Schismatrix was published by Arbor House in 1985. The novel spans nearly two hundred years of Abelard Lindsay’s life — made possible by successive life-extension technologies — as he navigates the political conflicts of a solar system divided between Shapers (who modify humanity through genetic engineering) and Mechanists (who augment through cybernetics and prosthetics).
Lindsay is a diplomat, con man, revolutionary, and eventually something beyond human altogether. His journey takes him from the orbital habitats of the Schismatrix (the political structure governing near-Earth space) through pirate asteroids, Martian colonies, and eventually contact with aliens who regard humanity’s internal conflicts with amused indifference.
Sterling’s vision of the future is more radical than Gibson’s: where Neuromancer imagines recognizable humans in a transformed technological environment, Schismatrix imagines humanity itself transforming — splitting into species, merging with machines, engineering new forms of consciousness. The novel anticipates transhumanist philosophy by decades and remains the most comprehensive fictional exploration of posthuman possibility.
The expanded edition Schismatrix Plus (1996) collects the novel with five related short stories that flesh out the Shaper/Mechanist universe.
Collecting Schismatrix
First edition (Arbor House, New York, 1985): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $80–$200
- Very good/very good: $30–$80