Accelerando by Charles Stross
Science Fiction is a literature of ideas, and Accelerando is a dozen Science Fiction books in one.¬† From the first few pages Stross bombards his readers with a barrage of ideas–he puts novel back in the novel. This book is dense like star stuff with scientific extrapolation. From self-replicating limited liability corporations to quantum copiers to AI-enhanced post-humans able to make copies of themselves to intelligent planet-dwarfing gas clouds, Stross takes his readers on a wild ride that makes William Gibson look relaxed by comparison. Here’s one little taste:
Welcome to the fourth decade [of the 21st century]. The thinking mass of the solar system now exceeds one MIPS per gram; it’s still pretty dumb, but it’s not dumb all over…Human cogitation provides about 1028 MIPS of the solar system’s brainpower. The real thinking is mostly done by a halo of a thousand trillion processors that surround the meat machines with a haze of computation–individually a tenth as powerful as a human brain, collectively they’re ten-thousand times more powerful, and their numbers are doubling every twenty million seconds…although there’s still a long way to go before the solar system is fully awake.
There’s a story here as well–several of them, actually. It reads like a group of novelettes with common characters and threads winding throughout. I read three of the five 2006 Hugo nominees for best novel, and this one was definitely the most fun, but only if you like your ideas fast and relentless.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Miko // Jan 13, 2007 at 8:30 am
hmm, I’ll have to check it out. I don’t usually go in for (non-Bradbury) anthologies, but if they’re vaguely related, it’s more like one big story
2 Seraphine // Jan 16, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Looks interesting–maybe I’ll go to the bookstore and page through it. It’s been awhile since I’ve read some good sci-fi.
3 John // Jan 17, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Oop, I wasn’t entirely clear–it’s a novel, just not the most tightly written one. It’s still a fun read.
Seraphine, what SF have you read in the past that you’ve enjoyed?
4 Seraphine // Jan 20, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I forgot I had commented on this thread, and only now got back to it, so sorry for the delay. I’ve read quite a bit of William Gibson, and I like him. Ursula K. LeGuin’s Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are two of my favorite SF books.
I actually read a lot more fantasy than I do SF, so if you have any other SF recommendations, let me know.
5 John // Jan 20, 2007 at 11:00 pm
LeGuin is almost a Remy household goddess. We all read A Wizard of Earthsea together, and Left Hand of Darkness is one of my favorites. Jana just read The Dispossessed, so that is on my nightstand. Have you read anything by Connie Willis?
What fantasy do you read?
6 Seraphine // Jan 23, 2007 at 12:30 am
No, I haven’t. Is she someone you’d recommend?
Lately I’ve been readng George R.R. Martin and Kate Eliot. I’ve been reading Robert Jordan’s series since it started, but I got kind of exasperated with the series for awhile (but I just can’t stop a series once I’ve started it). I used to read a lot of Melanie Rawn, but she’s only published one book in the recent past. Robin McKinley is always great (her latest book, Sunshine, while a vampire book rather than pure fantasy, was fabulous), and I grew up on Tolkien. I’ve read a lot of other authors, though I read less fantasy these days than I used to (there’s just too much reading for school).
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