Cyberpunk Spinmeister

With Distraction, Bruce Sterling's fiercely satirical take on America's political future, a cult icon comes into his own

It's 2044, and Oscar Valparaiso has a lot on his plate. No sooner did the young political operative put his boss in the Senate than the guy went nuts, leaving Oscar to sink or swim in a world where pretty much everything has gone wrong. Oceans warmed by climate change have risen so fast that the Dutch are waging Cold War II against Uncle Sam. The devaluation of software to zero (the Chinese post it all free on the Net) snapped the economy like a dry twig. Air Force squads shake down drivers on the highways. Roving "radical proles" terrorize the...

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