The Difference Engine

1990 alternative history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

This article is about the novel. For the machine designed by Charles Babbage, see Difference engine. For the album by Beaver, see The Difference Engine (album).

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The Difference Engine

Cover of first edition (hardcover)

Author| William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Language| English
Genre| Alternate history, steampunk
Publisher| Victor Gollancz Ltd

Publication date

| September 1990
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages| 383 pp (Paperback – 429 pages)
ISBN| 0-575-04762-3
OCLC| 21299781

The Difference Engine (1990) is an alternative history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.[1][better source needed] It has been described as an early work of the steampunk genre,[2][1][better source needed] and is regarded as having helped to establish that genre's conventions.[not verified in body]

It posits a Victorian-era Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after the mechanical computers of Charles Babbage make widespread impact, there and globally, resulting in historical individuals taking on markedly different roles (Lord Byron instead surviving the Greek War of Independence to lead Britain, the late Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli instead becoming a tabloid writer, etc.), and European and American continents of markedly different political dispositions (e.g., the United States being, rather, several competing nations). Behind the manifest progress, Kirkus writes, "20th-century crises brew", providing context for a "cops-and-robbers plot".[3]

The novel received nominations for several major science fiction awards in the years following its publication,[1] and has been the subject of continuing scholarly interest for its approach to history and particular historical characters, and for its relationship to the Disraeli novel, Sybil.

## Background

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The Difference Engine is a fictional work of alternative history (alt history),[1][better source needed] what Kirkus describes as a "Victorian alternate history".[3] It been assigned to the genre of steampunk,[4][2] and has been described as an early such work.[2] The novel "takes the reader to London in 1855 where an Industrial Revolution unlike any seen in a history book is in full swing".[4] Matt Mitrovich, writing for AmazingStories.com, describes it—rather than as a novel—as being a "collection of three short stories and several snippets at the end all connected by a box of punch... cards [Engine cards]...", narrated in those stories by a distinct trio of POV characters: first, Sybil Gerard, daughter of an earlier executed Luddite agitator, drawn into a conspiracy involving an alt history Sam Houston, here a "Texian"—a repurposed term meaning, in history, residents of former province of Tejas, New Spain, and its later derivative political entities[5]—Houston now exiled and in London; second, the esteemed "savant" paleontologist and alt history discoverer of Brontosaurus, Edward “Leviathan” Mallory, serially attacked to attempt retrieval of a parcel with which Mallory is entrusted; and third, a fictional representation of Laurence Oliphant, still a spy and diplomat, but introduced as Mallory's protector, who continues in the final story to pursue investigations into earlier events in the book.[2]

## Plot

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First Iteration. The Angel of Goliad.[6] In 1855, Sybil Gerard, going by the name of Sybil Jones, daughter of an executed Luddite leader, is a dolly-mop targeting respectable gentlemen, and is recruited by one, Mick Radley, a secretary to an alt historical Sam Houston, to assist Mick in support of Houston's cause in Britain. Mick has confronted Sybil regarding her hidden past, says she is no longer a dolly-mop, but rather is now Mick's "prentice adventuress", although Sybil remains with mixed feelings regarding him. Mick is a schemer with two ongoing plays, a set of punch cards that purport to encode a betting system, or "modus", and a second set of "kino[punch]-cards" encoding visuals for a presentation. Before one of Houston's speeches, Mick has Sybil send the betting system set on to Paris. Meanwhile, Houston is preparing to give one of a series of presentations in support of his hoped for return to Texas, presentations that in this era require support of a "kinotropist" and kino-cards, the latter encoding images for the presentations. (What the technician operates is termed a kinotrope, which Kirkus describes as "a new art form, motion pictures by way of programmed arrays of changing, clacking tiles", this driven by a steam-driven "Engine", a mechanical computer.[3])

Mick has surreptitiously laid hands on the kino-punch card set needed by Houston's kinotropist, and so Mick has been of value to Houston. To disenfranchise Mick, Houston steals that card set, and Mick enlists Sybil to steal them back again. Sybil distracts the hotel concierge by composing in his presence a telegram to Charles Egremont, an MP and a former lover, boldly confronting him for his past abusive behavior around the time of her father's death; Mick uses the diversion to obtain the key to Houston's hotel room. Sybil, acting alone, gains access to the room and finds a Texian assassin lying in wait to kill Houston. He interrogates Sybil, and disarms, knifes, and murders Mick when he arrives. When Sam Houston arrives, the Texian thrice discharges Mick's small pepper-box pistol into him, direly wounding him, ruining a punch card set Houston has tucked in his waistband, and breaking Houston's heavy, raven-headed cane. The assassin escapes after breaking a window, Sybil assigning him the monikor of "Angel of Goliad"; Houston appears to be dying, but readers are left unclear as to his fate. Sybil finds a missing fortune, taken from Texas by Houston, a spill of large diamonds from the hollow cane, which she retrieves (along with Paris tickets from Mick's dead person). Mick Radley dead, Sybil departs alone for Paris, and some indication is given that Houston may too have survived.

Second Iteration. Darby Day. Edward Mallory, a palaeontologist and explorer, while visiting his friends participating in a gurney race derby, encounters Lady Ada Byron being mistreated by a man and a woman. After Mallory fights the man and woman over their treatment of Lady Byron, she gives Mallory a case containing punch cards and returns to her family. Mallory hides the case in the skull of the exhibit of the dinosaur he discovered, the Brontosaurus. The man, fashioning himself 'Captain Swing', threatens to 'destroy' Mallory unless he returns the punch cards. As part of his attempts, Swing spreads rumours that Mallory was responsible for the death of Mallory's rival, Rudwick.

Third Iteration. Dark Lanterns. Laurence Oliphant meets Mallory to offer him police protection. Oliphant argues Rudwick died as a result of a conspiracy and Mallory could be the next target, given that both received sponsorship for their research work in return for supplying arms to Native American tribes thereby checking the expansionist ambitions of the United States. Mallory agrees to Oliphant's offer after he is tailed and attacked. With the help of Andrew Wakefield, Oliphant's contact at the Central Bureau of Statistics, Mallory identifies Florence Bartlett, the woman he saw with Lady Byron at the derby. It is suggested that Bartlett brought the case of punch cards that Sybil Gerard had sent to France back to England. Mallory sends Lady Byron a letter which reveals where the case of punch cards is hidden. "The Stink", a major episode of pollution in which London swelters under an inversion layer (comparable to the London Smog of December 1952), causes much of London's elite to leave the city. Mallory is accompanied by Ebenezer Fraser, a secret police officer, as he goes about his business in the city, but Fraser is wounded after confronting a gang of youthful looters, as civil order begins to break down.

Fourth Iteration. Seven Curses. Mallory leaves Fraser at the police station and meets Hetty, another courtesan who knew Sybil. Mallory spends the night with Hetty in Whitechapel, and leaves the next morning to notice that the persisting Stink has led to further collapse of order in the city. Making his way back to the Palace of Palaeontology, he notices advertisements, commissioned by Swing, that claim Mallory murdered Rudwick and decry the excesses of the rule of savants. After meeting his brothers at the Palace and hearing that their sister's engagement was broken thanks to rumours spread about her infidelity by Swing, Mallory gathers them and Fraser, who has recovered, to attack Swing. They infiltrate Swing's location, noting that communists from Manhattan are supporting him. After recognising Florence Bartlett as a lecturer among them, Mallory and his group fight them off until rain ends the Stink and a river ironclad fires at Swing's location. Fraser apprehends Swing.

Fifth Iteration. The All Seeing Eye. A year later, Oliphant pursues his investigations into the disorder accompanying The Stink, while having persistent visions of an all-seeing eye. He identifies the assassin responsible for murdering Mick Radley and Rudwick. After the Prime Minister, Lord Byron, dies during the Stink and is replaced by Brunel, Charles Egremont has begun removing old associates in an effort to hide his past as the one that betrayed Sybil Gerard's father to his death. Florence Bartlett is informed by Lady Byron of the location of the long-sought case of Ada Byron's cards—the paleontologist Edward Mallory had hidden them, encased in plaster, within the reconstructed skull of Brontosaurus. Bartlett attempts, with a crew, to steal the cards, but is thwarted, and dies in a firefight with soldiers and policemen as she attempts to escape. Oliphant, secretly having secured the cards, further uses the organs of Engine-driven state security (Wakefield's offices) to lay hands on the telegram that Sybil sent Egremont, thus learning of Egremont's past heinous crimes, and defining for Oliphant a means by which he might bring him down. Oliphant confronts Wakefield, who is clearly fearful, and their discussion reveals that as a part of their efforts on behalf of state security, the two of them have had individual identities of those deemed enemies fully erased from records, and thus from a history of existence. Oliphant heads for Paris to meet with French intelligence, and to meet Sybil, intending to get testimony with which to blackmail Egremont. Oliphant's meeting with his French counterpart reveals that the case of punch cards, when sent to Paris, appears to have been run through France's equivalent Engine by a 'clacker', causing it to malfunction. After meeting and persuading Sybil that his cause is dedicated to their mutual safety, Oliphant returns to London, but falls ill; his Japanese protege[who?] next appears, to the good humor of the recipient, and presents Egremont with a communique, presumably the testimony of Sybil, via Oliphant. Ada, Lady Byron delivers a lecture in France, the narrator there describing her as "The Mother".[verification needed] She is chaperoned by Fraser; Sybil, who attends Ada's lecture, seeks her out afterward, addresses her with undue familiarity, and after giving offense, expresses sympathy for her challenges, and gives her a gift of a ring, bearing a large, uncut diamond. Frasier and Ada return to their apartments, take stock of their finances, contemplate their next speaking tour, and in a moment of vulnerability, Lady Byron asks if the familiar insults of Sybil actually characterise who she is; Frasier responds, no, Ada, you are "La Reine des Ordinateurs”" (The Queen of Computers, or "of Machines").[7] Using a reflection in a mirror as the point of segue, the narrative shifts to 1991, where a vast Engine is now described as simulating the lives of all of humankind in London.

## Characters

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This section needs expansion with: a formal, full presentation of the novel's characters as presented by published secondary sources. You can help by adding to it. (May 2025)

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* Sybil Jones / Sybil Gerard,[citation needed] POV narrator in the First Iteration, daughter of an executed Luddite leader and so with a hidden past, recruited by one to assist Sam Houston's cause,[2] her aim of becoming a "prentice adventuress" shortshrifted, but ending with her en route to Paris with Sam Houston's Texian riches.[citation needed]
* Mick Radley, an ill-fated schemer,[citation needed] Sybil's recruiter, secretary to Sam Houston in the First Iteration, assisting Houston in his cause to return to Texas to raise an army, seeking to capitalize on his possession of two sought-after punch card sets,[2] one of kino-cards, the other purportedly for a gamblers "modus".[citation needed]
* Sam Houston, an alt historical, fictional representation of the historic character, still a warrior, in the FIrst Iteration, a "Texian" now exiled and in London,[2] and perceived to have absconded with Texian riches;[citation needed]
* Edward “Leviathan” Mallory, POV narrator introduced in the Second Iteration, esteemed "savant" paleontologist and alt history discoverer of Brontosaurus, pursued and attacked in Iteration Three to attempt retrieval of the parcel with which Mallory is entrusted; in Iteration Four, he takes the battle to Swing in his headquarters.[2]
* Laurence Oliphant, an alt historical, fictional representation of the historic character, still a spy and diplomat, introduced as Mallory's protector in the Third Iteration, and continues as the POV narrator in the Fifth to pursue investigations into earlier events in the book.[2]

The characters of Sybil Gerard, her father, Walter Gerard, Charles Egremont, and Mick Radley are borrowed from Benjamin Disraeli's novel Sybil.[according to whom?][citation needed][8][full citation needed] Sterling has reported that the novel's Michael Godwin character was named after attorney Mike Godwin, as thanks for his assistance in linking Sterling and Gibson's computers, allowing their collaboration between Austin and Vancouver.[9][page needed]

## Reception

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This section needs expansion with: a more thorough presentation of the both review and critical-scholarly receptions of this novel, based especially on syntheses (secondary and tertiary sources). You can help by adding to it. (May 2025)

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### Awards and recognition

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The novel was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 1990,[10] the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991,[11] and both the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Prix Aurora Award in 1992.[12]

### In review

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This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources.
Find sources: "The Difference Engine" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2025)

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In a non-contemporaneous review, Matt Mitrovich, writing for AmazingStories.com, describes The Difference Engine as "a rich and imaginative glimpse at a world dealing with the opportunities and pitfalls that come with advanced technology", describing it as written in "superb prose [that] helps paint a gritty, but believable setting", and applauding the novel's presentation of realistic, flawed characters, and the authors' "amazing depth of knowledge about the culture and technological capabilities of the era".[2]

### In scholarship

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The novel has attracted the attention of scholars. Jay Clayton explores the book's attitude toward hacking, and its treatment of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.[13] Herbert Sussman argues that in the The Difference Engine, Gibson and Sterling rewrite Benjamin Disraeli's novel Sybil.[14] Brian McHale relates this work to postmodern interest in finding a "new way of 'doing' history in fiction."[15]

### In popular culture

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The 1993 video game The Chaos Engine (released as Soldiers of Fortune in the USA) was based on The Difference Engine.[16]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d WWend Staff (8 May 2025). "Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Books: The Difference Engine" (book database entry). WorldsWithoutEnd.com (WWEnd). Tres Barbas, LLC. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mitrovich, Matt (30 April 2013). "Review: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling". AmazingStories.com. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
3. ^ a b c Kirkus Staff (March 1990). "The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling ‧ Release Date: March 4, 1990" (book review). Kirkus Reviews (KirkusReviews.com). Retrieved 8 May 2025.
4. ^ a b Point, Michael (28 April 1991). "Cyberpunk Heroes". Austin American-Statesman. p. 53\. Archived from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024 - via Newspapers.com.[better source needed]
5. ^ Tarin, Randall (2007). "The Texian Web: Texas History on the Internet". Texas A&M University (tamu.edu). Archived from the original on 5 December 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2025. "male and female citizens or the culture of the former province of Tejas, New Spain, the Texas section of the state of Coahuila y Tejas, Republic of Mexico, and the subsequent Republic of Texas" For a currently maintained website of the same apparent information, see this link.
6. ^ This is an allusion to a woman who worked to heroically save individuals who otherwise would have died during the executions of historic Texans at Goliad in March, 1836, an event known as the Goliad Massacre. See Coalson, George O. (1 August 2017) [1952]. "Francita Alavez: The Angel of Goliad and Her Heroic Acts". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
7. ^ Oramus, Dominika (1 October 2020). "Strangers in Togetherville–Women, Physics and Popular Culture" (PDF). Prague Journal of English Studies. 9 (1). Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Brill: 133–153, esp. 147. doi:10.2478/pjes-2020-0007. ISSN 2336-2685. Retrieved 8 May 2025 - via Sciendo Team, Paradigm Publishing Services. The full journal article was, as of this retrieval date, also available at this link. Note, there is an internal discrepancy in this citation, in that it also associates volume 9, issue 1 of the journal with the date July 2020.
8. ^ Disraeli, Benjamin. Sybil.[full citation needed]
9. ^ Sterling, Bruce (1992). The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. New York, NY: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-08058-X. Retrieved 3 May 2025 - via gutenberg.org.[page needed]
10. ^ "1990 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
11. ^ "1991 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
12. ^ "1992 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
13. ^ Clayton, Jay, Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture, Oxford University Press (2003), pp. 105-18
14. ^ Sussman, Herbert (1994). "Cyberpunk Meets Charles Babbage". Victorian Studies. 38: 1–23.
15. ^ McHale, Brian (1992). "Difference Engine". ANQ. 5 (4): 220–23\. doi:10.1080/0895769x.1992.10542775.
16. ^ Locke, Phil (December 2013). "Creating Chaos". Retro Gamer. No. 122\. Imagine Publishing. p. 72.

## Further reading

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* Kirkus Staff (March 1990). "The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling ‧ Release Date: March 4, 1990" (book review). Kirkus Reviews (KirkusReviews.com). Retrieved 8 May 2025.
* Kraus, Elisabeth (1997). "Gibson and Sterling's Alternative History: The Difference Engine as Radical Rewriting of Disraeli's Sybil". Node9 [E-Journal of Writing and Technology]. 1. Archived from the original on 16 December 2001. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
* Gunn, Eileen (2003) [1990]. "The Difference Dictionary". EileenGunn.com. Retrieved 8 May 2025. "[While currently available from this self-published site,] The Difference Dictionary was first published in slightly different form in Science Fiction Eye, and is included in the Japanese translation of The Difference Engine."
* Jagoda, Patrick (2007). "Clacking Control Societies: Steampunk, History, and the Difference Engine of Escape". In Bowser, Rachel A. & Croxall, Brian (ed.). Neo-Victorian Studies. Special Issue: Steampunk, Science, and (Neo)Victorian Technologies. Vol. 3 (1). Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University Open Journal Systems/Public Knowledge Project. pp. 46–71\. ISSN 1757-9481. Retrieved 6 May 2025.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) Patrick Jagoda was affiliated with The University of Chicago at the time of the publication of this work. See this link for the homepage of the special edition of the journal from which this article was drawn.
* Singles, Kathleen (2013). Bode, Christoph (ed.). Alternate History: Playing with Contingency and Necessity. Narrating Futures. Vol. 5\. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 50, 62, 116, 140. ISBN 9783110272475. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
* Tillman, Peter D. (3 September 2019) [10 July 1999]. "The Difference Engine, William Gibson & Bruce Sterling, Bantam Spectra Books, 429 pages". SFSite.com. Archived from the original (book review) on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2025. For the date of the original review and an additional path to this source, see this link.
* Oramus, Dominika (1 October 2020). "Strangers in Togetherville–Women, Physics and Popular Culture" (PDF). Prague Journal of English Studies. 9 (1). Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Brill: 133–153, esp. 147. doi:10.2478/pjes-2020-0007. ISSN 2336-2685. Retrieved 8 May 2025 - via Sciendo Team, Paradigm Publishing Services. The full journal article was, as of this retrieval date, also available at this link. Note, there is an internal discrepancy in this citation, in that it also associates volume 9, issue 1 of the journal with the date July 2020.
* Nolte, David D. (26 June 2023). "Ada Lovelace at the Dawn of Cyber Steampunk" (blog, book-accompanying). Galileo Unbound. Retrieved 9 May 2025 - via Wordpress.
* WWend Staff (8 May 2025). "Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Books: The Difference Engine" (book database entry). WorldsWithoutEnd.com (WWEnd). Tres Barbas, LLC. Retrieved 8 May 2025.

## External links

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* Editions of The Difference Engine at WorldCat.org

* v
* t
* e

William Gibson

* List of works
* List of awards and nominations

Novels|

| Sprawl trilogy|

* Neuromancer (1984)
* Count Zero (1986)
* Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)

|

Bridge trilogy|

* Virtual Light (1993)
* Idoru (1996)
* All Tomorrow's Parties (1999)

Blue Ant trilogy|

* Pattern Recognition (2003)
* Spook Country (2007)
* Zero History (2010)

Jackpot series|

* The Peripheral (2014)
* Agency (2020)

Other|

* The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) (1990)
* Archangel (2016)

Short stories|

* "Fragments of a Hologram Rose"
* "Johnny Mnemonic"
* "The Gernsback Continuum"
* "Hinterlands"
* "New Rose Hotel"
* "The Belonging Kind"
* "Burning Chrome"
* "Red Star, Winter Orbit"
* "The Winter Market"
* "Dogfight"
* "Skinner's Room"
* Burning Chrome collection

Nonfiction|

* Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)
* "Disneyland with the Death Penalty"
* No Maps for These Territories
* Distrust That Particular Flavor

Television|

* "Kill Switch"
* "First Person Shooter"

Characters|

* Molly Millions
* Bobby Newmark
* Rei Toei
* Cayce Pollard
* Hubertus Bigend

Story elements|

* Cyberspace
* Megacorporation
* Locative art
* Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics
* Raygun Gothic

Derivative works|

* Neuromancer video game
* Johnny Mnemonic film
* New Rose Hotel film
* Node Magazine
* William Gibson: A Literary Companion
* The Peripheral TV series

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