This is the latest from Charlie Stross, and it’s what space opera ought to be. It’s got interstellar Nazis, a star maliciously blown up starting on Page One, detailed descriptions of how you go about dying when your star blows up, killer robot dogs, a whiny but appealing teenage Gothick chick named Wednesday, a first-rate deus ex machina, a hard-drinking intergalactic warblogger (no, really, he gets the girl even), uh did I mention the really really evil Space Nazis? And you know what? The suspension of disbelief holds. Plus, the characters are appealing and the story moves right along. OK, well maybe the denouement is a little forced and overextended, with U. Portia Hoescht out of character. Compared to the previous Singularity Sky, the atmospherics are maybe a little weaker, but the storytelling is a lot stronger. Plus our friends Rachel and Martin from that book are back; plus there are obviously lots of sequels in the pipeline. I sure enjoyed reading it.
