Neil Fein's Blog

Singularity Sky
Written by Charles Stross

What happens if civilization as we know it is an anomoly, and the proper state of human beings is to be free from the shackles of govenment? That's one of the questions asked by Charlie stross in this, his first published novel in the states. The book follows several characters, and I managed to keep them all straight, each having a well-defined personality.

Having read criticisms, particularly on the author's site, that the novel suffers from first-novel blues, I was pleasantly suprised to find this a well-rounded and -crafted story. Stross does have a tendency to polarize his characters a bit, creating artificial divisions, which is doubly ironic as one of the book's themes is the elucidation of the grey areas between "right" and "wrong". In addition, this book in particular reads somewhat like an open-source-movement manifesto, even more than the popular story "Lobsters".

Most background themes in science-fiction novels -- or, for that matter any novels -- tend to be along the lines of social criticism, rather than criticism of what we now regard as business practices. However, as copyright issues and intellectual property laws become increasingly part of everyday life, that puts it in the same ballpark as criticizing voilence or the "war on drugs"; Stross names a shipboard system "MP3" to make this point.

While Stross can be confusing at times, it always seems to be in areas where he wants the reader to pay attention; it's worth going back a few pages to check something. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Singularity Sky immensely. I thought it was clever, fun, and kept me turning the pages; the pacing is perfect. And even though there's a sequel meant to come out next year, there are no plot threads left obnoxiously dangling, just a damn solid universe left for the author to play in.