Singularity Sky

I personally was absolutely spellbound by this book. Wonderful creative ideas: A space-going civilization called "The Festival" that attacks by raining down telephones that, if you pick on up, will grant you your every wish if you only tell it a story... "The Eschaton", a sort-of god that evolved from human AIs and forbids time-travel so as to avoid being edited out of existence, "Bouncers", kilometers long disposable starships that turn into fuzzy clouds of soldier nanotech, "The Critics", an entire civilization evolved from naked mole rats that makes a living via very aggressive social commentary, Paleo-Marxists, Reactionaries, Bemused New-Age civilizations, space battles, close-quarters battles, romance, spy drama, whatever, it's probably in here somewhere. It's hard to predict who will like this and who will not: if you like your sci-fi rich and broad with a lot of technobabble this might be for you.

Charles Stross' Singularity Sky is not the hard science fiction one might anticipate from its title, so readers beware. Instead it's a space opera combining interstellar war, spies, and alien invasions of a different nature. Anticipate a fast-paced, politically-driven plot with romance peppering an unusual story of discovery.

With his long awaited and eagerly anticipated debut novel, (Stross) joins the upper echelon of new SF writers. 'Singularity Sky' has everything an SF fan could want: Human colonies scattered across the length and breadth of the universe, sophisticated technology, mystery and intrigue, conflict and revolt, and it's a damn good read! Leaves the reader wanting more.

During the mid-twenty first century, a superhuman intelligence that calls itself the Echelon makes it's presence known to the inhabitants of Earth in a big way. Nine of the ten billion people on Earth disappear and it is discovered that they are involuntary colonists on thousands of worlds. The Eschaton warns the humans that if they try and figure out causality (time travel) and use it, they will be destroyed.When one planet did exactly that, the Eschaton destroyed thirty planets making up that solar system. The empire of the New Republic wants no part of advanced technology and it keeps the inhabitants in the member worlds on a level with Tsarist Russia. One of the most technologically backward planets of The New Republic, Rochard's World, is being deluged by an information plague known as the Festival. The fatherland planet is sending its warships to destroy the festival but two people onboard one of the starships have a different agenda that must be carried out if they don't want the Eschaton to take hostile action.SINGULARITY SKY is a fascinating space opera that immediately grabs and keeps the attention of the reader. The Eschaton is an ingenious concept and it would be terrific if the author would write another book involving it at a more intimate level. The idea of the Festival, a non-sentient communication repair machine is very original and it is interesting to see how the people of Rochard's world react to the information overload. Charles Stross is a very creative and innovative storyteller.Harriet Klausner