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Singularity Sky Mass Market Paperback – June 29, 2004

by Charles Stross (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,385 ratings
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In a technologically suppressed future, information demands to be free in the debut novel from Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Stross.

In the twenty-first century, life as we know it changed. Faster-than-light travel was perfected, and the Eschaton, a superhuman artificial intelligence, was born. Four hundred years later, the far-flung colonies that arose as a result of these events—scattered over three thousand years of time and a thousand parsecs of space—are beginning to rediscover their origins.               

The New Republic is one such colony. It has existed for centuries in self-imposed isolation, rejecting all but the most basic technology. Now, under attack by a devastating information plague, the colony must reach out to Earth for help. A battle fleet is dispatched, streaking across the stars to the rescue. But things are not what they seem—secret agendas and ulterior motives abound, both aboard the ship and on the ground. And watching over it all is the Eschaton, which has its own very definite ideas about the outcome...
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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 3
    Singularity
  2. Print length
    352 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Ace
  5. Publication date
    June 29, 2004
  6. Dimensions
    4.22 x 0.91 x 6.79 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0441011799
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0441011797
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Charles Stross

“A new kind of future requires a new breed of guide—someone like Stross.”—Popular Science

“The act of creation seems to come easily to Charles Stross...[He] is peerless at dreaming up devices that could conceivably exist in six, sixty, or six hundred years’ time.”—The New York Times

“Where Charles Stross goes today, the rest of science fiction will follow tomorrow.”—Gardner Dozois, Editor, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

“Smart, literate, funny.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lev Grossman, Time

“Much of the action is completely nuts, but Stross manages to ground it in believability through his protagonist’s deadpan reactions to both insane office politics and supernatural mayhem.”—San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Charles Stross was born in Leeds, England, in 1964. He has worked as a pharmacist, software engineer and freelance journalist, but now writes full-time. To date, Stross has won three Hugo Awards and been nominated twelve times. He has also won the Locus Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Novella, and has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and Nebula Awards. His books include the Merchant Princess series, the Laundry Files series, the Singularity series, and several stand-alone novels.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace; Reprint edition (June 29, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0441011799
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0441011797
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.22 x 0.91 x 6.79 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,385 ratings

About the author

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Charles Stross

Charles Stross

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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).

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
1,385 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Timothy Knox
5.0 out of 5 stars The Eschaton is already immanentized
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2021
Verified Purchase
The singularity happened. Then life went on.

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.
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Steven M. Brown
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting slow starter with high learning curve.
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2022
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Stross is an award winning short story sci-fi writer who with this series tries his hand at novel length stories.  So far with book one he does a decent job, but the tale tale signs of a short story writer is there. The story is told in a number of third person limited pov chunks and sometimes chapters.  While eventually we are introduced to some main characters it takes a while to figure them out and get back to them as the story starts out spread out then condenses.  There is some cursing and some sexualy crass language, so the story is only appropriate for older young adults and above. There seems to be some format issues during shifts of povs at times and annoyingly no numbered chapters. 

  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. 
3 people found this helpful
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James R Petrarca
3.0 out of 5 stars Insights and Absurdity
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2016
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At the time of this review, I have also read the 2nd book (Iron Sunrise) which to me was much stronger than Singularity Sky. There's a mix of great ideas and insights on the one hand and complete absurdity on the other. The main characters are likable and relatable, and feel like bona fide human beings. So when the action picks up and they're threatened, it easy to identify with them and get furious with their adversaries.

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.
21 people found this helpful
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Thomas B. Boutell
5.0 out of 5 stars marvelous fun
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
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It’s full of silliness about the singularity and marvelously executed with lots of clever humor. Also, surprisingly good military sci-fi.
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Julien B.
4.0 out of 5 stars pas mal
Reviewed in France on April 1, 2024
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Relativement tiré par les cheveux et parfois assez difficile à lire. Mais l’histoire parvient assez souvent à captiver le lecteur.
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Hausfrau
5.0 out of 5 stars You never know what's coming next!
Reviewed in Germany on October 24, 2017
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This is super entertainment for sci-fi fans with science literacy. A bit of Hitchiker's Guide, and a very detailed and complex story. Lot's of fun!
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Kuma
5.0 out of 5 stars A different, intelligent and witty space opera
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2012
Verified Purchase
Charles Stross is probably one of the most exciting writers in sci-fi, and perhaps one of the most exciting writers in fiction. Singularity Sky represents a lot of what makes him a great writer, the universe he creates is clever and well thought through with an interesting take on the traditional human-centric view of most space opera; this is combined with an ironic appreciation of the genre and well developed characters.
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!
3 people found this helpful
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Philip Rhoades
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in Australia on August 17, 2014
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Excellent as usual!
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Stross & The Festival have arrived
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2006
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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.
38 people found this helpful
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