Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Stross & The Festival have arrived, 28 Sep 2006
Rachel Mansour is a UN diplomat based incognito in an interplanetary Russian-ethnic society based on a historical model of class-structure and aristocratic inherited privilege. Martin Greenfield is also working undercover within the society for a mysterious paymaster called Herman.
At the outset of the novel a presence arrives in orbit around one of these Russian worlds and showers the planet with mobile phones. The bemused natives are told on the phones that The Festival has arrived and that they will grant requests for anything if they can only be entertained.
Soon, the Victorian-industrial world is thrown into chaos, revolution and worse by a plethora of advanced technological items given to the inhabitants.
On the homeworld, the Emperor decides to send his fleet to destroy the Festival and quell the insurrection. Martin, who has been waiting for his papers to be processed so that he can work in the flagship's engine room, is suddenly summoned aboard, as is Rachel, who has abandoned her disguise and announced herself as a UN observer to claim a place on the flagship, ostensibly to ensure that that the military of the New Republic do not contravene any of the Eschaton's laws.
It is only gradually that we realise that the Eschaton is not the ruling body of this interstellar multi-cultural society, but is something else entirely.
Stross succeeds admirably in blending satire, drama, political intrigue and outrageous science fiction concepts in a cleverly constructed novel.
One's understanding of the history of Humanity's interstellar cultures is revealed piece by piece and the jigsaw Stross puts together for us is weird, funny, fast paced and politically astute.
As a debut novel it's not the explosive start one might have expected from Stross who has made a reputation for himself through his short fiction. It is, however, an original and refreshing piece of work, which works well on every level.
Most importantly it's intelligently written, peppered with wit and the occasional post-modern reference.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Potential, but falls short of the mark., 2 May 2006
This book was a present, and I'm not sure I'd buy it myself. Other reviews, and indeed the cover, compare Stross to Iain M Banks, which I think is a vastly over-flattering comparison. While both authors have suitably large ideas for the genre, Banks's stuff has a grace, style and consistency that Stross lacks.
Having said all this, the book has some good ideas, and I have to agree with other reviewers that the Soviet-Russia-in-space bits are quite fun (if a bit implausible), reminscent of all those tension-laden submarine flicks.
But ultimately, I found this one of those books that you have to force yourself to finish. The obligatory love sub-plot is horrible (there's one line, featuring a particularly memorable use of a word that had me gazing at the page in disbelief), and the ass-kicking-female-heroine-with-a-heart is such a cutout adolescent cliche that I was left hoping it was all a big joke that I'd somehow missed. And I really hate it when authors slip in references to 20th-century stuff in the supposed far future. It just jars.
Maybe later books by the author are better, and maybe I'll read them one day. Singularity Sky certainly doesn't leave me inclined to rush out and check them out though. I read this book not long after one by Alastair Reynolds, who has been mentioned here by other reviewers, seems to occupy a similar sphere, but is much more enjoyable and I'd recommend his stuff over this any day.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
Potential, 14 May 2005
Occasionally, and clearly not often enough, a new author arrives that makes us sit up and say 'wow, when does the next book come out?'For me the last few were Richard Morgan, Alastair Reynolds and Neal Asher and if you know your British sci-fi, you know that I am placing Stross in august company. Not that Singularity Sky is the perfect novel - its falls some way short - but it offers something else - potential. Stross will go on to write a scorcher, and the discovery of potential is a wonderful thing. So what of the book itself? The mainline: Weird alien culture arrives a human planet and wreaks havoc, but not intentionally. The backdrop: Humanity has been dispersed across a few hundred light years in the singularity - a moment when a God-like entity, the Eschaton, intervened in Earth and moved 90% of the population off-planet. The itch: time travel. This is one of the few novels I have read involving time travel that does not have me despairing at all the paradoxes. Stross writes fluidly and confidently, and it is his confidence that makes him convincing. The story cracks along after a slowish start, and is witty without being too clever. Not much is said about the backdrop, saving it for sequels to come, but what is said hangs together and leaves you with a hearty appetite for more of Stross' universe. The story loses its way several times, but never for long, and is all nicely wrapped-up at the end. Singularity Sky is very similar to Iain Banks' novels, which is certainly a good thing, but Stross' displays a prodigious imagination and enough of his own style for it to be worth reading as a Charles Stross novel rather than worth reading for being like an Iain Banks novel. I'm already looking forward to the release of Iron Sunrise in paperback. Four stars
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