The Difference Engine

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: <br>  <br> <i>Sybil Gerard</i>—a fallen woman, politician’s tart, daughter of a Luddite agitator<br>  <br> <i>Edward “Leviathan” Mallory</i>—explorer and paleontologist<br>  <br> <i>Laurence Oliphant</i>—diplomat, mystic, and spy.<br>  <br> 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….<br>  <br> Part detective story, part historical thriller, <i>The Difference Engine</i> is the collaborative masterpiece by two of the most acclaimed science fiction authors writing today.  Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson’s and Sterling’s unique visions—and the beginning of movement we know today as “steampunk!”<br><br><br><i>From the Paperback edition.</i>