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3.18 AVERAGE
3.18 AVERAGE
How do you talk about life in a world that has fundamentally changed? That’s the challenge that faced Doctorow & Stross. Their solution is to provide us with a luddite protagonist, Huw, who is almost as much of an outsider as the reader. Much like Arthur Dent, Huw is propelled through a series of misadventures that provide Doctorow & Stross with the opportunity to riff on both the singularity and contemporary culture.
There’s a paradox at the heart of this book. While its tone is light and breezy, the density of the ideas presently can make for a challenging read. This book is absolutely not for everyone. Doctorow & Stross take potshots at every sacred cow within range (and they make sure that there are a lot of them), so if you’re a person who is easily offended, you won’t like this. Their prose is packed with allusion and references to a wide variety of topics. Again, this textual density is not something that everyone enjoys.
Why read it then? At its best, The Rapture of the Nerds allows two of the brightest minds in contemporary SF an opportunity to play in a huge sandbox. There are as many ideas on a single page as contained in most entire novels. If you like that sense of immersion in a world of fantastical ideas, you will enjoy the time you spend in this world.
There’s a paradox at the heart of this book. While its tone is light and breezy, the density of the ideas presently can make for a challenging read. This book is absolutely not for everyone. Doctorow & Stross take potshots at every sacred cow within range (and they make sure that there are a lot of them), so if you’re a person who is easily offended, you won’t like this. Their prose is packed with allusion and references to a wide variety of topics. Again, this textual density is not something that everyone enjoys.
Why read it then? At its best, The Rapture of the Nerds allows two of the brightest minds in contemporary SF an opportunity to play in a huge sandbox. There are as many ideas on a single page as contained in most entire novels. If you like that sense of immersion in a world of fantastical ideas, you will enjoy the time you spend in this world.
Huw was a boy was a girl was a boy. Bonnie was a girl was a boy was a girl. Together they saved the universe. Other than that, I'm pretty clueless as to what the heck happened in this book.
This is the kind of book you read when you want to tell other people about the wild book you're reading. It is a pleasure watching the ways in which a friend's face contorts as they process the sheer absurdity of what's falling out of your face.
Singularity scifi - you're trying too hard.
Additionally, I'm not sure what the staying power is of this novel since so many references are pop cultural.
I'd give it 2 1/2 stars if I could, as I didn't like it but neither do I believe my opinion is really fair.
Additionally, I'm not sure what the staying power is of this novel since so many references are pop cultural.
I'd give it 2 1/2 stars if I could, as I didn't like it but neither do I believe my opinion is really fair.
Smart, fast, and Robert Anton Wilson-esque, if you replaced Wilson’s occult fascinations with paranoid internet tropes and utopian longings. Our POV EveryWo/Man techno-phobe, Huw, gets dragged along like Rincewind on a mission to Save Humanity – err, whatever that means post-uplift, post-singularity – that s/he profoundly resists being part of.
I’m sure I did not pick up 10% of the genre repurposing. One that particularly delighted me, as Huw is unwillingly descending on what is left of the United States:
I’m sure I did not pick up 10% of the genre repurposing. One that particularly delighted me, as Huw is unwillingly descending on what is left of the United States:
“Hasta la vista, sinners,” drawls the missile launch computer in a thick gubernatorial Austro-Californian accent. Two pinpricks of light blossom on the verdant horizon of the gasoline mangroves, then a third that rapidly expands into a fireball as the antique pre-cloud hypersonic missile explodes on launch. The surviving missiles stab toward them and there’s a musical chime from the countermeasures control panel. Huw feels a moment of gut-slackening terror. “You’ve got mail!” the countermeasures system announces in the syrupy tones of a kindergarten teacher. “Facebook-Goldman-AOL welcomes you to the United States of America. You have 14,023 new friend requests, which you will receive after this message from our sponsors. Your hen wants milking, your goat has been turned into a zombie, there are 14,278,123 new status updates, and you have been de-friended 1,974,231 times. There are 5,348,011 updates to the privacy policy for your review.”
Bonnie thumps something on the panel, muscles like whipcord standing out on her arm as she glares at the oncoming missiles. Huw backs away. She might actually be a communicant, he realizes in absolute horror. She might actually have a Facebook account! She’s mad enough. ...These days, tales of what Facebook did with its users during the singularity are commonly used to scare naughty children in Wales. (102-03)
It’s like Arthur Dent descending on Magrathea. For a new age. And Slartibartfast has been replaced by – oh, that would be telling.
Ayn Rand makes several appearances and is surprisingly effective, even though the authors are careful to let us know that she’s unpleasant, her followers are self-absorbed dingbats, and “if Objectivism were at the center of human philosophical discourse rather than the fringes, we wouldn’t be here—the Big Zap would have arrived decades ago. But I’m going to be generous and let you write down the ghost of Ayn Rand as a brain fart. I won’t bring her up again if you don’t.” (321)
Well worth the time.
Pretty interesting, but as always, something about Cory's writing style (or, in this case, the elements he contributed) makes it less of a dramatic story and more of a "look at this concept!" thing.
Part Heinlein, part Hitchhiker's, part Hawking...
It was a little over my head in parts. It was rapid and maddening. It is a good length, as any longer and I'd have given up. The character development rang hollow, as the characters aren't really themselves after being in the Cloud. It was a confusing rush, basically.
It was a little over my head in parts. It was rapid and maddening. It is a good length, as any longer and I'd have given up. The character development rang hollow, as the characters aren't really themselves after being in the Cloud. It was a confusing rush, basically.
Once, a long time ago, I starting reading The Illuminatus Trilogy. I'm not sure why, but I think someone who was also into scifi had recommended it to me. Between its strange pacing and storytelling and sexual content I wasn't quite ready for, I didn't get it and quit early.
I often felt echoes of that while reading this book. It's such a head trip that I often had no idea what in the world was going on. If I were a different personality or if I didn't already know that I like Cory Doctorow, I might have quit the book early. It was very, very weird.
But in the end it gets three stars because it had some pretty interesting ideas about gender identity, the singularity, technology, and chaos. This wouldn't be the first Doctorow book I'd give to someone who'd never heard of him, but it's good once you're done and meditate on what you just read.
I often felt echoes of that while reading this book. It's such a head trip that I often had no idea what in the world was going on. If I were a different personality or if I didn't already know that I like Cory Doctorow, I might have quit the book early. It was very, very weird.
But in the end it gets three stars because it had some pretty interesting ideas about gender identity, the singularity, technology, and chaos. This wouldn't be the first Doctorow book I'd give to someone who'd never heard of him, but it's good once you're done and meditate on what you just read.
Perhaps ironically, it felt like it had been written by an algorithm.
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No