Ascendancies

"I'm an entertainer in the military-entertainment complex." -- Bruce Sterling

Polemicist, provocateur, futurist, 'visionary in residence', Bruce Sterling has been out there, personally sharpening the cutting edge of science fiction for more than thirty years.

From his first story "Man-Made Self" in 1976 to his latest "Kiosk" in 2007, Sterling has written science fiction that is fast-moving, sharply extrapolated, technologically literate, and as brilliant and coherent as a laser, as he himself once said of William Gibson. His "Shaper/Mechanist" stories were an essential part of the cyberpunk movement of the '80s, just as his "Leggy Starlitz" and "Chattanooga" stories wrangled the near future of the '90s better than anyone else. Whether writing about the deep future in Schismatrix or the deep present in Holy Fire, he has developed into the best science fiction writer working in the world today.

Born in Texas in 1954, Sterling has traveled the globe writing and working for The New York Times, Nature, Wired, Newsday, and a number of industrial design magazines. His short fiction has appeared in almost every major publication in the science fiction field. His novels include far future adventures Involution Ocean and The Artificial Kid, Schismatrix, John W. Campbell Memorial Award winner Islands in the Net, The Difference Engine, Heavy Weather, Holy Fire, Distraction, and The Zenith Angle.

Limited: 125 signed numbered hardcover copies
=Trade Hardcover Edition: fully cloth bound hardcover edition

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler
• Foreword by Bruce Sterling

Part I: The Sharper/Mechanist Stories

• Swarm
• Spider Rose
• Cicada Queen
• Sunken Gardens
• Twenty Evocations

Part II: Early Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Green Days in Brunei
• Dinner in Audoghast
• The Compassionate, the Digital
• Flowers of Edo
• The Little Magic Shop
• Our Neural Cherynobyl
• We See Things Differently
• Dori Bangs

Part III: The Leggy Starlitz Stories

• Hollywood Kremlin
• Are You for 86?
• The Littlest Jackal

Part IV: The Chattanooga Stories

• Deep Eddy
• Bicycle Repairman
• Taklamakan

Part V: Later Science Fiction and Fantasy

• The Sword of Damocles
• Maneki Neko
• In Paradise
• The Blemmye's Strategem
• Kiosk

From Publishers Weekly (starred review):
"Sterling (Visionary in Residence: Stories), the godfather of cyberpunk, demonstrates his full range, from far future to forgotten past, in this well-stocked career-spanning collection of his finest SF pieces. His blend of uncompromising realism and irrepressible optimism shows up wherever his protagonists do... Readers who like a hard-eyed view of the future combined with a wry wink at the past, with a few inventive postmodern narrative kicks mixed in, will be greatly rewarded."

From Booklist:
"Sterling's speculative fiction dazzles from the get-go, bombarding the reader with one extraordinary concept after another...This significant retrospective of Sterling's career reveals a prescience that is bold and astounding."

From Library Journal:
"Always alive to the moment, always accepting the headlong rush of the future, Sterling's short fiction deserves a place in every library's sf or short story collection. Highly recommended."