Helpful Score: 1
Rule 34 is the second of Stross's near-future police procedurals, taking today's information infrastructure into the next logical (significant) step, seeing where that leaves the police and the criminal world, and them pitting them against each other.
This was fun. The thinking is twisted here, as our protagonist runs the "rule 34" squad in her police headquarters --- the guys who try to stamp out the most vile of online pornography. That's not really the focus of the book, but it sets a tone and lets you know that twisted stuff is not off the table. And it makes the first half of the book really (oddly) enjoyable.
The narrative follows a few primary characters, and a handful of minor characters in Stross's now-familiar second-person form. The first time I read this style it really threw me off, but I'm getting the hang of it now and don't even really notice.
As seems to be true of most books I read, the ending felt rushed; I think many authors see their deadlines approach and really speed through the back halves of their books. But the confusion I had at the end of Stross's prior "Halting State" didn't happen (he's either writing better, or I was warned and paid closer attention).
But despite that all, this is a great picture of what-might-be sometime in the next thirty years or so. I like these glimpses of the future, when it's a future I might actually live to see, and Rule 34 really shines in that light.
4 of 5 stars.
This was fun. The thinking is twisted here, as our protagonist runs the "rule 34" squad in her police headquarters --- the guys who try to stamp out the most vile of online pornography. That's not really the focus of the book, but it sets a tone and lets you know that twisted stuff is not off the table. And it makes the first half of the book really (oddly) enjoyable.
The narrative follows a few primary characters, and a handful of minor characters in Stross's now-familiar second-person form. The first time I read this style it really threw me off, but I'm getting the hang of it now and don't even really notice.
As seems to be true of most books I read, the ending felt rushed; I think many authors see their deadlines approach and really speed through the back halves of their books. But the confusion I had at the end of Stross's prior "Halting State" didn't happen (he's either writing better, or I was warned and paid closer attention).
But despite that all, this is a great picture of what-might-be sometime in the next thirty years or so. I like these glimpses of the future, when it's a future I might actually live to see, and Rule 34 really shines in that light.
4 of 5 stars.
Slow moving!
The first thing you notice reading this near-term SF police procedural is that it's written in second-person present tense. And you switch POVs between five or six people every few pages. This proves to be rather irritating to you, and it takes you almost 100 pages to stop noticing it and get into the story.
Okay, that's enough of that. This is a sequel to Halting State, but you're okay starting here. I suspect Halting State told us why Kavanaugh is in her dead-end job, but no matter. (BTW Rule 34 - I had to look it up - says that if it exists, there's porn of it.) The book does take a while to get going, but about halfway through all the strings start to come together into this bizarre web. Lots of techy jargon, and the cops' slang is pretty thick too, but easy enough to figure out. The two main subplots are psuedo nation-states created in order to spin off debt, and of course brokers trying to scam off that; plus artificial intelligence created to fight spam but taking it to extremes. Published in 2011, some of what were future predictions then are coming true now. Interesting stuff. I liked Kavanaugh a lot, but I felt most of the other characters were kind of flat, and not very likeable.
Okay, that's enough of that. This is a sequel to Halting State, but you're okay starting here. I suspect Halting State told us why Kavanaugh is in her dead-end job, but no matter. (BTW Rule 34 - I had to look it up - says that if it exists, there's porn of it.) The book does take a while to get going, but about halfway through all the strings start to come together into this bizarre web. Lots of techy jargon, and the cops' slang is pretty thick too, but easy enough to figure out. The two main subplots are psuedo nation-states created in order to spin off debt, and of course brokers trying to scam off that; plus artificial intelligence created to fight spam but taking it to extremes. Published in 2011, some of what were future predictions then are coming true now. Interesting stuff. I liked Kavanaugh a lot, but I felt most of the other characters were kind of flat, and not very likeable.
