Perhaps I'm just too old for this, but I couldn't make heads of tails of it. Too much theory, too many big ideas, not enough character and emotion for me. ( )

ZB5

I got dropped into a random spot in a random universe, which I guess is Stross's imagination, and it's sometimes a bit unnavigable for me. ( )

"What will you give us?"
"Mmm. How about a post-Marxist theory of post-technological political economy, and a proof that the dictatorship of the hereditary peerage can only be maintained by the systematic oppression and exploitation of the workers and engineers, and cannot survive once the people acquire the self-replicating means of production?"

Actual text from this novel. From page 5.

Now I don't mind a book with a political message, but this one continues on in the same vein ad infinitum. A decent political novel won't tell you what it wants you to think, but will tell a story that illustrates its point. This one just shoves it in your face, right from the outset. Amateur, at best. Learn some subtlety, man.

The science is just as bad. Possibly worse. Good science-fiction, if it's going to rely on science at all, needs to have some foundation in reality. Stross's pseudo-scientific writing is so ludicrous, so contrived, that I couldn't continue reading. I couldn't tell whether he'd pulled it all entirely out of his ass, or tried (and failed) to read an advanced physics textbook. Whichever the case, it was clear that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about. I kept trying to read this book - I was on vacation and had a limited number of books with me - but ultimately I couldn't force myself to go on. Just awful. ( )

Stross' dazzling space epic works on so many levels---his latent humor is a great break from the (at times) mind-numbing technobabble. Aside from its underlying NWO agenda (!!!), this is a great ride. ( )