Accelerando
All kudos to Mr Stross with this one. I read it as an ebook released under Creative Commons. I’m looking forward to buying it in paperback.
This is the story of three generations of a family called Macx.
Manfred is an concept hustler in a vaguely recognizable near future where money is becoming an increasingly nebulous concept and AI is approaching viability. He’s in a confusing relationship with Pamela, his dominatrix. They have a child, Amber, but she’s only brought to term after the couple divorce. Amber has a tortuous relationship with Pamela who can’t handle the speed of social change in a world where computing is ubiquitous and reputation matters more than wealth. With her father’s help Amber escapes to Jupiter, before going on a sublight journey as an upload to a universal router. Coming back from her journey Amber discovers that her original self (now dead) had a child called Sirhan who is a conservative in league with the aged Pamela to intercept Amber’s return.
The cat’s role in all this is very important.
This is a thought-provoking, witty book. It originally appeared as a series of novellas in a science fiction magazine, and is very well pulled together into one volume. It’s only weakness is the denouement. Which I thought was rather weak.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys top notch science fiction, especially to anyone who likes Vernor Vinge or Neal Stephenson.