Accelerando

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.

Struggling to survive and thrive in this accelerated world are three generations of the Macx clan: Manfred, an entrepreneur dealing in intelligence amplification technology whose mind is divided between his physical environment and the Internet; his daughter, Amber, on the run from her domineering mother, seeking her fortune in the outer system as an indentured astronaut; and Sirhan, Amber’s son, who finds his destiny linked to the fate of all of humanity.

For something is systematically dismantling the nine planets of the solar system. Something beyond human comprehension. Something that has no use for biological life in any form...

©2005 Charles Stross (P)2014 Recorded Books

Where were you in the singularity

Charles Stross' Accelerando is a tale about technological singularity spanning three generations, before, during, and after the evolutionary advancement of computer technology to not only vastly exceed normal human capacity, but to also create new forms of intelligence. Starting with a forward thinking philanthropic venture capitalist who fosters this development of the ever increasing computer power, his daughter explores space learning that other intelligences have faced similar issues and subsequently turned inward. Her son faces the choice of embracing a solar system reconfigured for virtual existence or abandoning this successor to humanity.

While the story was crafted in the aftermath of Y2K, Stross describes a future beginning with faster, more powerful digital capabilities that gradually takes on a life of its own. When alien intelligence is identified, only the remnants remain with attendant bottom feeders and "con-men" while the major original intelligences have retreated to their home systems that have been remodeled on a planetary wide scale totally given over to computing power for a pure digital existence. The central theme is one of unlimited possibility in a virtual world relative to drab physical existence.

Guidall does an excellent job with solid character distinction and overall pacing as well as appropriate tone and mood.

Tedious

This would have made a decent short story. The exploration of Artificial Intelligence and the digitizing of the human mind was interesting. However, from the standpoint of literature and character development, it became boring.

flawed but interesting account of a singularity

The first third of the book is written in an irritating dotcom late nineties style and the characters are quite hateable, but it gets better as it goes along. Even though I was a bit frustrated by the style and the broken up nature of a story that has been made from nice separate short stories, and the narrator was not ideal for the theme of the book and is a bit quiet at times, overall it was excellent because it gave a detailed, original and imaginative account of a wide range of very strange outcomes and events caused by the out of control acceleration of artificial intelligence, spanning several centuries and modes of existence. Stross's writing style improved a lot by the time he wrote Glasshouse, but this one is well worth it for the fascinating and bizarre ideas, once you get through the first three chapters.

one of the most epic and cerebral journeys

from start to finish this book never ceases to amaze in regards to its creativity, it's humor, and it's depth. I was at first put off by the narrator, a fault that is entirely my own, until I listen to him read another book recently and then came back to this one. I am so glad I did as this has catapulted itself into my top 10 list for sci-fi of all time.

Poor Narration Pacing

The narration makes this extremely difficult to follow. Pacing is poor, there’s not enough voice work. One specific issue is the long gaps between phrases that leave room for my mind to wander. Listening at increased speed helps a bit, but then it’s very jerky. Stross read by another narrator is such a delight. This is just a bad match.

Hardest of hard SF...

Where does Accelerando rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is as if my engineering and physics degrees, and every other SF book I've ever read were training grounds preparing me for this book. Throwaway lines about quantum 3d printing (i.e. Captain Picard's replicators), Robert Forward laser sail starships, Frank J. Tipler computational resurrection, fixed-up Matrix plot-lines, nano-tech, Dyson spheres, Fermi's Paradox...all feeling like plausible speculation of taking Moore's law to the Singularity and beyond. And the author pretty much takes for granted you, the humble reader, know about all of these things, and more. But...this author makes it feel like these threads could really happen and weaves them into a story with interesting characters.

What did you like best about this story?

The feeling of realistic (pretty much?) speculation of modern day physics and Moore's law and extrapolating the hell out of it, with every plausible hard SF plot device thrown in. I loved being able to keep up with the author and where he took it. Mind expanding, IMHO. Probably not for everyone...this novel is for hard-SF science/engineering nerds who love to nitpick science fiction movies.

What does George Guidall bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator was distinctive and interesting, and hung in there like a champ for some of the more obscure bits.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Matrix for serious people...

Any additional comments?

there is about a 30 minute chunk at about hour 13 that is out of order.

A bunch of mini stories

This fascinating book had a lot of really interesting insights and ideas. But the overall story left me feeling like something was missing. I'll have to listen through a second time to see what I missed.

Amazing book if you're familiar but with the lingo

A very amazing book but I felt like it is at the outer edges of my understanding at times terms of computer science, physics, and law. It really doesn't hold your hand through it. Do you understand what I light cone in special relativity and what a MIPS are then you should read it.

Deeply imagined with wide scope

Deeply imaginative and perhaps just a little too much so that it was hard at times to follow characters and events. I wasn’t expecting the ending but given the scope it could have gone just about anywhere. I will queue it up again in a few months.

The greatest tour de force in sci-fi in decades

The early days of science fiction included such titans as H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and many others whose vision was both deep and striking. Their stories explored visions of possible futures, possible worlds and realities which stretch our collective imaginations. In the decades since there have been a number with similarly creative and thoughtful works. Frank Herbert with "Dune", Vernor Vinge with "A Fire Upon the Deep", Cixin Liu with "The Three-Body Problem", William Gibson with "Neuromancer", and more.

While some have a writing quality which is as high as Accelerando (particularly Gibson's work, in my opinion), I cannot think of a single work of fiction I have ever read which contained such an astounding breadth of fascinating ideas. Throughout the novel, Stross casually tosses out dozens upon dozens of ideas which could each have easily been the core premise of an entire sci-fi novel - and likely a good one at that. His is a vision of our species' future which is remarkable in ways I have never seen from a non-researcher, and matched only by a handful of researchers in science, engineering, and medicine.

I myself am a scientist and medical student, whose background and work focus on the use of cutting edge methods in computer science, physics, and engineering for human health. I mention my background/expertise solely to clarify that I am particularly qualified to assess many of Stross' demonstrations of brilliance throughout the novel. There are many ideas I cannot assess effectively, but there are also a great many which I find both extremely plausible and simply enthralling. This author, with a fairly minimal background in physics, mathematics, and bioengineering, has imagined up concepts which I as an expert on some of each still found thrilling and almost entirely novel. I've discussed several with folks who are experts in those fields as well, and there was similar levels of surprised and excitement from most.

While I haven't yet read any of Stross' other work, if Accelerando is any indication then he may well be the foremost genius writing science fiction today.