Rule 34 (2011)

Another scifi police procedural dashing about Edinburgh where hi-tec has changed all the rules for police and criminals. Great fun and imaginative creation of new crimes based on 3D printers, corporate law and more. I love the idea of a hedge fund corporation which is actually a crime syndicate with “dim” Asiatics playing the system and winning huge time. You are led to expect the mid-Asian country and its rulers to be brutish and corrupt but the reverse is true – it is the North Americans who fill that role. All in all well worth a dash through.

Very good, in the line of Halting State and with a great and surprising plot but... not so magical as firs time. Sniff, sniff. ( )

OK - no tas good as Halting State ( )

Slow start but quite a different plot. ( )

Stross channeling Richard K. Morgan minus the hip noir. There's a good story here somewhere but the style and attitude make it inaccessible. But maybe this is all on purpose. Maybe Stross is deliberately annoying me because he has something important to say. I just don't get what it is.

Stross is clearly one of the smarter, extrapolators of current trends and maybe he is onto something here. This is going back on the shelf for a future re-read.

To those thinking of starting on this book, beware. It'll take same effort unless you like being punished. There's a potential reward which I cannot attest to since I did not find it and must now go back to see if there is indeed one. ( )