quick note, my original post should read "but it does NOT have a bunch of shadow hackers..." Just to clear up confusion for anyone who hasn't read it.

Onward. Thanks for the links, I haven't check them out yet, but they are bookmarked for later perusal. Sterling's ideas are definitely stronger then his writing. I have only read Holy Fire, Schismatrix and a collection of short stories. (and Difference Engine, but we can just all agree that book does exist, right?) I feel much the same way about PKD, but Sterling is usually far more coherent then PKD. Perhaps a bit less inspired at times too though.

I'm not sure Schismatrix would make a good movie. I think it could, but it would have to have a huge budget and be at least three or four hours long or a trilogy. I just think the massive scope and time line of it would be difficult to translate to film, and I think watching the change and evolution of human civ, culture and tech and how it effects attitudes, politics and lifestyle is the key to that book. The characters are decent, but they are not horribly identifiable or sympathetic, the vision of the future he describes is definitely what drives it. The fact that he does almost all of it through normal story events too and has very little exposition makes it wonderful. I hate lengthy exposition.