The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day. Struggling to survive and thrive in this accelerated world are three generations of the Macx clan: Manfred, an entrepreneur dealing in intelligence amplification technology whose mind is divided between his physical environment and the Internet; his daughter, Amber, on the run from her domineering mother, seeking her fortune in the outer system as an indentured astronaut; and Sirhan, Amber's son, who finds his destiny linked to the fate of all of humanity.
For something is systematically dismantling the nine planets of the solar system. Something beyond human comprehension. Something that has no use for biological life in any form...
The book is heavy with technobabble that's quite dated by now, as others have already mentioned. I didn't even manage to read through the first story before having to give up. Sad, as it looked like this book got some interesting ideas.
Might give it a new go in the future if I find the patience to handle the crazy.
I really liked this book! The level of worldbuilding is unparalleled and this take on the far future was really interesting. If you're a fan of post singularity speculation and transhumanism then you will absolutely enjoy this book!
The only reason I didn't give it a 5 was me being a little nitpicky as far as the characters were concerned. They all seem a little flat and unemotional to me, mostly due to the detached writing style I feel. Also, while the breadth of the story greatly benefits from following multiple generations it means the reader isn't as attached to the characters.
Das erste Buch von Charles Stross, das ich gelesen hab - und bin begeistert. Alles Andere als leichte Kost, hab ziemlich lange dafür gebraucht, aber ist es wert.
Die meisten Ideen kennt man eigentlich schon aus anderer SciFi, aber Stross schafft es die noch um ein Stückchen weiter zu denken - oft mit überraschenden Ergebnissen. Dazu Unmengen an Referenzen und Anspielungen, trotzdem nur selten solch längliche Erklärungen wie man sie von Neal Stephenson kennt.
Und bisher erstaunlich gut gealtert - das Buch stammt von 2005 - und hat als ein zentrales Thema KI - was jetzt -18 Jahre später - gerade ein Hype ist.
Und die Katze :)
Kurz: Ich will mehr davon.
Amazing book and given it was published 2005 it is more on point than ever. The futuristic aspects from the beginning feel like only some years away from now while containing some nostalgia like terms as 'slashdoted'. And it contains cats.
Accelerando is a good book. I think it's fair to say it's part cyberpunk, but it is less oppressively dystopian, it is more deep time, and more fun. Compared, of course, to what I have experienced as cyberpunk.
It touches on a lot of deep questions, but either doesn't delve deeply into them, or sort of does, but doesn't force any answers on you. And, unlike a lot of similarly "grand questions" fiction (I'm looking at you, early Neal Stephenson novels), it has a satisfying ending.
Nice showcase of some future technologies and how these could affect our life. But not a lot more than that.
And the writing sucks.
I'm kind of conflicted about this book. Some really clever ideas and certainly on the cyberpunk tip, and the prose was great, but ultimately, I feel like the story got lost and I sort of had to force my way to the end. I will definitely try more of Stross's work.
At its best, this book is a wonderfully imaginative "what if?" that takes the ideas of posthumanists/accelerationists/singularitarians seriously enough to think through how unappealing their future might actually be. But much of the time I found myself struggling through too much density of jargon, pseudo-physics and sci-fi cliches to enjoy it.
At its best, this book is a wonderfully imaginative "what if?" that takes the ideas of posthumanists/accelerationists/singularitarians seriously enough to think through how unappealing their future might actually be. But much of the time I found myself struggling through too much density of jargon, pseudo-physics and sci-fi cliches to enjoy it.
Stross starts strong, with a believable vision of the future. Sadly, the story he starts yo spin is more or less completely thrown out the window at the end, and we're left without any closure or resolution.
Very hard to read due to a lot of technobabble. Interesting take on an information-oriented future, far beyond.
Even better than Glasshouse in its portrayal of a technological singularity. I have no idea how many of the concepts were invented by Stross himself, but if you are at all interested in the pace of technological advances and a vision of where it could one day lead: this is your book.
But be prepared: it's nerdy, the vocabulary can become quite technical and the weirdness factor is rather high. This book needs a lot of concentration, definitely not an easy read but very worthwhile.
Quite difficult reading. I liked it, however, I got lost sometimes.
Kind of weird, but good weird. This was recommended to me after I requested solid fiction about the Singularity, and it delivered. Extra points awarded for the cybernetic transhuman (transfeline?) cat as an important character. Slight demerit for a strangely-underplayed rape scene in the first chapter and a hilariously-inaccurate representation of BDSM.
I liked the middle of this book a lot. I thought the first few chapters were hard to follow and the ending was anticlimactic... and I didn't really bother trying to grok a lot of the legal/economic stuff, which in any case was I think meant to be incomprehensible. I feel like this book has a lot of overlap with [a:Greg Egan|32699|Greg Egan|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-e07624dc012f2cce49c7d9aa6500c6c0.jpg] (especially [b:Permutation City|156784|Permutation City|Greg Egan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1287341300s/156784.jpg|1270567] and [b:Schild's Ladder|156780|Schild's Ladder|Greg Egan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172264160s/156780.jpg|151292]), and that generally I find Egan's take a little more interesting.
It was a smart, engaging read and full of pleasant little pop-culture references. Felt …
Kind of weird, but good weird. This was recommended to me after I requested solid fiction about the Singularity, and it delivered. Extra points awarded for the cybernetic transhuman (transfeline?) cat as an important character. Slight demerit for a strangely-underplayed rape scene in the first chapter and a hilariously-inaccurate representation of BDSM.
I liked the middle of this book a lot. I thought the first few chapters were hard to follow and the ending was anticlimactic... and I didn't really bother trying to grok a lot of the legal/economic stuff, which in any case was I think meant to be incomprehensible. I feel like this book has a lot of overlap with [a:Greg Egan|32699|Greg Egan|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-e07624dc012f2cce49c7d9aa6500c6c0.jpg] (especially [b:Permutation City|156784|Permutation City|Greg Egan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1287341300s/156784.jpg|1270567] and [b:Schild's Ladder|156780|Schild's Ladder|Greg Egan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172264160s/156780.jpg|151292]), and that generally I find Egan's take a little more interesting.
It was a smart, engaging read and full of pleasant little pop-culture references. Felt surprisingly short for 400+ pages. I definitely plan on reading some of his other books.
