Jessica's Reviews > Holy Fire

Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
7999979
's review

really liked it
bookshelves: genre-scifi

Transcendent! Every page sparkles and pops with Ideas. Vivid and blazing with a peculiar brand of intelligence.

Makes me believe that edible cities, dog talk show hosts, effective immortality, crab waiters, translator wigs, radical Bohemian cyberpunk art movements, and public health care could be mundane aspects of the real world -- or at least as real as artifice.

It's always fascinating to read about future worlds that aren't dystopias and that aren't not utopias, but have ethical dilemmas at a deep structural level that causes hesitation regardless... There's authenticity underlying the fantastical elements that cuts deep in the best way.

One thing is that I would have liked more interiority to Maya, especially at first, but I suppose the detachment was appropriate to her journey. I did appreciate the occasional flashes of insight at key moments, almost enough emotional depth to balance the ideological depth.

Reads as a series of scenes and encounters that feel narratively disjointed, but all tie strongly together along the same themes and serve to explore the same sandbox of ideas -- just how I like it, apparently.
1 like · flag

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read Holy Fire.
Sign In »

Reading Progress

April 29, 2019 – Shelved as: to-read
April 29, 2019 – Shelved
February 15, 2020 – Started Reading
February 15, 2020 – Shelved as: genre-scifi
February 18, 2020 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

Warner I had forgotten that you had read this too!


back to top