Distraction was published by Bantam Books in 1998. Oscar Valparaiso is a political consultant — the best in America — who has just managed the election of a senator from Massachusetts. His 2044 America is recognizable but transformed: the federal budget has collapsed, the dollar is worthless, nomadic camps of economic refugees roam the highways, and politics has devolved into pure spectacle mediated by reputation networks (essentially social media reputation scores that function as currency).
Oscar takes a job running a government science lab in Louisiana — a facility that does genuine research but has been captured by the Air Force, which wants to turn it into a weapons lab. His opponent is the state’s governor: a good-old-boy populist who controls the region through charisma and violence. The conflict between national science policy and local political power provides the novel’s plot; Sterling’s satirical vision of American decline provides its energy.
Written in 1998, the novel anticipates social media reputation systems, the collapse of institutional authority, political populism as entertainment, economic nomadism, and the weaponization of information — all developments that seemed satirical in 1998 and realistic by 2020. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Collecting Distraction
First edition (Bantam Books, New York, 1998): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $20–$50
- Very good/very good: $10–$20