‘The Caryatids’ – Bruce Sterling (Del Rey)

The last time I read anything with Bruce Sterling’s name on the front cover was when I was going through a phase of reading William Gibson’s work (years ago now) and picked up ‘The Difference Engine’ for a read. I wasn’t all that impressed with the book to be honest (too much detail and not enough story for my liking) but came away knowing that I’d have to give Sterling another go at some point. Well, you know how it goes... Nine or ten years later on and it took a copy of Sterling’s new novel, ‘The Caryatids’, landing on the doormat to remind me of yet another author that I’d always meant to check out properly but never got round to.
As it turned out, I personally don’t feel like I’ve missed out during those ten years. I found that I had the same problems with ‘The Caryatids’ that I did with ‘The Difference Engine’...

Fifty years from now, the Earth is divided into three spheres of influence that are at each others throats over dwindling natural resources and what’s left of dead countries. China is the sole surviving nation state and has only achieved this through relentlessly pruning its own population. The other two factions are the Dispensation (based in Los Angeles and very much all about the money that they can make) and the Acquis (a ‘green-centric’ collective working to regain the land and achieving their own utopia through invasive neurological technology.
Into this dying world are born the Caryatids, the four surviving female clones of a mad Balkan war criminal. Together, these four women might just have it in them to save the world from any number of natural (and manmade disasters) but the only problem is that they cannot stand the sight of each other...

The world of the Caryatids is a world on the brink and Sterling makes this very clear to his readers. Not only are we presented with the aftermath of intense pollution damage (and how important it is that it’s all cleared) but we are also shown that the planet is still more than capable of surprising with things like earthquakes etc. Not only are we shown a picture of humanity being threatened by it’s own world but it’s also made clear that if our own planet doesn’t kill us off then our own sun just might do the job instead. The scenes where this becomes apparent are all the more hard hitting (once you realise what’s happening) due to the totally alien nature of the event. It’s outside anyone’s understanding as it’s happening...

Sterling’s world (fifty years down the line) is beautifully drawn as well, completely immersing the reader in the technology and cultures of the Dispensation, Acquis and Chinese State. Everything seems to fit so well together, even the disparities between factions ‘fit’ in that they really do come across as arising from a plausible conflict of ideologies. I’m also a big fan of some of the tech on display (‘low’ tech as well as ‘high’), in particular the Acquis ‘Boneware’ and ‘Attention Camps’ where people’s aptitudes are determined by what catches their eye the most.

In such an intricate world then, it’s a shame that it seems like not a lot actually happens...

We are introduced to each of the Caryatids over the course of the book and they are all moved towards a conclusion that makes sense given their characters. The problem is though that Sterling’s descriptive passages often become ‘info-dumps’ that shift the balance of the story away from the four clones and make the book more of a guided tour through a damaged earth rather than about the Caryatids themselves. This was a real shame, especially when you get glimpses of how the more feisty Caryatids (Biserka and Sonja) could be if the story allowed them to breathe a little...

Now, I could be totally wrong and this is what the book is meant to do. It just came across as imbalanced and this made ‘The Caryatids’ awkward to read. A book that’s only two hundred and ninety three pages long shouldn’t take as long to read as it did for me!
‘The Caryatids’ is an example of gorgeous worldbuilding but sometimes it felt like that was all it was. This wouldn’t have been so bad but I thought it was going to be a lot more...

Seven out of Ten