The Difference Engine (Spectra special editions) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I've just finished reading this book... At this precise moment, I am feeling a kind of grief, which I usually feel when some book, that I really enjoyed, ends. I am missing not only the characters, but mainly the world itself.

And, to my disappointment, there are no sufficient interesting opinions about this story, in this site...

Most of the people here seems to complain about excessive details and the lack of a plot... I almost understand the reasons for the first (but I don't agree at all, and I am NOT an expert of 19th century).. However, "lack of a plot" sounds almost offensive... To me, it's always the little details that make a good story, plus the capacity to "tie" these events in a clever and interesting manner... I just can't explain it, but I really believe that the word "plot" is just not good enough (there is no plot in "Crime & Punishment", for instance, but it is still one of the best books i've ever read).

And the end was not unsatisfatory at all. In fact, I confess that I kind of guessed what was all about in the first 300 pages, so the conclusion was not THAT surprising (there are many clues along the book, though - the word "iteration" being an obvious one). But it only prooves that it wasn't an "anti-climax"; since the begining, the book was destinated to end like that.

So, I give you this hint: if you are a typical sci-fi lover, like "straight" stories, with plain characters, not too much (non scientific) details and a good definition of who-they-are and where-they-need-to-go; just DON'T read this book... You probably already prefer Asimov to Gibson, so why keep trying...

Unfortunately this book goes sailing across the room every time I attempt to read it. This is the only book which I have ever physically thrown, and it deserves it.

Part of the reason is the run on sentences which drag on and on repeating parts without punctuation which you'd really think would have been dealt with by an editor but for some reason made it into the book and exist there to torment the reader for pages at a time until at some point the authors forget how the thing started and simply put the sentence out of its misery.

This isn't the worst book I have ever read, but it is the only one to go flying across the room. I eventually picked it up and returned it to the shelf. After spending several years cooling off I asked myself if perhaps I hadn't been a bit hasty in my judgement, and picked it up again.

It wasn't long before it again went sailing across the room.