Current Reading

This could be viewed as a post-Accelerando novel (the term "Acceleration" ist used for what it usually called "the Singularity" by other authors), but there is no strong link otherwise. Stross explores the problem of identity and character in a society where bodies can be changed and duplicated at will, where dozens of copies of the same soldier form a regiment, where unwanted memory are regularly purged, and where unvoluntary memory redaction is a primary way of warfare.

The whole story is a mix of prison story, milgram experiment, and stepford wives. It reads quite fast (it took me less than 24 hours to read the 380 pages), even if parts are somewhat depressing -- the viewpoint character has to cope with memories of war crimes, both observed and comitted.

What I most dislike about the book is the end; it comes too abruptly and does not satisfy. The motiviation of the characters is unconvincing, but the technology ("T-gates" and "A-gates") is fun.

It took me some time to finish this book. It really immersed me into the time period (most of the book is in the 1939-1942 period, with a few flashbacks of the early 30s and the final chapters playing 1954), and it gave good insight into the frentic activity of the "golden age" comic book phenomenon, it's authors, artists, and producers -- people who were creating a new form of expression, without really knowing it.

What to say? Go buy and read it.

A small book, but a tough read. Stilistically over-pretentuous, it is quite a lot more "work" to read than "Kavalier and Clay", and much less fun.

So this is the new Vinge. Playing in the very near future, it tries to extrapolate recent trends, using the viewpoint character of an old man cured from Alzheimer, whose last complete memories are from 2006, and who now lears how to live in 2026.

The reviewers are right, it is not as good as "Old Man's War". But still, it is a good enough read.

This was actually quite fun. The author doesn't take the himself or the story too seriously, and manages to create a quite absurd military - horror - "end of days" adventure story.

Oh my. One wants to know how he manages to lead his fleet home, but still, the story is nothing to write home about. Still, if you like the Harrington books, you will find these good enough.

The lead characters are interesting persons, but the story doesn't advance very far in this first volume of a new series. Let's wait how the second part (Legacy) turns out.