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Accelerando
by Charles Stross
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780441014156 |
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
Struggling to survive and thrive in this accelerated world are three generations of the Macx clan: Manfred, an entrepreneur dealing in intelligence amplification technology whose mind is divided between his physical environment and the Internet; his daughter, Amber, on the run from her domineering mother, seeking her fortune in the outer system as an indentured astronaut; and Sirhan, Amber's son, who finds his destiny linked to the fate of all of humanity.
For something is systematically dismantling the nine planets of the solar system. Something beyond human comprehension. Something that has no use for biological life in any form...
Review:
"Stross (Singularity Sky) explores humanity's inability to cope with molecular nanotechnology run amok in this teeming near-future SF stand-alone. In part one, 'Slow Takeoff,' 'free enterprise broker' Manfred Macx and his soon-to-be-estranged wife/dominatrix, Pamela, lay the foundation for the next decade's transhumans. In 'Point of Inflection,' Amber, their punky maladjusted teenage daughter, and Sadeq Khurasani, a Muslim judge, engineer and scholar, try to escape the social chaos that antiaging treatments have wreaked on Earth by riding a tin can — sized starship via nanocomputerization to a brown dwarf star called Hyundai. The Wunch, trade-delegation aliens evolved from uploaded lobster mentalities, and Macx's grandson, Sirhan, roister through 'Singularity,' in which people become cybernetic constructs. Stross's three-generation experiment in stream-of-artificial-consciousness impresses, but his flat characters and inchoate rapid-fire explosions of often muzzily related ideas, theories, opinions and nightmares too often resemble intellectual pyrotechnics — breathtakingly gaudy but too brief, leaving connections lost somewhere in outer/inner/cyber space. Agent, Caitlin Blasdell. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Joining the ranks of William Gibson (Neuromancer), Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash), and Bruce Sterling (Schismatrix), Stross fuses ideas and characters with cheerful abandon and creates a high-tech galactic adventure." Library Journal
Review:
"Cutting-edge science fiction from the brightest star in the new British invasion." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis:
Expanding on his award-winning short story cycle from "Asimov's Science Fiction" magazine, the Hugo Award-winning author of "Glasshouse" delivers a novel destined to change the genre.
About the Author
Charles Stross was born in Leeds, England in 1964. He holds degrees in pharmacy and computer science, and has worked in a variety of jobs including pharmacist, technical author, software engineer, and freelance journalist. He is now a full-time writer.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
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Nick Chapman, January 22, 2008 (view all comments by Nick Chapman)
Post-cyberpunk sci fi and a rollicking good read. Has a lot in common with some of Ken Macleod's outstanding stuff, but with a more over-the-top, humorous, space opera tone.
A lot of the ideas about technology and futurology are worthy of serious consideration.
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Richard Alsen, January 18, 2008 (view all comments by Richard Alsen)
certainly the most impressive book i've read which tackles the concept of the singularity. in a world characterized by progress accelerated to the nth degree, how do you describe a culture that's evolved beyond human comprehension? with incandescent prose - that's how. even if you don't buy stross's premise of hyper-intelligent machines deconstructing the mass of the solar system into computronium, it sure is fun to watch him describe it. his use of language is jaw-dropping. and while the far future he depicts is terrifying in its weirdness, he also manages to make it seem like a fun place to live. bring on the utility fog!
View all 2 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780441014156
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Ace Books
- Subject:
- Science Fiction - General
- Subject:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Subject:
- Science / High Tech
- Copyright:
- 2005
- Publication Date:
- July 2006
- Binding:
- Mass Market Paperbound
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 415
- Dimensions:
- 6.92x4.24x1.18 in. .45 lbs.
