Having recently finished reading my first Charles Stross novel, Glasshouse, which purports to be a loose sequel to Accelerando, I was keen to read this story to get some more information about the posthuman universe featured in both books.

Rather than strain my already bursting bookshelves further than necessary, I elected to read the freely available e-book version directly from my computer screen. I always find it somewhat more difficult to read books in this format, which probably helps to explain why I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Glasshouse. I found it to be a very interesting and thought-provoking story although quite confusing in places due to the sheer volume of new ideas that were being presented at every turn (exacerbated by the difficulty of reading on-screen without too much skimming).

With these two novels under my belt, I'm certainly keen to read more of what Charles Stross has to offer. ( )

This book contains some really interesting ideas on posthumanity, but also drags a little in the plot department at points. ( )

Wow! I have never had a single book make me feel so uncomfortable and unsure of the future. It was like having futureshock in text form. The characters and ideas were compelling. Simple things like dating things in second and mere decades really had an impact. It was both space opera and down to earth. This book stands unique in my collection. I am very excited to spread the word to others. ( )

In 1957, Raymond Chandler wrote a cutting one-paragraph parody of sf. (Sample: "I check out with K 19 on Aldabaran III, and stepped out through the crummalite hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop.") Accerlerando is a lot like that, but novel length. It relies a lot on current and not-so-current tech speak. (Serdar Argic is name-checked.) In 5 years, this will be dated. In 10 years, it will be incomprehensible. The character development is not much better with Manfred and Amber being straight-up geek wish fulfillment. By the way, what the hell are the inner solar system AIs doing with all their computer power? Based on the evidence in the novel, the answer seems to be nothing. (Their scheme for interfering with the Saturnians is ridiculously low-tech.) In short, this is more a compendium of silly high-nerd received ideas about the evolution of society than an actual novel or a serious extrapolation of what future tech and its social matrix might be like. ( )

Not a fan, here. The problem with everything being possible is that nothing ends up all that interesting.

Stross has written some really fun books- but I didn't think this was one of them. ( )