Wed, 23 Jun 2004
More from our sponsors
The postman woke me up again this morning, with a big
fat envelope containing the above: my first hardcover copy of
Iron
Sunrise (and a couple of copies of the paperback edition
of Singularity
Sky, too). Wow, my second new book of the year. I get the
advance copies about a week before the big boxes go out of the
warehouse -- you know what to do, right?
Oh yeah: the June 28'th issue of Publisher's Weekly
ran a starred advance review. It goes like this:
Best known for his short fiction, Stross shows that he's a
master of the novel form as well in this exciting sequel to
2003's acclaimed Singularity Sky, serving up compelling
space opera and cutting-edge tech with a tasty dash of satire.
In the 24th century, a McWorld ("bland, comfortable, tolerant
... boring") called New Moscow apparently has been destroyed
by trade rival New Dresden -- but not before New Moscow
launched its own Slower-Than-Light (STL) counterstrike: a
massive ship accelerated to 80% the speed of light. The U.N.,
now central Earth government, knows New Dresden was set up.
They need the STL's recall code, now known only to a handful
of New Moscow's ambassadors -- but someone has been
systematically assassinating them. U.N. special operative
Rachel Mansour and her husband, engineer Martin Springfield,
must protect the last living ambassador and find out who's
really responsible for the whole mess. Stross skillfully
balances suspense and humor throughout, offering readers --
especially fans of Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod -- a
fascinating future that seems more than possible.
Which is not bad, for a summary that completely omits the
major characters and main subplot ... not to mention the
talking cat sidekick.
I'm now in the final pass through "Accelerando" and, if all
goes to plan, I'll be emailing it to my editors before the end
of the month.
[Discuss
writing]
posted at: 13:29 | path: /writing | permanent link to this entry
|