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Accelerando

by Charles Stross

3.82 · rating details · 3,214 ratings · 337 reviews

The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.

Struggling to survive and thri...more

Mass Market Paperbound, 415 pages

Published July 1st 2006 by Ace Books

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Sep 16, 2008

Adam rated it

Acclerando is Stross’s most frustrating, annoying, idea-packed, difficult, dense, and arguably best novel. Can feel like taking a crash course in astro-physics, computer science, economics, sociology, while reading a dozen blogs, Bruce Sterling’s “Deep Eddy Stories” and Shismatrix , and cliff notes of science fiction’s back pages. But once you get over the buzz of the overload it is a hauntingly odd story of a dysfunctional family in a world of increasingly weird technology and its implications....more

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Feb 25, 2009

Rob rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: accelerationistas!

Shelves: singularity, science-fiction, 2007

I tried reading the PDF (found at [http://www.accelerando.org/]) of this last year and didn't get very far. However, once I held the book in my hands, I seemed to fly through it. At first.

Stross seems to share some of the literary memenome as Stephenson and Doctorow. The prose style (especially early on in the text) felt a bit like Snow Crash; those vivid bits of lurid ephemera, that nearly comic book pacing, every tawdry details competing for your attention right alongside the cr...more

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Oct 25, 2011

Morgan rated it

Many people recommended this highly to me. I found that the plot and ideas, as summarized on Wikipedia, were brilliant and mind-expanding.

The writing of the book was intolerable. I couldn't get past page 20. It was like reading Wired Magazine--Stross drops every current technology name and buzzword, apparently without a deep enough understanding to know which might have staying power 15 minutes into the future. When "slashdot", "open source", "bluetooth"...more

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Jul 23, 2010

Scott rated it

Shelves: sci-fi

OK, let's start with the fact that the book jacket compared Charles Stross's writing with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson at their best.

As a reader who has a serious crush on Stephenson's writing, I instantly had an expectation was set up in my mind, as you can imagine.

However, this novel was thoroughly disappointing. I like hard SF and cyberpunk that explores social mores and the impacts of technology and science upon society. And can do so with humor (or irony). The ...moreOK, let's start with the fact that the book jacket compared Charles Stross's writing with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson at their best.

As a reader who has a serious crush on Stephenson's writing, I instantly had an expectation was set up in my mind, as you can imagine.

However, this novel was thoroughly disappointing. I like hard SF and cyberpunk that explores social mores and the impacts of technology and science upon society. And can do so with humor (or irony). The science was so outlandishly bad (e.g. generating sufficient power to run manufacturing plants on a satellite of Jupiter by wrapping conductors around the satellite, across the poles, to create a conducting loop to move through Jupiter's magnetic field), and the belief in the Singularity so without skepticism, that I stopped drinking the Kool-Aid at about page 220, and had to gut out the last half of the book without the necessary suspension of disbelief that is why I read science fiction in the first place. As the book proceeds use of science or IT concepts becomes increasingly absurd as the main characters (who are nearly impossible to feel any sympathy for) are rescued, Deus ex Machina style, from ridiculous crises with unexplored implications that abuse the reader's time and effort placed in attempting to understand what has been written.

The ability to dash out clever metaphors and create a story around a compelling idea (like the Singularity) does not guarantee that the story will be good. Stross has moments of true humor and irony, but the characters are leaden and locked in epoch-long neuroses that persist whether the character is in "meatspace" or has re-instantiated itself as an orangutan or a flock of passenger pigeons (I'm not making this up). There is also a level of omniscience and confidence in the main characters that suggests they know everything that has happened and will happen. While this may be a device to make the post-humans off-putting to us as human beings, part of the reason to write a book is to get humans to read it, and most real humans won't soldier through a book with know-it-all characters they cannot care about, who already have figured out everything that will happen to them, and seem unbelievably bored by anything except for their family squabbles.

The middle third (from around page 200 through 300) really lacks coherence and cannot be readily followed by any but the most careful reading. And, upon careful reading, you are not rewarded. This is not Pynchon or Faulkner; this is geek speak that does not connect with ideas that matter. At the point where the travellers encounter alien intelligences, the entire story completely falls apart and has to be rescued, again, from its own excesses.

I have spent too much time writing about this. If you read this review, you have been warned about what to expect in reading this book. I will not be picking up another Stross novel any time soon.(less)

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May 30, 2010

Richard rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Singularitarians and geek-positive futuristas

Recommended to Richard by: Scott Jackisch

Shelves: scifi, singularity, scifi-apocalyptic, scifi-cognition, scifi-hardscience

A 3 1/2 star book, downgraded to three because Stross ultimately doesn't deliver much more than a caffeinated theme park ride of the singularity.

I doubt that Accelerando will ever be seen in quite the same way as the early cyberpunk books, but it is certainly similar in its hyperkinetic and chaotic creativity. Stross tosses in a billion and one tasty tidbits of near-future circum-singularity and presses the "Will it Blend?" button.

And, as one would predict, the ...more

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Sep 26, 2008

Gar rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Accelerando, or That Darn Cat!

The basic template for every chapter is: character wanders around and uses increasingly-elaborate gadgetry--wearable computers and VR glasses give way to neurally-interfaced implants give way to reality-editing "ackles" authorizations to edit the criteria of the virtual simulation space that their minds have been uploaded into--in between chunks of exposition. When this starts getting unwieldy, it switches to pure expository essays about just...more

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May 17, 2009

John rated it

Shelves: 2009, sf-fantasy, scottish

This book will short circuit your geek meter: a kind of epic chronicling three generations of a pretty messed up family through humanity's advance from a near future not too much unlike our own to a totally post-human universe. Although I found the story and characters to be a little wanting at times, these elements often felt like mannequins anyway, putting human form on the tsunami of ideas Stross lays out. If that doesn't sound fascinating to you, this ain't the book for you - I think I add...more

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Jun 17, 2009

Cathy rated it

Shelves: science-fiction, cyberpunk

Read it last year and just remembered it because I picked up another book by the author. I remember clearly that I didn't love it and had expected to. It's in the vein of singularity books that I usually enjoy. But there were some weird character choices and I just didn't get the end. I liked the cat though.

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Sep 13, 2007

Tama Wise added it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-never-finished

Not a good sign of things really. I was doing so well at sticking to books when I didn't work in a library. Now that I do, I see so many other interesting books.

Finishing this book was hampered in a great part by the language of this book. I'd consider this a 'modern cyberpunk', in that it takes into account things like wireless network and the like. However, the story and characters were so buried in technobable and politico-socio speak that for the most part I was lost in skimming....more

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Feb 09, 2011

Zeruhur rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: britannica, fantascienza, narrativa

"Amber, come gran parte dei postindustriali a bordo della nave-orfanotrofio Ernst Sanger, è nella prima adolescenza. Mentre le loro abilità naturali sono in molti casi amplificate dalla ricombinazione genetica delle linee germinali, grazie ai vecchi ideali della madre, lei deve affidarsi a grossolane amplificazioni computazionali. Non ha la corteccia parietale posteriore modificata per un supplemento di memoria a breve termine, o il giro temporale superiore anteriore esteso per una maggiore...more"Amber, come gran parte dei postindustriali a bordo della nave-orfanotrofio Ernst Sanger, è nella prima adolescenza. Mentre le loro abilità naturali sono in molti casi amplificate dalla ricombinazione genetica delle linee germinali, grazie ai vecchi ideali della madre, lei deve affidarsi a grossolane amplificazioni computazionali. Non ha la corteccia parietale posteriore modificata per un supplemento di memoria a breve termine, o il giro temporale superiore anteriore esteso per una maggiore capacità verbale, ma è cresciuta con impianti neurali che per lei sono naturali come i polmoni o le dita. Metà del suo wetware è installato fuori dal cranio, in una schiera di nodi di processamento inseriti nel cervello mediante canali di comunicazione a correlazione quantistica: la sua metacorteccia personale. Questi ragazzi sono giovani mutanti, che bruciano luminosi. Per i loro genitori, non del tutto incomprensibili ma profondamente alieni, il gap generazionale è ampio come negli anni Sessanta, e profondo come il sistema solare. I genitori, nati negli anni del declino del Ventesimo secolo, sono cresciuti con elefantiaci shuttle bianchi, una stazione spaziale che si limitava a girare in tondo, e computer che facevano bip quando si premeva un bottone. Per un baby boomer, l'idea che l'orbita di Giove fosse un posto raggiungibile era controintuitiva come Internet."

Non mi capitava da tempo di leggere uno scritto così rivoluzionario, folle e visionario.
Stross si colloca a metà strada di precedenti illustri come "Infinito" di Stapledon e "Anni senza fine" di Simak, intessendo un mini-ciclo di racconti, strettamente connessi e in continuità che, attraverso la storia di una famiglia altamente disfunzionale, narrano in modo assurdamente visionario ma verosimile la ventura (da taluni auspicata) singolarità tecnologica, che potrebbe rivoluzionare il concetto stesso di umanità.
Non un'opera di semplice evasione dunque, ma un complesso affresco sociologico-tecnologico che immerge in lettore in un universo per certi versi totalmente alieno eppure così prossimo nel tempo.(less)

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Nov 14, 2010

Mikecas rated it

Shelves: post, singolarità, fantascienza

da:
http://www.webalice.it/michele.castellano/SF_Fantasy/mese/Ottobre2007.html

Sono stato molto in dubbio se presentare questo romanzo in questa serie di raccomandazioni di lettura o di limitarmi a citarlo nella sezione dei libri che sto leggendo. La differenza e' che mentre in qui io invito apertamente a leggere i libri che cito, nell'altra spesso il mio consiglio e' di lasciar perdere, perche' non ritengo il romanzo degno della spesa.
In realta' in questo caso sono estremamente indeciso sul mio g...moreda:
http://www.webalice.it/michele.castellano/SF_Fantasy/mese/Ottobre2007.html

Sono stato molto in dubbio se presentare questo romanzo in questa serie di raccomandazioni di lettura o di limitarmi a citarlo nella sezione dei libri che sto leggendo. La differenza e' che mentre in qui io invito apertamente a leggere i libri che cito, nell'altra spesso il mio consiglio e' di lasciar perdere, perche' non ritengo il romanzo degno della spesa.
In realta' in questo caso sono estremamente indeciso sul mio giudizio finale. Non posso assolutamente dire che raccomando senza condizioni la lettura di Accelerando, ma ritengo nello stesso tempo che sia un romanzo che meriti di essere letto, anche se per dargli un giudizio non necessariamente del tutto positivo.
Il romanzo e' in pratica un collage di storie indipendenti scritte e pubblicate in precedenza, e anche se il tema generale che le univa era evidente, l'effetto di una certa disomogeneita' dell'insieme rimane piuttosto chiaro. Quello che piu' importa, dal punto di vista letterario, e' la differenza di ritmo e anche di linguaggio delle diverse parti. Sembra infatti di leggere romanzi diversi.
Ma non e' questa la ragione principale principale per il mio dubbio.
E non e' nemmeno nell'argomento della storia, per quanto sia estremamente ambizioso, si ponga obiettivi molto alti ed ovviamente non riesca a raggiungerli tutti. Vernon Vinge, che ha introdotto il termine di "singolarita' tecnologica" per indicare quel punto dello sviluppo umano in cui sara' possibile la creazione di intelligenze artificiali, dopo cui di fatto scomparita' l'uomo come lo conosciamo ora, nel commento al suo racconto La Ciarlona mette in evidenza come gli risultasse impossibile pensare storie coerenti che andassero oltre questa singolarita', perche' non possediamo i mezzi intellettuali per capire cosa verra' dopo. Per continuare a scrivere sull'argomento aveva dovuto utilizzare un "approccio obliquo", come lo definisce.
L'ambizione di Stross consiste proprio nel voler descrivere questa singolarita', e di come qualcosa di umano possa sopravviverle, rispondendo anche al famoso paradosso di Fermi del perche', se l'universo e' pieno di vita intelligente, nessuno e' ancora arrivato a farci visita. Tema estremamente interessante, e tutto sommato, nonostante qualche punto debole e qualche cosa che rimane inspiegata, ben sviluppato.
Il problema che e' pero' alla base del mio dubbio sul giudizio complessivo risiede nel suo uso del linguaggio. Proprio quello che per alcuni e' uno dei suoi meriti maggiori a me sembra invece un grosso limite. Stross fa abbondante uso di termini scientifici e tecnici, anche nel trattare argomenti economici o di normale vita quotidiana, e questo ha spesso dei risultati positivi, perche' ne rende visibili gli aspetti scientifici, ma purtroppo Stross e' anche troppo prolisso, abusa di questi termini, e spesso, troppo spesso, li inventa. E' abbastanza logico che nel cercare di illustrare qualcosa che non c'e' ancora, e che e' anche un poco al di la' della nostra capacita' di comprensione, sia necessario inventare dei termini nuovi, che piu' che spiegare, evochino il significato che si vuole cercare di trasmettere. Lo evochino emotivamente e per assonanze, suscitino cioe' sensazioni. Tutto bello, tutto giusto.... ma c'e' un limite che non dovrebbe essere superato, e Stross, secondo me, lo supera e non di poco. Non e' un caso, credo, che i traduttori siano due, cosa abbastanza strana per un romanzo di fantascienza.
L'impressione che si ricava da alcune pagine e' quella di un venditore di apparecchiature di alta tecnologia, ma di limitata o dubbia utilita', che cerca di convincere il potenziale cliente inondandolo di chiacchere ed abusando di paroloni tecnici che il poveretto non puo' capire ed il cui unico scopo e' di intimorirlo e farlo sentire ignorante. Onestamente il risultato di tutta questa esibizione linguistica non e' piacevole, se si e' invece interessati al tema concreto che dovrebbe essere il centro del discorso.
Per questo ritengo che Accelerando sia un romanzo che vada letto, perche' contiene concetti importanti che meritano di essere diffusi e meditati, ma nello stesso tempo non posso raccomandarlo completamente, perche' potrebbe facilmente apparire irritante e sconclusionato.
Lascio ai lettori la decisione, anche se per me alla fine i contenuti contano piu' della forma, e questo giustifica l'aver posto questo romanzo in questa rubrica.
Per chi poi se la sente di affrontare questo romanzo in lingua originale, e' anche disponibile per il download da rete sotto Creative Commons license.(less)

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Mar 19, 2009

Paul rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sciencefictionfantasy

Set in the near future, these related stories are about an Earth where technology has run rampant, and humanity's inability to keep up.

Computing power, and artificial intelligence, have passed the limits of human intellect. Nanotechnology is everywhere, reprogramming and replicating at will. Posthumans, with all sorts of biological implants, have rendered people extinct. Corporations have become alive and sentient. New resource allocation algorithms, collectively called Economics 2.0...more

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Jan 18, 2012

John rated it

Shelves: cyberpunk-post-cyberpunk-fiction, science-fiction

Accelerando" will surely please many fans of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling despite its flaws of which some are quite noteworthy. Stross' novel works best as a novel of ideas, depicting the ascent of humanity into a "posthuman" late 21st Century future as seen through the eyes of Manfred Macx and two generations of his descendants. His is an apocalyptic vision of artificial intelligence progressing so rapidly that sentient hive minds reconfigure the inner Solar...more

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Dec 27, 2011

David rated it

Manfred Macx is a "venture altruist," someone who conceives of new technologies and patentable ideas who gives them away for free. He's a successful man because he makes others wealthy, who, in turn, cover all of his expenses. He's trying to be post money, but the IRS, still struggling to pay off America's massive debt, is after him. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for a man like Macx, but the agent in charge of the investigation is his estranged, dominatrix wife. While on the lam...moreManfred Macx is a "venture altruist," someone who conceives of new technologies and patentable ideas who gives them away for free. He's a successful man because he makes others wealthy, who, in turn, cover all of his expenses. He's trying to be post money, but the IRS, still struggling to pay off America's massive debt, is after him. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for a man like Macx, but the agent in charge of the investigation is his estranged, dominatrix wife. While on the lam in Amsterdam, he gets a call from a net-based AI built from the uploaded brain scans of lobsters that works for KGB.ru. It seems that the lobsters want to defect and escape the domineering influence of humanity and they need Macx's help.

If that sounds strange, it's only the beginning. We follow three generations of the Macx clan as they cope with the rapidly increasing pace of technological advancement, expansion of the human race into the solar system, and the decline of civilization as we know it.

Stross sets a heady pace here. He packs more ideas into a single chapter than most writers do in an entire novel. It's easy to get lost, but Stross provides omniscient narrator infodumps in each chapter that sound like newsreels from the first half of the 20th Century. But even with the help, there's nothing to help us stay connected with the characters. In fact, the reader must actively re-connect with them as the jumps in the narrative break the continuity. It was hardest to do with Amber, Manfred's daughter. She goes from rebellious pubescent girl on the run from her domineering mother to founding a kingdom/infohaven on one of Jupiter's moons without any sort of transition. But before we can adjust to this new setting, she's uploaded a copy of herself to an interstellar probe. Now I understand that the book is composed of a series of short stories, but for the collection which is Accelerando, I would've preferred new material that tied the individual stories together and delete the obvious repeated background which were necessary for the short stories to stand alone.

The accelerated pace of technological advancement reads like a Ray Kurzweil wet dream; something for the Singularity crowd to swoon over. Being that the time from when an author writes his manuscript to when it sees print takes some time, I thought Stross bought into Wired's fantasy puff piece: "The Long Boom," written pre-dotcom bubble burst, in which the dotcom boom was never going to end. Fortunately, Stross doesn't buy into that and he doesn't paint the Singularity as all shiny either. Instead, bad things happen as the offspring of post-humanity threaten us with extinction!

In case all of my grumbling has obscured matters, I'll reiterate that I loved reading Accelerando. Where else can self-aware corporations wielding lethal pyramid schemes do battle at an interstellar network router orbiting a neutron star with uploaded personalities fleeing an all-consuming Martioshka Brain? If your curiosity outweighs your confusion, then pick up a copy of this book. (less)

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Oct 24, 2011

Tim rated it

In the future, all of Europe will speak English as if they were plucked straight from an episode of 'Allo 'Allo. The French are addicted to "mais oui". The Germans can't without basic errors of grammar related to their own language structure talk. And Russian cannot use definite or indefinite article or plural. Even AI. Hallo. My name Boris. It's like Stross had never met a real foreigner before writing Accelerando.

But aside from the grating dialog Stross paints a wonderful p...more

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Sep 01, 2011

Andrew rated it

Shelves: reviewed

I have a soft spot for the classic SF “fix-up”—a book that began as short stories and was later Frankensteined into a novel. It’s a concept that is common to classic SF, due to the fact that the genre emerged from pulp magazine roots, which were the province of short stories and serials. (Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and Sturgeon’s More Than Human are two of the most famous examples of successful fix-ups—and personal favourites of mine). I’m not sure why I enjoy the fix-up so much. Somethin...more

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May 19, 2011

Ryal rated it

· review of another edition

Alright, first with the dealbreaker.

The first 50 pages are so confusing that, even after my second readthru, I can't tell you what Economy 2.0 is all about. I can grasp its theories, but don't ask me to explain it to you because, I can't. There is so much information to take in on those first 50 pages, it seems like you're being rushed through 250 pages. It seems that this was the author's purpose and I give him kudos for that. I just know that it seems if you are not into hard sci ...moreAlright, first with the dealbreaker.

The first 50 pages are so confusing that, even after my second readthru, I can't tell you what Economy 2.0 is all about. I can grasp its theories, but don't ask me to explain it to you because, I can't. There is so much information to take in on those first 50 pages, it seems like you're being rushed through 250 pages. It seems that this was the author's purpose and I give him kudos for that. I just know that it seems if you are not into hard sci fi, you will not make it past those first 50.

If you do manage to complete that feat, you are now free to take a break and relax. The whole story revolves around what some scientists believe is called a Singularity. It is the point at which the total computing power in our solar system surpasses the total brain power of the human race. Another definition could also be the moment computers are smarter than us.

Keep in mind that this book's spacetime spans over several generations of the main protagonist's family. I say spacetime because, most of the family aren't even on earth for most of the book and the later generations are spread further apart due to longevity drugs being discovered early on. There are even prolonged periods of time where a version of a character(it gets complicated) is downloaded into a version of cyberspace(Yes, there are more than 1).

(view spoiler)

All in all, this book's ideas are all the way out there. The ending is imaginative. It is a great read.(less)

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May 03, 2011

Daniel Roy rated it

Shelves: sf

The heart of Stross' Acceledando deals with a concept that is dear to present-day SF authors and futurists: that of the Vingean singularity, a theoretical point in our near-future where technological progress will move so quickly that all futurist prediction models are useless. Disregarding the fact that futurism has yet to come up with a single prediction model that works besides Moore's Law, the concept of a point in history where technology accelerates towards infinity is definitely worthy of...moreThe heart of Stross' Acceledando deals with a concept that is dear to present-day SF authors and futurists: that of the Vingean singularity, a theoretical point in our near-future where technological progress will move so quickly that all futurist prediction models are useless. Disregarding the fact that futurism has yet to come up with a single prediction model that works besides Moore's Law, the concept of a point in history where technology accelerates towards infinity is definitely worthy of a little SF exploration.

Although the Vingean singularity has been discussed in previous SF works (none the least by Vernor Vinge, after which the concept is named), Charles Stross proposes to actually walk the reader through the times leading up to it, then through it and its aftermath. This clearly places the novel in the realm of Big Ideas, and on that promise, it deliver. In spades.

Quite frankly, Accelerando dwarfs even Stephen Baxter's best works (such as Manifold: Time) in terms of mind-boggling concepts per square inch. Stross, with the carelessness of the truly gifted, tosses about big ideas faster than the reader can juggle them. This is a book for nerds, written by a proud one: it talks about galactic routers, AI taking over Humanity, sentient economics, and Matrioshka brains, all within the span of a single, coherent story.

It's a good thing these concepts are so strong and resounding, because plot-wise, Accelerando is a little thin. The main character, Manfred Macx, is some sort of copyright anarchist that's just too cool for the world he lives in, and frankly, there's not much to love about him. Things get a bit better with his daughter Amber, but not by much. The main problem is that Stross chose extraordinary individuals to present extraordinary times, thus missing an opportunity to make the strangeness of emerging posthumanism resound on a more intimate level with the reader.

In conjunction with this, there is the fact that not much happens in the personal lives of the protagonists. Events on a galactic scale unfold around them and, yes, change their lives, but the protagonists do little more than witness them, ponder them a little, and move on. This might be made worse by the fact that the novel is actually a collection of 9 short stories, published by Stross over a period of time; but there is little sense of progression and action, and a lot of contemplation. Luckily, it's not so bad considering how cool the changes happening around turn out to be, but it's frustrating to see uninteresting characters worry about their personal relationships while god-like AI are busy dismantling the solar system to build a super-computer.

Another annoyance I have with Accelerando is that, despite the alien world it tries to depict as the novel advances, the author's metaphors and points of reference remain deeply rooted in the present. It's especially annoying at the start of the novel, meant to take place 20 years from now, where multiple references are made to current-day netspeak, such as 'Slashdot effect' and 'blogging'. This plants the first chapters of the novel firmly in wha I call 'nerd porn' territory, a SF style that cares more about pandering to modern-day technophiles than establishing believeability. To think the term 'blog' will be cool in 2025 is as silly as those old 50's SF novels that used 'atomic' and 'laser' every 2 sentences. I already spoke about this problem with Stross' style in my review of Singularity Sky, and thankfully it's not as bad this time around.

Fortunately, the 'nerd porn' effect dissipates after the first 3 chapters (although a particular reference to 9/11 in the final chapter of the novel was especially cringe-worthy), and Stross picks weirder and weirder concepts to throw at the reader. Ultimately, the novel is a satisfying joyride for the brain, and well worth a look by any SF afficiando.

As a side-note, Stross spends a lot of time discussing DRM in the first chapters of Accelerando, and it's worth pointing out that he totally put his money where his mouth is: Accelerando is available for download for free, as Mr. Stross decided to make his published book available under a Creative Commons licence. If you're interested, you can download the ebook from the author's official website. And if, like me, you end up enjoying it, be sure to pick up a printed copy for your own book collection, or to give to a friend. This sort of initiative is just too good not to encourage.(less)

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Jan 01, 2011

Nick rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Confusing at times, but that's sorta to be expected when talking about the singularity. Lots (lots!) of little references, I was happy to recognize many of them (and made notes to look up others). Definitely a dense book. Totally worth it.

25: Two more ideas salvaged from the risk of tide-pool monopolization, set free to spawn like crazy in the sea of memes.

61: ... offering him a disquieting glimpse into the world of the terminally future-shocked. He is surprised to find that ...more

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Oct 06, 2010

Jordi Balcells rated it

Shelves: ebook

Hace años leí Neuromante, de William Gibson. Fue mi primera novela cyberpunk y no entendí nada. Luego llegó Johnny Mnemonic, Matrix y ya empecé a relacionar cosas.

Ahora acabo de terminar, tras mucho sufrimiento, una novela que va más allá del cyberpunk, una novela que habla de la singularidad, el momento en el que se despierta una Inteligencia Artificual, a lo Skynet.

Durante gran parte de la novela no entendía nada, e incluso me tuve que buscar un "Accelerando Technical ...more

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Aug 19, 2010

Tivasyk rated it

Shelves: cyberpunk, science-fiction, drama

short review in ukrainian:
http://www.tivasyk.info/2009/09/blog-pos...
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віртуальна реальність — іграшка для підлітків, або основа для чергового сюжету а ля матриця. але... уявімо, що одного дня ми навчимося зберігати свою пам'ять на електронних носіях, а згодом — навіть «вивантажувати» всю особистість і відтворювати її віртуальну модель в комп'ютерах, а планета, чи навіть уся сонячна система, перетвориться на конгломерат мікрокомп'ютерів, здатних підтримувати існуван...more

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Jul 19, 2010

Rasmus Paulsen rated it

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is about the human evolution from the near future into a future where “real” humans are a minority and the solar system is inhabited by semi godlike creatures. It is filled with ideas about the evolution of mind and technology and the author really knows what he is talking about. As a view on a plausible future it is a masterpiece. However, the story that binds the book together is very week. We follow three (four) generations of a family. Starting with the incredible innovative Manfre...more

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Mar 16, 2010

Michael Johnson rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

After I finished the book I spent the next few days immersed in Wikipedia reading up on the theories it accentuated. I wanted to see how the book did after reading them, see if anything became somehow less after I understood the basics of the theories, such as Moore's Law, the Singularity, et-cetera.

It was an excellent adventure into the possible future we face, and brilliantly done. However, I personally did not care for any of the characters the story followed except that of the f...more

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Feb 04, 2010

Kathleen rated it

Anyone who knows me knows that the subject of the Singularity is like crack to me. Can't get enough of it. So a story about what happens when artificial intelligence surpasses the limits of human intellect grabs and holds my attention. The plot follows three generations of a family that somehow manage to be on the cutting edge of the evolving technologies, and are varying degrees of adept at surviving and prospering in the hyperaccelerated evolution of computational abilities. And there's in...more

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Aug 15, 2009

Jacques rated it

The events in this book take place before, during, and after the Singularity, the hypothetical asymptote in the rate of technological progress beyond which all extrapolation is clearly futile. Sounds like a pretty bold premise to me, and I have to admit that I was half-expecting a trainwreck, especially never having read any Stross before, so this book came as a pleasant surprise. It was quite readable! Enjoyable, even. I can't recall ever being tempted to put the book down in frustration. ...more

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Jun 17, 2009

Stantontas rated it

Recommends it for: wired magazine readers, twitterers, SF fans

I'm ambivalent about this. Considered as SF, it's very good. Lots of ideas, pageturner, humour.

But I think I just don't care about hard SF any more. Even the best of it (which I'd class this as) feels like riffs on ideas that are floating around the internet and lacks emotional depth. Post-humans don't interest me, especially if they only vaguely interested me as humans. I find PKD's suburban ennui more convincing and engaging than Wired-magazine handwaving about future shock and all...more

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Dec 27, 2009

Jay rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: apocalyptico, gouge-my-eyes-out, kiss-me-kill-me, philosophy-and-religion, sci-fi, tab-a-in-slot-b, world-of-tomorrow, zombie-savagery

Okay.

Okay, okay, uh, geeze.

Firstly, I have to say that if I was rating this primarily on how much I liked or enjoyed this book, I would not give it four stars. If I was rating it on how much I enjoyed it, I'd give it two stars. If I was rating it on how much I understood it, I'd give it one star. I am way out of my depth with this book. I don't get hard sci-fi novels. I like TV shows, movies, comics and the like, and I like soft sci-fi novels, but I don't enjoy hard on...more

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Jan 25, 2011

Brian rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: all SF fans

Shelves: ebook

The first third of this book is a five star white knuckle fall off the cliff ever accerating fall into the singularity. It's fascinating, breathtaking, horrifying, belivable and plausible. You're never quite sure what's coming, and you never catch your breath, but you're never completely lost either.

I distinctly remember thinking 'I have no idea how the heck he can keep this up for the whole book', and the answer unfortunately is that he doesn't.

Once you hit the second ...more

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Jan 31, 2011

Tancredi rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: sperimentale, strano-forte, preferiti, statunitensi, sci-fi

Sono sicuro che con il passare del tempo Charles Stross verrà eletto a nuovo dio delle fantascienza, e Accelerando capisaldo fondamentale della fantascienza postumanista.

E' un libro difficile, che sia chiaro. La prosa di Stross è ricca, variegata, affollata di neologismi, di termini tecnici e anche di vocaboli inventati ad hoc. Stross scrive con alle spalle una formazione nel settore informatico, e questo pesa parecchio. Tuttavia io che sono completamente estraneo a questo mondo non mi sono lasc

...moreSono sicuro che con il passare del tempo Charles Stross verrà eletto a nuovo dio delle fantascienza, e Accelerando capisaldo fondamentale della fantascienza postumanista.

Oltre ad essere difficile, è anche un romanzo pretenzioso perché si prefigura di illustrare passo per passo il crescendo dello sviluppo tecnologico, partendo da un futuro molto prossimo fino ad arrivare e superare la "Singolarità", il punto di non-ritorno che apre le porte alla post-umanità. Nel far ciò Stross rielabora idee diffuse negli ambienti informatici-scientifici-tecnologici-futuristici e vi mette anche molto di suo.
Il romanzo ha dunque un taglio scientifico-tecnologico e sociale insieme, ma non mancano incursioni notevoli nella psicologia umana.
Accelerando mette in scena temi cari all'uomo del ventunesimo secolo. Così nello scontro continuo tra il protagonista e l'amata-odiata ex-moglie si può vedere lo scontro tra chi agogna l'immortalità (ottenuta con la tecnologia) e chi rivendica con insistenza il diritto ad invecchiare e morire secondo natura.
Accelerando può anche essere letto ancora come la storia di un conflitto generazionale. Tre sono le generazioni che qui si scontrano: l'ottimismo idealista di Manfred Macx, protagonista della prima parte; la ribellione e la lotta per l'indipendenza della figlia, Amber, una figlia radicalmente diversa dai genitori; e infine la quieta e pacata rassegnazione di Sirhan, protagonista della terza generazione, la generazione che ha salutato la Singolarità, e che chiude gli occhi sul futuro e si concentra sul passato. Non è singolare che proprio l'ultimo protagonista sia uno storico: mentre l'umanità si diffonde e vaga per un Universo vuoto che pare abbandonato, il solo interesse di Sihran è redarre una storia della sua famiglia (e, dunque, dell'ultima umanità). Ed è proprio lui che conduce al finale, una chiusa circolare straordinaria e di impatto.

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Nov 30, 2011

Althea Ann rated it

"From the book itself:

"An old-fashioned book, covering 3 generations, living through interesting times... A work of postmodern history, the incoherent school at that - how do you document people who fork their identities at random, spend years dead before reappearing on the stage, and have arguments with their own relativistically preserved other copy? ... I thought that perhaps as a narrative hook I'd make the offstage viewpoint that of the family's robot cat."

...more

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About Charles Stross

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.

Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams...more

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“Jest upalny letni wtorek. Stoi na placu przed dworcem Centraal, ma włączone gałki oczne. Kanał skrzy się słońcem, wokół śmigają skutery i rowerzyści-kamikadze, ze wszystkich stron trajkocą turyści. Plac pachnie wodą, ziemią, rozgrzanym metalem i spalinami z zimnych katalizatorów, jak pierdnięciem; w tle podzwaniają tramwaje, nad głową fruwają ptaki. ” — 1 person liked it

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