The Zenith Angle

by Bruce Sterling

Pioneering computer wizard Derek "Van" Vandeveer has been living extra-large as a VP for a booming Internet company. But the September 11 attacks on America change everything. Recruited as the key member of an elite federal computer-security team, Van enters the labyrinthine trenches of the Washington intelligence community. His special genius is needed to debug the software glitch in America's most crucial KH-13 satellite, capable of detecting terrorist hotbeds worldwide. But the problem is much deeper. Now Van must make the unlikely leap from scientist to spy, team up with a ruthlessly resourceful ex-Special Forces commando, and root out an unknown enemy --- one with access to a weapon of untold destructive power.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Thriller, Mystery, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy

341 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Bruce Sterling is an author, journalist, critic and a contributing editor of Wired magazine. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns and introductions to books by authors ranging from Ernst Jünger to Jules Verne. His non-fiction works include The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992), Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years (2003) and Shaping Things (2005).

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I keep wanting to really like Bruce Sterling, but then just - not. The Zenith Angle, is, reportedly, a techno-thriller about computer/Internet security. Sadly, unless you are the Special Adviser for Cyberspace Security to the Bush Administration (who wrote a glowing blurb for this book), Internet Security is just not that thrilling.
In this novel, the main character, Van, leaves his corporate job as a computer geek to go work for the government. He finds himself underpaid and broke, trying to convince people that Internet Security really is important, Meanwhile, his wife is doing well, working as an astronomer on land owned by a chacter whom Ted Turner would not be pleased by. This gets tied in to a malfunctioning spy satellite that Van is asked to fix. Of course, Foreigners are Out To Get Us. Which would be OK, if it was interesting or exciting. Maybe it could have been, in the hands of William Gibson or Neal Stephenson. Here, it's not.

[Lightreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

A post 9/11 cyberterrorism something something satellites something national security something something techno thriller.

Full of enormous privileged white guy egos and annoying privileged white guy angst, with a gentle sprinkling of unconscious sexism. I hit a critical mass of bored irritation halfway through, skipped to the end, and rolled my eyes so hard I think I sprained something.

Saved from 1 star by the occasionally crisp dialogue, and a thin gloss of geeky-charm-humor. A very thin gloss.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bruce Sterling has written some fantastic SF books, however, this is one to avoid. Characterisations are very weak, the plot line is farcical, and gets worse as the book develops - no wait, it does'nt develop, it unravels completely into farce.
It really feels like Bruce lost interest after writing the first chapter and handed it over to a 10 year old boy to finish.
Do yourself a favour, and read a different book.
Sorry Bruce, but a very poor effort.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at page 90. I have just had enough.

Sterling seems to be a very hit or miss author for me. The only William Gibson book I ever read and could not finish was in collaboration with Sterling. On the other hand, I really liked another of his books.

The Zenith Angle is zany with a capital Z. Disjointed and as far as I can tell both plotless and pointless. The writing, I guess you will either love it or hate it. I had no idea what he was on about most of the time. It was stream of consciousness style writing where the point of any given page was entirely obscure to me.

The prologue is 27 pages of some old guy talking to a young guy (who may or may not be his son) about technology and the company they own (or something).

Then we skip to chapter one where the computer guy who the previous two were talking about is the main character. Then 9/11 happens. Then they hop in a car and drive across the country with no explanation except that computer-guy needs to consult with someone. The someone is his grandpa of whom he is asking advice about taking a job. Only grandpa does not seem to know if he is talking to his son or grandson. They are talking about....Skunk Works. Grease Machines. DoCoMo. I have never heard of any of this, I refuse to google it. There is no explanation for anything that is happening. I am so bored that listening to the wind is more fun than reading this.

Then we skip to another random, meaningless conversation somewhere else, laden once again with tons of descriptions that go nowhere.

Suddenly at page 90 I could not bear it anyone. This was meant to be Cyberpunk or Science - Fiction. Not stream of consciousness American poetry, or whatever.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crackerjack storytelling up to the end, where it goes off into la-la land.

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sterling tends to be hit or miss with me – this is one of the misses. It's his take on post-9/11 Homeland Security, and it’s got some interesting ideas, but overall it's just an okay story, which is more annoying than it should be because I actually had to buy this book twice. I lost it about two-thirds of the way through and was sufficiently intrigued to buy another copy to see how it ended, and in the end it was a bit of a letdown.

[Clynt Keelan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brusce Sterling is preoccupied in this book with the transformations Cybersociety went through as a result of the September 11 terror attacks and of the dotcom and telecoms busts. To be honest the characters and events weren't quite as interesting to me as was the ambient commentary on events in technological development from 2000 to around 2007.
The confrontation between the main character as a cybersecurity worker and a government-recruited ex-hacker is informative and well-imagined, and the frustration of the main character when he is trying to implement a fix for important military satellite tech but cannot get past the Space Force bureaucracy - this had real resonance and authenticity to it.
But I was a bit disturbed to find that Sterling seemed to be diagnosing the decline of companies like Enron as being caused by nothing more than stock market ignorance and panic, and he seems to lament the passing of people like Ken Lay as if they were genuine innovators swallowed up in adverse events. In fact, Lay was a crook and Enron was a scam, in my opinion.
But my economic differences of opinion from the author and my lack of emotional engagement with his characters did not prevent me from appreciating his sometimes lively writing, vivid humour and sharp developmental and institutional analysis.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the wake of 9-11 a computer science genius leaves a lucrative job to become part of an agency responsible for fixing computer security and finds himself plunged into the chaotic world of a government in the grip of the War On Terror, with security agencies churning and poitics red in tooth and claw. After setting up a secure grendel system, he tries to sort out a boondoggle super-satellite depsite being warned off by a friend and slams into a brick wall. But there's more going on there than meets the eye, even the super-secret eyes-only eyes.

This is a cyber-thriller as written by Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson, a contemporary one, but mostly it's a novel with a satirical tone about computers and security and intelligence agencies, and the naive young genius who gets chewed up by the system only to find himself an actual cyber-warrior on the frontlines of cyber war. It's great! I dont suppose reading it close to when 9-11 happened and it was all too real and invasions were happening was much fun, bit from a remove it works brilliantly as a look at a major global cultural and technological and political shift via the lens of Sterling's utterly merciless tech-critic sensibilities was much fun or comfort, but now it seems almost reassuring, even if only we can at least say, well that's all behind us, and though nobody in their right mind would look back with fondness and nostalgia at that time, from the perspective of of 2022, holy crap, the century kicked off with a bang, and hasn't stopped kicking since.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets shelved with thrillers, but I read it more as a farce. The whole premise of 'douchebag turbo nerd turns spy' is such a delightful bit of self-deprecating humor, darkly comedic. As a thriller, this book is a total pass. But as a send-up of bureaucracy, computer professionals, and the whole genre of the pulp thriller, it's worth some time.

[Curt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has a fairly standard thriller approach, but the vibe (with setting in 2002) seemed very applicable to our current situation in late 2025. Rich folks getting weird, companies crashing and burning, paranoia running high.

[L. Farmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't figure out why all of Bruce's books haven't been made into movies. This would be my first suggestion for someone like Kathryn Bigelow.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have enjoyed many of Sterling's books, but not this one. The story is unbelievable and an insult to anyone who works in the computer Indus.

[Dray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good read and interesting topics but...dated. The characters were never really engaging and the tech topics did not teach anything new.

[Guido]

Why you might like it: Design-fictional systems and sharp ideas. Rubric match: not yet scored. Uses your engineering/rigor/first-contact/world-building rubric. Tags: post-cyberpunk, society, ideas

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

In "The Zenith Angle", Sterling mixes cyberpunk, politics, irony and suspense to provide a satiric look at the high-tech security industry after 9/11. After witnessing the Twin Towers destruction on his TV at breakfast, Dr. Derek “Van” Vandeveer gives up his high-paying dot.com job to help the government plug the nation's most serious computer security leaks. Van soon learns that many of the worst problems are either too expensive to fix or politically sacrosanct. Rather than take time from research to deal with red tape, Van rents an apartment in a Washington, D.C. slum, spending most of his time in a West Virginia bunker with would-be cyber warriors, paying for the equipment he needs out of his own pocket. His astronomer wife Dottie and their toddler son are living in luxury in a former dot.com retreat on a Colorado mountaintop, where his best friend, a failed dot.com entrepreneur, is lying to everyone, including Van, in an attempt to wheel and deal his way back on top. When Van volunteers to solve the malfunctions of America's most sophisticated spy satellite, he tangles with the Air Force and cyber-security, and must ally himself with two ex-special forces men and a young hacker to defeat the traitor. Sterling’s main characters are real people, with all their complications and contradictions, although the supporting players often appear caricatures. Readers interested in the latest innovations in computer security, or the inner workings of government and private industry, should enjoy this novel of technological espionage.

[Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I normally absolutely adore Sterling, his 'Zeitgeist' holds a place of honor on my bookshelf; I found it to be witty, poignant, and full of strangely likable characters. In essence, it's everything this book isn't. 'The Zenith Angle' is really the nadir of Bruce's work. An attempt to spin a tale about the clashing realities of cyber-security and real security in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but instead, all this book does is clash. The story is a wandering, meandering mess that seems half-finished. Instead of a clear plot with an introduction, exposition, and resolved conclusion, the book reads more like a series of half-finished tirades, and those tirades don't even have a focused direction. Is the book for open-source, or against it? For computer security, or against it? Optimistic about the future, or pessimistic? Who knows? It's never made clear. The characters are almost all utterly unlikable, including the book's 'hero' Dr. Vandeveer. 'Van' as he's called, is a whiny, self-righteous, know-it-all nerd who's a jerk to his wife, not very good at his job, and incapable of having a normal social interaction with anyone. Speaking as a computer geek, very few -real- geeks are like this, especially the ones who get far in fields like computer security. We may lack a bit of social polish, but we're not cold-hearted jerks. None of the other characters are any better; the only character I felt any pangs of like for was a bit-character, a rich business mogul that appears in the prologue, and then gets mentioned a few times throughout the book, apparently having gone crazy, from some combination of old age, BSE, and being tricked by holograms (Yes, really.)
The technology in the books is awful too, it's a glossed-over mix of internet buzzwords, MovieOS fakery, and over-simplified pulp fiction; The sort of schlock I'd expect in a novel by Dan Brown or the other authors that make their coin writing New York Times Bestsellers, but I expect -much- better from Bruce Sterling.
This book is so badly written, so trite, so lacking in depth or emotion that it even made me not care about 9/11, not as it was happening in the book, anyway. Listening to 'Van' snivel and worry about it as it happened on his TV toward the beginning of the book, I mostly found myself wishing one of those planes would hit his house and save me from having to wade through a few hundred more pages of schlock.

If you want to read a poignant, witty, thought-provoking book set in the modern post-9/11 Information Technology world, pick up William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' and 'Spook Country'. If you want to read a half-baked rant that appears to have been assembled from rejected bits of other Sterling works, pick this book up. I still hold Mr. Sterling's work in the greatest esteem, and I'll happily read his next effort, I just hope it's far better than this was.

[Egor Mikhaylov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Когда-то, когда компьютеры были большими, и никто не мог подумать, что интернет будет использоваться в основном для просмотра гифок с котиками, Уильям Гибсон и Брюс Стерлинг на двоих придумали киберпанк и написали несколько великих книг. Их предсказания, сделанные в восьмидесятые, поразительно часто сбываются. Может, технические подробности и не точны, но социальные взаимодействия эпохи социальных сетей они предвидели поразительно точно.

Первые фантасты заглядывали в далёкое будущее, киберпанки — в близкое. А потом время ускорилось так, что реальность обогнала литературу. И вот книга «Зенитный угол» (Стерлинг написал её в 2004, а «Эксмо» неторопливо издало тремя годами позже) нацелена на первый год после теракта 11 сентября. Поначалу вообще роман кажется реалистичным триллером вроде Тома Клэнси, если бы он любил компьютеры больше пушек. Стерлинговскую руку выдаёт разве что жизнерадостная пестрота на грани китча. Сюжет скачет из США в Чечню, в какой-то момент появляются непременные индийцы из натурального Болливуда, а нёрд-профессор, не задумываясь пускает в ход кулаки.

А вот к финалу градус нарастает, и становится совсем хорошо. Финальная глава, в которой за попытками антагониста продать врагам маленькую «Звезду смерти» (почти не преувеличиваю) скрывается мощный заряд геополитической сатиры, даёт понять: Стерлинг одновременно написал отповедь и веку ушедшему, и веку настающему; он предсказывает будущее и тут же высмеивает его. Странным образом это работает: вещи, сказанные всерьёз, уже через десять лет выглядят наивно, а фиги в кармане выглядят меткими наблюдениями.

Рекомендовать, однако же, книгу сложно. Не только потому, что это далеко не «Схизматрица» и не «Машина различий», но и оттого, что по-русски читать её истинное мучение. Мелкие провалы вроде того, что переводчик коверкает поп-культурные отсылки и имена (ну не смотрел он «Звёздные Войны», а в гугле забанили), ещё можно простить. Ужас в другом: книга насыщена компьютерным жаргоном, и русские аналоги Д. Смушкович, очевидно, откопал в подшивке журнала «Хакер» за 1999. Впрочем, если вас не корёжит от того, что сорокалетние мужики в романе называют друг друга «кулхацкерами» — в путь, книга может доставить немало весёлых минут.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fast, dull read. I know the author has done a lot better in the past.

Here, it is data points in search of a plot. Any plot. The author attempts to impress with network concept term dropping, but it doesn't make that much sense.

Here, it starts as something about spy sats. Then network warfare. Then space war. The main character is brilliant, but is moody. A lot. He can't figure out how to work without alienating his family. I didn't care one wit for his whiny problems.

It could have been better if the author stayed with one topic, say network weaknesses, and built a plot around that.

[Levent Mollamustafaoglu · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Zenith Angle is a relatively new book by Bruce Sterling. I had first read Bruce Sterling as one of the two prominent writers of the cyberpunk movement (the other being William Gibson).

The book I read was Islands in the Net and I had liked it a lot. Unlike the pessimistic post-cybernetics world of William Gibson, Sterling's world was more lively and - I must say - more realistic. In this book he was dealing with the 21st century where data is the most valuable commodity and data piracy is something that is the main type of crime (I think we're almost there, in this first decade of the 21st century).

I had also liked Sterling's collaboration with Gibson, namely The Difference Engine, which describes an alternate world where the Computer Revolution has occurred a century ago, with steam computers. (Quite an interesting brain teaser, I must say).

The Zenith Angle continues that tradition, but it is marked by the events of September 11, 2002 and is describing the intricate relations between the various security organisations in the U.S. getting organized under the leadership of the Homeland Security. The technology is not far-fetched, but the book just doesn't - work.

It tells the story of a genius university researcher which is drawn into the new post-September-11 security organizations to ensure the security of the computer systems in all government security organisations, but ends up working to correct a space telescope, fails to convince the military officers in charge of the program, and so on, and so forth.

It is certainly a disappointing book from Sterling, and I hope this will be fixed in future books.

[Chad Cloman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drags in the middle, but has a strong ending

This story is about the journey and not necessarily the destination. It’s reminiscent of Neil Stephenson’s style of writing, where the author throws all kinds of interesting information at you while advancing the narrative. In this case, it is mostly to do with computer technology.

The protagonist, Van, is a brilliant computer scientist working for a dotcom company in the late ‘90s. Then the 9/11 attack attacks occur and he is lured into government service to help with cyber security. The dotcom bubble bursts shortly afterward, and he gets a rude introduction to how politics and government bureaucracy work.

Then things take a bit of a twist at the end. I won’t reveal the details because it would ruin the story, but I really enjoyed it.

The book starts off strong and interesting, then starts to falter a bit around the halfway point, really begins to lag around the two-thirds mark. But then it picks up has a great ending.

Recommended if you like computer tech. I give it 4/5 stars.

[This review is for the novel “The Zenith Angle” by Bruce Sterling.]

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bruce Sterling is one of the few writers whose work I will buy, new, in hardcover when I see it on the shelves. I generally find his work fresh and interesting, and it is always intelligent and accessible. Sterling's name is usually mentioned in conjunction with William Gibson as the leading authors of the "cyber punk" genre. I prefer Sterling's style over Gibson's.

Sadly, I think this is one of Sterling's weakest books to date. The technology described was sound, as expected with a Sterling novel, but trying to follow the main character's leaps of logic were difficult, and the relationships between the characters (which took up a major portion of the story) were muddy.

If I had read only the last 50 pages I would not have missed out on much of the back story, would have caught all the action/excitement contained in the book, and wouldn't have been any more or less confused as to who the people were and what their associations with each other might be.

If you've never read a Bruce Sterling book, don't let this be your first, or it'll likely be your last as well.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

So maaaaaybe this is operating at some high level of irony. I can sort of see it in hindsight: Van's overwrought behavior and speechifying and take-so-seriously business at what is barely a first world problem of "cyberwar" and so forth. And I can see angles where the book peels away the veneer of Government work to show the overcomplicated bureaucracy, all politically-driven and working-at-cross-purposes.

And I can see messages about ideal technical solutions and situations--the Ivory Tower--being sullied by quotidian battles and give-and-take politics and hucksterism.

And even the irony of making a big name for yourself by screwing up.

But the thing is: the characters, especially Van, are completely odious, and this book fails to give me anything to think about. It's criminal that this is a Bruce Sterling novel and there's nothing particularly visionary about it.

It's a story about the grunge of computer security, filtered through Tom Clancy. Or am I missing something here?

[Thomas Litchford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Zenith Angle was disappointing. I ignored other reviews that said as much because I'm a fan of Bruce Sterling's work. Ah, well.

The ingredients of a good Sterling novel are here, but he over-seasoned the dish. Perhaps in an attempt at satire, he essentially turned his novel into a long rant on the state of security (specifically cyber-security) in the post-September 11th world. And it gets tiresome.

You follow his hero, Derek Vandeveer, on his odyssey from the world of the dot-com into the world of bureaucracy. The plot, when it emerges, seems to come from nowhere. There's nothing organic about the transition from cyber-warfare to space-warfare.

Worse than that, his characters are not believable, and his dialogue--which is usually serviceable--is terrible.

What more can I say? I'm hoping the next one will be better. The Caryatids is already queued up for Kindle download.

[Leonardo Etcheto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, loved the characters, falls down at the end. Right up to the final confrontation with the evil genius, the book was spot on. Once Van went all cyber warrior and deadly it got pretty loopy. I found the relationship between Van and his wife Dottie pretty damn weird, but I don’t know many hardcore computer geeks, so it is probably fairly realistic. Especially because emotionally they are both “damaged”.
An interesting theme I had not thought much about before; is the ego hit many of the computer whizzes took on top of the financial hit when the dot.com bubble burst. The new world crumbled around them and they went from hero to zero. Hadn't thought much about spy satellites either, or the fact we actually have a space force.
Liked the skunk works advice: be quiet, be quick, be on time. As usual for me with Bruce Sterling books, stayed up late at night reading until I finished it.

[Peter Petermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that escalated quickly.. About 40 minutes before I finished the book I formulated in my head "good writing, but it seems to lack a bigger story arc" I couldn't have been wrong more. In the last chapters the author manages to tie it all together, add a twist and make sense of it all. Well done.

So why am I only giving 4 out of 5 stars? Mostly because some of the minor details don't make sense, like that gag about using spam for the laser, or shooting someone with a hot glue gun. In some way it seems that Mr. Sterling added those small wrong details as some hidden "funnies", something that I found rather annoying in an otherwise great book.
One more thing: a hacker who works in cyber warfare for any government is not a white hat. Granted he was described as such before he did so on the book, and not after, but.. It kinda feels like it needs saying. Doing secret government work in warfare is mutually exclusive to following hacker ethics.

[Michael Coté · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm currently reading through Bruce Sterling's work, so obviously I like his stuff, sort of, no matter what. This book was fun reading until the cheesy - as another reviewer says - James Bond ending. But, giving Sterling the benefit of the doubt, I just chalked it up to him thinking one day: "man, I'd really like to write a sort James Bond meets The Hacker Crackdown mashup book." Of course, that was before the term "mashup," but hey, look over there, never mind that.

I'm a fan on non-fiction bueractatic knife-fighting books - like those Woodward writes - and even liked [books: The Goal], so you can imagine the dull, paper-pusher stuff in here was interesting enough to me to make it into a page turner.

Still, coming off other Bruce Sterling sci-fi books, I missed the sci-fi stuff (hence the 3 stars instead of 4). But, hey, why pigeon-hole the guy?

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly chaotic and rambling for a Sterling story. Some of his other works are awesome so I was quite surprised this one was so bad. I think he is at his best writing about exotic countries or times, and coincidentally there's only one scene in this whole book that I really liked, and it's the only one taking place outside the US. This book is about cybersecurity and the US security agencies, and an unlikely hero. Unfortunately Sterling proved here that those topics are as dull as they get, and did it by writing a very improbable and illogical story. At one point it was so bad that I thought he had wanted to create a literary work, where rambling and pointlessness are often par for the course, but then there suddenly were some (messed up) action scenes that ruled out that option. Hmm. Weird.

[Maria Longley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bruce Sterling brings interesting ideas and thoughts to how the world is changing post-9/11 and the Internet, and the impossibility of a "war on terror". These bits were interesting. There was also a rather less-than-complimentary look at how things don't get done in Washington due to politics, red tape, and money which at times was quite funny. It was the end really... Geek turns into cyber warrior didn't really do it for me and the action/thiller bits weren't all that great, and the great denouement wasn't that satisfactory. But there is a great reference to Vaclav Havel in there even if he isn't that complimentary about strawbale buildings:)

[Damian · Rating 2 out of 5]

While The Zenith Angle isn't one of Sterling's best efforts it's still more readable than many books out there. There's something engaging about his characters and dialog that just draws you in, even when the story is lacking. The Zenith Angle describes Sterlings feelings about the US government, 9/11, the military-industrial complex and how programmers and scientists could save the world if they just had the political power and funding. If you want to read some Sterling, try Distraction

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a nerd-revenge fantasy. It's amoral: The protagonist kills his best friend for "treason" in a "cyberwar" where the hero isn't an agent of any government. This stupid book glorifies plain murder.

The book is overloaded with narrative and the characters are poorly sketched. The author can't help pontificating. Technology isn't illuminated in this book: it's name-dropped and bandied around.

The book reads like it wasn't ever edited.

Plain trash. I'm glad I read a library copy. It reads fast, though.