The Difference Engine

Author: William Gibson

In our top 25 dystopian list, we called him the King of Cyberpunk. In this delicious alternate history, steam punk offering, Gibson teams up with Bruce Sterling to serve up a Victorian Britain where Charles Babbage succeeds in building a mechanical computer, driving enormous technological and social change. In mid 19th century, Britain is simultaneously going through both the Industrial and Information Revolutions. The novel diverges from actual history around 1824, when Babbage builds his Difference Engine and develops the Analytical Engine. The Industrial Radical Party came into power, and by 1855, the Babbage computers were mass produced. Great Britain is more powerful than in reality, classical studies are less important than engineering and accountancy, and Britain, rather than the U.S. opened Japan to western trade. The novel deals with the themes of consequences of a technologically advanced society in the 19th century. Hacker nerds will enjoy the references to technologically savvy individuals as â€œclackersâ€. All of the novel's characters are either real people, or borrowed from literature. My favorite inclusion is of the 19th century female mathematician Ada Lovelace. Like everything Gibson touches, the detail is spectacular and throws you into the Victorian era experience. Need more reasons to read this book? It comes in at number 5 with the Nebula, British Science Fiction, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Prix Aurora Awards. It also has talks about dinosaurs and Victorian Sex. You didn't misread that - dinosaurs and Victorian era sex.