Search - Accelerando

This was an exhausting, but rewarding, book to read. It is incredibly dense, with lots and LOTS of stuff going on at all times. I had to take breaks and read entire other books between spates of this one. The frenetic pace and sheer density of Cool Stuff in his worldbuilding reminded me of Neal Stephenson, especially Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon.

This was an odd novel... It clearly shows its roots as a series of connected short stories; each of the first three chapters especially --- they all have a clear narrative arc with satisfying conclusions when they finish. It isn't until later in the book that things start to actually look like a novel.

The book also has an odd metamorphosis, as the narrative starts in the near future and then moves along to post-singularity humanity. Kind of by definition, that means that I can relate to the people in the start of the book, but by the end there's so much hand-waving about how things work, that that ability to relate has faded significantly. It wound up giving me an odd response at the end of the book: while I was still very interested in the story, I really wanted it to hurry up and end!

Ultimately, it was a good read, and I think Stross actually did a good job extrapolating out what the future might hold, even if it is mostly hand-waving. He makes interesting characters (for the most part), and kept finding ways to keep his humans puzzling out their issues.

It wasn't my favorite Stross book, but it was solid. 4/5 stars.

Cutting edge high-tech Sci-fi, especially of interest to those who like computers and are interested in the Singularity.

This book starts off at an accelerated pace (yes, pun intended), and then keeps accelerating. I felt like I was on a bad carnival ride, and couldn't wait for it to stop.

The characters were relatively well done, with plenty to empathize with, but it kept getting more and more frantic, until I finally just gave up and stopped reading. It wasn't the writing style, but the introduction of new concepts and morphing of existing concepts to new ideas.

If you like this genre (not really science fiction, but maybe post-cyberpunk?), it is supposedly one of the best -- it won quite a few awards, and continues to be popular. Just remember to pace yourself; this was written as nine separate stories, and can be digested best bite-by-bite.

If you are more of a near-future science fiction lover, or you like to see how the worlds work (e.g. Niven's Ringworld), then I'd skip this book.