Accelerando is an incredibly well-written and fascinating book about the breakneck pace of technological change by an author who really knows what he is talking about. However, don't expect an easy ride. Not only is there a lot of complicated scheming in the story, but just keeping up with the changes in technology and culture is work - even with the occasional summaries from the narrator.

Before we do anything else, let me just define a couple of things.

In the book, "the singularity" is called "the Rapture of the nerds". It is the point at which technology changes so fast that humanity is no longer recognizable.

The other thing to define is "post-scarcity". Think Star Trek. This is an economic situation in which people don't have to slave away for the necessities of life, because they can be obtained for free or very low cost.

Now, to move on....

Thinking back to previous books by Charles Stross, I don't remember loving his characters. They are complicated and flawed in ways that are understandable but also make you want to shake your head. I think that accurately represents my feelings about the characters in Accelerando, as well. In fact, I wonder if this is a question that science fiction poses: are people in post-scarcity societies going to be hugely self-indulgent or will they be incredibly kind and generous? This post-scarcity society is no paradise, and the people in it are both self-indulgent and scrambling to stay relevant. Most of the characters are quite well-developed, but I feel like they come and go in a disconcerting way, especially by the end of the book. Apparently, the book was written as a series of novellas, which may account for this. On the other hand, if people can be brought back from the dead or stored in digital form until they are ready to be alive again, maybe it makes sense for them to come and go somewhat suddenly.

The setting is fantastically well done, changing with time and location, ultimately becoming so modified by tech that not only do the readers have trouble understanding it, but so do the characters as soon as they are slightly out of date. What we don't see much of is climate change. I can see why Stross didn't bother very much with it, though, as tech moves so fast in the book that the long term survival of humans is threatened much more by what humans become than by changes to the climate on Earth. It just really stood out to me, since I always wonder if climate change will slow the pace of tech change.

This book is very much focused on plot. Of course, it isn't like old sci-fi where characters were faceless agents for the plot, but it was very focused on how the characters were dealing with the next threat. I very much love clever characters trying to think their way out of problems, and that is pretty much what happens through the entire book. Their solutions might not be great over the long term, but they work for a while. Because of this format, it honestly felt like the book could have gone on and on and on. The ending was a good enough to wrap stuff up, but there were characters off doing things that I would have enjoyed reading more about.

Not every book has a moral or a main point you can take away from it, but I felt as though in this one the main point was "post-singularity and post-scarcity don't mean 'without problems'". Obviously, this isn't something that I'm sitting home worrying about, but in other works that talk about the singularity (I'm most thinking about the Peace War series by Vernor Vinge), the post-singularity beings disappear. The question "what if we have to deal with them?" is a good one, which I haven't seen discussed very much in fiction.

Should you read it? It really depends on how much you like books that make you think. This isn't a nice light read, and I don't really think that it could be considered restful. I found that while listening to the book I was obsessed with thinking about how one avoids getting dragged under by the relentless pace of technological change. If you want something restful, there are plenty of other books out there. If you want something that leaves you staring off into space as you try to figure out how to keep the pace of technological change from destroying humanity, then this is the book for you!

I will happily read other books by Stross.