The Difference Engine

The setting is the interesting part of this book. It postulates that Charles Babbage built his Analytical Engine in the 1820s; a techno-industrial party came to power in 1830; and British industry, science and power have been advancing steadily ever since. The United States aren't united; instead, we have the Confederacy, the Union, Texas, and the Manhattan Commune. Mexico is controlled by France and the first Japanese agents have come to England to learn about the Industrial Revolution and Babbage enginery. There are a few steam-powered cars on the streets of London, a well to do man might have several telegraph/tickertape lines in his house, the Imperial forces have airships and artillery computers, and every citizen is assigned an ID number which is used as a credit card and for government surveillance.

The story starts with Sybil Gerard, daughter of a Luddite leader and now a prostitute; her story runs a couple of chapters, and then she disappears. Then we meet Laurence Oliphant, a diplomat, spy and journalist, and deal with him for a chapter or so. Then we have most of the book, which is about Edward Mallory, a paleontologist who has been in Wyoming digging up a brontosaur; he acquires a set of computer punch cards and gets embroiled with some mysterious foes who want to get the cards back, or overthrow the British government in favor of anarchy, or find a perfect gambling system, or something. Then we're back to Oliphant for another chapter, then Sybil for a bit, and we wrap up with a hash of fictional newspaper articles, interviews, letters and bits.

I suspect this whole mess is supposed to be a retrospective from the point of view of the first Artificial Intelligence, but it's not at all clear. It was definitely not a "I can't put this down!" book; it was more of a "I'm determined to plow through this." If you feel obligated to read it, check it out from the library.