Islands in the Net

Islands in the Net (1988) is a near-future political thriller by Bruce Sterling, one of the central figures of the cyberpunk movement and co-editor of the landmark anthology Mirrorshades. Set in the early 21st century, the novel imagines a world ordered around a global information network called the Net, dominated by massive multinational corporations that have largely supplanted nation-states. The protagonist is Laura Webster, an associate of Rizome Industries Group, a decentralized corporate collective that operates somewhere between a company and a commune. When Rizome becomes entangled in negotiations with rogue "data haven" states, small outlaw nations that profit from selling unrestricted access to information outside the Net's regulatory reach, Laura is drawn into a widening spiral of terrorism, corporate espionage, and geopolitical conflict that spans from the Gulf Coast to Grenada, Singapore, and a war-torn Africa.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. New York: Arbor House, 1988. John W. Campbell Memorial Award winner (1989). ISBN: 0877959528. #11473.
Fine in fine dust jacket.