The whole novel is NOT set in the virtual world. It's rather reality-based, but the politics of the virtual world play a heavy role in what's happening in the real world. Very interesting, I'd love to see what you think of it. :)
Now a must read for you would be Vernor Vinge's RAINBOWS END. Now that's an interesting take on virtual reality and the like. It won the Hugo last year.
It sounds like he's very integrated with what's actually going on in virtual worlds right now -- the bank issue, and money laundering, are huge, and they do impact the real world. If you want another book like that, I really enjoyed Pat Cadigan's Tea From an Empty Cup and Dervish is Digital books. Not as in touch with what's going on now, but then they were written in the early 90s, and she had a good sense of the way people would come to value their experiences in virtual space that was very predictive.
erikbethke absolutely worships Vernor Vinge. I have on my Kindle an annotated copy of his A Fire Upon the Deep. He has an extremely interesting way of writing his novels, an annotation structure that I find fascinating. I do need to just read his books straight through, though. He's a San Diego guy. \m/ Thanks for the tip on Rainbow's End! Do you think I should read it before reading the Deep books?
RAINBOWS END is the only Vinge I've read, and I enjoyed it enough to look into his other titles, so I doubt you'll have any trouble if you read that one first. :)
I had read Halting State a few months ago and quite enjoyed it and I for the most part agree with your review, although the POV doesn't swing me one way or the other as long as it is not badly done, but I didn't enjoy his narration as if it was conversing with the characters but they couldn't hear.
This was one of Stross' better works and it's a pity you read his Accelerando first. It's interesting but not great, but you should really check out it's kind of sequel, Glasshouse. That was the first I read of Stross and it blew me away. It gave me hope that science fiction was not dead, plus it's a more coherent straight forward story with some excellent speculative ideas.
I was actually very surprised that Stross set this tale only ten years from now. I doubt, for one thing, that quantum computers will be truly viable in that short a time and that the changes he describes for the city of Edinburgh would be possible. I'm not sure why he felt he had to put the story in such a near future anyway. He could have made it twenty or thirty years from now.
I liked the snappy pace also, however, at times I tired of the second person. For me, character actions, internal thoughts and dialogue were what distinguished the characters best, not the overall narrative voice. And let's face it, he slipped into first person through the many instances of straight internal dialogue.
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...but second person? A whole novel? =/
I will order the Kindle sample and decide from there. I am skeptical. =P
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Now a must read for you would be Vernor Vinge's RAINBOWS END. Now that's an interesting take on virtual reality and the like. It won the Hugo last year.
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erikbethke absolutely worships Vernor Vinge. I have on my Kindle an annotated copy of his A Fire Upon the Deep. He has an extremely interesting way of writing his novels, an annotation structure that I find fascinating. I do need to just read his books straight through, though. He's a San Diego guy. \m/ Thanks for the tip on Rainbow's End! Do you think I should read it before reading the Deep books?
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This isn't necessarily light though, but it's no where NEAR as heavy-handed as ACCELERANDO.
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This was one of Stross' better works and it's a pity you read his Accelerando first. It's interesting but not great, but you should really check out it's kind of sequel, Glasshouse. That was the first I read of Stross and it blew me away. It gave me hope that science fiction was not dead, plus it's a more coherent straight forward story with some excellent speculative ideas.
Reply
I liked the snappy pace also, however, at times I tired of the second person. For me, character actions, internal thoughts and dialogue were what distinguished the characters best, not the overall narrative voice. And let's face it, he slipped into first person through the many instances of straight internal dialogue.
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