A little bit about me

Charles Stross once again delivers a romping good read. Cramming in a good number of the current trendy terms and concepts from the singularist camp, Accelerando is a fast forward look at what might happen if the computers do take over. Uploading into the net, external mental components, ability to fork yourself into multiple versions, these are the wet dreams of the technorati. The cat as the family curse is a nice subplot, but does seem a bit Deus Ex Machine; the whole story being centered around the machines does tend to lend itself to those sorts of plot devices however. The idea of a robotic cat that is upgradable really is a nice extension of the Aibo and other products currently on the market. The idea put forth of a Matrioshka brain instead of a Dyson Sphere as the final outcome of a solar system that has uploaded itself is very compelling. Given the change from consuming all resources to support the human form, to consuming all resources to support the virtual worlds, ...

Once again Mr. Stross delivers an excellent read. Following our protagonists from their strange and divergent starting points, through their journeys and ending up at a common meeting point was quite the ride. The only down-side was that the bad guys feel a little too much like Nazis. Calling them the Remastered makes sense, but still sounds a little too much like the Master Race to me. On the plus side, having an AI as the Deus ex is vastly amusing and handled very well. Knowing that there is something watching through time to keep humans in line really helps drive some of the more subtle parts of the story. The view of technology in the future is also quite excellent and deep. From implants that allow you to talk to the computer network and get e-mail in your head to the young girl noticing that hers are no where near state of the art compared to those on the plant she arrives at give a good insight into the future of strange and personal technology. Throwing in biotechnology as ...

I have to say I really enjoyed the read. The book is easy to get into and the lead character fun to follow. That being said, I must warn you that if you are not fluent in English (British English) the writing will likely go right past you. Mr. Stross writes strongly but in very colloquial English. As we follow our hero Bob through his dreary and drab existence as a civil servant in the great British hierarchy of civil services things are not always quite as they appear. Bob works for a branch of the government so secret that it is a crime to know they exist. What do these secret civil servants do? They guard the rest of the world from the other worlds out there. Citing as inspiration H.P. Lovecraft and Len Deighton, the book is a delightful trip through the mazes of politics and intrigue in the civil services of England with side trips into higher mathematics, physics and the occult thrown in. I can't really review some of the best parts of the book with 0ut providing seriou...