Postsingular

I possibly came into this one with overly high hopes. Rudy Rucker is often mentioned as one of the key authors writing about the Singularity, a concept I find endlessly fascinating. I think I was kind of expecting another Accelerando, but this wasn't up to that level.

Postsingular tells the tale of a few folks who live through a very simplistic Singularity, and how they cope with the new always-networked world populated by artificial intelligences and strange beings from a parallel universe (specifically, another brane different from, but very close to our universe). Some of the ideas are really very interesting, but it's all very deus ex machina, and reads more like a cheap fantasy novel (our heroes go to a magical land to bring back a magical artifact to save the world from a villain who wants to destroy it and remake it to bring back his lost love). Many parts of it were very cartoonish, and it suffered from one of my least favourite tropes, the Amazing Author Whose Creativity Can Change The World.

So overall, I was a bit disappointed. I think I'll start looking at Vinge to get my Singularity hit, and keep hoping Charlie Stross will jump back on that horse.