What are you reading in 2025?

[Autumnal]

I really liked The Difference Engine, but it’s really different from anything else I’ve read by either author solo. It goes deeper but not faster. If you’d like to read some 19th century alternate history with super tech that turns out to have a solid physical rationale and radical politics, and that moves right along, let me recommend Stephen Baxter’s Anti-Ice.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

After doing the Appendix N Jam, I'm really feeling that vibe right now, so it might just be the huge clash of tones putting me off the Difference Engine.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I read it so long ago soon after it came out, but I remember two things about it - 1) it was good but not great because 2) two great tastes that went ok together, but the parts were greater than the sum. Ie, it was not better than any of the books Gibson and Sterling wrote alone that I had read to date.

Corollary - it was an early steampunk iteration, and as such should get a bit of credit (or blame I guess, depending on your perspective).