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Singularity Sky Charles Stross 9781841493343 Books

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Singularity Sky Charles Stross 9781841493343 Books

The author has the POTENTIAL to be really good. In fact, it is almost as if two different people wrote different parts of this book. I found the Martin/Rachel storyline to be fairly decent reading.

Unlike the master reviewer, I didn't have any trouble understanding the quote he provided. However, there was plenty else I didn't understand, and more importantly didn't care, about.

I also question why the author waited until around 120 pages into the book to explain the Eschaton to us clearly.

Overall, I'd skip this book. It was my first for Charles Stross and I don't think I will give him another try.

-Tom


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Singularity Sky Charles Stross 9781841493343 Books Reviews

Singularity Sky is a very imaginative and fascinating space opera about faster-than-light travel, human colonies, spies, and super-intelligent AI entities. Charles Stross adds another dimension to this mix with steampunk, social and political satire, and literary and cultural allusions.

The Eschaton is a superhuman super-intelligent AI, which sends most of Earth's 10 billion population to colonize other planets in the galaxy. The event happens suddenly, in one day – the Singularity.
Earth and the colonies re-establish contact, and star-ships travel across the galaxy. But the Eschaton has expressly forbidden faster-than-time travel Someone could edit the Eschaton's very existence in history.

“Singularity Sky” refers to the sudden access to advanced technology, brought to the human colonies by “The Festival”, a self-assembling super-intelligent AI entity traveling through the galaxy.
Rochard's World is a colony of the repressive regime of the New Republic, which limits Rochard's World to technology, social, cultural and political environment to that of 19th century Europe.
When the Festival provides Rochard's World with higher technology, the result is sudden and tremendous changes – Rochard's World rebels against the New Republic.

The New Republic plans an attack on The Festival the star-fleet plans to jump into the future, and then return to a time just after the Festival's arrival at Rochard's world. The time travel is a possible violation of the Eschaton's laws.

There are however two Earth-based spies on board the star fleet sent to track the New Republic's plans Rachel Mansour is a deep-cover UN diplomat. Martin Springfield is an Earth-based engineer hired by the New Republic to upgrade its star-fleet drive systems. However, Springfield has also been hired by the Eschaton to sabotage the star-fleet's plan enough to delay the return time to Rochard's world.

Rachel and Martin are the only ones on board who understand the danger of using the forbidden time travel technology.
This is a great escapist read, which is exactly what space opera should be.

Stross pulls out every exotic tech element in the book interstellar transport powered by controlled black holes, timelike paths, nanomachines, grey goo, instantaneous communication using entangled particles, even naked mole rats. I wonder how many people got the extended reference to Baba Yaga's house. -) (Look it up. -)) (Too bad he didn't include her iron teeth.) There's even an EE Doc Smith-like reference to a Great Big Thing in the background that Does Not like it At All when you violate causality, something apparently too easy to do in this milieu.

Yes, it revolves around a simplistic critique of Tsarist Russia and communist revolutionaries. Yes, he thinks the UN world government should work like the IETF [governing body of the Internet]. (I doubt he's experienced the IETF; it would change his mind.) Yes, the characters aren't all that fleshed-out and simplistic. (I had to wince at a 150-year old ageless woman emoting like love-struck teenager.) Yes, he spends too much time on pseudo-physics descriptions of how things work. Yes, he apparently confuses "singularity" with "post scarcity" - but I'm not sure that wasn't deliberate.

You know what? I didn't care. It was just a fun romp. I'm truly looking forward to reading the sequel.
At the time of this review, I have also read the 2nd book (Iron Sunrise) which to me was much stronger than Singularity Sky. There's a mix of great ideas and insights on the one hand and complete absurdity on the other. The main characters are likable and relatable, and feel like bona fide human beings. So when the action picks up and they're threatened, it easy to identify with them and get furious with their adversaries.

The Technology Singularity on Earth gave rise to a powerful collection of AIs known as the Eschaton. After the Singularity, they distributed 90% of the residents of Earth over many systems within 1000 light years. Despite their power, they don't really want to kill anyone. But if any party ever attempts to go back in time and change the events that led to the Singularity and their existence, beware! And if they inadvertently take steps in that direction, trouble awaits them.

The "light cone", causality relationships, slower-than-light (STL) travel versus FTL, time travel, and instant communication based on quantum entanglement are brought together in a fascinating and compelling mix. And I liked the idea of a cornucopia machine that can basically manufacture anything, but in this novel it seems more like magic than science. At the very least, it's a convenient plot device.

The Festival is a collection of uploaded consciousnesses that travel the universe to trade information for anything a cornucopia machine can make. Their presence and their effect raises hell with the civilizations they visit. But to me The Festival felt like a crossing from science to fantasy and then into complete absurdity. I found most of the passages regarding The Festival to be tedious and uninteresting. Though the idea of a race of infovores sounds promising, it just didn't work for me. The one fascinating aspect of them is that they are neither friend nor enemy, but even without friendly or hostile intent, their effect can be infinitely rewarding or devastating.
The author has the POTENTIAL to be really good. In fact, it is almost as if two different people wrote different parts of this book. I found the Martin/Rachel storyline to be fairly decent reading.

Unlike the master reviewer, I didn't have any trouble understanding the quote he provided. However, there was plenty else I didn't understand, and more importantly didn't care, about.

I also question why the author waited until around 120 pages into the book to explain the Eschaton to us clearly.

Overall, I'd skip this book. It was my first for Charles Stross and I don't think I will give him another try.

-Tom