I used to know Charlie Stross when he was a perl programmer.  Now he is a successful SF author, with more than 12 books published.  The ones I’ve read have been like talking to the man: lots of ideas bouncing around constantly.  I’ve just finished Accelerando, which is a brave attempt to write a storyline from the near future through the “singularity” and beyond.   

[An aside, for those who haven’t heard of the singularity.  It’s the idea that the pace of technological change is increasing exponentially and will shortly lead to (a) the creation of sentient AIs and (b) the ability to upload people’s consciousness and memories into superpowerful computers, after which the rate of change will be so fast that those of us left behind won’t be able to follow or understand the uploaded intelligences.  The similarity between this language and the “rapture” expected by loony American Christians has led Ken MacLeod to call the singularity “The rapture of the nerds”.]

As befits this topic, the novel is full of ideas.  Even by Charlie’s standards the book is overflowing, and I reckon you’ll have to have some familiarity with tech-speak to follow it at all (so this is “the rapture of the nerds” for nerds).  The story follows three generations of a family.  This period sees the development of AI and of uploading consciousness, simple space travel, the demolition of asteroids and larger objects to make self-sustaining computer processes powered by solar energy, and the out-evolution of uploaded human minds by that superior evolutionary creation – the limited liability company.  The pace is frenetic, which is the one aspect of the story that is likely to be accurate; we tend to expect change to match what has come before but in the actual rate of change seems to be consistently exponential.  The rest is fun, but I wouldn’t take it seriously.  

By comparison, The Family Trade & The Hidden Family are positively sedate.  (They are basically one novel split into two books by the publisher).  They deal with another common SF/Fantasy trope: the ability for certain people to move between our world and a parallel medieval world.  Being a Stross novel, they answer questions about what might happen if this were really possible.  What might these people be able to trade, if they can only take what they can carry individually when they cross between the worlds?  What would happen if someone from our world tried to modernise the medieval world?  I found the result to be intellectually diverting and the narrative competent enough to keep the pages turning, but the characters don’t stand out and the story doesn’t make me want to read the next four books in the series.

I tend not to read short stories but I recommend Stephen Baxter’s collection Traces.  It covers a wide range: some excellent steampunk, some conventional space exploration stories; stories set so far in the future that the Earth and humanity have both changed beyond recognition, and even a tribute to Glenn Miller.

By contrast, I was rather disappointed by his novel Time.  It does have some interesting plot lines.  The Midwich Cuckoo-style superchildren are interesting and the space squid are excellent if not terribly believable.  However, other plot lines seemed like an excuse to present theories of universe creation and demise.  There is a reason for this, linked in a bizarre way to children as fulfilment of life’s purpose, but it left me rather cold.

Ken MacLeod returned to form with The Execution Channel.  (Tagline: "The War On Terror Is Over – Terror Won").  Like his best previous books, it combines a look at fringe politics with SF tropes.  The central character is (justly) accused of passing secrets from the west to foreign powers, and hence is on the run.  This gives the story ample time to depict a world at war between the West, Communist countries and terrorists.  This isn't our world, but one fairly close; at one point a character posits how the world might have been different if terrorists had succeeded in attacking the World Trade Centre.

The end is both good, in that it is truly unexpected, and limited, in that it will only really make sense to people who have read certain classic SF novels.  I'd definitely recommend this to readers of SF.

Another novel set in an Asian culture is less successful.  Divine Endurance, Gwyneth Jones’s first novel, was inspired by her travels in Singapore and Southern India and her interest in ancient Indonesian cultures.  It is set is a far future world, long after the collapse of an advanced civilisation.  A strange child sets out from an equally strange “palace” in search of her brother, accompanied by her cat, who is called Divine Endurance.  Unbeknown to her, she is an object of desire in the political machinations between several countries and upsets the uneasy balance between them.  Eventually we find out what she is and why she has such an effect.  However, the story is rather slow, the characters not engaging enoug and the cultures perhaps a little too strange.

I have a small pile of books that’s been sitting on my desk since the autumn.  I’ve been meaning to write reviews of them but I never got around to it.  Now I’ve forgotten most of what I was going to say, but they’re still worth some short mentions.

Let’s start with the best: River of Gods by Ian McDonald.  This is set in a near-future India, which makes a pleasant change from the usual western SF settings.  It also has an interesting structure, as each chapter is told from (usually) one character’s point of view and many of the characters don’t meet (or at least not directly), so the story is pieced together from these narrative islands.  The plot concerns the development of a sentient AI, in a somewhat unusual content, and its effect of various machinations for power by criminals and politicians.  (I’m forgetting a lot of the detail).  The presentation of the Indian culture grappling with modernity seems realistic and the characters are well drawn.  Highly recommended.

Obviously there are the mega-rich sports stars, pop stars etc. and the mega-rich investment bankers.  There are directors of companies (from CEOs of megacorps to successful small businessmen).

Doctors, consultants and possibly dentists probably earn over £100K (and there's a way to cut public spending).

Do these really add up to 1 in 100, even of employed people?