Singularity Sky

This is a good novel. Stross has written a interesting and mostly involving novel of the post-Singularity future where nanotechnology and AI rules.

If you haven't been reading up on Singularity theory (not Black Hole type singularities, this is the type described in Damien Broderick's non-fiction book "The Spike") and nanotech (Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation) then you will likely have problems following major parts of the plot. Singularity theory is the latest piece of "furniture" that is assumed prior-knowledge for much of the current wave of hard SF, particularly writers like Stross and Doctorow, et al. Probably also useful to know why FTL travel/signalling in Einstein's universe requires violations of causality and something about the EPR paradox in quantum mechanics and recent work on particle entanglement... Hey, this is SCIENCE FICTION not some bonnet drama from an arts/history dweeb!

Stross has fleshed out an interesting interstellar future-history scenario based around all this with a lot of humour thrown in for good measure. As a first novel it's very good overall and excellent in parts, but it's let down by too many pages of too detailed description of space battles and technologies and a rather let-down/watered-down ending. Still, I enjoyed it and I'm hopeful the writer will develop in his future work and overcome the rough patches in this one. I'm looking forward to the sequel Iron Sunrise where I hope to see this improvement happening. Three and a half stars.

______________________________________________

Although he doesn't manage quite the density of invention as in a Typical Manic Stross Short-story(TMSSS, tm), there's a lot going on here, and I definitely plan a reread down the road a bit to pick up on the bits I missed.

The Festival, a spaceborn, free-floating gaggle of posthumans, is appropriately inscrutable. The culture shock from their visit to backward Rochard's World might be a bit overdone, but the shower of free cellphones that announced their visit turns out to be a nice foreshadowing of the Festival's Secret...

I really liked both Rachel Mansour and Martin Springfield, the dual stars and [minor SPOILER] . . . . lovers of the book. Stross does a really nice job of sketching the personalities of these two fundamentally-decent people, stuck in a Really Dumb world, as they cope and fall in love. It's a pretty believable portrait of post-Singularity people, I thought. A well-done evocation of oldfolks with Full Medical, acting young. Springfield is a classic sfnal Engineer as Reluctant Hero, and Mansour a fine Toughgrrl-in-Black secret agent. Nice.

Stross doesn't f*ck around in the backstory, and he's done his homework. FTL travel = time travel = the death of history, barring a very tough Time Cop. Here it's the Eschaton, the transcended AI who is very, very protective of the historical thread that brought it into existence. And carries a *very* big stick.

The plot is a nice reprise of countless 50s/60s "Earthman's Burden" stories, nicely done, and certainly topical for 2004. Stross does set the threshold for regime change somewhat lower than did GW Bush....

Cool throwaway: the Marxist-Gilderist Manifesto! (p. 133, US ed.) A nice nod to Comrade KenMac...

Bottom line: First-rate first novel. 4+ stars

Happy reading--

Pete Tillman

From a very inventive mind comes an amazing tale. Read the other reviews for the story outline, but put the seatbelt on, this story is full of twist, turns and wonderful ideas. Just don't mess with time within the light-cone or bad things are gonna happen! "Thou shalt not violate causality within my historic light cone. Or else." No kidding...

Singularity Sky is an excellent scifi yarn and compelling space opera. Stross has created a very interesting universe where 90% of the Earth's population has been forcibly removed from Earth (by the Eschaton, a super intelligence) and distributed in such a way as to create some very unique cultures. The trouble starts when the Carnival, who are masters of matter transformation, create anything and everything any wants on one of the colonies of the New Republic. This of course destroys the colony's economy and feudal government. The New Republic attempts to respond to this threat with conventional warships, not truly understanding what they are up against. Singularity Sky follows two visitors to the New Republic from Earth who do understand how badly the New Republic are overmatched and attempt to lead them in a more rational direction, especially when the New Republic attempts to use time travel to gain an advantage. The universe where this all takes place is quite fascinating and the characters are well written. Stross adds a bit of mystery to the story as the goals of the earthlings are revealed to the reader and to the both of them. Definitely a worthwhile read.

I personally was absolutely spellbound by this book. Wonderful creative ideas: A space-going civilization called "The Festival" that attacks by raining down telephones that, if you pick on up, will grant you your every wish if you only tell it a story... "The Eschaton", a sort-of god that evolved from human AIs and forbids time-travel so as to avoid being edited out of existence, "Bouncers", kilometers long disposable starships that turn into fuzzy clouds of soldier nanotech, "The Critics", an entire civilization evolved from naked mole rats that makes a living via very aggressive social commentary, Paleo-Marxists, Reactionaries, Bemused New-Age civilizations, space battles, close-quarters battles, romance, spy drama, whatever, it's probably in here somewhere.

It's hard to predict who will like this and who will not: if you like your sci-fi rich and broad with a lot of technobabble this might be for you.

This book was fairly good. It delves into some great hard science (specifically FTL and its casual effects on time) however it meanders through some cold war soviet political crap that is mind-numbing. The author also strives to make the space battles as realistic as possible. Usually this would be a good thing, however in this case the author puits all his energy into getting the naval jargon correct instead of actually explaining/describing what is going on to the reader. It was confusing at times. The author obviously has a solid understanding of physics but he lacks in ability to explain it to the reader and the reader is left to simply accept it or get boggled down in the sparce explanation. This author could learn a thing or two about explaining physics to a layman from Steven Baxter. All in all, it has some excellent elements that lend itself to sequels.

During the mid-twenty first century, a superhuman intelligence that calls itself the Echelon makes it's presence known to the inhabitants of Earth in a big way. Nine of the ten billion people on Earth disappear and it is discovered that they are involuntary colonists on thousands of worlds. The Eschaton warns the humans that if they try and figure out causality (time travel) and use it, they will be destroyed.
When one planet did exactly that, the Eschaton destroyed thirty planets making up that solar system. The empire of the New Republic wants no part of advanced technology and it keeps the inhabitants in the member worlds on a level with Tsarist Russia. One of the most technologically backward planets of The New Republic, Rochard's World, is being deluged by an information plague known as the Festival. The fatherland planet is sending its warships to destroy the festival but two people onboard one of the starships have a different agenda that must be carried out if they don't want the Eschaton to take hostile action.
SINGULARITY SKY is a fascinating space opera that immediately grabs and keeps the attention of the reader. The Eschaton is an ingenious concept and it would be terrific if the author would write another book involving it at a more intimate level. The idea of the Festival, a non-sentient communication repair machine is very original and it is interesting to see how the people of Rochard's world react to the information overload. Charles Stross is a very creative and innovative storyteller.
Harriet Klausner

With its proliferation of ideas, Singularity Sky represents something that is best about speculative fiction: its complete freedom to explore ideas and futures dealing with the fate of mankind itself. That potential is so tremendously exciting that the reader's anticipation can carry an otherwise mediocre book a long ways based merely upon the appetite whetted by some intriguing ideas. Yet Sky represents what is worst about the speculative fiction field: a book that is all about ideas and nothing about literature and what that art form is to a people who read it. It cares nothing for what its ideas may mean, what we should do with those ideas as human beings, or how our art as a people is reflected upon the future. In plain language, like so many other novels, it is all about the cool-factor of the setting and nothing to do with follow-through on the high themes that setting may touch. Because of that lack in this book-and so many others-we find science fiction relegated to the critical "ghetto." Stross has written a book for science fiction fans and a book that can only be enjoyed by science fiction fans; it will have no appeal whatsoever to a broader audience base. That will make it a forgettable book.

WHO SHOULD READ:

There are a whole host of these sorts of space-opera stories and there is an audience for them (obviously, else who would be purchasing and who would publish?). For those readers, Sky will very likely be rather fulfilling. Fans of Star Trek in its many variations will find similar themes to ponder in these pages and this comfortable familiarity in a new setting will be delightful. Readers running the gamut of Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton, Mark Budz, Richard K. Morgan, and any of a number of other (so-called "hard SF) authors will probably find this on their reading list and will not be disappointed.

WHO SHOULD PASS:

This would be a terrible book with which to introduce new readers to the genre of science fiction-particularly those with a sophisticated literary taste. As we stated above, new readers to the genre will not be impressed with the setting and will try to peek behind the curtains at the ideas lying behind it... they will be as disappointed as Dorothy was when she first discovered the Wizard of Oz. For all the speculative fiction readers who, like us, are more impressed with philosophy than action, with characterization over setting, and lingering ideas than goosefleshed suspense, these people should seek other authors and other books to satisfy their longings. For those craving to learn something about themselves and humanity, there is nothing but disappointment.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM

Charles Stross has captured the confusion and emotional reaction to technology in a believable and yet tragic story that shows how quickly people can succumb to their own uncontrolled desires when the checks and balances in a society are removed. Perhaps a timely warning to us all given all the things in the news each day, but also a hopeful suggestion that our individual lives and the story of our experiences is the ultimate value when everything else can be synthesized out of thin air (or asteroids and gas clouds as the case may be).

Stross has been criticized for having too many good ideas and not enough control over them, and this is the most striking point for me as well. The opening idea is one of the best I've encountered in sf, and the effect of the Festival's advanced technology on an unprepared society is by far the most interesting aspect of the book. I wish this had been the focus, but Stross instead foregrounds a conventional suspense plot built around conventionally appealing but undeveloped central characters. Although the stakes of the Eschaton's intervention are very high, the suspense of the plot involving the two protagonists has nothing to do with the question of this intervention but concerns only their personal fate. It's clear early on that what happens to Martin and Rachel will have no bearing whatsoever on larger outcomes. The New Republic is a lazy invention, reminiscent of (but inferior to) and playing a similar role to the Azar in Banks's Player of Games, but not subjected to a developed ethical conflict. Which isn't to say that the book has no moral. Stross is all for the free and unregulated flow of information, hardly the most outspoken stance given his audience.

Stross's sense of humor is pretty unsophisticated, and I found his writing a little heavy on technobabble, especially in the operations and tactics of the military starship. Readers more at home with hard science may not be bothered by this. Still, a very promising debut. I will probably read some of his more recent efforts, but not the sequels to this one.

A close to omniscient AI oversees a large sector of space, to prevent any causality or other events it sees as technology violations.

A group of strange aliens travel around, looking for information and fun, to them. If this is found, they basically give the population replicators to do with as they will.

In a repressive, militaristic society on a planet with an almost Victorian feel this will cause a lot of grief, as their grip on control slips.

As a response, they decide to see if they can sneakily blow some things up and get around the Eschaton's control.

In the middle of this are an interplanetary Inspector (read secret agent), and a hapless engineer she recruits.

Highly entertaining, overall.

Given the hype this book and its author have received in the SF community, I was surprised at just how mediocre Singularity Sky turned out to be. There is a great discrepancy in quality between the setting and all other aspects of the story. Stross takes a new and interesting milieu and inserts a story that has nothing new or interesting to offer the reader.

The tale itself turns out to be a sort of spy yarn, made uninteresting by the fact that the good-guy spies (Rachel Mansour and Martin Springfield) have an unbeatable technological advantage over their backward New Republic opponents. The same goes for the alien Festival, who oppose the New Republic in a war of sorts. At every turn the dice are loaded in favor of the good guys, and the reader knows it, ruling out the possibility of dramatic tension.

This might've been forgiveable if the story served any deeper purpose, but it seems not to. Singularity Sky lacks both the philosophical depth achieved by some of Stross's contemporaries (Greg Egan, John C. Wright) and the aching human drama conveyed by others (William Barton, Tony Daniel). If this represents the 'hottest' new science fiction, we the readers are in trouble. Not at all recommended.

Stross' book has a great opening: cellphones rain from the sky as an advanced post-human civilization called the Festival comes to a backwards, Luddite planet. A poor boy picks up a cellphone and entertains it in exchange for feeding his familly.
The problem is, we never see the boy again. Instead, we're dragged off to a very long plot arc that describes the Luddite society despatching a space opera fleet that we are told will be wiped out as soon as it meets the Festival. Two humans from a more advanced society are along for the ride, trying to manipulate the situation to their own agendas.
Stross spends a lot of time beating the drum on the stupidity and venality of the technologically and socially backwards New Republic, and how they should just stop worrying and love the Singularity. The two nominal heroes, Martin and Rachel, have one-sided arguments with a dim-witted secret police agent that belong in an old Heinlein novel. If the Singularity means seeing your family get turned into killer zombie mimes, can you blame some people for suppressing it?
At the end, everything seems to have come to naught. The revolution is stillborn, the New Republic fleet is wiped out as expected, the Singularity tech seems to have vanished as suddenly as it arrived, the Festival packs up and moves on and various plot threads just fizzle out. Neither of the nominal heroes have signicantly influenced the course of events.
Stross has great ideas, and how the Festival and its various sub-types and camp-followers function is well drawn. His storytelling and characterization are what's lacking.
According to one interview, the North American version was a different length from the UK. I hope that the original UK version was better than this, with more on the impact of the Festival instead of pages after page of military detail.

To build a story, Stross typically chooses a set of weird ideas--e.g., Cthulhu, nanotech and the Iran-Contra scandals--and rams them all together into one bizarre plot. He then attempts to hold the resulting story together through sheer style and momentum.

When Stross's technique works, it produces addictive, brain-melting concoctions. When his technique fails, it produces unmemorable, middle-of-the-road science fiction. Fortunately, Stross is blessed with enough style and momentum for any five writers, so he gets away with it pretty often.

"Singularity Sky" is my favorite Stross novel to date. He's written other novels with tighter plots and better-developed characters, but few of them pack as much delightful, twisted content into such a small space. "Singularity Sky" includes, among other things, a libertarian People's Soviet, genetically-engineered hive-dwelling art critics, and "laws" of physics enforced by pre-emptive asteroid bombardment. And some of the individual sentences are nearly worth the price of the book--who couldn't love "the brightly colored sporks of revolution"?

If you're looking for a carefully-paced plot and nuanced characters, you may or may not care for "Singularity Sky". But if you like gonzo style and a dense conceptual background, it's a treat.

Fun and wacky with some biting political commentary, but weakened by some techno-babble that may not really make sense. Not one of Stross' best efforts, but he has created a world and characters that I look forward to visiting again.

Similar to Richard K Morgan's "Thirteen", I liked the story; but, did not enjoy getting an ear full of political rhetoric with every chapter. I am not a member of the Esoteric Society of Stross - although, I am sure they are out there (don't want to hurt anybody's feelings). Will say that I'm looking forward to the upcoming release of Stross' new Laundry Files Novel, The Fuller Memorandum. Hopefully, Cthulhu doesn't have a political agenda.

The book has its flaws. Nevertheless I still have a soft spot for it. It has a creative and original flair that is why I like science fiction.

INCOMING MESSAGE ATTN CHARLES STROSS
I AM THE ESCHATON
I AM NOT YOUR GOD
YOU WILL WRITE MORE ESCHATON NOVELS
OR ELSE

Charlie Stross was clearly having fun, and when an author has fun writing a book the reader can't help buf follow through (although I did find myself wishing that Imperial Russia wasn't quite as proficient in being a posterchild for boneheadedness and buffoonery - it seems to be used by so many writers to personify these traits...) Michael Swanwick, in his blurb review, called the book a "joyous romp" and that's precisely what it is, with a serious edge to it, too. I enjoyed, much, even though I rarely read the cutting-edge hard SF books any more these days. But I do recommend this one for the sheer entertainment value... and a couple of sharp psychological insights thrown in to spice the mix.

Singularity Sky has two big ideas at play. The first is the practical ramifications of the singularity on a culture not that far removed from our own. The second is a believable approach to time travel as applied to interplanetary warfare. Unfortunately, the mind-blowing connotations produced by the first are overshadowed by the melodrama of the second. Charles Stross has always packed more ideas per chapter than most science fiction writers articulate in the entire book. That is usually a good thing. Here, however, the two sides were less peanut butter and chocolate than they were peanut butter and pickles; potential compelling narratives on their own but unsatisfying when munged together.

I blazed through this book. It is playful, irreverent, consumed by more raw ideas and imaginative takes on traditional scifi tropes than I've seen in a dog's age. And it contains the most vivid spaceship command deck combat dialogue I've ever read. If you enjoy the occasional fat mouthful of jargon, you're going to find yourself chewing vigorously throughout Singularity Sky.
Mr. Stross is obviously having more fun in some parts of his writing than others, which while noticable, isn't fatal. I think the other reviewers should give this book another read without their Clarion baseball hats on, or at least with them loosened a few notches. Perfection isn't required for enjoyment - just energy and novelty. Maybe they were dissatisfied at the denouement to the Big Space Battle, but that was the point - sometimes, you don't get the lollypop.
Singularity Sky is about *bigness*, like John Clute's _Appleseed_, but more accessbile. It's full of little in-jokes and sly tech-culture references, doing for the IETF what _Silverlock_ did for filk. It baps around collectivism, the principles of sovereignty, mutation theory, spy techniques, nanotechnology, Newtonian physics, kangaroo courts, secret police, and a character straight out of a Gilbert and Sullivan production. Oi vey!
I liked it. I'm looking forward to his next book A Lot. He will only get better.
bob

The author has the POTENTIAL to be really good. In fact, it is almost as if two different people wrote different parts of this book. I found the Martin/Rachel storyline to be fairly decent reading.

Unlike the master reviewer, I didn't have any trouble understanding the quote he provided. However, there was plenty else I didn't understand, and more importantly didn't care, about.

I also question why the author waited until around 120 pages into the book to explain the Eschaton to us clearly.

Overall, I'd skip this book. It was my first for Charles Stross and I don't think I will give him another try.

-Tom

This book holds promise of things to come from Stross. There was quality to the sentence structure and quirky imagery. Telephones falling from the sky, discussions of socioeconomic politics, travel trunks with the ability to manufacture anything you could ever need, large gun-touting, rabbit-like creatures with superior skills of criticism... Singularity Sky had so much potential. It had the potential to be an exciting read (not quite; I had to work to finish this one). It had the potential for great characters for a reader to latch on to (never happened; first good background about characters near page 150). It had the potential for a mind-blowing revelation and a great twist ending (and we got the truth dropped to us in a bunch of slow dialogue and awkward staging). Singularity Sky had so much potential I was about to throw it across the room. I'm going to have to get Iron Sunrise because I truly want Stross to prove himself to me. He has a great mind for ideas and just had to stumble through one novel to figure out how to work in a larger story arch.

Okay, in all fairness Singularity Sky could have been much worse. Although it sports well defined characters and the plot is held together nicely -- mostly by repetative rambling rapsodies of unadulterated psycho/pseudo techno bable; I was (for the first half of the book) utterly lost in my attempts to understand the technologies, mechanics, and fictionalilties (including some beings) in this book. To be honest, I did enjoyed the work; but only after making myself threat through the first half. If the author's intention was to rely on the curiosity level of the reader to carry the story through: BRAVO -- brilliant work. Otherwise... it was just too darn confussing -- to the point where the reader is almost required to obtain a PhD in Physics to make heads or tails of the space travel/faster than light/casualities/etc, etc. -- just give me the equation, please.

One particular item which I found extremely dissapointing was the end of the story, which I found rushed and too open-ended. Another, was that the book seem to be written exclusively for the ultra-technical gicky populance, with a general dismissal of the low-tech/non-MIT graduate/software engineering segments.

In closing; I would had enjoyed it much more (and would have purchased the subsequent books in the series) had the author taken the time to "paint" a less detailed picture of the mechanics and just gotten to the business of telling what could had been a fab story.

I read this book with absolutely no knowledge of its contents other than it was hard science fiction and was recommended to me by the store based on me previously buying books by Iain M Banks and Richard Morgan. After reading about 100 pages I came to the conclusion that it must be a part of a series so I set out to find the earlier books. Of course I never found them because this book is, hopefully, the first in a series. The reason for my confusion is that the backstory is only hinted at throughout most of the book and is almost grudgingly revealed piecemeal. With hindsight, this made the book a real page-turner for me and, despite a few rough edges and a less than satisfactory ending, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I won’t spoil the plot and recommend reading it, as I did, with no foreknowledge, so I’ll content myself with saying that it contains a lot of high technology but viewed from the point of view of a society that seems almost Victorian that makes it far more accessible and understandable than it may otherwise have been.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes hard science fiction.

- citizens living on a repressive semi-feudalistic planet
- post-humans uploaded into small crystalline starships
- Millions of bright plastic phones reentering the atmosphere,
chirping, and saying "tell us amusing stories and we will give
you anything you want"
- Babba Yagga's hut
- The UN taken over by the IETF
- Marxism
- Libertarianism
- Anarchism
- Private protection services
- Spies
- Universal assemblers
- Time travel
- a non-causal-logic hyper-AI trying to make sure that it's not
retroactively aborted.
- Waste products rapidly encountering a fan
It's not a perfect book, but the cool-meme-density is pretty high.

With his long awaited and eagerly anticipated debut novel, (Stross) joins the upper echelon of new SF writers. 'Singularity Sky' has everything an SF fan could want: Human colonies scattered across the length and breadth of the universe, sophisticated technology, mystery and intrigue, conflict and revolt, and it's a damn good read! Leaves the reader wanting more.

I enjoyed the Eschaton thing. Sentences like "I am not your god," followed by behaviour that indicates that it might very well be for all practical purposes - is just hilarious.
And there is plenty of good Space Opera in this book.
That said I were a bit bored from time to time, I am afraid to say. Therefore it can't be more than 3 stars.

-Simon

While his wordplay, setting and concepts are (as usual) nothing short of breath-taking his characters and plot developement are nothing short of yawn inducing.

Stross joins the quickly swelling ranks of hard sci-fi authors whose brilliant short stories seem to hint at limitless potential and yet when they step out of the briefer medium immediatly stumble in novel form and eventually fall flat on their face(s).

Stross's future bending content and stunning technopoetry-prose shimmer with a level of craftsmenship severly lacking in his novel's characters and plot growth. And until Stross devotes the that same stylized proficency to his basic story elements he should avoid novels and stick with a format where such absences can be overlooked- shorts.

Stross has all all of the style and none of the content required to weave the epic stories he's trying to pen.

While the book is interesting, and has a number of interesting ideas, the character development is minimal. Also, the characters do not drive the plot, instead the plot happens to them. 337 pages was too much to devote just an exercise in universe-building, even as interesting a universe as is presented here. This would have been better as a short story, where the reader does not expect as much from plot and characters. I would be interested in seeing a better story in this same setting.

Sometime in the mid 21st century an artificial intelligence arises out of Earth's computer networks. This intelligence scatters the land with strange structures, causes nine tenths of the population to disappear and issues three commandments. Flash forward a few centuries, the missing nine tenths of earth's population were transmitted via wormholes to star systems up to 3000 light years away, travelling one year back in the past for every light year travelled. Earth has recovered from the events of this singularity and is now a sort of central clearing house for trade and information under a reconstituted United Nations.

Martin Springfield is an engineer working for the Navy of the New Republic, one of the civilzations rising out of this diaspora and which despite it's name is more of an empire. The New Republic has banned most information technology and all nano-technology and keeps its citizens backwards in a highly stratified society where advanced technologies are only permitted for military or state security uses.

When a travelling interstellar civilization known as the Festival comes to the New Republic colony world New Rochard the whole social system is kicked over. The Festival wants stories and information, and is willing to trade high tech products that verge on the magical to the inhabitants of New Rochard, which destroys scarcity and the whole hierarchical system. Rather than allow this to happen the New Republic decides to launch a war fleet to take out the Festival. Using faster than light travel the war fleet will arrive at New Rochard before the Festival does, thus saving the day. The only problem with this is that the AI that caused all this, now known as "The Eschaton" explicity prohibits causality violations and has a messy way of dealing with those who risk its wrath, such as by causing their suns to go nova (it is explained that the Crab Nebula is one such result).

Rachel Mansour is a UN intelligence agent who is trying to prevent the New Republic from doing anything stupid that would bring down the wrath of the Eschaton and endanger other star systems. She is thrown together as a military observer with Springfield as the New Republic fleet plans to assault New Rochard.

_Singularity Sky_ is about the efforts of Springfield and Mansour to prevent the actions of the New Republic from causing a catastrophe and is also about what would happen to a planetary civilization if scarcity were abolished and wishes, mediated by advanced technology, could come true. The book is full of lots of great ideas and is a lot of fun to read for those. Stross's examination of what it means to abolish scarcity is also interesting and he demolishes all of the junk space operas out there such as the Honor Harrington series by showing that fighting a truly advanced civilization with a space navy based upon the principles of the British Navy ca. 1805 would be a very short war indeed, with the space navy coming out far the worse for wear.

The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is because I felt that Stross needed to flesh some things out. He put a lot of ideas out there but I felt that some of them weren't adequately examined.

While not the bext work of science fiction to hit the shelves, Singularity Sky does provide a couple of hours of good, soldin entertainment and intrigue for the less demanding Sci-Fi reader. It is one of the books that you buy when boarding a plane, are done with half way through the flight, and re-read it again when you get bored with the in-flight entertainment.

Worth the money, not stunning though.

Engaging characters, fascinating speculation on what might happen in the event of a Singularity. I like the use of a society that has deliberately avoided technology as a "jumping on point" for the reader, in particular.

Stross writes with confidence and in fine style, but I was still left feeling empty. The problem with writing about technological singularity is that it's like trying to describe the Internet to an ant. Too far outside the frame of reference of even the author.

I enjoy novels where I feel something for the characters, whether it be affection, love or even loathing. These characters left me indifferent.

Having said all that, Stross has an eye for irony that gave me a few chuckles.

This book felt rather like a short story padded out (mostly with irrelevant space opera scenes) to novel-length. I found parts of it quite thought-provoking, though, particularly the question of what happens to a society in which everyone is suddenly given everything they ask for.
I love the way the prologue is written--it grabs you with its clever ideas and high speed--made me wish the whole story was written that way instead of bogging down in tiresome military drama, clunky romance scenes, etc...
Not really a book to buy--I'd recommend getting this one from the library and reading it quickly, skimming through the filler.

Enjoyable overall, but recommended only with reservations. As noted by others, the continual anachronistic references to life in the late 20th /early 21st centuries is grating. Whatever term people will use for their instantaneous communications 300 years from now, I'm sure it won't be "email." In general, we have here an interesting concept, but the novel should have received another two iterations of critical editing. Sometimes, somebody just needs to tell an author, "No! Don't DO that!" (The episode of the pie-throwing mimes cost this book an entire star.)

loved it. An excellent book, with incredible detail and, although implausible, the writer delved into some of the technical descriptions of sci-fi advancement; which i found creative and appreciated that he took the time to explain

This is a fantastic read. Charles Stross, along with John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow and Wil McCarthy are part of a new generation of hard SF writers who attack the genre with imagination and wit. Stross' debut combines a well-imagined and thought out universe, engaging characters, and humor in a fast paced package. The universe of the Eschaton is one you'll want to return to.

This book is a wild ride; great ideas and interesting characters. When reaching for the absolute limits in literature, an author may lose readers here and there - he lost me in a few spots. But this is a great book!

The concept of the Eschaton is interesting but never explored.. This is the first book that I know of that has used Chardin's Noosphere as a noun... sort of neat... but otherwise a terrible piece of work... speed read through most of this dreadful book and threw in the trash afterwords.... I would not recommend another sentient being waste their precious time on this beautiful world...

On one hand, Singularity Sky is a funny, almost slapstick yarn, with a bare bones story set in an elaborately thought out nerd playground where delta v approach vectors apply to conversations as well as vacuum naval battles. The satire is well written, but overblown, the science fiction is hard, but fantastical, and the characters are likeable, but paper-thin. I liken this to a stripped down serialized Flash Gordon sent from thousands of years into our future back to our time where it temporarily appears like something not intended to babysit children for a dime on a Saturday afternoon. On the other hand, Singularity Sky is an offensive game of Mad Libs using a science fiction writer’s thesaurus. Paragraph after paragraph of words, carefully constructed into sentences, with clever asides and inside jokes, somehow, and miraculously so, actually don’t say or mean anything. At times, it’s like reading a technical manual for something that doesn’t exist, made of parts that don’t exist, utilizing scientific discovers that won’t be discovered, and ultimately still wouldn’t make sense even if it all came true. Philosophically speaking, the whole thing hinges on a type of post-apocalyptic society reconstructed on different planets populated with a variety of technological/psychological/political periods of history, with which we can mock, and simultaneously be mocked by the carefully impartial (partially) Deus Ex-Machina of the Eschaton which watches over everything like a super intelligent Santa Clause.

Flat out, some people are gonna love this book. It is funny. If you’re the guy waiting in line to buy the new iphone 10s deluxe, and you notice the guy behind you with the iphone 9 instead of last month’s model, the 10s-mini, and this prompts you to quickly blog about how lame he is, then you’ll love the inside joke feeling of this book. If you like well-constructed stories with characters you care about, the closest you’ll get in Singularity Sky is in the prologue, where a young boy, when granted any wish in the world, chooses to feed his family. It’s on the first page. And it’s the only humanity to be found in the entire book. Perhaps this is the lesson here. Perhaps we are headed into this super narcissistic ‘singularity’. Perhaps the guy in line laughing at everyone is really the joke himself, and Stross has found a way to mock him so subtly, that he laughs along with the rest of us without realizing it is he that is the fool.

Though my feelings are mixed, I am not finished reading Charles Stross.

Look, Stross is trying to communicate a post-singularity reality to us poor dumb humans. Honestly, if you want to read a book about any future that is likely to happen, then you need to get used to the fact that it will be inherently technical in nature. So read up, get smarter, and get used to the process. Reading this book (along with the seminal Schismatrix) might just help.