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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
Decent read, but I was hoping for more.
The near-future world that Stross has painted was delightful - detailed, realistic yet speculative, number of good calls. I wouldn't exactly want to live in this kind of world, but it looked interesting. The plot and the story itself - so, so. Whole thing made sense and was interesting, but it left me with a desire for something less straightforward. The ending... I'm sorry, but it felt like cheap Ghost in the Shell knock-off. I'm not hell bent on having a definitive end to every story, but it really looked like Stross has run out of steam, looked around and tacked something that he found matching.
In other words: started good, looked nice, ended with a disappointment. Still, I had fun reading this, and the number of little jokes sprinkled over the whole thing was high enough to guarantee a 3 star grade.
The near-future world that Stross has painted was delightful - detailed, realistic yet speculative, number of good calls. I wouldn't exactly want to live in this kind of world, but it looked interesting. The plot and the story itself - so, so. Whole thing made sense and was interesting, but it left me with a desire for something less straightforward. The ending... I'm sorry, but it felt like cheap Ghost in the Shell knock-off. I'm not hell bent on having a definitive end to every story, but it really looked like Stross has run out of steam, looked around and tacked something that he found matching.
In other words: started good, looked nice, ended with a disappointment. Still, I had fun reading this, and the number of little jokes sprinkled over the whole thing was high enough to guarantee a 3 star grade.
I heard of this book, the semi-sequel to Halting State, first. It got a lot of publicity when it came out, and I was intrigued by the title. Rule 34 - a "rule" stating that if you can think of it, there's porn of it on the Internet. Detective Liz Cavanaugh's new job (after the debacle in Halting State) is on the Rule 34 squad, monitoring Internet activity for people who might try to make their pornographic fantasies a reality. The references to real-world memes (goatse, 2 girls 1 cup, etc.) were a nice touch, but aren't there any *new* memes in the last twenty years between today and the book's near future?
I enjoyed Rule 34 much more than Halting State, which I also liked. Rule 34 has a more intriguing cast of characters -- the weary cop, the bisexual Muslim, the schizophrenic criminal mastermind, among many others -- and they weave together in surprisingly interesting ways. Plus, the overall concept about artificial intelligence and how Internet spam filters might one day be used to weed out people who are, frankly, human spam, fascinated me to no end. I do wish things were a little more tightly put together, though. The "Rule 34" of the title is hardly related to the plot. And although the book has the BEST EPIGRAPH EVER ("In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are. -- Pat Robertson") it had nothing to do with the story.
Anyway, as far as sci-fi goes, this is great. It's near-future, but extremely believable in showing both how augmented reality can help us and how it can screw things up. It makes me curious about the technology of the future, and what Charles Stross will come up with next.
I enjoyed Rule 34 much more than Halting State, which I also liked. Rule 34 has a more intriguing cast of characters -- the weary cop, the bisexual Muslim, the schizophrenic criminal mastermind, among many others -- and they weave together in surprisingly interesting ways. Plus, the overall concept about artificial intelligence and how Internet spam filters might one day be used to weed out people who are, frankly, human spam, fascinated me to no end. I do wish things were a little more tightly put together, though. The "Rule 34" of the title is hardly related to the plot. And although the book has the BEST EPIGRAPH EVER ("In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are. -- Pat Robertson") it had nothing to do with the story.
Anyway, as far as sci-fi goes, this is great. It's near-future, but extremely believable in showing both how augmented reality can help us and how it can screw things up. It makes me curious about the technology of the future, and what Charles Stross will come up with next.
Rule 34 is interesting in many ways: it deals with a subject matter that is deeply interesting to me (artificial intelligence and what that means for society), is ripe with memes that any internet savvy reader would find amusing, and uses a unique second-person narrative style that takes some getting used to.
The first half of the book is something of a slog: you're introduced to the "main" character (at least in my mind) Liz, and we get an info dump on the world we're going to be visiting for the next 368 pages or so. It's the not too-distant future, and I found the technology to be believable (and intriguing).
I finished the book feeling like I wanted to know more, but I also felt a little confused and lost. I understood what had happened, but I felt like there were loose ends that I needed to know more about. Overall, I probably won't continue with the series (but in the interest of time and many other books that need reading) but it's definitely a book worth discussing.
The first half of the book is something of a slog: you're introduced to the "main" character (at least in my mind) Liz, and we get an info dump on the world we're going to be visiting for the next 368 pages or so. It's the not too-distant future, and I found the technology to be believable (and intriguing).
I finished the book feeling like I wanted to know more, but I also felt a little confused and lost. I understood what had happened, but I felt like there were loose ends that I needed to know more about. Overall, I probably won't continue with the series (but in the interest of time and many other books that need reading) but it's definitely a book worth discussing.
I'm still somewhat confused about this one, though I enjoyed the ride.
pProper review after a think, maybe.
pProper review after a think, maybe.
It was interesting reading this on the heels of Brin's "Existence". So many pieces of it mesh with things in 'Existence'. I found this a lot more hopeful, though, and it also caused me to remember reading "Burning Chrome" back when it first came out, and think about how different NOW is from what Gibson imagined thirty years ago. So while "Rule 34" is amusing, and fun, I'm also sure that things won't nearly be like that in ten years, or even thirty.
The one thing that I took issue with is the frustration of cops being overwhelmed by the depravity of mankind. I'm starting to become a believer that things are actually wonderful and improving (as far as our tendency to wipe each other out). But the whole 'layering' and 'copspace' etc... I wouldn't be surprised to see it coming. But in something entirely different than what is imagined. I mean, we have the internet now, but is it anything like what Gibson envisioned?
Not by a long shot.
Now I'm going to have to go reread some Gibson.
...additional comment. I had a small realization a couple weeks later. I was kinda surprised by how liberally the author's characters used the word 'fuck'. The belated realization: there was one point where one character mentioned that another one said something 'unprintable'. And I found it amusing considering how much 'fuck' was used throughout the book. My realization: the author is taking language drift into account. In the future of the book, 'fuck' is no longer as emotionally weighted as it is now. Now, I have no idea if that's what Stross was intending, but having read a few linguistics books over the past year, it does make sense, so I decided to take it that way and appreciate it. Sure hope that's what he was thinking. Because if so, that's kinda cool and subtle.
The one thing that I took issue with is the frustration of cops being overwhelmed by the depravity of mankind. I'm starting to become a believer that things are actually wonderful and improving (as far as our tendency to wipe each other out). But the whole 'layering' and 'copspace' etc... I wouldn't be surprised to see it coming. But in something entirely different than what is imagined. I mean, we have the internet now, but is it anything like what Gibson envisioned?
Not by a long shot.
Now I'm going to have to go reread some Gibson.
...additional comment. I had a small realization a couple weeks later. I was kinda surprised by how liberally the author's characters used the word 'fuck'. The belated realization: there was one point where one character mentioned that another one said something 'unprintable'. And I found it amusing considering how much 'fuck' was used throughout the book. My realization: the author is taking language drift into account. In the future of the book, 'fuck' is no longer as emotionally weighted as it is now. Now, I have no idea if that's what Stross was intending, but having read a few linguistics books over the past year, it does make sense, so I decided to take it that way and appreciate it. Sure hope that's what he was thinking. Because if so, that's kinda cool and subtle.
What a squalid, yet fascinating book. Set in the not too future Scotland and featuring a cast of low lives, each with their own scam in the offing, the plot seems almost too contrived. But that it all makes sense it the books true achievement. It's fun. It's nasty. And it's well worth your time to read.
This was a weird one. If someone had described to me the topic of the book, I would have found it right up my alley. Written by Charles Stross sounded like icing on the cake. But for some unfathomable reason I just couldn't enjoy this book. Reading felt like a chore, and even the wonderful Stross phrases like: "You say paranoia I say surveillance state." or "Although describing what you've got here as "Internet access" is a bit like calling a Bosnian War rape camp a "dating agency."" couldn't change the feeling that the book lacks some quality I can't pin down. Perhaps the whole problem is that I went in with high expectations. Perhaps it is just my current state of mind. I just couldn't enjoy it.
absolutely hilarious. more compelling, mature, and complex than Halting State, but of the same type.
The sequel containing an AI future. I get Final Destination meets Minority Report vibes.
Pretty cool stuff. As always for me with Stross, if I was smarter I'd probably rate it higher.