Hmm, the more I talk about it, the more I convince myself it is science fiction. Based on this framework, the book describes a how the world might have been different, including an Industrial Radical Party in control of Britain. It does involve a small degree of science fiction in that it assumes the British inventor Charles Babbage successfully completed his Difference Engine, an early computing device, and even his Analytical Engine, which is an actual computer (though nothing like the computers we use today in terms of speed or computational power) and that instead of falling out of favor in the social and political scene, he helped usher in a new era. It is a very interesting and well written work, although the 19th century British lingo is hard to wade through at times for an American girl like me. The Difference Engine, by William Gibson of Neuromancer and Virtual Light fame, and Bruce Sterling of Schismatrix reknown, is an historical retelling. If you pick up a previously unknown (to you) book by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, you would expect it to be science fiction, right? Maybe of the cyber punk variety, but science fiction none the less.
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