130,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide delivery 🚀 Auckland Bookstore • Open 7 days, 8:30am–5pm

Distraction

By Bruce Sterling
Series: S.F. MASTERWORKS
0.0 (0 reviews)
Brief Description
This is a very smart, very funny book - Locus Enthralling and subversive - SF Commentary An excellent piece of future-gazing - Amazon Reviewer A Dutch Cold War is in full swing. The US is a shadow of its former self - its infrastructure is failing,... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2000

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This is a very smart, very funny book - Locus

Enthralling and subversive - SF Commentary

An excellent piece of future-gazing - Amazon Reviewer

A Dutch Cold War is in full swing. The US is a shadow of its former self - its infrastructure is failing, and nomadic tribes roam freely among the states, living by no rules but their own.

Oscar Valpariso - always impeccably dressed - is only half human, but he's a master political strategist to potentially the next president. If he can straighten out his love life, gain control of a high-tech scientific facility, and solve a worldwide crisis that only he's noticed, America should be ripe for the taking...

Series: S.F. MASTERWORKS

View all
  • Flowers For Algernon
    Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a profoundly moving and thought-provoking novel that tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a kind-hearted and intellectually disabled man working as a floor sweeper in a bakery. Often the target of cruel jokes by his co-workers, Charlie dreams of being smart and accepted like others. His life takes a dramatic turn when he...
    By Daniel Keyes
    Paperback
    $2499
    Backorder
    Ships late October
  • The Dispossessed
    The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough that will revolutionise interstellar civilisation by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. However, Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But...
    By Ursula K. Le Guin
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    Backorder
    Ships mid November
  • Neuromancer
    The book that defined the cyberpunk movement, inspiring everything from The Matrix to Cyberpunk 2077. The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel. William Gibson revolutionised science fiction in his 1984 debut Neuromancer. The writer who gave us the matrix and coined the term 'cyberspace' produced a first novel that won the Hugo,...
    By William Gibson
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
    Welcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction Arthur Dent thought his day was going badly when someone tried to demolish his house. Then someone demolished his planet. Rescued by his friend Ford—who is not a human from Guilford, but an alien from somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse—Arthur is flung into an...
    By Douglas Adams
    Hardback
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    23% off
    The Left Hand of Darkness
    'A rich and complex story of friendship and love' GUARDIAN 'Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.' Two people, until recently strangers, find themselves on a long, tortuous and dangerous journey across the ice. One is an outcast, forced to leave his beloved homeland; the other...
    By Ursula K. Le Guin
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
    World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his...
    By Philip K Dick
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Book Of The New Sun: Volume 1
    An extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, in the time of a dying sun, when our present culture is no longer even a memory. Severian, a torturer's apprentice, is exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his prisoners. Ordered to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est,...
    By Gene Wolfe
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Dispossessed
    One of the very best must-read novels of all time - with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle 'A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again' THE TIMES 'The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day...
    By Ursula K. Le Guin
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Backorder
    Ships late October
  • On Sale
    19% off
    Hiero's Journey
    The world ended. People survived. Per Hiero Desteen was a priest, a telepath—and a highly trained killer. Five thousand years after the apocalyptic event known only as The Death, Hiero is tasked with finding the secrets of the old world, which could protect his civilisation from massing enemies. The planet is not the same as it used to be. Mutations...
    By Sterling E. Lanier
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Left Hand of Darkness
    'A rich and complex story of friendship and love' GUARDIAN 'Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.' Two people, until recently strangers, find themselves on a long, tortuous and dangerous journey across the ice. One is an outcast, forced to leave his beloved homeland; the other...
    By Ursula K. Le Guin
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Roadside Picnic
    The Strugatsky brothers' poignant and introspective novel of first contact that inspired the classic film Stalker. Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those strange misfits who are compelled by some unknown force to venture illegally into the Zone and, in spite of the extreme danger, collect the mysterious artefacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is...
    By Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Fire Upon the Deep
    In A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, the far future cosmos is divided into 'zones of thought', an enigmatic partitioning of space where the intelligence and capabilities of minds are directly contingent upon their spatial location. From the sublime super-intelligent entities residing in the Transcend, to the rudimentary intellects tethered in the Unthinking Depths, this universe offers a...
    By Vernor Vinge
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    Backorder
    Ships late October

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781399640381

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 May 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Gateway

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 40.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 355g

Pages: 512

Collections

Bruce Sterling Dystopian Fiction Fiction General Fiction Sci-Fi & Fantasy Science Fiction Series: S.F. Masterworks Series: S.F. MASTERWORKS

About the Author

Bruce Sterling burst onto the SF scene with the birth of Cyberpunk and co-authored THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE with his colleague William Gibson. His biggest UK success was with THE HACKER CRACKDOWN. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Also by Bruce Sterling

View all
  • Robot Artists & Black Swans
    The Godfather of Cyberpunk has emerged in this new collection of Italian-themed fantasy and science fiction stories. Bruce Sterling now introduces us to his alter-ego: Bruno Argento, the preeminent author of fantascienza. Sterling, writing as Argento, skillfully combines cutting-edge technology with art, mythology, and history. In the Esoteric City, a Turinese businessman's act of necromancy is catching up with him....
    By Bruce Sterling
    Hardback
    $4499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Late Harvest
    Late Harvest
    Late Harvest juxtaposes contemporary art made with taxidermy with historically significant wildlife paintings, resulting in intriguing parallels and startling aesthetic contrasts. The publication seeks to simultaneously confirm—through historically significant wildlife paintings—and subvert—through contemporary art and photography—viewers' preconceptions of the place of animals in culture. The richly illustrated catalogue features artists such as Richard Ansdell, David Brooks, George Browne, Berlinde De...
    By William L. Fox and Claude D'Anthenaise and Adam Duncan Harris and Joanne Northrup and Snaebjornsdottir Wilson and Bruce Sterling and David B Walker
    Hardback
    $6099
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Difference Engine
    The computer age has arrived a century ahead of time with Charles Babbage's perfection of his Analytical Engine. The Industrial Revolution, supercharged by the development of steam-driven cybernetic Engines, is in full and drastic swing. Great Britain, with her calculating-cannons, steam dreadnoughts, machine-guns and information technology, prepares to better the world's lot... The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William...
    By Bruce Sterling and William Gibson
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Sci-Fi & Fantasy

View all
  • New Release
    Other Worlds Than These
    I wanted to go back to Mid-World, which was always the Territories by another name - Stephen King This is Stephen King and Peter Straub's epic and unforgettable finale to the Talisman Trilogy (including the novels The Talisman and Black House) and a wrapping up of the fate of the worlds in King's iconic, fiercely beloved Dark Tower epic. It...
    By Stephen King and Peter Straub
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Sixth Nik
    New Release
    The Sixth Nik
    Daniel Kraus, 2026 Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Angel Down and soon-to-be-a-film Whalefall, returns with The Sixth Nik, a galaxy spanning, genre-blending scifi literary horror, for fans of Ursula K Le Guin and the Alien franchise. Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable...
    By Daniel Kraus
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Massif
    On Sale
    18% off
    New Release
    Massif
    Caught me a mountain Rode it to the stars It's business as usual for Ship Leader Parnell Shi-Sawahla and the crew of the corvette Sassafras. Ride a Massif to a new system, fight the enemy, repeat. For more than two hundred years, humans have been hitching rides on these sentient, starfaring mountain ranges, colonising planets and exporting an on-again, off-again...
    By Garth Nix
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • He Who Fights With Monsters: Adventurer
    On Sale
    16% off
    New Release
    He Who Fights With Monsters: Adventurer
    He Who Fights With Monsters: Adventurer Book Two in Shirtaloon's wildly popular LitRPG series. The path from retail middle management to interdimensional wizard adventurer wasn't easy, but Jason Asano is settling into his new life. Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone, competing for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he...
    By Shirtaloon and Travis Deverell
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    19% off
    New Release
    Scion
    ‘Scion’ is an electrifying sci-fi thriller that follows a contract killer tasked with protecting a scientist from assassination, only to find himself in the crosshairs. My name’s Azure. I kill rich idiots for a living. All completely legal, of course, even if it does still make the old-fashioned crowd a bit uncomfortable. Once the ultra-wealthy realised they had a way...
    By James Islington
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    By Andy Weir
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Strength of the Few
    The highly anticipated follow-up to The Will of the Many—one of 2023's most lauded and bestselling fantasy novels. The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am. But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore. I am no longer one. I won the...
    By James Islington
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Crossroads of Ravens
    THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON RETURNS... Every legend has an origin - and Geralt of Rivia's begins here. In this brand-new chapter of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series, follow Geralt in his earliest days as a Witcher, as he faces monsters and humans alike. Discover the untold stories and encounters that shaped the iconic character known today. Crossroads of Ravens brings readers into...
    By Andrzej Sapkowski
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Backorder
    Ships early November
  • Wind and Truth
    The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the Number One New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive. Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson sees Dalinar Kholin challenge the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare, and the sudden ascension of the...
    By Brandon Sanderson
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    Backorder
    Ships late October
  • On Sale
    17% off
    The Ministry of Time
    One of the 18 best novels of the year for the Sunday Times A book of the year for the New York Times, Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard, Spectator, Red, NPR, Vanity Fair, People, Slate, Advocate, Sydney Morning Herald, Globe and Mail, Den of Geek, Good Housekeeping, Goodreads, NetGalley and Smithsonian Magazine 'A sparkling delight' Observer 'Make room on your bookshelves...
    By Kaliane Bradley
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Assassin’s Apprentice
    Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb marks the beginning of an extraordinary adventure in the rich and immersive world of the Six Duchies. Set against the backdrop of a kingdom teetering on the brink of civil war, this gripping tale introduces readers to FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard whose existence threatens the stability of the crown. When the crown prince's secret...
    By Robin Hobb
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all