Pirate Utopia

by Bruce Sterling

Original introduction by Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan and Gun Machine

Who are these bold rebels pillaging their European neighbors in the name of revolution? The Futurists! Utopian pirate warriors of the diminutive Regency of Carnaro, scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Mortal enemies of communists, capitalists, and even fascists (to whom they are not entirely unsympathetic).

The ambitious Soldier-Citizens of Carnaro are led by a brilliant and passionate coterie of the perhaps insane. Lorenzo Secondari, World War I veteran, engineering genius, and leader of Croatian raiders. Frau Piffer, Syndicalist manufacturer of torpedos at a factory run by and for women. The Ace of Hearts, a dashing Milanese aristocrat, spymaster, and tactical savant. And the Prophet, a seductive warrior-poet who leads via free love and military ruthlessness.

Fresh off of a worldwide demonstration of their might, can the Futurists engage the aid of sinister American traitors and establish world domination?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Pirates, Ebooks

165 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

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

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Italy! 1920's. A little town called Fiume that later becomes known as the modern Rijeka had had it's world turned upside down when a bunch of rag-tag ill-provisioned warriors took it over and declared themselves an Anarcho-Syndicalist Union, full of free love, art, poetry, high-ideals, and most of all, Rebellion. They even called themselves Pirates!

Now what if the whole thing hadn't imploded after 15 months, and instead had gone on to arm themselves successfully and innovate as they had dreamed, to become a real haven for free thinkers and equality of the sexes, ignoring the cries of the rich and the powerful as they gleefully took over all the manufacturing plants in a communist-like frenzy, but stopping there only to kick out all the actual communists?

They live by theft and live by their strength, fascists in fact, but not in spirit, for everyone is truly equal here.

Wow. As an SF novel, it's really quite gorgeous. I've been getting tired of all those overdone WWII alternate histories. This one is a beautiful strike in another direction, and it's humorous and it's scary and it pushes all the right buttons for me.

And it's also pulp in all the grand ways, too. :) Mussilini got his dick shot off while working as an editor, Hitler got shot and killed taking a bullet for a friend. There's even Houdini, the Spy, Lovecraft his employee, and also Robert E Howard working alongside them. I was hoping to see Clarke Ashton Smith among them, but alas, no. :)

I haven't been so delighted by such a strange book just tickling my sense of wonder in such a way as this. Bruce Sterling has gotten really interesting.

He's been living in Europe for the last decade, learning so much about these places, and also as an American Cyberpunk author now writing Dieselpunk, I have to say that he's pushing the envelope again. :) In a really awesome way. :)

Bravo!

[Philip · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5ish stars.

For a relatively short novella, I expected there to be a lot less exposition and a lot more story. The first 35-40 or so pages of the book are basically setup and not much happens. That would be forgivable in a longer book that could make good on the setup later, but not in a book that's only like 160 pages altogether. There's some good pulpy stuff at the end, and some cool speculation but not enough to save what is ultimately a pretty lifeless book that I didn't really get any enjoyment out of. It's a shame- the title and cover showed a lot promise.

As always, take what I have to say with a grain of salt. For a much more positive take on things, Brad has some really great things to say. Check his review out here

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical farce or farcical history?

I'm a sucker for covers, especially ones that say "Pirate" or "Utopia" and have screaming propagandistic art. Put them altogether and I'm a goner. I can't help it. I'm weak. It actually took me a few moments to catch the flow of the story, the bumbling ridiculousness narration of it. And then, I was amused.

This story is a clever and critical editorial of events. Yes, there is an assumption of knowledge of the period, but the addendums at the end explain this more thoroughly for those readers who might have been confused, so skip and read the explanation of the alternate timeline and situating Sterling's viewpoint on the Interwar period if one is baffled after the first ten pages. Additionally, there is an extensive interview, Q&A with Sterling regarding the book.

The Interwar critique of the Italian state of Fiume and the slippery slide and friction between anarchism to communist idealism and its schism to fascism. It's funny and complicated and a knowledge of European geography, relevant political allegiances and the differences between the warring political ideologies of modernism make for a not so subtle farce.



The artwork throughout is nicely done, and definitely adds flavor to the tale.

Croatian pirate refusing change for British pound in Kingdom of Yugoslavia dinars. The racket of internal stamps trading in lieu of "money". The laundry list of languages spoken and who is willing to speak which ones and why. The demise of Italian industry greatness brought on by Armistice.

He was a teenage boy from Turin, so race-cars and airplanes interested him much more than philosophical aspirations.

In case one isn't familiar, this is the rooftop racetrack for Fiat in Turin. So, after all the Nietzsche worship because he spent time studying in Turin and considering him a son of Turin, I found this more than a little amusing.

Really. It's funny:

Tarzan was the American version of the Nietzschean Overman. He was a Superman anarchist, but since he lived in a jungle, he did not have to smash the State.

His immediate superior in piracy was the Ace of Hearts.

The subversion of the premise of piracy is freaking hysterical. As is all the political ideals that are subverted throughout the book. Sad, but funny.

The grenade failed to detonate. It was a factory second.

It's a time capsule. It is bald-faced, so any readers who go into this expecting political correctness instead of the scathing representations in a myriad of manifestations are going to be offended. All the little mentions that typify the era are present from boys adventure stories (propaganda masquerading as entertainment), League of Nations, lingering occultism, and the idealist belief of a better future. The funny thing is, reading this I became even more aware how relevant Chaos Theory is to human societies. It constantly has to be cultivated and rebuilt because it is degrading into violence and separation. And, the shelf life for heroes is very short.

So laugh. If you don't, it's just sad how much what seems to be a farce is actually reality. Don't worry, "It's All Been Done Before" (Barenaked Ladies)

Fellow cynical idealists, this is a story for YOU.

~Copy provided by NetGalley~

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pulpy and cartoony tale that conjures an alternative history for a region of former Italy not willing to be folded into the artificial country of Yugoslavia formed after the end of World War 1. Our heroes are a military leader of the secret police known as the “Ace of Hearts” and his “Pirate Engineer” partner who set about taking all the industries away from the rich and putting them under the management of a syndicate committee of workers. The Adriatic city of Fiume becomes the new Regency of Carnaro under a constitution that adheres to the principles of Anarcho-Syndicalism. Bohemian artists and poets and revolutionaries of all stripes are drawn to move to Fiume for its freedoms, dominant among them being adherents to a new philosophy called Futurism.

The Ace seems the equal of the “most interesting man” of Dos Equis beer commercials:
Even a Nietzschean Overman couldn’t ever possess such Milanese suavity as the Ace of Hearts.
The Ace had shot down six aircraft in mortal combat, and yet he was a mason, a mystic, a yogi, and a nudist; a forger, a wiretapper, a partaker of cocaine and marijuana; a philosophical anarchist with a superb devotion to music and free love. …
The Ace was a liberation mystic while Secondari was merely an engineer, but they were also two suffering human beings within the maelstrom of a profound political struggle. …They had to find a way to make Futurism work.

Secondari pulls off his vision of innovative arms manufacturing, starting with revitalizing an old topedo factory abandoned by the Allies of the Great War. There is a market for their products and soon his genius is leading toward development of air missiles and electromagnetic weapons on the order of death rays, as consistent with his new government position, the “Minister of Vengeance Weapons”. Other governments are interested, and soon spies join the eclectic mix in Fiume. Spymaster Colonel House from President Wilson’s government sends Harry Houdini and his assistant H.P. Lovecraft under the guise of a magic performance to work out a secret deal. Along the way to this turning point, both Mussolini and Hitler get superceded

Thus, you can see there is the skeleton of a brilliant plot going on here, a variant of steampunk Sterling identifies as dieselpunk. Mostly it remains a skeleton. We get a series of vignettes with all these colorful characters, and the reader has to do the work of imagining them into life. Which is the way comics work. In fact, this would have been more satisfying as a graphic novel. In the place of art portraying the scenes we get a generous bounty of graphic art by the Futurist artist Fortunato Depero and some like the cover illustration a mash-up of his style with that of Soviet Constructivism.

Personally, I got as much reading satisfaction from the appendix materials as the novella itself. First of all it was great to catch up on what Sterling has been doing while living in Italy for the last decade. I last read Sterling a couple of decades back, including his early cyberpunk “Islands in the Net” (1988) and his wonderful initiation of steampunk with “The Difference Engine” (1990) (co-written with William Gibson). In a long interview piece, he explains his goal of contributing to the Italian tradition of “fantascienzia,”which fuses fantasy and science fiction and often with historical fiction elements. Instead of the literate model set by Calvino, this kind of writing celebrates service to a more popular base:
They really like B-movies, horror, scandal stuff. They like spaghetti western aspects of it because they’re fed up with their high-flown literary writing. They want some stuff with guts. It’s why Lansdale is a super popular guy. Italians don’t want to read a lot of Stanilaw Lem—it doesn’t have enough vitamins.

Also in the interview and coda pieces, Sterling fills out background on the real history of Fiume and the Regency of Carnaro and the connection to Futurism and proto-fascism. In reality, the political figure known as “The Prophet” in the tale, the journalist and poet D’Annunzio, did lead the takeover of Fiume in order to return it to Italy, but the government refused to accept it. After about 15 months of its independence, the Italian military whipped the rebels and the region was rendered to Yugoslavia (the town, now Rijeka, is part of current Croatia). Despite his lofty ideals, d’Annunzio saw himself as the embodiment of Nietzche’s superior Overman and as such was a model for Mussolini and full-bore fascism. Sterling is fascinated with how the fascist origins in Italy combined the ecstatic life of rallies and sacrifice and martial ardor with” a grimy little favor-driven society.”:
There was this tremendous loftiness on one scale and on another there was this pathetic, grimy quality that robbed people of dignity.

Still he notes how:
Fascism does have the appeal of science fiction in some ways. …there’s this brotherly feeling between certain kinds of political ecstatic cult politics and the” science of wonder”, of reality-bending in science fiction. They both supply a lot of crypto-religious loftiness of “What is it’s really like that?” and “What if we could really …” and then it jumps to “Italians, you have your empire!”

Of more interest to me personally was an expansion of my perspective on Futurism. About a year ago, my mind was blown by the wonderful paintings by some of the pre-war Futurists in Italy, as presented in a book on the evolution of representations and meanings of chaos, Chaos Imagined: Literature, Art, Science. They try to capture movement and energy in delightful forms of swirling color and patterns, often with machines like trains and motorcycles on the move. Quite a contrast with the static images and forms of Cubism, Art Nouveau, and other Modernist movements. Sterling quotes this line from the manifesto of Depero and Giacomo in 1915:
We will find abstract equivalents for all the forms and elements of the universe, and then we will combine them with the caprice of our imagination.

From this innocent plan to revise artistic traditions, others, notably Marinetti, reformulated the vision to incorporate the technology of war and to idealize the cleansing power of violence and war. World War 1 kind of put the kibosh on such notions, but some of the roots of the politicized version fed into the fascism that led inexorably to World War 2. In this light Sterling’s alternative take for the Regency of Carnaro had its elements of brilliance. But I can’t see typical science fiction or fantasy readers being hungry to read this story without some broader interest. By contrast, his alternate history conception in “The Difference Engine” with the Nazis advancing Babbage’s computer prototype helped kick off the steampunk subgenre.

This book was provided by the publisher for review through the Netgalley program.

[Althea Ann]

DNF at 37%.

At some point, maybe right now, I have to just finally acknowledge that, with a few exceptions, Bruce Sterling's writing style is not for me. For the past 30 years, I have kept being intrigued by his books, picking them up, and more often than not, just not particularly enjoying them.

This one (as usual) sounded fascinating! An alternate history novel set in the tiny and short-lived state of Fiume (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_St...), with conflicts between Communists and Italian Futurists, with pirates somehow thrown into the mix, referencing the writings of the eccentric Peter Lamborn Wilson? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_...)

But - it didn't work for me. Over a third of the way through the book there was still no discernible plot, and nothing was happening that I particularly cared about. People who are already extremely knowledgeable about this particular time and place in real history may be tickled by the author's clever riffs and tweaks on it, and the absurdist style in which it's presented - but it wasn't doing it for me.


PS - the illustrations are very cool.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a copy out from Palo Alto that has to go back tomorrow, so I won't have time to finish it. The first 3 chapters (or so) are pretty slapdash. What is fun is Chris Nakashima-Brown's "To the Fiume Station: Afterword", which is the true history of the short-lived autonomous city-state of Fiume, plus his take on Sterling's version. More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_St...

Also entertaining is Rick Klaw's interview of Sterling, where we learn that he has alter egos in Italy (Bruno Argento, for fantascienza) and in Serbia (Boris Srebo, for fantastyka). We also learn about the seductive appeal of fascism, an Italian invention.

On indefinite hiatus: our local library doesn't have it, & I don't like it enough to buy a copy. On second thought -- closing out as DNF, 3-star, with option to revisit. I did like the retro-modernist art.

Here's Norman Spinrad's take, and other Good Stuff on international SF:
(formerly online at Asimov's)

"The Free State of Fiume was one of those semi-independent city states left over and bargained for by various major feudal semi-nations. After World War I it was formally recognized by the League of Nations as an independent entity, sort of, between Italy and Yugoslavia, which was created at the time. Its population was divided between Italians and Slavs, and chaos reigned because nothing else seemed capable of doing so.

Into this mess march a bunch of what might have been called anarchists led by the Futurist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, who sort of ruled for fifteen chaotic months, after which the governments of Italy and Yugoslavia formally recognized a Free State of Fiume. After much back and forth and weird elections involving communists, libertarians, Italian and Croatian nationalists, fascists-to-be and more, four years later it was legally absorbed by Italy."

[Juozas Šalna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is bullshit. Almost half of it is author and other people talking about the book and explaining it, because it doesn't stand on its own. There is no story inside and no ending. Sterling is just dropping names and futurism buzzwords. Good thing that it is extremely short. Give me my 9$ back :)

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

FUTURISMO!
FUTURISMO!
FUTURISMO!

"I'm a pirate engineer! I don't want a girlfriend, I want a revolution in popular mechanics! We need real factories that work! We can't just lift the skirts of pretty girls, after we give them votes, and hashish, and jazz records!"
—Lorenzo Secondari, pp.70-71

Bruce Sterling's brief (all too brief) novel Pirate Utopia presents a stirring alternative to the tired old past, that tedious Twentieth that we've all had to get used to. This is an historically accurate novel about events that never happened, an exciting revisionist scenario that seems vanishingly unlikely but still, somehow, tantalizing.

If only... if only it'd lasted a little longer.

In our universe, Fiume—a largely Italian region on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, across from the Italian peninsula—was ceded to the newly-formed nation of Yugoslavia at the end of World War I. Today, it's the Croatian seaport of Rijeka. But... what if the inhabitants of Fiume had rebelled, had refused to look eastward, and instead had appropriated their land, factories, vehicles and infrastructure, establishing an independent, poetically anarchist, proudly Futurist regime: the Regency of Carnaro? A... pirate utopia?

It's a lot of fun to think about, and the fun was enhanced by my having recently watched Franco Zeffirelli's (at least semi-) autobiographical film about the advent of World War II in Italy, "Tea with Mussolini"—although, in Pirate Utopia, Benito Mussolini and his Austrian buddy Adolf Hitler are nobodies, minor characters who get killed off early.

Pirate Utopia would have been a lot less effective without its stunning graphic design, though—bold lettering, stark silhouettes, and angular geometric figures that simultaneously evoke both the future and the past. This is no accident; John Coulthart drew from the work of real-life Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, who

{...}declared, somewhat presciently, that "the art of the future will be largely advertising."
—from Coulthart's essay "Reconstructing the Future," p.185

Did I mention that Pirate Utopia is too short? It's even shorter than you'd think, too—there's an Introduction by Warren Ellis, an Afterword by Christopher Brown, an interview with Sterling by Rick Klaw, and the aforementioned Coulthart essay, all of which are worth reading, and yet the book still clocks in at a mere 187 pages. According to that interview, Bruce Sterling did have reasons for stopping his narrative when he did, but the story still felt unfinished.

Pirate Utopia seemed a little too plain-spoken and linear to me, as well. Sterling's sentences seemed much shorter and choppier than in his previous works. This was, I'm sure, a stylistic choice, but I found it somewhat jarring.


The biggest question I'm left with, though, is how the heck I failed to snap up Bruce Sterling's Pirate Utopia as soon as it came out, back in 2016.

Maybe I was stuck in an alternative universe at the time...

[Roxana Chirilă · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I worked for a TV show, the producer would come into the editing room and have a look at the episode for that week. The show was crap and no mistake, but even so, there were standards.

"So what's going on here?" the producer would ask.

"This guy over here goes to work and-"

"What the hell are you telling me for?!"

"Well, boss, you asked and-"

"And are you going to go to each and every member of the audience and explain what the hell's going on? No? Well, then, redo this shit so it's comprehensible."

It was a memorable thing - you can't edit video and add footnotes. The movie, the show, the whatever needs to stand on its own, without you whispering in the ears of each member of the audience what's going on.

"Pirate Utopia" has an intro explaining what's going on and an interview at the end explaining even *more* what's going on, which is great if you plan on reading those, because it's pretty hard to figure out what's up without them. Some people might enjoy that, but I consider it sloppy.

This is an alternate history novel set in Fiume in 1920, a city between Italy and Yugoslavia which becomes its own little country. It has all sorts of political factions in it, such as communists and futurists. They took over the means of production and are doing something with them. That something seems to be making torpedoes, to prove the world that they... can?

I'm not sure why this is a pirate utopia. The author assures us in the interview at the end that they steal everything, but aside from stealing their way into a cinema where a probably pirated movie is projected, I can't see anything else getting stolen. There are just a number of people presented and vaguely discussed. Mussolini is mentioned, Houdini shows up and it's implied Hitler is killed defending a friend, but this makes no difference to the plot, because there is none. Also, it's hard to care about the big names that are getting dropped because they could be any names at all, there's nothing invested in the characters to make them resemble the real people (except Houdini, who shows up to do a magic show).

There didn't seem to be much point to this. It's a soulless alternate history regarding a bit of history which could be interesting, but which isn't known by nearly anyone, really.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointing--as I wanted more and I liked where Sterling was going with the story. He sets up an interesting situation--a tiny republic called Carnaro on the Adriatic led by people who are "Futurists." The characters- the Pirate Engineer, The Prophet, The Ace of Hearts and others--are interesting. And nearing the end, we meet American agents Houdini and his secretary H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft wants to work with the Futurists on a plan to conquer the world...and there the story stops. Nothing much happened, but there are some good possibilities- if the story had continued. But maybe that was the point-- just to explore some possibilities...

[Alex Sarll]

Bruce Sterling’s new novella, set amid Europe's post-Great War upheavals, covers the Futurist takeover of the Adriatic port of Fiume and their establishment of a deranged pocket statelet – something I naturally assumed was part of the book's alternate timeline. Until I checked and no, turns out that did definitely happen, under the leadership of the reliably absurd yet also terrifying Gabriele d’Annunzio (here 'the Prophet’), one of those curious figures who keeps popping up in supporting roles at different historical events, always throwing things just a little off their axis*. And that keeps happening; whenever I looked up the strangest stuff here, right down to Giulio Ulivi and his deadly F-rays, it was almost all true. Until you get down to the tiniest details of the plot, like the minor supporting character Hans Piffer being saved from a bullet in a bierkeller by the selfless sacrifice of another young firebrand named Adolf Hitler…and you start to see the turning points hiding in plain sight. Among them, the fact that the protagonist, Lorenzo Secondari, makes it out of the War and is able to put Fiume on a slightly more efficient technological footing than it managed here, where it seems to have been more a year-long bender than the terror of the seas. Meanwhile, in the USA, HP Lovecraft still befriends Robert E Howard, and works with Houdini, but in a slightly different line of work. And so forth, all set in motion with the lightest touches on history’s scales. Other famous names dance through the margins, from Mussolini to Luisa Casati, and the combined effect of it all, of Fiume��s torpedo-driven syndicalism, is at once ridiculous and terrifying. Sterling’s certainly not the first to draw the connections between Futurism and Fascism, but this combination of dreamlike alternity with rigorous historical research puts the era’s queasy yearning for something bigger, faster, purer into fresh relief. Part of that lies simply in the way that, before the sobering bloodbath of the Second World War, people were so much more prepared to entirely, unapologetically and unironically inhabit their ideological positions – encapsulated in the wonderful reference to one character’s "gaudy, striped, Syndicalist shoulder”. Can a shoulder be described as Syndicalist? Of course it can, so long as that belief runs through the shoulder’s owner as though they were a stick of Syndicalist rock.

Sterling, of course, was one of the pioneers of steampunk – there are precursor texts, but The Difference Engine was the real Patient Zero of what’s now become an enormously lucrative and mostly infuriating genre in its own right. And it’s instructive to consider the different paths of Sterling and his co-author there, William Gibson. Gibson now writes near-future SF which doesn’t even code as SF, and gets shelved and reviewed amongst the litfic – an act of borderline assimilation which merits the term ‘Ballardian’ in a rather different sense from the one usually seen. Meanwhile, Sterling is releasing stuff like this, going deeper than the overfarmed territory of steampunk and into its more niche bastard children such as dieselpunk, fresher historical jumping-off points for alternate presents and futures. And they come out half-hidden under aliases which translate his name into different languages (here 'Bruno Argento’) and, at least in Britain, seldom seems to pop up even in specialist bookshops (so lucky me getting this one from Netgalley). Which is at once something I can sympathise with (the old hacker mentality, "So, I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it falling into the wrong hands”) and regret. Because this isn’t a story about Trump, or Farage, but it is one with instructive things to say about them, about the danger of demagogues with seductive slogans covering the shabbiness and childish destructiveness beneath. The real tragedy being, of course, that even that arsehole d’Annunzio had so much more to him than the dismal 2016 models.

*I always think a time traveller might leave fairly similar traces in the historical record – Edgar Atheling would be another example.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Semi-historical, semi-political, semi-sociological, semi-interesting.
Some good facts, some good characters, some good speculation.
All the players are brought on stage, the scene is set .... and it's over.
Readus interruptus.

I know it's often hard for an author to figure out how to wrap up a complex story, and many of them fall at this fence, but this horse shied and didn't try the fence.

I see that Sterling has presented his reasons for doing this, but I am not required to like the result.

You were telling me a story, and you stopped.
But Daddy, what HAPPENED to the prince?

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up at the library because of the cool cover. Not much plot. Not very engaging characters. Simple (to the point of childish) prose (with some brief exceptions). The alternate history and political satire have possibilities. To me, this seems more like a sketch for the setting of a story than it does a completed novella. There are some clever ideas but they remain underdeveloped.

[Aengus · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Pirate Utopia" is a bubbly,dieselpunk fable set in an alternate history where some pirate futurists set up a Utopian state. Characters wear glamorous fascist uniforms, and declaim their sentences to one another. They invent a (dronelike) weapon called the F-Ray torpedo, and politicians have titles like "Minister of Vengeance Weapons." For God knows what reason Houdini and Lovecraft make cameo appearances.
"Pirate Utopia" has two things going for it. The supplementary materials (an interview with Sterling, an introduction by Warren Ellis, and a brief essay by the designer John Coulthart) give a pretty good explanation of the Italian Futurist movement on which this pointless exercise is based on. The Futurists were a minor league pack of half baked Nietzchean absurdists who supported Mussolini.
Also, Coulthart's design (layout,fake facsimile maps,illustrations) is superb, and a whole lot more coherent than the story. If it weren't so short, it would have been a DNF.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mmm... no.
I liked the idea of a dystopian Gabriele D'Annunzio and I wanted to like this book so bad, but I didn't get it at all. It could work as the introduction for a novel, since it's look like a list of characters and explanation of their skills and roles, but where's the climax? Where's the plot, actually?
Usually dystopias or alternative history's stories are set in an american background. I was happy to see something focusing on a less-know episode of the italian history, but I feel like it's a wasted opportunity.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book, and is challenging in a way that the best science fiction is. If you decide to read this, make sure you read the book in it's entirety: the Introduction by Warren Ellis, the novella itself, an afterward, and an interview with Sterling for a better understanding of the novella.

Written by Bruce Sterling's Italian alter ego Bruno Argento, Pirate Utopia is an alternative history written in the fantascienza tradition. The story is based on a real time and events around 1920 in the Free State of Fiuma, an anarchistic state/city between Italy and Yugoslavia. The characters are all based on fact and real people, including Houdini and H.P. Lovecraft, Mussolini, Marconi and many that I didn't recognize. d'Annunzio declared a state to be ruled by poets espousing no extradition, free love, suffrage, jazz, and the Futurist Manifesto. Rebels from all over Europe were attracted to the country.

The book takes off from there and speaks to the artistic and intellectual appeal of fascism. Graphics are very cool and are based on period graphics from the Futurist artists.

[zxvasdf · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pirate utopia seems an oxymoron. Pillage and murder in the name of anarchy and sheer rapacity is the essence of piracy. Sterling's novella imbues piracy with sensibility, as if it were a 9 to 5, in a cavalcade of historical figures assuming alternate world personas. This is a story that never happened, but if it had, it is much more sanguine than history. With an oblique narrative, Sterling describes a time that has largely gone forgotten.

Fiume was invaded, taken back from Italy, to say, by a warrior poet and his followers who established the Regency of Carnaro. What ensued was a proto-fascist city-state that quickly filled with expatriates, curiosity seekers, and general decadence. The dream was short lived; it only took four years. This is fact.

(In a weird lighting stroke of potentially self indulgent insight, having watched the Tom Hiddleston movie High Rise, I can't help but wonder whether clever madman Ballard was channeling Fiume in its heyday to demonstrate, using the terms of the zeitgeist, that utopias are, by nature, fallacies. Sterling is an optimist in this regard.)

Pirate Utopia is a quick read in the dieselpunk vein, mostly from the perspective of Lorenzo Secondari, Pirate Engineer, who watches his comrades transform from warriors and anarchists into wheels of government. Himself, rising through the ranks as well, retains his iron-handed sentiment, forged through the pillage of seas, because his rank requires unsavory efforts to keep the populace in hand. There is a sadness in the Pirate Engineer, because very few are true to themselves, and he is. Pirate Utopia is strongly reminiscent of Moorcock's pulpy, less fantastic (but no less fun!) entries in his Eternal Champion Multiverse.

The novella is backed by an interview with Sterling himself, a short account of the true history of Fiume, and the artist's treatise on the fantastic style chosen to adorn chapter openings and breaks. These are interesting, much in particular the historical account, because it allows Sterling's version of events to gain credence and the reader can appreciate what he's doing.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Está claro que Bruce Sterling, como se costuma dizer, has gone native. Já se andava a perceber, quer pelos contos mais recentes, quer pelo fascínio no seu blog com o movimento maker e a cultura inter-fronteiriça do norte de Itália e balcãs. Este texano veterano do cyberpunk enamorou-se do espaço de ideias da europa progressista, das cidades centenárias, história e irreverência. Uma certa atração pela ideia de uma Europa como zona de progresso social, humano e técnico já se notava nalguns dos seus romances (recordo, por exemplo Holy Fire) mas agora que fincou raízes no makerspace de Turim e se divide com Belgrado, o fascínio é confesso e torneia a sua obra, por pouca que seja. Sterling, nos últimos anos, tornou-se um pós-escritor, guru da modernidade que se alicerça num poderoso currículo literário para transmitir as suas ideias, sem que tenha nos últimos produzido obras de fôlego. Longe vão os tempos de Schismatrix ou de The Difference Engine.

Curiosamente, este Pirate Utopia ocupa o mesmo espaço conceptual de Difference Engine, o romance a quatro mãos (com William Gibson) que se tornou pedra basilar do steampunk. Pirate Utopia inspira-se numa época e local muito específicos da história europeia, levando o leitor a um delirante e se que mistura figuras históricas e a vertigem do futurismo. Não o de especulação informada sobre futuros, mas o movimento artístico de quebra conceptual com o passado e fascínio pela aceleração mecânica que nasceu em Itália nos primeiros anos do século XX.

Com o fascínio que só quem vem de fora consegue transmitir sobre momentos históricos e culturais a que os nativos de uma cultura sempre viram como normais, Sterling diverte-se a projectar um caldo fervente de futuristas, anarco-sindicalistas, comunistas e outros vibrantes movimentos de mudança na cidade de Fiúme, actualmente Rijeka, transformada numa zona autónoma temporária no final da I Guerra. A revolta de italianos com a entrega da cidade ao recém-fundado reino da Jugoslávia levou um grupo de ardentes patriotas liderado pelo poeta D'Annunzio a tomar a cidade. Na história real, foi coisa que durou pouco, e depressa se metastizou no fascismo de Mussolini, para onde também migraram os ideias de muitos futuristas. Aqui, nesta fantasia de Sterling, D'Annunzio consegue manter Fiúme como cidade portuária e pólo de atracção de todos os rebeldes europeus, que se juntam para criar utopias sociais. Entre estes, encontra-se um antigo engenheiro militar italiano, que depois de passar a guerra a manter as máquinas de combate operacionais no rigor da frente alpina, vai para Fiúme fundar um bando de piratas especializados no roubo de tecnologia e, detentor de uma fábrica de munições abandonada em parceria com uma rija austro-italiana cujo marido se anda a divertir pelas ruas de Viena e Munique em putschs com um certo cabo alemão de bigode inconfundível, se dedica a inventar temíveis torpedos aéreos, a arma decisiva do futurismo. É o mote para uma aventura desconexa com piratas, operárias sindicalistas, líderes rebeldes iluminados como poetas-guerreiros, comunistas que não sabem conduzir carros blindados, condessas italianas amantes de arte radical, e missões de espionagem americanas lideradas pelo ilusionista Houdini e por um escritor de Providence que largou as trevas arcanas da sua imaginação para se dedicar à publicidade, colaborando num projecto secreto místico e tecnológico desenvolvido em Manhattan.

Sterlig cruza nesta intrigante novela elementos das suas vertentes de intervenção cultural. Propriedade intelectual, progressismo social e tecnoluxúria cruzam-se com ecos de vibrantes movimentos culturais do passado, pontos absurdos da história recente e a sensação que coisas interessantes se passam nas franjas do calmo continuum do devir histórico. Não é Sterling no seu clássico melhor, é um mestre à procura de uma nova voz, e a mostrar que claramente se diverte com o processo. A completar o livro estão ilustrações de John Coulthart inspiradas nas estéticas futurista e construtivista, que replicam um pouco do fascínio pela vertigem mecânica afirmado por Marinetti no seu clássico manifesto.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A jewel box depiction of a tiny nation, Fiume, that apparently really existed for a year or four starting in 1920. Most of the characters are historical, and most I had not heard of. Including this guy: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/.... The country is trying to decide who to be. Per the internet, it didn't get to decide that.

I can't say that I liked this little book. I think it depended too much on me knowing who people like Gabriele d’Annunzio -- who may have created racism as an art project -- and the history of 1920s coastal cities near Italy and Yugoslavia. I vaguely know of the clashes between the ideologies of fascism, anarcho-syndacalism and communism, but not enough to really feel the drama unaided.

I was delighted that both H.P. Lovecraft and BOB HOWARD were characters in this, but they didn't do enough. Though there's something vaguely eldritch about HPL and Howard be there, possibly, to recruit someone for what will become the Manhattan Project.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read if you're really into pirate utopias, Fiume, D'Annunzio, or Futurist manifestos, but otherwise not terribly essential.

[Silvana]

DNF at 30%. While the idea (and the cover) is interesting and the setting magnificent, I could not connect with either the story or the characters.

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally like Bruce Sterling’s non-fiction and short stories, but his novels are a mixed bag – some are good, others are big on ideas but light on character and plot. Still, I keep coming back to him because the ideas are the hook, and it’s nice when they pay off. Which is more or less the case here with this novella that ostensibly imagines an alternate history for the Free State of Fiume, a real pirate utopia founded after WW1 by Futurist pirates and poets that was also the birthplace of Italian fascism.

The real Fiume lasted four years (1920-1924) – Sterling explores the possibility that it would have lasted longer with a little help from the US. The story follows Lorenzo Secondari, the “Pirate Engineer” who is a hardcore Futurist with dreams of building remote-controlled flying torpedoes and other high-tech military weapons. As he and his fellow Futurists make plans for Fiume’s greatness on the world stage, Sterling rearranges the chess board so that certain future world leaders get sidelined early and a team of US spies (which includes Harry Houdini, HP Lovecraft and Robert E Howard) comes calling with plans for a grand alliance.

There’s not much story here, and I would really recommend spending some time Googling “Futurism” and “Fiume” as a prerequisite if you’re going to get past the surface. But it’s a fun dive into gonzo authoritarian politics that feels even more relevant in 2020 than it probably did in 2016 when it came out – so much so that Sterling’s deceptively light-hearted and cartoonish take on violent proto-fascist militarism might put some readers off. Meanwhile, there’s also entertainment value in trying to figure out how much of this is true vs how much is made up. If nothing else, you’ll learn about an obscure slice of post-WW1 history. Credit also to the Futurist-inspired art design from British illustrator John Coulthart.

[Nostalgia Reader]

DNF at 39%

The premise sounded very intriguing--pirates in a violently noir-ish Futurism ruled alternate history! Yes please!

Sadly, the world building just didn't do it for me. It wasn't exactly Sterling's writing style, it was the way that he seemed to try and cram WAY too much world-building and background info into the first two chapters, leaving little room for us to really get to know the characters. The background itself, as it was presented, wasn't very clear and while I started to understand the motivations for actions, it never felt engaging or interesting to me. I don't really know anything about this niche in history but it sounds interesting. However, I don't think that a fiction (that's supposedly supposed to be slightly satirical) is the way to learn it.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review!

(Cross posted on my blog.)

[Rachel Ashera Rosen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really know what to make of this. On the one hand, it hits nearly every one of my special interests and is a fascinating alternate history of a period I'm fascinated by. On the other hand, it's written very much in the style of Futurist writing in translation—as breathless and stuttering as a turn-of-the-century automobile. Which is cool, but frustrating to read. It's more of a "hey this scenario could have happened if D'Annunzio's takeover of Fiume had lasted more than 15 months," and less of a story. However, I'm particularly interested in things like "why did so many initially anarchist Futurists embrace fascism?" and it deals with these kinds of questions. One of those books where the back matter is just as interesting as the story itself.

I'd love to see an actual story set in this alternate universe, and maybe there will be one. As it is, this is a quick and interesting read but more of a thought experiment than an actual narrative.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the Adriatic coast after the Great War, a pirate utopia arises, full of poets and writers and one engineer, determined to power their way into the future in a hail of radio controlled torpedoes and huge biplanes, stealing everything in sight. A grand, romantic, fascistic vision of a technological world to come. An alternative history based on a real fledgling pirate state about politics and government increasingly unmoored from reality, driven by visionaries and raving madmen. This is obviously will be of no relevance to the present.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brisk, erudite, occasionally opaque but ceaselessly entertaining alt-history centered on the disputed Italian/Croatian city of Fiume, which was briefly an independent republic after WWI. Sterling conflates the allure of SF with the allure of Fascism to good effect, and it's always fun when Bob and Howard show up.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)
Extra points for the compelling futurist art used throughout. Haunting. And I particularly enjoyed the interviews at the end describing the actual historical events that inspired this alternate history. The satire itself? Well, I found it a bit too gentle be memorable. Perhaps it's the current insane circus of politics America finds itself in.

[Peter Aronson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd little piece of alternate history. I might have liked it more if any of the characters were at all likable.

[Queen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Farcical dieselpunk pulp. This book is all "tell" and no "show."

[Kate (Looking Glass Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review originally found on Looking Glass Reads.

Pirate Utopia is an alternate history novel by Bruce Sterling, an author and editor who helped define the cyberpunk genre. I was very excited to see this title. Despite my love of cyberpunk, it was the term pirate that had me hooked. Add in the alternate history and cool cover I was sold.

Was my excitement premature?

Unfortunately, yes.

Pirate Utopia is an alternate history novel and falls well within speculative fiction. There is nothing more speculative than the possibility of Hitler and Mussolini never rising to power and the Futurists slowly taking over Italy. This is a very interesting concept set in an often overlooked place at an important time in history. However, I do have mixed feelings about the setting chosen in general. Not many people can recite the happenings of 1920s Fiume, a real place which did see an attempted take over, off the tops of their heads. This makes the story less accessible as an alternate history than many others simply because the original historical happenings are too niche. Actual history and alternate history can get tangled easily in the mind of the reader whereas a broader topic like Hitler never rising to power or a dragon being discovered during the California gold rush doesn't have this issue.

The characters within the novel are, largely, all based on actual historical people. Many are changed – sometimes slightly, sometimes a little more drastically – from their historical counterparts. The majority are rather bold. All seem very confident in their beliefs and their vision for the future.

Secondari, the main character, was one I did like quite a bit. He was a bit more realistic than a lot of the other very philosophically minded characters. All he wants to do is build missiles. While he does support, or at least sympathize with The Prophet's cause, he definitely comes across as being more obviously capable in matters of warfare, technology, and mass production. One thing I did like was when the story opens and Secondari says he knows he was killed on the battlefield that day (or something to that effect). It is a nod to the fact that the real Secondari was actually killed in action, and a nod to the book being an alternate history in general.

Pirate Utopia is a short book. Too short. Just as the story gets away from the overarching politics of the region and returns to the personal life of Secondari, it ends. New plots involving Secondari’s background and the Widow’s husband are opened up. New characters are introduced. And then everything just stops. Honestly, I turned the page expecting another chapter and found only afterwords and interviews. Few of the plots are wrapped up in any meaningful way, the readers instead left to imagine the world the Futurists are building for themselves.

Not only that, but the novel itself is very short. While I don't have an exact word count, the length feels more akin to a novella than a novel. There are only six chapters within Pirate Utopia. Between there are pages of illustrations. The illustrations themselves are very wonderful, and I must commend John Coulthart, the illustrator. However, the placement and number did make it feel as if the illustrations served more to lengthen the novel than to further the storytelling.

As for the material included at the end of the book, they were all well written, enjoyable, and added a great deal to the reading experience. However, they were rather essential to the plot, providing information on the Futurists, real world characters, and some information on Fiume itself along with an interview with the author. Now, the author does touch on why the book ends when it does within the interview. Personally, though, I find this more of an inherent issue with the novel rather than an interesting anecdote. Overall, I found the end very lacking.

Overall, I was disappointed by this book. Pirate Utopia held a lot of promise and was a book I was really looking forward to reading. Despite finding the real life and alternate history happenings very fascinating and having characters that I genuinely cared about, the story as a whole just fell flat. You can give this book a try if you do enjoy alternate history or early 20th century history, just be ready for a very abrupt ending to an otherwise decent tale.