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Singularity Sky
The main idea of the story, that a semi-sentient information-gathering alien system called the Festival comes to a backward farming planet and begins granting wishes -- in the form of advanced technology -- in exchange for stories and information, is only the seedbed for the larger exploration of the societally backward planetary system and what happens when the revolution you hoped to lead finally comes and it doesn't need you.
As a lifelong reader of science fiction, I hate that most SF is just as backward-looking as most Fantasy. Part of the problem with recent SF work is that we've come to a point in science where a lot of what made science fiction new has been done and what's coming is almost impossible to imagine, which I'll get to in a second. Space exploration can still be exciting but most new space stuff has been infected with the Star Trek Syndrome, as I call it, where everyone is boring and has no flaws, and the status quo rules. People just don't look to space exploration as exciting in real life so that translates to the SF work that people do. Real life science is changing so fast that it leaves even science fiction people in the dust. The result is the rise of 'Fantasy with robots and aliens' and 'Space Opera,' two facets of SF that seem to be dominating the landscape. Even Neal Stephenson, who was at the forefront of real technological future SF with The Diamond Age and Snow Crash has gone backward with Quicksilver and to a lesser extent Cryptonomicon.
The issue is The Singularity. This is Vernor Vinge's idea that technological progress proceeds at an exponential rate until there is a complete break with what came before. The End Of History, as people call it. This comes with the creation of a human-level AI that quickly proceeds past human-level, the invention of Upload technology that will allow us to live in computer systems and artificial bodies, something of that nature that we can't imagine. The problem with writing futuristic work in the time before a Singularity is that you can't see beyond it. Everything is different, so much so that all we can hope for is the fire up our imaginations to the point where we can begin to think in new ways.
One of the main goals of science fiction as I see it is to prepare us for the future. You can't hope to cope with the future if you've never been innoculated with new ideas. Singularity Sky is one of the first post-Singularity novels I've read that takes the idea seriously and examines it, allowing us to open our minds to the vast possibilities. Stross doesn't shy away from it like so many others. He uses the Festival's coming to show the speed of the change that comes with a technological Singularity and what happens to people in the aftermath. He also shows a culture trying desperately to hang on to old ways and the futility of doing that in the face of such rapid change.
There are problems with the book, mostly in the perennial bugbear of science-fiction, character development, but the rush of ideas glossed over that for me. This is only Mr. Stross's second book, I believe, the first being a collection of short stories called Toast: And Other Rusted Futures, that is high on my Must Read list. Charles Stross is a name that you will hopefully hear a lot more from in the coming years. His imagination is up there with the best and brightest and with his work as an accelerant my mind can't help but burn with new ideas. I hope more science fiction writers see this book and decide to move forward to meet him.
You can purchase Singularity Sky from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
finally, *I* get to have FP...
[move
Well, now I'm depressed after reading the first paragraph. Do I dare read the entire review?
Damn you Piers.
I have found out that I can satisfy my addiction also by smoking dope. However, pot is seriously illegal where I live and getting it means having to deal with the organized crime. I'm not talking about potheads selling dope, but hardcore people who expect you to switch to heroin/meth after a few tries of pot.
This fucking sucks!
ween in teh coconut, and you move it up and down.
Better luck next time there, loooooser.
Cal, you are so witty, you almost erase my LSD hallucinations; however, continue with your work because it has yet to attain any analytical rigor.
Your editorials are a waste of newspaper space.
Courtesy of Christian Values
Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas:
* Did we really think that "no-fault" divorce would bring no consequences to kids who take their parents' rejection personally?
* Why is it that the National Education Association is pro-choice on abortion but anti-choice on where those children fortunate enough to have been born should go to school?
* Homo-sexuals should not be censored, but neither should those who oppose their point of view. That's called free speech.
* One mark of a deteriorating society is when people cannot discern between truth and lies. Another is that they don't care and will believe whatever their itching ears want to hear.
* If there is disorder in the culture, it merely reflects the disorder in our souls.
* Liberal Democrats care about the homeless as much as Palestinian 'leaders" care about refugees. In both cases, people are used as political tools to achieve the aspirations and enhance the power of their exploiters.
* The world may have changed in fifty years, but standards such as integrity and virtue are timeless. A President's job is to call citizens to something higher and better than themselves.
* No power on earth is greater than a mind and soul reawakened. Our Constitution begins "We the people," not "us the government."
* Government has a legitimate function, but the private sector has one too, and it is superior. In other words, people are better than institutions.
* America's most dangerous diseases have developed an immunity to politics. We suffer not from a failure of political organization or power, but a failure of love. Our most pressing problem isn't the federal deficit, but a deficit of time and attention that parents give their children and each other. In violent streets and broken homes, the cry of anguished souls is not for more laws but for more conscience and character.
I recommend the Dune (and the subsequent books).