A masterpiece of alternative history, the cornerstone of the steampunk subculture ("steam punk"), the only example of the full co-creation of two genre revolutionaries who are close to the framework of any genre The Difference Machine is a large-scale, polyphonic panorama of a world in which, simultaneously with the industrial revolution, the information revolution took place, so that the computer appeared a century earlier than it had been put. A world in which Charles Babbage built his difference machine, and power from the aristocracy was intercepted by radical lords led by Byron Peace , in which palaeontologists-catastrophes fiercely argue with uniformitarians, Karl Marx-led commune took power in New York City, computing power is measured by the total length of engagement of copper gears, London is in danger of an environmental disaster, and Luddite rebels provide conspiracy theorists with rich food for thought…