However, here Sterling chose not to write science fiction, but rather an alternate history satire, something he calls dieselpunk which turns out is a lot like steampunk and cyberpunk. Sterling considers this as a subgenre of science fiction. It's related to science fiction but its also rooted in history and makes use somewhat of real facts. He's using history, elements of science fiction and satire to create something that would appeal to more popular culture. In this case, catering to the European general public more so than the American science fiction crowd.
Sterling quotes this line from the manifesto of Despero and Giacomo in 1915:
We will find abstract equivalents for all the forms and elements of the universe, and then we will combine them with the caprice of our imagination. This just about sums up the motives of the characters in this novel.
The book is about a group of pirates around 1920, WWI era. They've taken control of this village called Fiume, now present-day Rijeka. They believe in the Futurist Manifesto. They steal everything they can including a communist controlled armored vechicle in the beginning of the novel. Their enemies are the communists, the rich, and the fascists, whom they are not entirely unsympathetic towards. They engage in Freemasonry, free love, equal pay and rights for women, they love jazz music, ceremonial rituals, etc. Kids today would say they are "extra". As you can see this gets pulpy very fast.
Our main cast is comprised of the Ace of Hearts, a military leader of the secret police and the Pirate Engineer [lots of nicknames in this book] Secondari, a guy with a chip on his shoulder who lost an ear in the war but because he's an amazing weapons engineer he's given complete control to take over the means of production concerning weapons. There's even a Prophet, a warrior poet who runs a harem and the principle leader behind their ideology but deep down hates himself and his life.
Secondari becomes "Minister of Vengeance Weapons" [what a great title!] He revitalizes a weapons factory and starts developing torpedoes and even a death ray [very cyberpunk and reminiscent of Nazi technology conspiracies]. Soon other governments become interested and Spymaster Colonel House from President Wilson's government sends Houdini and his assistant H.P. Lovecraft under the guise of a magic show to work out a secret deal. Along the way, Hitler gets killed by jumping into a bullet to save his friend and Mussolini gets shot to death in the dick by some girls that wandered into his office. That's where the book ends.
This is all very fun and funny material but where's the meat and potatoes to it? The thing is that this book has a lot of exposition but everything else is mostly left up to the imagination of the reader. The characters themselves are only interesting to a point. Secondari is a mediocre villain. He lives only to serve his ideology, for the cause of the Pirate Futurist Utopia. But when Frau Pfeiffer [an industrial factory owner] throws herself at him he denies her. He only loves her daughter, because Frau Pfeiffer was the one woman that nursed him back him to health when he was at his worst. Even his own family didn't to do that for him. So he loved Frau Pfeiffer's daughter and made sure that she would never be harmed. However, this actually made him a worse person as a result. He vowed to kill anyone who ever harmed her. At all costs.
The Prophet seemed like a cool cat. I mean he runs a harem and he's a warrior poet. Sounds like a real hippie awesome free love guy. But when Secondari sees him for the first time he realizes that this man, the Prophet is broken, lifeless. Because Secondari doesn't hear very well [one of his ears was blown off in the war] he has this intimate ability to see into a person's soul. He looked at the Prophet and somehow knew right away that he was completely wasted, drained of life. So I guess having a ton of girls to fuck all the time can be a drag sometimes. It's an interesting observation.
On a side note, there's the Art Witch, one of the Prophet's women. I actually liked her a lot because she reminds me of the typical bohemian girl, of any race, although of course here she's Italian. She's into the occult, does spiritual seances, wears weird kinky outfits with probably no underwear, she's a fixture of the art scene, and of course she's rich because that way she has the time to do all this goofy stuff. She's one to remember. Actually, if you hang around the music and art scenes for a while you'll find girls like this. I've run into plenty in the music crowds I've chilled with at parties and such. It can get weird but its always fun.
The characters themselves are quite eloquent. But they aren't the focus of the story. A lot of it is actually exposition. The first thirty pages are exposition but the fact that the novel is so short [only 170 pages] it makes the beginning very slow. After a while, the writing seems to get into a flow that is very easy to continuously read and enjoy. That's the magic of this book. The writing style is very breezy, satirical, and entertaining. I wasn't reading so much as to find out the plot but more so out of the sheer fun and joy of just turning the pages and being amused by it all.
There are some funny moments. Before the book officially starts there's a real H.P. Lovecraft quote that I love. "I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me." Well, that's just terrific. Not only is it true but the fact that Lovecraft said it makes it hilarious because he's known more for his horror than anything else.
There's a lot of funny moments. Adolf Hitler dies by jumping into a bullet to save his friend. He's actually a great guy it turns out. Mussolini is in charge of a newspaper and gets killed by some girls who wandered into his office with a gun. How did they kill him? They shot him in the dick. The fact that our main villain here gets Hitler and Mussolini out of the way without realizing it makes it a true cosmic comedy.
Then there's the Prophet who runs a harem but is completely devoid of life. It's sort of funny. Maybe too much sex could be bad for you? Houdini's magic trick at the end was definitely quite comical as well. For his last trick, he ends up sticking needles into his face and then eating them after he pulls them out. Sounds horrifying but at the same time realistically I'd probably be laughing my ass off if I saw someone do that. This is, after all, a satire not unlike something the gentlemen of the old days would write. Think Voltaire and Dante, but 80's cyberpunk version.
At the back of the book, there's a great appendix and interview with Sterling. Why did he write this book? Because he felt that he had to tell the young people in Europe about what really happened back then because they don't know much about those times. In particular he wanted to remind people about how fascism got imported from Europe [Italy and Germany] to Britain and America where its still alive and well today. When he said that I thought to myself, "yeah, I get it." It's a joke, a complete joke but you have to understand history and its long-lasting impact on society to get it. It was a great Aha! moment.
At the same time, I would also say that Sterling is at the end of his ropes regarding science fiction. He mentioned in the interview that he had a different writing persona, a European one, with a European name [Bruno of all names], even writing in a different voice. When I read that part I thought to myself, "oh god, don't do it." So yes that was very cringing for one of my favorite writers who helped duo-create the cyberpunk genre with William Gibson but hey what can you do? There was once a time where Gibson and Sterling were the best science fiction writers [the 80's] but now I see that the genre has moved away from them. They realized that and they have tried to become mainstream. Gibson has been writing graphic novels as of late [Arcangel] and now Sterling is writing stuff like Pirate Utopia. It's fun but it will never be the grand, serious, science fiction space operas that they wrote in the beginning of their careers. It's a shame because I believe if they went back to writing that sort of stuff the science fiction community would take notice. However, once you write something as great as The Difference Engine or Schismatrix Plus there's too much pressure on you keep putting out masterpieces for the rest of your life. I'll settle for Pirate Utopia because I'm a true fan and reader of Sterling but for other people, they might say,"this doesn't cut it." For one thing, the plot isn't revaled until the very end and it ends on a cliffhanger. A lot of people would hate that. But I'm such a Sterling initiate I say let him get away with it. Not a super important novel but relevant in today's political and historical climate. The most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. Because it's short and easy reading I would recommend it. A taste of pop culture from the cyberpunk legend himself.
On a side note, it should also be mentioned that there's terrific artwork in this book in between chapters. The cover was initially what spurred me on to pick it up and when I saw it was Sterling I checked it out from the library right then and there. The cover is great because it uses communist visual imagery to promote this Futurist ideology. The conceit is that they used communist propaganda visuals even though the characters in this book hate communists with a passion. It got me thinking more about futurist art and art movements in general like cubism. [I know nothing about art but I wish to learn more now]
Check out my other Bruce Sterling novel reviews
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/12/holy-fire.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/zeitgeist.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/schismatrix-plus.
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-difference-engine.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/search?q=artificial+kid
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