Charles Stross

An unusual foray into Sci-fi for me. I enjoyed this, and certainly found it readable enough. I was a little let-down by the scope of its ambition. The topics it's based around are huge - in particular the concept of cornucopia machines and time-travel via faster-than-light. Unfortunately, though, these aren't really explored to their full extent (although, to be fair, I guess time travel is a pretty well-worn trope by now).

Stross actually manages to work his limited exploration into the plot - the first by largely dealing with a society that has banned cornucopia machines (along with nanotechnology and other exciting plot twists); and the second by positing a mysterious god-like entity called The Eschaton that will obliterate you if you attempt any causality-violating time travel (the only interesting kind). While these are interesting devices, I kinda felt that they were obscuring even more interesting possibilities. A bit more exploration of The Eschaton would have helped, but maybe that's for later books.

There were quite a few stabs at relating to genuine science, which worked, and the plot did have some nice touches. It kept my interest, but I hoped for something a little more ambitious.

Overall I was reminded of The Diamond Age, but while that book's scope was smaller, its ambition was still larger.… (mer)