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It's a sci-fi book (younger target audience, but fun nevertheless) about a future where everyone is connected to an overcomercialized version of the internet via a direct brain implant. You think pop-ups are bad. Check it out.

Feed, by M.T. Anderson. Review

JGG

...and William Gibson, called The Difference Engine. I recommend it, it's a fascinating idea, which is basically: what if computer became available much earlier, in the form of mechanical computers--they would take up entire factory buildings, and people would essentially become experts at creating these ornate ivory punchcards (if I remember correctly...). Actually, I should really pick it up and read it again.

No kidding? Really? I would never have guessed.

Satire's one thing. The problem is, the movie was incompetent satire, not "brilliant". Others have done it much better.

He is Charles Stross, an up and coming sci-fi author.

Indeed. It's good to see Mr. Stross's name once in a while.

Hey Charlie, remember D. West?

For those of you who aren't familiar, Charles Stross is one of Britain's hot young SF writers. Check out the novel "Singularity Sky," from Ace Books.

For more instant gratification, try this.

If anybody is interested in seeing a glimpse of what this author can produce, his short story "A Colder War" is available online for free at http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.ht m.

This story is one of the best I've ever read, and it's the only work of fiction I have ever encountered, on paper or on the screen, that actually managed to give me nightmares. Go read it if you haven't!

This reminds me of Hugo Award winning Sci-fi author Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. In it, a group of space travellers enter a solar system with bewildering astronomical phenomena, one of which was the lack of any asteroids except for mile wide diamonds.

Hi! I find it interesting that googling for "Atwood deliberately mutilates words" comes up with a result in Google! In fact, those couple of sentences are ripped directly from this much more complete review. Nice try though!

I'm reminded of Stephen Baxter's Raft [linked: much earlier short story draft], which takes place in a universe where the gravitational constant is thousands of times higher, humans produce noticable gravity wells, life is concentrated into breathable nebulas, and the black holes at the centers of these nebulas produce such wildly intricate tidal forces that "gravitic chemistry" occurs on the surfaces of their accretion disks. (Fact-check me as needed.) Coasting by one of these black holes, the characters even find intelligent gravitic life.

• Greg Egan
• Iain (M.) Banks
• Alistair Reynolds
• Ken MacLeod
• Richard Morgan
• Peter F. Hamilton
• Plus one of the old masters back at work: M. John Harrison

Anyone see the similarity between this an the savants in Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky"?

Scary.

I'm shocked.

Here is a result that is pretty good if you know the author of the phrase.

Folks interested in nanotech run wild should check out Bloom, by Will McCarthy. His vision is far more complex and beautiful than mere "Grey Goo." Solar/heat powered nanites, or mycora in this context, floating in self organizing clouds around the inner planets with all sorts of emergant behaviors. An excellent read.

...check out the latest issue of the excellent Infinity Plus (which should be on any SF-loving /.er's favourites list anyway.) There is an interview with Mary and a short story of hers, also with Burgundian overtones but not directly related to ASH.

(As an aside, I concur with this article. ASH is an excellent book and well worth the effort if you have the attention span and upper body strength to handle it.)