(Alistair) After Ventus - which, alas, I read before I started booklogging, so I cannot give you a reference, here - I had pretty much decided to myself that whatever books Karl Schroeder wrote were probably worth reading, and so I would proceed on that assumption.

Lady of Mazes (in the same universe as Ventus, but with little overlap) does not disappoint me, in this respect.

On the one hand, considered solely as plot and character, the story of our three (primary and secondaries) protagonists caught up in the invasion of their home by an unseen, incomprehensible enemy and their attempt to save it, the book is merely excellent. But, rather, it is as a novel of ideas that it particularly shines.

Mr. Schroeder is unafraid to play with the big ideas: all-pervasive augmented reality - "inscape" - in various forms, including forms capable of such personalization as to effectively be self-reinforcing solipsism; posthuman entities; memetically-encoded intelligence. And some really fascinating ideas, in my opinion, about potential trans- and post-human political institutions that are themselves worth the cover price of the book (although I shall not give more details here, to avoid spoilering). As I would have said post-Ventus, I greatly admire his ability to build a coherent world and a believable future.

SPOILERS AT WEB SITE -- READ FIRST.

Exorbitantly recommended to transhumanists, SF readers, and the philosophically inclined.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... )

[Amy] I've been mulling over what I might say about this book ever since I was about halfway though it. See, it's a remarkably excellent book about very interesting people who live in a universe whose rules make me crazy. The author appears to hold some beliefs about the nature of technology and its effects on people that I find both implausible and offensive, but which I cannot really discuss without being spoileriffic.

I believe my review will be limited to this: This is the most astonishingly technophobic bunch of essentially-transhumans I have ever encountered.
[http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze...] ( )

I almost gave up reading Lady of Mazes at page 100. I think sticking through the entire book turned out to be a mistake though. The book uses a large number of terms to substitute for some pretty complex ideas, but the explanation for them is given piecemeal. Normally I prefer this method. I don’t like extensive, awkward descriptions of language or terms. However, in this case it works against the book, because I couldn’t understand what the hell they were when I wanted to know. At page 96, Schroeder had a character explaining the ones I hadn’t understood until then, and I decided I would finish the book. But then even more weirdness came into the story.

Add into the mix that this book is set largely in virtual reality, and it’s got huge strikes against it for my tastes. I ended up not liking the book, despite some interesting concepts.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

Schroeder is my new favorite sf author. This was MUCH better than Ventus, which was pretty good. Seldom have I seen a sf book that was so well plotted. All the mysteries are neatly explained by the end, in a very satisfying way. The only thing he could’ve improved was the wimpy title. I ran right out—er, logged right on to the library site—and reserved his new one, Sun of Suns. ( )

Hardcore science fiction. I love it. I most especially like the idea of the "algorithm book as an organization."

http://www.skyseastone.net/jvstin/unj... ( )