Really interesting inventive book with a lot of plot twists hinging on imagined technology and future history. I really enjoyed reading through the twists and turns. ( )

This book strongly reminded me of some of Bank's culture novels, where computer warfare and physical warfare are completely mixed. In Stross' civilization, like Bank's Culture, wormhole-like gates and replicators and 'backup' technology make travel trivial, and so is recovery from death. However, such long lifetimes make problems for people who do things they need to forget, which is the major theme of this novel.
Interesting technology and psychology make this an interesting read, though it feels like he's trying to imitate Banks. ( )

Several hundred years from now, humanity has just finished the Censorship Wars. Using an electronic virus called Curious Yellow, it targeted the brains of historians as they used teleportation gates (the major method of transportation). Robin has just emerged from a medical clinic with most of his memory wiped. Perhaps he was one of those targeted historians; he does have memories of being in a tank regiment during the war, not as a soldier, but as a tank. He joins a research program to recreate the "dark ages," the late 20th and early 21st centuries, by having volunteers live in an actual, recreated "town." It sounds like a good way to get away from whoever is trying to kill him; whatever he did, or was, before his wipe, it must have been important.

The participants are given random, anonymous identities (Robin is turned into a woman named Reeve). Along with Sam, her "husband," they are placed into what looks like Smalltown, USA. They are given little, or no, idea as to just what they are supposed to do. All the couples are electronically monitored; during mandatory church services on Sunday, any faults or misdeeds are pointed out to everyone. Reeve is one of the few who begins to realize that something is really wrong. Their contract specifies a minimum amount of time to be in the study, approximately 3 years, but does not specify a maximum amount of time. The town has become a very high-tech panopticon. The women have suddenly become fertile, and several female participants have become pregnant. Perhaps the idea is to create a new race of people who don't know that there is an outside world. Perhaps it has to do with this new race re-infecting the rest of humanity with a new and improved version of Curious Yellow.

Here is a wonderful piece of writing. The best part is the author's look at present-day life. He does not just needle it or poke fun at it, he rips it to pieces and stomps on what is left. The rest of the book is also very much worth reading. This gets two strong thumbs-up. ( )

A thriller set in what seems to be the same future as Accelerando, although there is no direct connection. Robin is in therapy recovering from a major personality erasure and discovers that someone is trying to kill him for reasons he cannot remember. He volunteers to be part of an experiment where a group of people will be isolated from the rest of the universe in a simulated 20th century culture in order to buy himself time, ending up as something like a 1950's housewife, but soon discovers that the administrators of the experiment do not have the subjects best interests in mind.

This is one of the best science fiction adventure stories I have read recently, and my favorite book of Stross's so far. The standard technology of Robin's time includes teleporters and assemblers that can build full copies of anything including people, so there is effective immortality and no material needs, but people face the risks of being involuntarily changed by stepping through a hacked transporter gate. The contrast with the primitive conditions that Robin is forced to live under in the experiment allows Stross to comment on our society. The story moves at a good pace, with plenty of action and twists. The characters are the most interesting, fully-developed ones I have seen in a Stross novel. My only issue with the story is that it did seem like Robin was coincidentally put into a position where everything needed to start a rebellion was easily available, which allows for a quick resolution of the plot. ( )

This is a great book and gave me much respect for the author. The protagonist exists as a technological awareness that can move bodies who has excised memories and people who want to harm him. Think Bourne in sci/fi. It is easy to fall into the rules of this world as Stross uses the obligatory 'new kid in town' lecture at the very start. I did get lost at one point during the book but stuck it out until I figured out where I was again. I can't wait to read more books by Stross