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Eschaton #1-2
Timelike Diplomacy: Singularity Sky / Iron Sunrise
An exclusive two-in-one novel from the Science Fiction Book Club, set in Charles Stross Eschaton Universe: Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise.
Singularity Sky: Spaceship engineer Martin Springfield and U.N. diplomat Rachel Mansour hail from an Earth that has gone through the Singularity, an accelerated technological and social evolution far beyond anything we can imagine. The Singularity was triggered by the Eschaton, a super-powerful being descended from humanity that can travel in time and that essentially rules the universe. Springfield and Mansour meet on the home world of the New Republic, a repressive, backwater society that has outlawed virtually all advanced technology other than that necessary for interstellar warfare. When one of the New Republic's colonial worlds is besieged by the Festival, an enigmatic alien intelligence, the Republic counterattacks, using time travel in an attempt to put its warships in position to catch the Festival by surprise. Springfield and Mansour, working for different masters, have both been assigned the task of either diffusing the crisis or sabotaging the New Republic's warfleet, no matter what the cost.
Iron Sunrise: In the 24th century, a McWorld ("bland, comfortable, tolerant... boring") called New Moscow apparently has been destroyed by trade rival New Dresdenbut not before New Moscow launched its own Slower-Than-Light (STL) counterstrike: a massive ship accelerated to 80% the speed of light. The U.N., now central Earth government, knows New Dresden was set up. They need the STL's recall code, now known only to a handful of New Moscow's ambassadorsbut someone has been systematically assassinating them. U.N. special operative Rachel Mansour and her husband, engineer Martin Springfield, must protect the last living ambassador and find out who's really responsible for the whole mess.
Singularity Sky: Spaceship engineer Martin Springfield and U.N. diplomat Rachel Mansour hail from an Earth that has gone through the Singularity, an accelerated technological and social evolution far beyond anything we can imagine. The Singularity was triggered by the Eschaton, a super-powerful being descended from humanity that can travel in time and that essentially rules the universe. Springfield and Mansour meet on the home world of the New Republic, a repressive, backwater society that has outlawed virtually all advanced technology other than that necessary for interstellar warfare. When one of the New Republic's colonial worlds is besieged by the Festival, an enigmatic alien intelligence, the Republic counterattacks, using time travel in an attempt to put its warships in position to catch the Festival by surprise. Springfield and Mansour, working for different masters, have both been assigned the task of either diffusing the crisis or sabotaging the New Republic's warfleet, no matter what the cost.
Iron Sunrise: In the 24th century, a McWorld ("bland, comfortable, tolerant... boring") called New Moscow apparently has been destroyed by trade rival New Dresdenbut not before New Moscow launched its own Slower-Than-Light (STL) counterstrike: a massive ship accelerated to 80% the speed of light. The U.N., now central Earth government, knows New Dresden was set up. They need the STL's recall code, now known only to a handful of New Moscow's ambassadorsbut someone has been systematically assassinating them. U.N. special operative Rachel Mansour and her husband, engineer Martin Springfield, must protect the last living ambassador and find out who's really responsible for the whole mess.
682 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
About the author
Charles Stross
158 books5,822 followersCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.
Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.
SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...
Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.
SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 23, 2010
6.0 stars. On my list of "All Time Favorite" Novels. See my individual reviews for Singularity Skyand Iron Sunrise which make up this omnibus edition. Superb science fiction full of wild, imanginative ideas and a great big story. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Novel
July 18, 2022
I'm pretty sure I have reviews of both of these posted here. If I get a chance, I'll look & post links here. I've read them both twice, and they hold up well to rereading.
OK, links: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... "Singularity Sky"
Nuclear-powered steam locomotives! MiG battle cruisers!
Really, Stross comes up with so much Great Stuff....
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... IRON SUNRISE
OK, links: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... "Singularity Sky"
Nuclear-powered steam locomotives! MiG battle cruisers!
Really, Stross comes up with so much Great Stuff....
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... IRON SUNRISE
May 12, 2015
this is just both books of the eschaton series.
January 5, 2022
One of the problems I typically have with Stross is that his endings are all very anti-climactic, as though he ran out of steam for the various transhuman concepts he was elaborating on and reached a point where he decided “here’s fine” and stopped (See Glasshouse). Iron Sunrise felt different, with lots of pieces moving into place towards some colluded ending. It was a lot of fun but it lacked some of the abstract analysis that I like from this genre (See Greg Egan). However, it lacked some of the transhuman concepts that he’s renowned for.
It feels like Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise are opposites of one another. Singularity Sky is an interesting treatise on time travel and space travel. It’s pretty much “Submarine Warfare in Space” with a post-scarcity geopolitical surrealism sub-plot. The scenes involving The Festival were…confusing. His tendency for jargon only added to the confusion, but it did add to the authentic feeling of being on a submarine for the narrative that focused on Rachel and Martin.
Then comes Iron Sunrise which was much more fun and a lot less jargony than Singularity Sky. I think the underlying concepts were really about humanity under the thumb of a god-like a.i. and the inevitably of some faction of humans compelled to push back. That would ordinarily allow for a really interesting analysis of Fate vs Free Will and Freedom vs Obedience, but it never ended up being explored as well as it could have. There was also a tease of an opposing Eschaton which never developed into anything besides Herman’s hypothesizing. Herman, a potentially rich opportunity to explore a.i. and consciousness, power, and free will, but again it wasn’t elaborated on. I really felt like the end of Iron Sunrise implied a 3rd book that would expand on these two. Instead, we got Accelerando which was in and of itself very interesting, but almost totally unrelated to these two. I would’ve liked to see Stross wrap up this narrative as a real trilogy and get some solid transhuman philosophy on being and time in a post-scarcity age. All in all, this was good Stross, but both were hits and misses in completely opposite ways.
It feels like Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise are opposites of one another. Singularity Sky is an interesting treatise on time travel and space travel. It’s pretty much “Submarine Warfare in Space” with a post-scarcity geopolitical surrealism sub-plot. The scenes involving The Festival were…confusing. His tendency for jargon only added to the confusion, but it did add to the authentic feeling of being on a submarine for the narrative that focused on Rachel and Martin.
Then comes Iron Sunrise which was much more fun and a lot less jargony than Singularity Sky. I think the underlying concepts were really about humanity under the thumb of a god-like a.i. and the inevitably of some faction of humans compelled to push back. That would ordinarily allow for a really interesting analysis of Fate vs Free Will and Freedom vs Obedience, but it never ended up being explored as well as it could have. There was also a tease of an opposing Eschaton which never developed into anything besides Herman’s hypothesizing. Herman, a potentially rich opportunity to explore a.i. and consciousness, power, and free will, but again it wasn’t elaborated on. I really felt like the end of Iron Sunrise implied a 3rd book that would expand on these two. Instead, we got Accelerando which was in and of itself very interesting, but almost totally unrelated to these two. I would’ve liked to see Stross wrap up this narrative as a real trilogy and get some solid transhuman philosophy on being and time in a post-scarcity age. All in all, this was good Stross, but both were hits and misses in completely opposite ways.
April 17, 2013
I read this as the separate titles, Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise. Stross has obviously done a lot of thinking about Ray Kurzweil's predictions related to the merger of human and machine intelligence. That event will change the world like nothing before, and the vast majority of humankind is ill-prepared for it.
Oh, did I mention it's not exactly light reading...?
Oh, did I mention it's not exactly light reading...?
April 25, 2023
Both the first and second parts of the book had fun scifi hijinks and interesting characters, though the opening of the second part felt grossly offensive for purely performative effect and left me turned off to the book for a bit, unfortunately. Overall, a fun one to throw in the stack for some solid sci-fi with some meat to it, but still a good chunk of fun.
May 17, 2015
Stunning!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews