Three generations of the Macx family ride the wave towards a technological Singularity, from a near-future Amsterdam all the way to a human diaspora living in the margins of a post-human economy. Stross crams more ideas per page than most authors manage per book – uploaded lobster-AIs, business plans as weapons and the slow collapse of biological intelligence are just a few.

Review

The book is a wild ride, for sure. Some of the concepts discussed there are eerily reminiscent of the trans-humanist romanticisation of some of the current billionaire, no…trillionaire, overlords. And Stross dismantles all those trans-humanist dreams masterfully and brutally, with some big plot twists in the final few chapters. Not an easy read, but not because of its structure, but because some of it feels too current.