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Book review: Accelerando
Jun. 23rd, 2007 10:50 pmToday's book review is Accelerando by Charles Stross.
This novel is a vision of the Singularity -- that notion that if we track the progress of technology, we appear to be headed for a vertical asymptote sometime in the next century or so. It's jam-packed with brilliant and nutty ideas (and which are which is an exercise for the reader). I felt like the ball in a mental pinball game, which took some getting used to at first, but once I got into it, it was great fun, except when the horror of the future he paints takes over. The events in the story are so alien, the structure of the plot and the narrative so weird, that it's very hard to really identify with the characters; the examination of the human condition is, in a strangely effective way, more on the level of the whole species than on the few characters. But it works, at least to a degree, and it gives the reader a great deal to think about, as good SF should.
It's hard to say if it's supposed to be a cautionary tale or if I'm just hopelessly provincial in my pre-Singularity attitudes, but I find the general thrust of his future frighteningly believable. Start from a few assumptions about the nature of consciousness and what's technologically possible -- assumptions that one may not accept, but which we're working toward testing -- and the literally cosmic ramifications aren't merely within the range of suspension of disbelief, they're almost inevitable.
( plot summary and spoilery commentary )
Definitely a must-read for folks seriously interested in the Singularity (even if you ignore the character interactions, the technological speculation is amazing). Extremely hard to put a rating on; this book will not appeal to everyone, both for style and for disturbing content. But I did enjoy it. 9 out of 10.
This novel is a vision of the Singularity -- that notion that if we track the progress of technology, we appear to be headed for a vertical asymptote sometime in the next century or so. It's jam-packed with brilliant and nutty ideas (and which are which is an exercise for the reader). I felt like the ball in a mental pinball game, which took some getting used to at first, but once I got into it, it was great fun, except when the horror of the future he paints takes over. The events in the story are so alien, the structure of the plot and the narrative so weird, that it's very hard to really identify with the characters; the examination of the human condition is, in a strangely effective way, more on the level of the whole species than on the few characters. But it works, at least to a degree, and it gives the reader a great deal to think about, as good SF should.
It's hard to say if it's supposed to be a cautionary tale or if I'm just hopelessly provincial in my pre-Singularity attitudes, but I find the general thrust of his future frighteningly believable. Start from a few assumptions about the nature of consciousness and what's technologically possible -- assumptions that one may not accept, but which we're working toward testing -- and the literally cosmic ramifications aren't merely within the range of suspension of disbelief, they're almost inevitable.
( plot summary and spoilery commentary )
Definitely a must-read for folks seriously interested in the Singularity (even if you ignore the character interactions, the technological speculation is amazing). Extremely hard to put a rating on; this book will not appeal to everyone, both for style and for disturbing content. But I did enjoy it. 9 out of 10.