Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

I recently completed a novel published by Charles Stross in 2004 called Singularity Sky.
The story is a fairly standard space opera with a romantic sub plot. The main universe is set in a post-singularity version of our future. Technology on Earth has grown to the point where the economy is no longer scarcity based and everyone can have anything they want through the use of nanotechnology fabrication machines.

Summary: It was quite interesting from a new ideas point of view, but I didn't think it was a fantastic story, nor where the characters interesting in any special way.

Score: 3 of 5

The story revolves around two deviant societies from the Earth standard civilization. One has reverted to a monarchy-like, pre-singularity imperial state by outlawing nearly all technology. The other is the descendant of a group of humans who where able to upload their consiousness into the post-human "bodies". The story begins when these two groups meet by accident nearly 500 years after their mutual divergence.

The two main characters are both from Earth and are caught in the middle of the emerging "war" between the two civilizations. They become romantically involved through some of the standard contrived plot-devices, though the interplay between them is still interesting. They struggle to survive the clash between two post-human civilizations that no longer have a common ground for understanding.

While this novel contained many ideas I had not previously read in other novels, they were simply too numerous for my tastes. Obviously the author has a very active imagination and can extrapolate where our current technologies might one day take us. However, with the plethora of ideas crammed into this book the story and characters were lost in the descriptions of the gee-whiz ideas and their interrelations.

Taken in pieces the ideas in this book might have made an excellent collection of short stories that all take place in the same universe. Even the characters might carry from one story to the next. As a whole however, this single story seemed muddy and incoherent.

It's only worth reading only if you can't find anything better. I can see why it was nominated for a Hugo in 2004 (the new ideas) but I can also see why it didn't stand a chance at winning, especially against book two of The Neanderthal Parallax (which also did not win, but is much more interesting).

Alternative suggestion: If you want a story about war between two civilizations where there is no basis for any common understanding try Joe Haldeman's Forever War.