It’s not too often that a singularity/cyberpunk novel sends me rushing to reorder my Netflix queue to bump up a French historical costume drama to the top, but Accelerando has done that. It references “Queen Margot” so much that I decided it needed to be the next in my queue instead of somewhere in the 90s. Now I just have to hurry up and finish the flicks I’ve got so I can see it!

Crammed full of amazing ideas, but the narrative falls apart somewhat and the characters are hard to like. Perhaps if I were posthuman I could relate to the characters more.

I’ve got to say, this is the best book I’ve read in a while. I can see how it’s not for everyone though. When I read the section “Elector” in The Best Science Fiction of 2005 (I think) I both hated and loved it. The ideas were awesome, but the characters were a little over the top, and I thought the sex-themes were a little unneccisary. Now though, after reading the book through I am a total convert. Its probably the best fictionalization of the singularity written so far. It also has certain Cyberpunk elements. Its hard to actually pin down what those are, maybe its just that the book starts in the not so far future, and skyrockets from there. Anyways, I think anyone thinking they might like this book, and ready to go to wikipedia to read up on some of the references he drops, should definetly go for it.

It was adequate. I guess I would have liked it more if I liked the characters.