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ZENITH_ANGLE

                                              April 6, 2006

While in Bali, I read
Bruce Sterling's
"The Zenith Angle" (2004)

This is something like a techno-thriller: it
jumps back in time to the beginning of what we
unfortunately call the "post-9/11 era".               (The Balinese rock
                                                      band "Superman is
It focuses on computer science geeks                  Dead" calls it "The
and some hangers-on in the military                   Hangover Decade",
security scene.  It has a lot of                      which may be a
Sterling-editorial passages blended                   better name),
into it (some of which I'll no doubt
quote elsewhere), and a lot of
relatively jokey stuff which seems a
little reminiscent of Neal Stephenson,
(though not quite as silly).


If this qualifies as "science fiction",
it's in the way that the main character
is groping for an understanding of the
structure of the world.

      It's science fiction where
      the "science" is social
      organization.

Two things about it seem forced:

(1) It's a relatively talky book,
and when the first scene of real
action occurs, it's a pretty funny
choice on Sterling's part:

A mindless brawl between a couple
of geeks who are frustrated with
their lives for other reasons.

But the second scene of action, the penultimate
scene in the novel... it makes very little sense
whatsover. Our hero kills someone using a rather
silly method that might easily have been suicidal.
Destroying the place might make some sense -- you
want to make sure that some NSA flack doesn't get
the idea it would be cool to play with the
super-science weapon -- but it seems a little
out-of-character for the main character, who
might've been expected to want to preserve the
scientific functions of the establishment.

          It seems like Sterling felt that the
          formula required an apocalyptic
          finish, so he did his best to slap
          one on the end of it.

(2) The other thing that seems forced
is the title: the zenith angle is the
angle between a position in the sky
and the zenith, the direction
straight up overhead.  It's used a
few times in the story, but doesn't       DEAD_HARE
seem to mean much as a story title.

Could it be that Sterling is doing a series?
His last novel "Zeitgeist" also jumps back in
time, covering the "new millenium" period in a
Science Fantasy framework (in a Philip
K. Dick/Rudy Rucker mode).

"Zeitgeist", "Zenith Angle", ... ?
                                                    Maybe Sterling has
What could be next?  "Zero"?                        noticed the power of the
                                                    "Z" (one part of the
  Some sort of play off of ground zero?             Zorn advantage).
  But *this* is the 9/11 book.
                                                       ZORN_ADVANTAGE
     Note: "Zenith Angle" steps back to 9/11,
     and "Zeitgeist" stepped back to Y2K.

     Is this a "recent history" series?


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