Rule 34 - Charles Stross - Book Review
Rule 34 by Charles Stross, is another good near future SF book.
Rule 34 says that anything that can be conceived, there is already porn about it on the net. How that relates to the story? It doesn't. In the story it was just a mild joke about the computer crime department. I think it was more of a gimmick by Stross to make the book seem a little more colorful.
The technology of most of the book is very near future, as in many of his other books. And just like them, there were a few funny comments on his blog about actual news that seemed taken from the book.
Some of the tech on this book is augmented reality glasses being heavily used by everyone, 3D printers as a source of pirated materials and use of drones everywhere. The last two are already starting, and quite likely to get here soon enough (just read a news story about The News Corps use of drones...).
I'm not so sure about the glasses, although they do seem like they would be very cool (I've loved them in SF for decades now - Snow Crash Gargoyles comes to mind). I'd have thought that simple Bluetooth display for caller-id and texts would already be available...
The ending is somewhat satisfying, although possibly the best part of the story is the killer (I'm avoiding the spoilers here). The way that it was handled was not a first, but Stross managed to give it a particular realism that made it more fun.
Recommended, but I felt the middle of it was a little slow, so only 4/5.
Rule 34 says that anything that can be conceived, there is already porn about it on the net. How that relates to the story? It doesn't. In the story it was just a mild joke about the computer crime department. I think it was more of a gimmick by Stross to make the book seem a little more colorful.
The main story is about a series of very unusual murders, mostly from the perspective of detectives in Scotland.
The technology of most of the book is very near future, as in many of his other books. And just like them, there were a few funny comments on his blog about actual news that seemed taken from the book.
Some of the tech on this book is augmented reality glasses being heavily used by everyone, 3D printers as a source of pirated materials and use of drones everywhere. The last two are already starting, and quite likely to get here soon enough (just read a news story about The News Corps use of drones...).
I'm not so sure about the glasses, although they do seem like they would be very cool (I've loved them in SF for decades now - Snow Crash Gargoyles comes to mind). I'd have thought that simple Bluetooth display for caller-id and texts would already be available...
The ending is somewhat satisfying, although possibly the best part of the story is the killer (I'm avoiding the spoilers here). The way that it was handled was not a first, but Stross managed to give it a particular realism that made it more fun.
Recommended, but I felt the middle of it was a little slow, so only 4/5.
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