«Bruce Sterling's "Black Swan" opens in an Italian cafe with a journalist meeting his source, an edgy individual who has on several occasions passed the journalist new designs in computer-tech which seem to have come from nowhere. From there the story takes off in entirely unexpected directions, covering Nicola Sarkozy and parallel universes. What gives the story added poignancy is the sense that as our own possible futures close off one by one with the effects of climate change, depletion of fossil fuels and the lack of viable successors, Sterling opens a dizzying vista of alternate possibilities.»
From the Suite 101 review:
«Bruce Sterling's "Black Swan" opens in an Italian cafe with a journalist meeting his source, an edgy individual who has on several occasions passed the journalist new designs in computer-tech which seem to have come from nowhere. From there the story takes off in entirely unexpected directions, covering Nicola Sarkozy and parallel universes. What gives the story added poignancy is the sense that as our own possible futures close off one by one with the effects of climate change, depletion of fossil fuels and the lack of viable successors, Sterling opens a dizzying vista of alternate possibilities.»