The Difference Engine Audiobook

" A genre-bending mix with a very original storyline, I think this gave rise to the term Steampunk. "

" So much potential... so little payoff. "

" It was alright; could have cut about 150 pages and it woulda been the same story. I think maybe I'd be more interested in reading the actual history; some of it left me being like "yeah but wtf actually happened". It was entertaining. "

" A generation after the computer is invented in 1824, England is gritty, powerful, and on the edge of political upheaval, when a set of punch-cards arrives in London. No one knows what they do, except maybe the people willing to kill for them. As the cards change hands, the reader gets an intriguing, often thrilling tour of a nearly cyperpunk London, from horse races to programmer offices to the kinetic pictures. It's a fantastic what-if novel and the possibilities and repercussions don't end when the book does. "

" I liked all the steam punk stuff a lot, the clacking, the kinotropy, the savants and the Rad institutions. All the alt history was fun too. But the narrative was not very satisfying, too choppy, characters I had to work to get interested in just disappearing (more or less). Oh, and barely any real story. "

" Highly disappointing. Amazing world building. But the novel drowns in its details. The plot was an incomprehensible labyrinthe that I thought I'd never escape. Not sure how I got through it. "

" Good read, enjoyable, nice steampunk setting. "

" No sir, I didn't like it. One of the few science fiction books I ever gave up on, even given the fact that I think that William Gibson is brilliant. I think he needs to stick to cyberpunk, and stay away from steampunk! "

" As with much of William Gibson his attention to detail often bogs down much of the story to me. But since his work often define sub-genre's of science fiction I guess he should get a little slack. "

" This is the worst book I have read since the bible. And I love steampunk, but this was just bad! "

" The plot just did not work for me. "

" This book was awesome about setting the scene and creating the world, but it was really slow for anything to happen. Also I think it kind of fizzled at the end. "

" makes for a nice mingle & really gets your attention for the detailed historical entries "

" I so wanted to love this. The idea of how the world might be if Charles Babbage had succeeded in building his computing machines fascinates me. That was hardly touched upon really, and it felt like a missed opportunity. Hopefully someone else will try writing about it too? "

" Attempts, for Steam Punk, what Gibson's earlier works did for Cyber Punk. Not as satisfactory, on the whole, though. "

" I like the setting quite a bit - steampunkish without going over the top. Parallels to our current info age are fascinating. But plot-wise this did very little for me - It meanders around without much of a point for far too long. "

" Not my favourite book. Sometimes a slow read. But very interesting, therefore worth the read! "

" sorry, but i just don't like these sorts of books... "

" I was really disappointed with this book. I love William Gibson, but this collaboration with Bruce Sterling was a swing and a miss. "

" Good read, enjoyable, nice steampunk setting. "

" I wanted to enjoy this book a lot more than I did. It started strong, but Gibson seemed to lose the thread of his novel as he moved forward. "

" I realized, partway in, that I had read this novel years ago. I soldiered on, looking for the particular genius of William Gibson. Surely, any page now, this story will catch fire. But it never happened. Not the best example of Gibson's genius. "

" I have no idea what this book was about - but it was a bloody good read. "

" A disappointment from Gibson. Disjointed plot.<br/> "