Charles Stross: Accelerando

Accelerando mixes the cosmic scale of Stephen Baxter's Manifold series with the transhuman glee of Cory Doctorow. The book begins with Manfred Macx, living in 2010, somewhat transhuman, yet quite understandable. Flip flop goes time and we're looking at Amber Macx, Manfred's daughter, whose augmented and implanted mind is a lot harder to understand and her life in simulation spaces something far beyond ours. Then there's the third generation, living in post-singular world completely unlike our own.

It's an amazing novel, full of brilliant ideas and incomprehensible transhuman ways of life. There's an arc, but as the novel is made of nine linked novellas previously published separately, the plot isn't the strongest point (if you want transhumans and singularity with a strong plot, Glasshouse is an excellent choice). It doesn't matter, because the barrage of ideas is so strong and tempting.

There's an obscene amount of praise for this book, and I can see why. I enjoyed it, though I admit it wasn't able to keep my attention all the time - parts of it were a tad long-winded. Still, the sheer audacity of the book is something worth experiencing. Accelerando could be new Neuromancer, a visionary novel that keeps on being referenced. If you want a glimpse of one possible transhuman post-singularity reality, read this book.

Accelerando is available as a free download at Accelerando web site. Accelerando Technical Companion helps with the wacky technical concepts - only a real nerd can read Accelerando without needing to google stuff. [ Accelerando at Amazon.co.uk ] [ Accelerando at LibraryThing ]