3.5 stars

This is one of those books that is so nearly great. Set several hundred years after humanity have died out (due to unspecified causes, but possibly at their own hand through environmental degradation) human influence continues in the solar system in the many intelligent servants (the term 'robot' is the filthiest of insults) that they created, in a society shaped by the psyche of their creators and social power structures of their own making.

The protagonist, Freya, is a - droid? replicant? these machines are alive, fully conscious, thinking and feeling entities - member of a line of courtesan robots, created for the pleasure of men, who find themselves utterly obsolete in a universe where their purpose for being created is long gone, and they are physically outmoded, largely because the weight restrictions of space travel have caused smaller, lighter, more compact forms to become more 'fashionable'.

So we have an excellent framework for riffs on free will, social inequality, slavery (while most of the robots were hardwired to serve, some have managed to free themselves from this programming and ruthlessly take the place of vanished humanity, setting themselves up as a new aristocracy), all in the hands of one of the finest SF writers around today. Throw in some great in-jokes (arguments about evolution and religion - "obviously we were made by our creators, so they must have been made by someone else!" - and Freya's programmed, uncontrollable lust-response as a metaphor for love), as well as seriously well thought out hard science that doesn't detract from the fiction (travel between planets in the solar system taking anything between months and years, and being seriously uncomfortable even for the almost indestructible androids), and we have what ought to be a truly great SF novel.

You've probably guessed by this point that there's a problem. I love Stross's writing; his prose is solid, occasionally sparkling, with decent characterisation and, usually, excellent pace and plotting. In Saturn's Children, the main plot driver is in the form of 'soul chips', recording chips for experiences and personality development, from one of Freya's supposedly dead 'sisters', which Freya is slowly absorbing into her own memories, to the extent that she begins to dream her sister's dreams, and even become her in some circumstances (if you read SF this probably makes sense to you, if not the last sentence may be complete gibberish, for which I apologise). Unfortunately, the effect of these changes of perspective and personality, especially toward the end of the book, become extremely confusing and frustrating. While this is Freya's state of mind, and since it is told in the first person this can be argued to be consistent, it does mean that the plot gets rather lost. Which is a great shame, as it is a book that is well worth reading. As long as you don't mind a fair bit of robot sex.

Other books I'd place it with thematically:
Asimov's Robot books (of course), which it frequently references
Justina Robson's {book:Natural History] (possibly the best exploration of human-made machine intelligence I've read)
Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon (a superb noir thriller in future where consciousness can be easily transferred between bodies, with almost pornographic levels of sex and violence)