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A review by frasersimons
Accelerando by Charles Stross
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It’s nice to finally get to a post-cyberpunk staple. Though, the “post” gets a lot of confusion for this sub genre particularly. There are works that are a reaction to cyberpunk, being post in the literary sense, and then there are people who mean post as in simply after cyberpunk because it “died”. I don’t think genre can die. People contribute to it, so it’s alive. This is decidedly just after the main movement, and in a technological age where the technology that was supposition has been fleshed out by virtue of time and advancement.
This also reads as something decidedly different, but keeps the high tech low life aspects. It is technical heavy, bordering on hard scifi. Personally, I think of hard scifi as having the technology and plot be something plausible and possible. I suppose you could say post singularity humanity Could end up here, but it is Snow Crashian in its bombastic wildness that it doesn’t seem so, to me. Sentient crustaceans being the kicker, the characters and plot beats are more fun than anything. A theme comes together throughout too, but it all feels beside the point, really, with the main goal shoving in the ideas to a workable plot that barely engages (Neal Stephenson, that you? {especially Anathem}).
I tend to like scifi that interrogates the human condition in a relatable way I can ruminate, possibly internalize. This is not that either. It’s a wild romp that had me questioning the purpose of what was happening more often than thinking about the ramifications of upgrading pets (or their agency), and when it was all done, I just sort of shrugged and said to myself, well that happened.
This also reads as something decidedly different, but keeps the high tech low life aspects. It is technical heavy, bordering on hard scifi. Personally, I think of hard scifi as having the technology and plot be something plausible and possible. I suppose you could say post singularity humanity Could end up here, but it is Snow Crashian in its bombastic wildness that it doesn’t seem so, to me. Sentient crustaceans being the kicker, the characters and plot beats are more fun than anything. A theme comes together throughout too, but it all feels beside the point, really, with the main goal shoving in the ideas to a workable plot that barely engages (Neal Stephenson, that you? {especially Anathem}).
I tend to like scifi that interrogates the human condition in a relatable way I can ruminate, possibly internalize. This is not that either. It’s a wild romp that had me questioning the purpose of what was happening more often than thinking about the ramifications of upgrading pets (or their agency), and when it was all done, I just sort of shrugged and said to myself, well that happened.