and their conversations in imaginative, engaging fashion. . . . In the end, Holy Fire is one of the most interesting, imaginative, and subtly humorous—and relevant for it—novels the cyberpunk/post-human era has produced. . . . Holy Fire may very well be [Sterling’s] best work.” —Speculiction “An intellectual feat, it is also a treat for the spirit and the senses.” —Wired “A patented Sterling extra-special.” —Newsday “The future Sterling traces is plausible and provocative, particularly his consideration of several contrasting cultures, and of the disenfranchised who are unable to become ‘post-human.’ Those interested in serious speculative conversation set within a very strange near-future will find this much to their taste.” —Publishers Weekly

The bestselling cyberpunk author “has produced by far the most stylish report from the computer outlaw culture since Steven Levy’s Hackers” (Publishers Weekly). Bruce Sterling delves into the world of high-tech crime and punishment in one of the first books to explore the cyberspace breaches that threaten national security. From the crash of AT&T’s long-distance switching system to corporate cyberattacks, he investigates government and law enforcement efforts to break the back of America’s electronic underground in the 1990s. In this modern classic, “Sterling makes the hackers—who live in the ether between terminals under noms de net such as VaxCat—as vivid as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. His book goes a long way towards explaining the emerging digital world and its ethos” (Publishers Weekly). This edition features a new preface by the author that analyzes the sobering increase in computer crime over the twenty-five years since The Hacker Crackdown was first published. “Offbeat and brilliant.” —Booklist “Thoroughly researched, this account of the government’s crackdown on the nebulous but growing computer-underground provides a thoughtful report on the laws and rights being defined on the virtual frontier of cyberspace. . . . An enjoyable, informative, and (as the first mainstream treatment of the subject) potentially important book . . . Sterling is a fine and knowledgeable guide to this strange new world.” —Kirkus Reviews “A well-balanced look at this new group of civil libertarians. Written with humor and intelligence, this book is highly recommended.” —Library Journal

A near-future eco-thriller from the bestselling author of Schismatrix Plus and The Difference Engine. The Storm Troupers are a group of weather hackers who roam the plains of Texas and Oklahoma, hopped up on adrenaline and technology. Utilizing virtual reality, flying robots, and all-terrain vehicles, they collect data on the extreme storms ravaging an America decimated by climate change. But even their visionary leader can’t predict the danger on the horizon when a volatile new member joins their ranks and faces a trial by fire: a massive tornado unlike any the world has seen before. “A remarkable and individual sharpness of vision . . . Sterling hacks the future, and an elegant hack it is.” —Locus “Lucid and tremendously entertaining. Sterling shows once more his skills in storytelling and technospeak. A cyberpunk winner.” —Kirkus Reviews “So believable are the speculations that . . . one becomes convinced that the world must and will develop into what Sterling has predicted.” —Science Fiction Age “A very exciting coming-of-age story in a wild future America . . . What’s it got? Cyberpunk attitude, genuine humor, nanotechnology, minimal sex but some cool medications and very big weather systems.” —SFReviews.net “Brilliant . . . Fascinating . . . Exciting . . . A full complement of thrills.” —The New York Review of Science Fiction

Fantascienza - racconto lungo (36 pagine) - Il futuro che attendeva il Giappone avrebbe trovato la gloria nella tecnologia, ma solo dopo aver sofferto la sconfitta più atroce. Finalista al Premio Hugo e al Premio Nebula Edo è l''antico nome di Tokyo, una città funestata da continui incendi, tanto da spingere i poeti a chiamarli "i fuochi di Edo". L''era di Edo, o era degli Shogun, terminò brutalmente con l''arrivo delle navi da guerra americane nella baia di Tokyo, che costrinsero a cannonate il Giappone a entrare nella comunità commerciale mondiale, portando quella tecnologia che un giorno avrebbe arricchito il Giappone. In questo drammatico momento di transizione è ambientato questo splendido racconto di Bruce Sterling, nel quale si confrontano la tradizione giapponese e lo spettro di un futuro grandioso ma anche terribile. Racconto finalista al Premio Hugo e al Premio Nebula. Bruce Sterling, texano nato nel 1954, è stato il fondatore del movimento Cyberpunk ed è una della figure più influenti della fantascienza. Curatore della leggendaria antologia Mirrorshades, autore di romanzi come Isole nella rete, La macchina della realtà (con William Gibson, uno dei primi romanzi steampunk), Caos USA, ma anche di saggi seminali come Giro di vite contro gli hacker. Da sempre interessato alla tecnologia e ai suoi effetti sulla società e sull''essere umano, collabora con Wired, Repubblica, La Stampa. insieme alla moglie Jasmina Tešanović. Da alcuni anni vive a Torino. Ha vinto il Premio John Wood Campbell Memorial nel 1989, due volte il Premio Hugo (1997 e 1999), il Premio Locus e il Premio Arthur C. Clarke.

OVEREXPOSED is composed of a series of nine unauthorized photos of high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials of the NSA, CIA, NI, and FBI who were related to Edward Snowden''s revelations. The appropriated material was found by monitoring photos and selfies published on Internet public platforms without the control of the officials. The images were reproduced with the street art HD Stencils technique, and they were disseminated onto public walls throughout major cities. The artwork satirizes the era of ubiquitous surveillance and overly-mediated political personas by exposing the officials accountable for secretive mass surveillance and over-classified intelligence programs. New modes of circulation, appropriation, contextualization, and technical reproduction of images are integrated into this artwork.

En 1990, la Caida del Sistema del dia de Martin Luther King, que afecto a la compania telefonica AT&T y dejo sin comunicaciones a millones de norteamericanos, desencadeno la persecucion y detencion de decenas de hackers, acusados de causar la hundimiento, que hasta ese momento era ignorados por la policia y las leyes. Bruce Sterling, autor de novelas como -El fuego sagrado-, -Cismatrix- o -La Maquina Diferencial-, y considerado uno de los mayores expertos en el genero del ciberpunk, nos ofrece en -La Caza de Hackers; Ley y Desorden en la Frontera Electronica- un apasionante reportaje desde el principio de la era de internet, los ordenadores personales, y la frontera electronica partiendo de la base de ese hecho inaudito. Con una entretenida prosa novelesca, Sterling nos lleva a conocer a todos los implicados en el asunto, desde los primeros activistas de internet hasta los policias encargados del caso, que cimento los pilares de lo que hoy es la libertad de expresion en Internet. 25 anos despues de los sucesos del dia de Martin King, -La Caza de Hackers-, se ha convertido en un libro de culto y un documento historico imprescindible para comprender y entender la transformacion y el impacto de las nuevas comunicaciones en el Siglo XXI

Original introduction by Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan and Gun Machine Who are these bold rebels pillaging their European neighbors in the name of revolution? The Futurists! Utopian pirate-warriors of the tiny Regency of Carnaro, unlikely scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Mortal enemies of communists, capitalists, and even fascists (to whom they are not entirely unsympathetic). The ambitious Soldier-Citizens of Carnaro are led by a brilliant and passionate coterie of the perhaps insane. Lorenzo Secondari, World War I veteran, engineering genius, and leader of Croatian raiders. Frau Piffer, Syndicalist manufacturer of torpedos at a factory run by and for women. The Ace of Hearts, a dashing Milanese aristocrat, spymaster, and tactical savant. And the Prophet, a seductive warrior-poet who leads via free love and military ruthlessness. Fresh off of a worldwide demonstration of their might, can the Futurists engage the aid of sinister American traitors and establish world domination?

The saucer aliens are here. They''re healing the planet. They''ve got to be stopped. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Future Is Ourselves The world is rapidly changing. We surf future-shock every day, as the progress of technology races ever on. Increasingly we are asking: how do we change to live in the world to come? Whether it’s climate change, inundated coastlines and drowned cities; the cramped confines of a tin can hurtling through space to the outer reaches of our Solar System; or the rush of being uploaded into cyberspace, our minds and bodies are going to have to drastically alter. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan brings us another incredible volume in his much praised science-fiction anthology series, featuring stories by Madeline Ashby, John Barnes, James S.A. Corey, Gregory Benford, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Simon Ings, Kameron Hurley, Nancy Kress, Gwyneth Jones, Yoon Ha Lee, Bruce Sterling, Sean Williams, Aliette de Bodard, Ramez Naam, An Owomoyela and Ian McDonald.

Von Wüstenschiffen und Staubwalen Nullaqua ist eine menschenfeindliche Welt, ein Wüstenplanet mit gigantischen Staubozeanen. Darin leben riesige, walähnliche Tiere, aus deren Kadavern man die Droge Syncophin gewinnt. Zigtausende Süchtige in der gesamten Galaxis können ohne das „Flackern“, das das Syncopin in ihrem Bewusstsein hervorruft, die Realität nicht mehr ertragen, und so jagen riesige Schiffe die Staubwale. Ihre Crews bestehen nur teilweise aus Menschen, doch die Entbehrungen und die tödliche Bedrohung durch die grausame, fremde Natur schweißt sie zu unverbrüchlichen

m uma versão alternativa da Inglaterra vitoriana, a ascensão do Partido Radical trouxe mudanças impressionantes. Pelas ruas da capital, cartolas e crinolinas misturam-se a cinétropos, gurneys e cabriolés. O trem metropolitano e o sistema de esgotos revolucionam a rede urbana. Tudo graças às conquistas científicas alcançadas pela Máquina: no auge da Revolução Industrial, os avanços promovidos pela tecnologia a vapor anunciam a era da informática. Com um século de antecedência. Mas Londres também é uma cidade em convulsão. O alvoroço causado pela turba desordeira assusta a população. Além disso, uma conspiração mais sofisticada - porém não menos perigosa - parece ameaçar a segurança e a estabilidade de todo o país. Enquanto isso, uma misteriosa caixa com cartões perfurados é objeto de cobiça e disputa, pois guarda um segredo estratégico, ligado a interesses nebulosos. Acidentalmente ou não, ela cai nas mãos de diferentes personagens, mudando suas vidas: Sybil Gerard, ex-amante de um político influente e filha de um insurreto executado; Ada Byron, filha de Lorde Byron, então primeiro-ministro da Inglaterra; e Edward Mallory, um respeitado cientista, descobridor do famoso Leviatã Terrestre.

The Nebula-nominated novel of “abrave new world of nearly constant future shock”—plus all the short fiction of the Shaper/Mechanist universe (The Washington Post). Acclaimed science fiction luminary and a godfather of the genre’s remarkable offspring—cyberpunk—Bruce Sterling carries readers to a far-future universe where stunning achievements in human development have been tainted by a virulent outbreak of prejudice and hatred. Many thousands of years in the future, the human race has split into two incompatible factions. The aristocratic Mechanists believe that humans can only achieve their greatest potential through technology and enhancing their bodies with powerful prosthetics. The rebel Shapers view these “improvements” as abominations, and their faith in genetic enhancements over mechanical ones has led to violent, even murderous, clashes between the two sects. One man is caught in the middle. The child of Mechanists, Abelard Lindsay is a former Shaper diplomat who was betrayed and cast out of the fold. Scrupulously trained in the fine art of treachery and deceit, he travels freely between the warring camps during his never-ending exile, embracing piracy and revolution all along the way. But while saving his own skin is Lindsay’s main motivation, a greater destiny awaits him, one that could offer a bold new hope for a tragically sundered humankind. A breathtaking flight of unparalleled imagination, Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix Plus also includes every subsequent excursion into the Mechanist and Shaper universe, complementing his acclaimed novel with the complete collection of mind-boggling Schismatrix short fiction. The result is is a total immersion into the Mechanist/Shaper universe from the Hugo, Campbell, and Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author called “a writer of excellent fineness” by Harlan Ellison and “one of the very best” by Publishers Weekly.

In a future world of rampant inequality, a martial-arts video star finds himself in a real fight for survival, in this novel by the author of Schismatrix. Founded centuries ago by the enigmatic genius Moses Moses, the planet Reverie can either be heaven or hell, depending on whether you live on or above it. The superrich orbit the world in luxury abodes, keeping their sometimes-lethal ennui at bay by watching homemade sex and violence videos created by the peons dwelling on the coral continents miles beneath them. The most popular entertainer of all is the Artificial Kid, an unbeatable combat artist whose bloody, self-produced martial arts videos have made him beloved both above and below. But the Kid is about to stumble onto something no one was ever meant to discover—a mind-boggling conspiracy of science and antiquity that forces him to run for his life into the strange and dangerous wilderness known as the Mass. And when Moses Moses returns to Reverie after seven hundred years of cryogenic sleep, things are about to get much worse. Written long before the era of YouTube, Ultimate Fighting, and reality TV, Bruce Sterling’s prescient, thoughtful, and wildly satiric novel previews the nascent cyberpunk sensibilities of the acclaimed author’s later works.

A far-future Moby-Dick by the author of Schismatrix: A desperate addict on a bleak, arid planet boards a whaling vessel to hunt the drug he craves. The powerful narcotic syncophine, commonly known as Flare, comes from only one source: the oil of the gargantuan whale-like beasts that swim the dust sea of Nullaqua. It was John Newhouse’s addiction to the substance that made him a dealer and forced him to move to this airless, inhospitable planet But when the all-powerful galactic Confederacy declares Flare illegal, the needs of Newhouse and his clientele leave the desperate off-worlder no choice but to sign on as an able seaman aboard a dustwhaler and hunt the giant creatures himself. Joining a crew of junkies and misfits, including a mad captain with his own dark and secret agenda and a bewitching, batlike alien woman who is pained by human touch, Newhouse sets out across the silica ocean at the bottom of a seventy-mile-deep crater in search of release and redemption . . . and sails toward a fateful confrontation between man and beast that could lead to catastrophe. Bruce Sterling’s debut novel is a remarkable feat of world building—imaginative, provocative, and smart, featuring an unforgettable cast of colorful characters. If Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick unfolded on Frank Herbert’s Dune, the result might be something akin to Sterling’s extraordinary Involution Ocean.

If the hype is to be believed then the next big thing is the Internet of Things. But is it what you think it is? Because the Internet of Things is not about things on the internet. A world in which all our household gadgets can communicate with each other may sound vaguely useful, but it''s not really for us consumers. The internet of things serves the interests of the technology giants, in their epic wrangles with each other. And it is they who will turn the jargon of "smart cities" and "smart homes" into a self-fulfilling prophesy. In this piercing and provocative essay, Bruce Sterling tells the story of an idea that just won''t go away because there''s too much money to be made and a whole world to control.

"The feds aren''t going to fund you anymore. Not when your boss is a self-flattening radioactive pancake." Desperate times call for desperate inventions. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Que se serait-il passé si le mathématicien Charles Babbage avait pu, au milieu du XIXe siècle, construire les machines à différences, ces " ordinateurs à vapeur " qu''il avait imaginés ? Imaginez des ordinateurs en plein XIXe siècle, des ordinateurs composés de roues dentées, de bielles et de leviers, mus par la vapeur. Des Machines à différences, imaginées par Charles Babbage, aidé de Lady Ada Byron, la fille de Lord Byron lui-même, oui, le Premier ministre de Sa Majesté la reine Victoria. En 1855, l''Histoire a pris un autre cours. Les industries se développent avec frénésie. Des transports sous-terrestres sillonnent Londres en proie à la pollution, aux courses automobiles et au chômage technologique. L''Empire britannique, gouverné par les scientifiques et les industrialistes, est plus soucieux de technologie que d''aventures outre-mer. Edward " Leviathan " Mallory, explorateur des terres sauvages d''une Amérique du Nord divisée par les guerres, se voit remettre par Lady Ada un mystérieux paquet de cartes mécanographiques. Dès lors sa vie est en danger. Avec l''aide inattendue de Sybil Gerard, femme déchue, fille d''un célèbre agitateur mort sur l''échafaud, qui poussait à la destruction des Machines, et de Laurence Oliphant, diplomate ou plutôt espion de la reine, il va commencer à comprendre quel est le sens de ces cartes. Un enjeu planétaire, le contrôle de l''information...

Estamos a comienzos del siglo xxvii. Hace cincuenta años, el hombre puso en marcha un antiguo sistema alienígena que detectaba el nacimiento de formas de vida inteligentes. Los inhibidores llevan mucho tiempo esperando, pero ahora se preparan para volver... Mientras tanto, una fuerza desconocida ha sembrado el terror en el Sanctasanctórum de los combinados. A medida que la naturaleza de la nueva amenaza se vuelve más clara, Clavain, uno de sus guerreros, empieza a plantearse que es hora de volver al combate. En Resurgam se ha descubierto un cargamento de armas devastadoras que podrían ser utilizadas para el bien de la Humanidad, pero alguien ya ha logrado hacerse con su control...

Las sondas espaciales humanas han descubierto vida inteligente en los lejanos límites del sistema solar, en la Nube Oort. Ahora los primeros seres humanos se aventuran más allá del sistema planetario, enviados para establecer contacto con esta raza increíblemente extraña y viajar al centro de su civilización. Lo que descubren es explosivo más allá de sus más descabellados sueños. Un nuevo, sugerente e innovador punto de vista sobre cómo puede evolucionar la vida en hábitats imposibles.

Mit diesem Roman wurde der Steampunk erfunden London 1855: Das viktorianische England schickt sich an, dank seiner dampfbetriebenen Informationstechnologie ein neues, glücklicheres Zeitalter einzuleiten. Doch in dieser Ära des Aufbruchs und des technischen Fortschritts geraten vier Menschen in einen Strudel aus Brutalität, Gewalt und Zerstörung. William Gibson wird 1948 in South Carolina geboren. Er verliert früh seinen Vater und lebt bis zu seinem fünfzehnten Lebensjahr mit seiner Mutter in einer 2000-Seelen-Gemeinde in Virginia. Um seiner Vietnam-Einberufung zu entgehen, zieht er 1967 nach Kanada. Während seines Studiums der Englischen Literatur beginnt William Gibson Science-Fiction-Geschichten zu schreiben. In seinem 1984 erschienenen ersten Roman ''Neuromancer'', den er auf der Schreibmaschine schreibt, erfindet er den Begriff Cyberspace. William Gibson lebt mit Frau und Kind in Vancouver (Kanada).

Rudyard Kipling''s With the Night Mail follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling the perfect storm. Between London and Quebec we learn that a planet-wide Aerial Board of Control (A.B.C.) now enforces a technocratic system of command and control not only in the skies but in world affairs. A follow-up story, "As Easy As A.B.C.," recounts what happens when agitators in Chicago demand the return of democracy.

Animations accompanies the first museum exhibition to focus on the films and videos of the acclaimed contemporary German artist and photographer Thomas Demand (born 1964). Demand is best known for his large-scale color photographs of objects or sites taken from images in the popular media, which he painstakingly reconstructs in paper. With these new films and videos, Demand has taken this practice to the next stage, extending his investigations in to real time and space by animating his paper constructions. The primary focus of the volume is the two-minute tour de force video entitled "Pacific Sun," which takes place in a cruise ship bar during a violent storm at sea. This volume--the first to survey Demand''s films and videos--brings these latest works back full circle, but as video stills. Also included is a major essay on the artist by the acclaimed photo critic Michael Fried.

Featuring thirteen satirical short stories, a unique collection includes scientific superstars, a rock singer who is the voice of the people, and two lost souls who drive off the edge of the world and find each other. From the Paperback edition.

It''s November 2044, an election year, and the state of the Union is a farce. The government is broke, the cities are privately owned, and the military is shaking down citizens in the streets. Washington has become a circus and no one knows that better than Oscar Valparaiso. A political spin doctor, Oscar has always made things look good. Now he wants to make a difference. But Oscar has a skeleton in his closet. His only ally: Dr. Greta Penninger, a gifted neurologist at the bleeding edge of the neural revolution. Together they''re out to spread a very dangerous idea whose time has come. And so have their enemies: every technofanatic, government goon, and laptop assassin in America. Oscar and Greta might not survive to change the world, but they''ll put a new spin on it. From the Paperback edition.

It’s 1999, and in the Turkish half of Cyprus, the ever-enterprising Leggy Starlitz has alighted — pausing on his mission to storm the Third World with the G-7 girls, the cheapest, phoniest all-girl rock group ever to wear Wonderbras and spandex. His market is staring him in the face: millions of teenagers trapped in a world of mullahs and mosques, all ready to blow their pocket change on G-7’s massive merchandising campaign — and to wildly anticipate music the band will never release. Leggy’s brilliant plan means doing business with some of the world’s most dangerous people. Among these thieves, schemers, and killers, he must act quickly and decisively. Y2K is just around the corner — and the only rule to live by is that the whole scheme stops before the year 2000. But Leggy’s G-7 Zeitgeist is in serious jeopardy, for in Istanbul his former partners are getting restless — and the G-7 girls are beginning to die.... From the Paperback edition.