How do you talk about life in a world that has fundamentally
changed? That’s the challenge that faced
Doctorow & Stross. Their solution is
to provide us with a luddite protagonist, Huw, who is almost as much of an
outsider as the reader. Much like Arthur
Dent, Huw is propelled through a series of misadventures that provide Doctorow
& Stross with the opportunity to riff on both the singularity and
contemporary culture.
There’s a paradox at the heart of this book. While its tone is light and breezy, the
density of the ideas presently can make for a challenging read. This book is absolutely not for
everyone. Doctorow & Stross take
potshots at every sacred cow within range (and they make sure that there are a
lot of them), so if you’re a person who is easily offended, you won’t like
this. Their prose is packed with
allusion and references to a wide variety of topics. Again, this textual density is not something
that everyone enjoys.
Why read it then? At
its best, The Rapture of the Nerds allows
two of the brightest minds in contemporary SF an opportunity to play in a huge
sandbox. There are as many ideas on a
single page as contained in most entire novels.
If you like that sense of immersion in a world of fantastical ideas, you
will enjoy the time you spend in this world.
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