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Audible sample Sample
Singularity Sky Paperback – January 1, 2005
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Additional Details
Distant descendants of this ultra high-tech Earth live in parochial simplicity on the far-flung worlds of the New Republic. Their way of life is threatened by the arrival of an alien information plague known as the Festival. As forbidden technologies are literally dropped from the sky, suppressed political factions descend into revolutionary turmoil.
A battle fleet is sent from Earth to destroy the Festival, but Spaceship engineer Martin Springfield and U.N. diplomat Rachel Mansour have been assigned rather different tasks. Their orders are to diffuse the crisis or to sabotage the New Republic's war-fleet, whatever the cost, before the Eschaton takes hostile action on a galactic scale.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOrbit (UK)
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2005
- Dimensions4.45 x 0.94 x 7.09 inches
- ISBN-101841493341
- ISBN-13978-1841493343
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Product details
- Publisher : Orbit (UK); New Ed edition (January 1, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1841493341
- ISBN-13 : 978-1841493343
- Item Weight : 8.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.45 x 0.94 x 7.09 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,045,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19,252 in Space Operas
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Charles Stross, 58, is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2015 Hugo awards for best novella, Stross's works have been translated into over twelve languages.
Like many writers, Stross has had a variety of careers, occupations, and job-shaped-catastrophes in the past, from pharmacist (he quit after the second police stake-out) to first code monkey on the team of a successful dot-com startup (with brilliant timing he tried to change employer just as the bubble burst).
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What would happen if we had the understanding of physics to create closed timelike curves? A higher power would say, Thou shalt not create causality violating devices, or else!
But how would or else be carried out? Obviously, destroying the offending star system drives the lesson home, but is that the only possible solution?
Meanwhile, information wants to be free, and it will be. The Festival has come to a colony world, and turned everything upside down and inside out. But our heroes can save the day, can’t they?
Read this fascinating and thought provoking book and find out.
To be blunt the audible version had a fantastic narrator that makes the story come alive more than simply reading would…There is a good chance that my eyes would have crossed if I had read it myself. While there is at times some good descriptive language in the story it does have the short story sparseness about it. There is a lot of sociological and philosophical language thrown around that makes the reader pause to figure out what the heck the author was trying to get across. This happens early and often so it is hard to get hooked in even with the cool sci-fi elements that come off more as magic than anything.
Stross somehow still made it interesting as I listened to it and found the main plotline among the scattered characters. As a short story writer the author did have fast snappy dialogue that again was brought to life by the audible narrator. Reading through it though I think it would be hard to find the difference in the characters voices, particularly the alien ones.
This story was good and entertaining. I do think that it does require a particular taste for the genre to really be engaged and enjoy it right away. I am glad to have taken a chance on it, and as a hobby writer it is always interesting to see such sharp writing of a different style. I also appreciate the little nugget the author left at the very end.
The Technology Singularity on Earth gave rise to a powerful collection of AIs known as the Eschaton. After the Singularity, they distributed 90% of the residents of Earth over many systems within 1000 light years. Despite their power, they don't really want to kill anyone. But if any party ever attempts to go back in time and change the events that led to the Singularity and their existence, beware! And if they inadvertently take steps in that direction, trouble awaits them.
The "light cone", causality relationships, slower-than-light (STL) travel versus FTL, time travel, and instant communication based on quantum entanglement are brought together in a fascinating and compelling mix. And I liked the idea of a cornucopia machine that can basically manufacture anything, but in this novel it seems more like magic than science. At the very least, it's a convenient plot device.
The Festival is a collection of uploaded consciousnesses that travel the universe to trade information for anything a cornucopia machine can make. Their presence and their effect raises hell with the civilizations they visit. But to me The Festival felt like a crossing from science to fantasy and then into complete absurdity. I found most of the passages regarding The Festival to be tedious and uninteresting. Though the idea of a race of infovores sounds promising, it just didn't work for me. The one fascinating aspect of them is that they are neither friend nor enemy, but even without friendly or hostile intent, their effect can be infinitely rewarding or devastating.
Top reviews from other countries
It is perhaps the element of irony and irreverence to the genre that makes the work such a delight. The story line focuses on a particular human empire's response to an attack on one of their colonies, Stross uses this to satirise the genre on a range of topics including the need for spaceships to look good, through to the place of authoritarian regimes in space.
The work also handles the subject of time travel and causality in an intelligent way, certainly far better than most novels in the genre. Whilst Stross certainly gives space opera a humorous and at sometime cheeky send up, what does shine through is his awareness, in depth working knowledge and appreciation of the genre. In this respect humour is used perhaps to help create things that are truly alien and never at the expense of the integrity of the story. Purists I'm sure will be offended however I can't believe that Stross irreverent tone is not born out of a sincere appreciation of the genre.
I'll avoid an in depth discussion of the plot to avoid spoiling the story for potential readers, however it is enough to say that it is thoroughly engaging and intelligent and will reward both new readers and experienced sci-fi fans. The sequel Iron Sunrise is also an excellent read!
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.