Facts

Title: Islands in the Net
Author: Bruce Sterling
Year of publishing: 1988

Bruce Sterling's book Islands in the Net is a thrilling blend of high tech and low humanity. The glue that binds together this world of data pirates, mercenaries, nanotechnology, weaponry, and post-millennial voodoo is the global electronic net. The book is slightly dated: You'll find jarring references to pre-Microsoft Windows computer technology, the Soviet Union, and that fancy new wonder machine - the fax. But this book has enough cool stuff to keep even a jaded cyberpunk interested. The characters are far more than mere constructs used to show off the technology, and the plot is fast, complicated, and mysterious. Veteran Sterling fans will enjoy this taste of his pre-fame style.

Synopsis

2023. Information is power, and even in the peaceful post-millenial age, power corrupts. Data pirates, new-age mercenaries, high-tech shamans, and murder stalk a brutal netherworld of deregulated havens in the Global Communications Network - Islands in the Net. Laura Webster lives happily with her husband and child in this peaceful world where nuclear weapons, environmental crises and national politics are things of the past.

But outside the Net there are dangerous communities which steal and sell technology and information. And when data pirates invade Laura's life, her once-safe world explodes in her face.