DNF. While short, it took ages to get going. I didn't stick around long enough to see where it went. The concept was really cool, but I just didn't connect with it.

While the idea (and the cover) is interesting and the setting magnificent, I could not connect t0 either the story or the characters.

[Note: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.]
I have now read some literature from Bruce Sterling and I have to say that, whereas the preconditions were always interesting (previously read books were "The difference engine" and "Love is strange"), the result did not appeal to me particularly.
So, in the end, this is the first Sterling's book I really appreciated, maybe due to the fact that it exploits a misknown fact in the Italian XX century history (even at high school there is usually no time to go through this), i.e. the establishment of the Free State of Fiume.
Sterling mixes virtuously real and imaginary characters (and sometimes the real ones are weirder than the imaginary ones) in a novelette, which is probably more a dystopian divertissement.
However he succeed in bringing life to this set of characters, leaving altogether the reader to try to imagine how this would have gone if this was true.

I DNF'd at 48%. I've kept trying to go back to it and start over, but I don't think this is the book for me because I feel as if those who are already familiar with 1920s Italy might find Sterling's interpretation of it wry and humorous, but for those of us, like me, who don't have that grounding are a little lost.

I loved the politics in this but not much happened.

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.

Lorenzo Secondari, veteran of the first World War and engineering genius, is a leader of the futurist revolution in the diminutive Adriatic port of Fiume! Together with Frau Piffer, a manufacturer of torpedoes in a women-run and women-owned factory, The Ace of Hearts, a sympathetic aristocrat and spymaster, and the Prophet, a womanizing warrior poet, they overthrow communism and capitalism in favor of free love, art, and poetry.

As SF alternate history, it is refreshing to read a story based on a lesser-known, localized event, instead of WWII. More of the story than you would expect is true, with elements of mood-setting and imaginative dieselpunk, including aerial torpedoes, mass produced single-shot pistols, the F-ray, trenchcoats, futurist uniforms, biplanes, and titles like, “Minister of Vengeance Weapons”. Hitler, Mussolini, Houdini, and Lovecraft all make some sort of pulpy appearance.

Together with the propaganda-style artwork and the title, I expected much more of a light-hearted character-driven romp. Instead, the reader is presented with a slow-moving plot and dense prose. None of the characters are immediately engaging, although Secondari dies on the battlefield and is brought back to life with advanced seance techniques, and he has a special admiration for Frau Piffer. But the more I think about the story, the more I like it. It’s smart but aloof. It’s a philosophical idea. This is what happens when an art revolution has the impetus and resources of technology and engineering.

Included with the novella is a transcript of an author interview, a short account of the true history of Fiume, and an artist statement regarding the works that open and close each chapter. I recommend reading these first, as they provide a lot of context and appreciation for the work. As Bruce Sterling is better known for his hard science fiction, I am excited to start reading his other works.

Recommended for Dieselpunk fans and history buffs!

Y acabamos con Pirate Utopia, una novela que me llamó la atención por su autor, Bruce Sterling, autor de sobras conocido mundialmente pero del qué todavía no había leído nada. Así, que viendo la oportunidad en Netgalley, me lancé a por él sin pensarlo teniendo la fortuna de conseguir una copia avanzada. Por desgracia, y como ya he dejado caer al principio de la entrada, el libro no ha cumplido con las expectativas que tenía sobre el autor.

Como bien indica el título, nos encontramos con una Utopía Pirata, término del que por cierto yo desconocía, y que se utiliza para describir pequeñas islas o lugares donde se han formado mini sociedades autónomas o protoanarquistas existentes fuera de los reinos y gobiernos de un país. Así nos encontramos dentro de una de estas sociedades, siguiendo a Frau Piffer, un veterano de la I Guerra Mundial y ahora sindicalista de una fábrica de Torpedos, con la única visión y obsesión de extender su magnífica sociedad al resto del mundo.

El problema principal con esta novela corta, es que creo que se ha quedado corta, dejando una historia contada a medias y con un final abrupto. Dejándome con una sensación rara de quizá no haber entendido realmente qué nos quería contar el autor. La sociedad en sí, su gente y cómo se organizan, me ha parecido interesante y divertido, con estereotipos de gente libertaria, dictadores y personajes que suelen aparecer en este tipo de sociedades, muy exagerados pero que resultan perfectos para la historia.

Otro de los detalles que antes de empezar a leer me gustó pero que al final no acabé de entender, es el uso de personajes históricos de la época en el que se sitúa, desde Hitler o Mussolini hasta HP Lovecraft o Robert E. Howard, el cuál parece que el autor ha utilizado simplemente por la gracia de ponerlos allí con otros roles y situaciones que por un motivo específico y con sentido para la historia,

Aún así, no es un libro que me haya disgustado del todo, y del cuál la brevedad del mismo ayuda a digerir mejor que si hubiera sido una historia más larga. Además al final del libro viene con unos extras que ayuda a poner más en contexto la historia y el propósito del autor para esta novela, y que quizá hubiera sido mejor leerla antes de entrar en la novela en sí.

En definitiva, no es una novela que pueda recomendar, pero que quizá pueda interesar al que le haya picado la curiosidad sobre este tipo de sociedad y ver los destinos e historias paralelas inventadas por Bruce Sterling de estos personajes históricos conocidos.

NOTA: 2 / 5

I start by saying that I am not a huge fan of Sterling's writing, that I find often simplistic up to seem hasty. The idea behind this ucronic novel is very good: to tell the 16 months of the rebellion of Fiume town led by Gabriele d'Annunzio, and the kind of social experiment that happened in those months. Praiseworthy initiative, since many events of our more or less recent history have been too easily forgotten, but the prose of Sterling really doesn't help, reducing everything to a series of sketches, in which the words Futurism, corporatism, plus other assorted isms, are used by way of trusted servant to hold together the narrative. I still found it funny and irreverent the castration of Mussolini at the hands of an ex-wife who decides to shoot him in the balls, and due the self-immolation of Adolf Hitler to save a communist comrade.
Thank Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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_State_of_Fiume), 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_utopia)

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.