Rule 34

I'm still not entirely sure if telling a story in the second person is clever or annoying. I felt both ways reading this book. I think it worked a little easier in Halting State with the MMO theme than in Rule 34. It didn't make sense until the very end of this book, but when it did it was with a satisfactory click, so I'm going to go with it.

There's a lot of things I like about Stross' works. A)He uses a diverse (internally and externally) cast of characters. We have a lesbian detective inspector and a closeted gay Muslim as our lead protagonists. It's fun to read a story set in future-Edinburgh too with all of the technicalities throwing a technological blanket over a World Heritage city. The theme of artificial intelligence and what it might do when “intelligence” blurs with “will” is one I'm particularly interested in right now, and Stross' picture is terrifying and fascinating. The line between Artificial Intelligence and Psychopath is a nerve-wracking one to walk.

The things I didn't care for were mostly the things I didn't understand. The tech-talk and political-talk bits both made my eyes glaze over and keep this one from being a personal favorite. Still, if you're looking for a slightly creepy futuristic thriller, this would be a great place to start. Halting State is set in the same universe, but aside from some references to how Liz ended up in her current department, there's really no need to read it first unless you are compulsive about reading things in order like I am.