Iron Sunrise, Stross’s sequel to Singularity Sky, was terrific, though not perhaps quite as good as the first. Although I suspect some of this could simply be that — as a sequel — it didn’t provide the newness and thrill of discovery that one gets from reading a new author constructing a new world. That aside, Stross manages to weave together the age-old tale of military imperialism alongside echoes of fascism coupled with biological control taken to extremes; all of this is done quite convincingly.
The only sad thing is that I’m running out of good "serious" hard science fiction to read…I don’t bother anymore reading science fiction that doesn’t have a fairly serious look at science, technology, and their social implications; without this kind of realism, speculative fiction increasingly fails to hold my interest. I find that I’m less and less interested in fantasy, with the exception, of course, of Tolkein. At any rate, I enjoyed the Stross and am looking forward to Accelerando later this year.
