prcardi's Reviews > Holy Fire

Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
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really liked it
bookshelves: rated-r, hugo-finalist, cyberpunk, medical, science-fiction

Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 5/5

The first page of Holy Fire introduces us to a character whose profession is that of a medical economist. It is there, at the third sentence. Already one is prompted stop and ponder what exactly a medical economist would do, what kind of world would require, even permit such a profession. The pages and chapter thereafter are going to reveal those answers. In doing so, Sterling is going to build one of the most comprehensive, tantalizing, and believable near future visions of human society that I have ever encountered. It is a world in which the profession of medical economist makes perfect sense. It is a world where characters, problems, technology, ambitions, and politics fit together to create a genuinely coherent possible future. Holy Fire is a book worth reading, remembering, and discussing if only for that, but Sterling is going to do more. That more involves some flamboyant and fun technology, several outrageous characters, and some provocative philosophizing.

The supporting cast of characters do an especially good job supplementing and enriching Sterling’s world. The main character was, unfortunately, a weak point. The protagonist’s place in the story is to witness, learn from, and interact with the other characters and the world. Her role and presence in the story are important, but the author made some choices that kept her from being fully appreciated. Sterling employed the unreliable narrator tactic at times, but he seemed to forget to turn it to the “OFF” position occasionally, leeching uncertainty and confusion into passages and sections that were never intended to have such ambiguity. Fortunately, the author is juggling more than one object at a time, and one’s attention can drift away from the protagonist to one of the more dazzling objects in the performance.

The intriguing worldbuilding and philosophizing are going to take some unexpected turns, particularly for a book that is often regarded as belonging to the cyberpunk subgenre. Our story is going to lead us to the centers of fashion and style, taking us on a tour to meet artists. The defiance of the rules of society and the refusal to bend to the regulations of the ruling class, which define the criminal, cyber cowboy culture in works such as that of William Gibson, are here presented in the pushing of artistic boundaries and the everlasting pursuit of creativity by iconoclasts. Most of these characters are going to get an opportunity to pontificate on the nature, purposes, and direction of art. Most of them are going to disagree with one another. The substance of these conversations—supplemented marginally by the behaviors and interactions of the artists—is going to be the heart and message of the book. Most of the character development, a lot of the wordcount, and even a fair bit of the drama is going to take place in repeated instances of pontification. This makes for a thoughtful, albeit often a slow read. The writing in these sections is particularly good. There are some poetically moving and very witty observations as well as dozens of passages worthy of quoting. This made for pleasant reading in chunks but left the overall narrative with little momentum. A strategy like this needs to make up for the slow pace with a truly powerful ending. All the different ideas and possibilities have to be brought together in a final statement with meaning. Sterling, however, returns to the meager plot for the closing of the book, opting for a soft outro bringing the story to a close.

I had read Sterling’s Islands of the Net not too long ago. That was flashy and action-packed, quite unlike Holy Fire. Both novels suffered from pacing, Islands of the Net moving so fast that it was difficult to understand what was happening and Holy Fire so slowly that the book was sometimes a chore to return to. Both are informed by and concerned with political and economic systems, and particularly with some form of neoimperialism. Holy Fire was much more subtle in its treatment of the political and far more enjoyable because of it. Here Sterling, unlike in Islands of the Net did not need to give name to the forms of politics and economics he was discussing; he simply showed us how they functioned and what they meant for individual people and society at large. Of the two, I found Holy Fire to be far more meaningful and memorable, even though it lacked the edginess and bite of Islands of the Net and cyberpunk in general.
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Reading Progress

June 9, 2020 – Shelved
June 9, 2020 – Shelved as: rated-r
June 9, 2020 – Shelved as: hugo-finalist
June 9, 2020 – Shelved as: cyberpunk
June 9, 2020 – Shelved as: medical
June 9, 2020 – Shelved as: science-fiction
Started Reading
June 10, 2020 – Finished Reading

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