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mburnamfink 's review for:
Neptune's Brood
by Charles Stross
This is Stross's Strossiest book since Accelerando. The Big Ideas are still there, but this time instead of Singularitarian enthusiasm and terror, Stross has woven a thriller about the intricacies of interstellar finance. Nominally a sequel to Saturn's Children, it is both much better and stands entirely on its own.
It's the deep future, and humanity is long-dead, replaced by robot with nanotech bodies and very human minds (messing with autonomic nervous systems tends to wind up in bad ways). Krina, our heroine, is an expert in the historiography of accountancy with a sideline in confidence schemes. Chased by a zombie-assassin with her own face, she falls in with morbid human-obsessed cultists, batwinged space pirates, and even stranger situations as she unwinds the greatest financial crime ever committed.
As with a lot of Stross, the world-building starts from a single flash of insight (What if computer science was the same as Cthulhu Mythos sorcery? How would a family that could walk between parallel worlds actually work?), and in this case it's the image of the space pirate as pinstriped merchant-banker. The core of the story builds out from there with relentless logic, along with plenty of those little touches that make the setting feel real. This is a place that works; that people live in.
As a protagonist, Krina is wonkish and competent, and her voice just flows naturally. This book feels comfortable and well crafted in a way that Stross doesn't always achieve. (You can trust Charlie on ideas, but well, his writing schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for sanding rough edges). The only reason I've dinged Neptune's Brood a star is that doesn't end so much as stop in classic Snowcrash fashion. But if you've liked anything else Stross has written, check this one out.
***UPDATE FOR 2024***
Yeah, I agree entirely with my prior review. I like Krina, and the weird scoundrels she falls in with are even better (❤️ U, Count Rudi), but even after working in banking and at least three explanations of the Atlantis Carnet scam and how slow money banking works... I'm not sure I get it. Watts are valuable, atoms are valuable, properly arranged atoms are extremely valuable, and intellectual property is useful, and therefore profitable to the extent you can extract rents from it. But the ideas sparkle, even if they're zirconium rather than diamond, and whenever the plot is in danger of slackening, Stross tosses a couple of goons with smartknives through the door.
It's the deep future, and humanity is long-dead, replaced by robot with nanotech bodies and very human minds (messing with autonomic nervous systems tends to wind up in bad ways). Krina, our heroine, is an expert in the historiography of accountancy with a sideline in confidence schemes. Chased by a zombie-assassin with her own face, she falls in with morbid human-obsessed cultists, batwinged space pirates, and even stranger situations as she unwinds the greatest financial crime ever committed.
As with a lot of Stross, the world-building starts from a single flash of insight (What if computer science was the same as Cthulhu Mythos sorcery? How would a family that could walk between parallel worlds actually work?), and in this case it's the image of the space pirate as pinstriped merchant-banker. The core of the story builds out from there with relentless logic, along with plenty of those little touches that make the setting feel real. This is a place that works; that people live in.
As a protagonist, Krina is wonkish and competent, and her voice just flows naturally. This book feels comfortable and well crafted in a way that Stross doesn't always achieve. (You can trust Charlie on ideas, but well, his writing schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for sanding rough edges). The only reason I've dinged Neptune's Brood a star is that doesn't end so much as stop in classic Snowcrash fashion. But if you've liked anything else Stross has written, check this one out.
***UPDATE FOR 2024***
Yeah, I agree entirely with my prior review. I like Krina, and the weird scoundrels she falls in with are even better (❤️ U, Count Rudi), but even after working in banking and at least three explanations of the Atlantis Carnet scam and how slow money banking works... I'm not sure I get it. Watts are valuable, atoms are valuable, properly arranged atoms are extremely valuable, and intellectual property is useful, and therefore profitable to the extent you can extract rents from it. But the ideas sparkle, even if they're zirconium rather than diamond, and whenever the plot is in danger of slackening, Stross tosses a couple of goons with smartknives through the door.