The Difference Engine
Bruce Sterling, William Gibson
Readers rate it 3.3 (147 on Hardcover)
448 pages · Released 1992 · Spectra
Content report card
The Difference Engine parent’s guide: what’s inside
LGBTQ+ themes
What it offers
A note for parents
The Difference Engine is a dense, adult-oriented steampunk novel featuring complex political intrigue and Victorian-era crime. While not graphically violent, it contains murder, danger, and morally ambiguous characters navigating a thriller plot. The prose is sophisticated and often demanding, making it better suited to older teens comfortable with historical fiction and speculative narrative complexity rather than younger readers.
Analyzed by AI · 1 month ago
Read it with your kids?
Rate it and suggest an age to help other parents.
From the publisher
1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history - and the future: Sybil Gerard -... 1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history - and the future: Sybil Gerard - dishonored woman and daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward "Leviathan" Mallory - explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant - diplomat and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for... Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine is the first collaborative novel by two of the most brilliant and controversial science fiction authors of our time. Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson's and Sterling's unique visions - in a new and totally unexpected direction! > > -Goodreads
Shelved under
- American Science fiction
- Computers
- Fiction
- Steampunk
- Steampunk fiction
- Fiction, science fiction, steampunk
- Computer engineering
- New York Times reviewed
- Science fiction
- #digitally-own
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Adventure
Share this guide
ISBN 9780553294613 · Spectra