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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
A vividly post-modern near-future rant on a plethora of subjects. Stross weaves a spider's web of plot lines to build his narrative, intersecting through grimy pubs, bunkers in breakaway central Asian republics and high-tech augmented reality police stations. The characters are compelling and well constructed, be they cops or psychotic criminal-CEOs. The second person narrative is oddly effective, I would have not expected it to work had I not just read this book. The setting... Well it has been said that sci-fi presents to us an eerie challenge, that it either shows us the best or worst futures that we can imagine. Rule 34 oddly hits in the middle . It is undoubtedly way to generous with the tech and the willingness of people to accept drastic changes in policing and everyday life but it doesn't presume to indirectly lecture us on what we should do. Agreed, it delves into government regulation and imposing 'good citizenship' rules on banks and corporations but it doesn't do this in such an in-your-face manner as, say a near-future author like Brunner. Instead it uses it's background pieces as just dat, elements to help frame a story about illegal 3d printing, AIs and murder.
My only direct criticism of the book would be its abuse of the disjointed narrative structure that it is built around. Sometimes it feels as if you're reading novellettes instead of a novel and the importance of some characters becomes obvious only in the end. I still don't understand what the purpose of the Eurocop was in this book. Maybe I'm dense. I could also raise a point about how difficult it became at some points to follow the cognitive computer science stuff... I felt as if I was reading Foucault. It didn't bother me but it might have bothered others...
All in all this was a good read. It's nice to see a near future cyber-thriller that is more Goatse than Neuromancer (reflecting the state of the internets today, n'est ce pas?), with decidedly modern archetypes for characters ( the single working, "heterosexually challenged" , to use the book's own term, career woman rather than the haxxorz with implanted pit-bull teeth for instance) and a relatable setting (Scotland as opposed to the Sprawl). Read it, folks.
My only direct criticism of the book would be its abuse of the disjointed narrative structure that it is built around. Sometimes it feels as if you're reading novellettes instead of a novel and the importance of some characters becomes obvious only in the end. I still don't understand what the purpose of the Eurocop was in this book. Maybe I'm dense. I could also raise a point about how difficult it became at some points to follow the cognitive computer science stuff... I felt as if I was reading Foucault. It didn't bother me but it might have bothered others...
All in all this was a good read. It's nice to see a near future cyber-thriller that is more Goatse than Neuromancer (reflecting the state of the internets today, n'est ce pas?), with decidedly modern archetypes for characters ( the single working, "heterosexually challenged" , to use the book's own term, career woman rather than the haxxorz with implanted pit-bull teeth for instance) and a relatable setting (Scotland as opposed to the Sprawl). Read it, folks.
I'm warming up to Charles Stross's writings. There are some hard sci-fi elements and the characters still need a little more depth however the story moves fast, he does a good job on writing characters that aren't straight and white and male, and the story was enjoyable.
I decided that I would not finish Charles Stross' Rule 34. I bought that one on title only, because it made me laugh (Rule 34 of the Internet states: "if you can imagine it, there is porn of it", +/- local variants).
I was first taken aback by the use of the second person, leaving a feeling of Choose Your Own Adventure book; it gets better after a few pages.
Then, there is the fact that "you" change from chapter to chapter. Again, it needs some adaptation, but oh well.
Last blow was the over use of... I suppose scottish accent transcription, possibly "as it would be in 2023" (no opinion on this, I'm definitely not an expert on accents ;) ). My English level is not ridiculous, but if you make me subvocalize a word or more per paragraph, trying to understand what it means from the approximate pronunciation that I can guess, and maintaining a brain cache of what I've figured out, I'm going to be very annoyed very fast. As in, after 2 chapters fast. Well, after two annoying chapters and the first page of the 3rd one that was definitely getting worse in that regard.
I was first taken aback by the use of the second person, leaving a feeling of Choose Your Own Adventure book; it gets better after a few pages.
Then, there is the fact that "you" change from chapter to chapter. Again, it needs some adaptation, but oh well.
Last blow was the over use of... I suppose scottish accent transcription, possibly "as it would be in 2023" (no opinion on this, I'm definitely not an expert on accents ;) ). My English level is not ridiculous, but if you make me subvocalize a word or more per paragraph, trying to understand what it means from the approximate pronunciation that I can guess, and maintaining a brain cache of what I've figured out, I'm going to be very annoyed very fast. As in, after 2 chapters fast. Well, after two annoying chapters and the first page of the 3rd one that was definitely getting worse in that regard.
Cool hard SF. Didn't like that the whole thing was written in the second person though.
*spoiler* *maybe*
ok, I get it, there's an AI emerging behind the scenes and manipulating things. It just takes so long for the book to get to that point in any direct way. I think most readers will suspect this long before the reveal near the end. This book is an interesting take on how law enforcement fits in with society and how an AI might come about as a result, but it also seems rather drawn out and has too many character point of views.
ok, I get it, there's an AI emerging behind the scenes and manipulating things. It just takes so long for the book to get to that point in any direct way. I think most readers will suspect this long before the reveal near the end. This book is an interesting take on how law enforcement fits in with society and how an AI might come about as a result, but it also seems rather drawn out and has too many character point of views.
This book was fine to listen to as I exercised. At first, the narration was a little tough to follow for me because of the Scottish accent. However, the narrator Robert Ian Mackenzie has a compelling voice, so I'd keep working out and just try to focus a bit more. Mackenzie gives distinct voices to the three main characters along with several of the other minor characters, and I think it was his narration that kept me engaged in this book.
The narration rotates from Liz the police officer whose career has stopped short to Anwar the hacker who is trying to go straight to the Toymaker who is an entertaining sociopath running around with a chip in his head. I did enjoy trying to figure out the details of how these three could be connected. The world is familiar enough with speculative elements and pieces that gave me reason to pause, particularly about the future of police investigations.
While I found this book adequate, I don't think I'd recommend it. It took me just over a month to listen to the 13 hours and 39 minutes in this audiobook. If I forgot my iPod on some days, I wasn't really upset. I did make a conscious choice to finish the last two hours in one listening session. Even still, the resolution was not that shocking. The Toymaker was by far the most entertaining character for me, and I loved hearing his rants. Unfortunately, this book did not grip me the way that I thought it would. Internet thriller? Meh.
The narration rotates from Liz the police officer whose career has stopped short to Anwar the hacker who is trying to go straight to the Toymaker who is an entertaining sociopath running around with a chip in his head. I did enjoy trying to figure out the details of how these three could be connected. The world is familiar enough with speculative elements and pieces that gave me reason to pause, particularly about the future of police investigations.
While I found this book adequate, I don't think I'd recommend it. It took me just over a month to listen to the 13 hours and 39 minutes in this audiobook. If I forgot my iPod on some days, I wasn't really upset. I did make a conscious choice to finish the last two hours in one listening session. Even still, the resolution was not that shocking. The Toymaker was by far the most entertaining character for me, and I loved hearing his rants. Unfortunately, this book did not grip me the way that I thought it would. Internet thriller? Meh.
The Rule 34 squad investigates unthinkable things and they are peppered throughout the novel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder
In Halting State, Detective Inspector Liz Kavenaugh is the focus, and she’s a cool character. I liked following along as she worked her case. This book unfortunately spends a lot of time in the heads of some scumbags instead so the book is not as enjoyable. The near-future Stross has created is imaginable and interesting to see but the case seems too bananas and drags, and then comes together really quickly. Not the greatest read but an okay read.
Interesting read, not what I thought it would be, which is good cause I was both leery and curious and had all the wrong expectations about this book.