Shaper/Mechanist Universe - Shaper/Mechanist Bibliography

Shaper/Mechanist Bibliography

The works, listed by original publication date, title, "future timeframe", and a brief summary:

• 1982, Swarm (set in 2248 AD) -- Shaper Captain Simon Afriel joins a fellow researcher in an interstellar embassy: an asteroid belt inhabited by colonies of insect-like aliens. Afriel also briefly appears in "Twenty Evocations" and Schismatrix. This was also Sterling's first "officially" published short story.

• 1982, Spider Rose (2283) -- An ancient Mechanist from the fringes of the solar system buys something new from the Investors: a pet. Spider Rose herself appears very briefly during happier times in Schismatrix.

• 1982, Cicada Queen (2354) -- A Shaper named Landau comes of age politically inside Czarina-Kluster, a habitat independent of faction where backroom deals and social cliques dominate, and whose stability is becoming increasingly fragile. Wellspring, a visionary rogue Mechanist and leading proponent of the post-humanist philosophy, is Landau's mentor. Schismatrix later expands on the background of both Wellspring and C-K, which he helped found.

• 1984, Sunken Gardens (2554) -- Individuals from various factions compete in a test of terraforming skills in a crater on the Martian surface. This story expands on the influence and power of Terraform Kluster and its leader, the enigmatic Lobster King (who first appears in "Cicada Queen").

• 1984, Twenty Evocations (originally published as "Life in the Shaper/Mechanist Era: Twenty Evocations"; approx. 2220-2400) -- An experimental story; fragments from the life of a Shaper named Nikolai Leng.

• 1985, Schismatrix (2215–2386) (Novel) -- Chronicles the life of a renegade, Shaper-trained diplomat named Abelard Lindsay, as he struggles politically with his former ally Philip Constantine, and with the slow evolution of philosophies and ideologies that occurs in his long lifetime. This work also follows the development of Sterling's future history, making the setting itself nearly a character in the work.

The first five Shaper/Mechanist short stories are collected in the 1989 short story collection Crystal Express, and republished with Schismatrix as Schismatrix Plus (1995) with a new introduction "The Circumsolar Frolics".