Iron Sunrise [Hardcover]

Charles Stross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2005

When the planet of New Moscow was brutally destroyed, its few survivors launched a counter-attack against the most likely culprit: the neighbouring system of trade rival New Dresden. But New Dresden wasn't responsible, and as the deadly missiles approach their target, Rachel Mansour, agent for the interests of Old Earth, is assigned to find out who was. The one person who does know is a disaffected teenager who calls herself Wednesday Shadowmist. But Wednesday has no idea where she might be hiding this significant information. Time is limited and if Rachel can't resolve this mystery it will mean annihilation of an entire world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known for his short fiction, Stross shows that he's a master of the novel form as well in this exciting sequel to 2003's acclaimed Singularity Sky, serving up compelling space opera and cutting-edge tech with a tasty dash of satire. In the 24th century, a McWorld ("bland, comfortable, tolerant... boring") called New Moscow apparently has been destroyed by trade rival New Dresden—but 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 ambassadors—but 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. Stross skillfully balances suspense and humor throughout, offering readers—especially fans of Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod—a fascinating future that seems more than possible.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The sequel to the critically acclaimed Singularity Sky [BKL Ag 03] returns to the twenty-fourth-century interstellar domain humankind has forged through the godlike powers of the Eschaton, an enigmatic being from humanity's distant future. Now, in an act of apparent sabotage, one remote interstellar colony, Moscow, has met a disastrous fate: its host star exploded, annihilating an entire solar system and forcing the evacuation of nearby colonies. UN hostage negotiator Rachel Mansour, who is recovering from a showdown with a psychotic performance artist harboring a nuclear warhead, is tagged to make the wormhole jaunt to the scene and investigate. Is one of Moscow's rival colonies responsible? Is the Eschaton? Improbably, the answers to such questions may lie with Wednesday, a rambunctious adolescent girl whose family is fleeing the expanding explosion, and between whose story and Rachel's the novel alternates. Stross improves on Singularity Sky with better characterizations and entertaining technological inventiveness. Fans of hard sf spiced by political intrigue will relish this dish. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 422 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (March 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184149335X
• ISBN-13: 978-1841493350
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,857,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Stross, 46, is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005 and 2010 Hugo awards for best novella, Stross's works have been translated into over twelve languages.

Like many writers, Stross has had a variety of careers, occupations, and job-shaped-catastrophes in the past, from pharmacist (he quit after the second police stake-out) to first code monkey on the team of a successful dot-com startup (with brilliant timing he tried to change employer just as the bubble burst).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dancing On The Event Horizon, October 19, 2004

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iron Sunrise (Singularity) (Hardcover)

The first volume in this series - Singularity Sky - read a bit unevenly, because Stross had a lot of explaining to do to get the reader in synch with his reality. After all, a possible future with has mankind spread throughout the galaxy not by his own ingenuity but by an irate being called the Eschaton, which was someone else's god, but took exception to the way we were learning how to abuse time travel in the process of learning how to exceed the speed of light. Since the Eschaton was not about to let itself be erased by the modification of history it seized the moment and moved nine tenths of the Earth elsewhere.

Since space travel is time travel, the far flung groups moved not just huge distances, but large amounts of time as well. Thus, just as the Earth was recovering from the mass exodus, humans from distant worlds made it back to the solar system, and the universe started to get smaller again. And stranger. There was a lot to explain, and Charles Stross does like to expound on the 'science' of his works.

With that work behind him, the stage is set for this volume, which is a lot more space opera and a lot less explanation. Once again a series of events points to an attack on the Eschaton, and Rachel Mansour and her husband Martin are recalled from their day jobs to investigate the destruction of one world and the immanent obliteration of another.

The the real star of the book is Wednesday Shadowmist, who first saw her entire world destroyed by an intentional supernova, and then her saw her family destroyed by agents from the ReMastered, a dangerous and effective cult intent on building an empire. Wednesday is erratically aided by an invisible friend - Herman, whom readers may remember from Singularity Sky, and Frank the Nose, a warblogger with his own issues with the ReMastered. If this is beginning to sound complicated, trust me, it gets worse. Wait until you get to meet the ReMastered.

This book is an excellent example of Stross's writing skill, moving forward with a steadily increasing pace. Stross thrives on detail, and can bring unnerving vista into perfect focus. He has a light touch with an ironic sense of humor. Characterization is equally deep, with the net result that the reader jogs along with considerable delight. I found this a strong entry, perhaps the best of his novels so far.

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Spy versus Spy, May 31, 2005

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iron Sunrise (Singularity) (Hardcover)

The type of science fiction that I enjoy the most shows a future society that is changed by technology in a way that illuminates our present society. I also enjoy a story about a future society that by its changes from our present society reveals the human condition and human behavior by showing us how people behave in the new society. If you add the hero on a quest who discovers himself because of the nature of the quest, I'm really happy. If all an author does is update an old genre, like cowboys and Indians to spacemen and aliens, the update better be clever and original. All of this is by way of saying that while I did not particularly care for Iron Sunrise, some readers might enjoy it.

The McGuffin (a word that Alfred Hitchcock used to describe a plot device that misleads the audience to believe that it is what the work is about) is the inducement of a super nova in a star that destroys one world and threatens the destruction of several others, directly or indirectly. But basically, this is a classic espionage novel. A craft travels from stop to stop and at each destination a diplomat is killed. A counterespionage agent, who becomes a guide to a non-professional, is assigned to catch the killers, and after a few missteps, the villains are caught. In the spy novels set in the 20th century the craft was a ship or train, but here it's a space ship. Instead of pistols the folks use various kinds of high-tech zappers. Otherwise the story is unchanged.

The civilian hero swept up into the story is a Goth girl, who sounds like the nightmare of most parents. Unfortunately, although she saves the day, she doesn't seem to be any further along the road to self discovery at the end of the novel than she was at the beginning.

The villains of the piece do everything but wear jackboots, and they are proud to call themselves "Ubermensch". I mean, come-on. Couldn't the author find some other word in Nietzsche than the old Nazi saw?

Given the generic nature of the story, something more was required to make this a good read. Unfortunately, none of the elements I look for were present. Certainly the characters were one dimensional and unchanged by events. The setting was not particularly innovative. If there had been some real elements of suspense here, it might have justified this exercise. But by the time the novel reached the denouement, I didn't care who the real villains were.

If you want an espionage story that is both suspenseful and provides real insights, I suggest almost anything by Eric Ambler. You can read this if your setting must be science fiction.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good second outing with Rachel Mansour., December 16, 2006

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frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iron Sunrise (Singularity) (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading Singularity Sky, I was really excited to pick up Iron Sunrise as quickly as possible. I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book and its continuing adventures of Rachel Mansour. She is a great recurring character-- just the right combination of flaws and heroism to make her a compelling agent/detective.

Singularity Sky had a lot of little flaws, and was occasionally uneven. Iron Sunrise fixes most of these issues. I wish that I could say that I enjoyed it more because it is much more smooth. Unfortunately, I found it just a little bit more forgettable with a little more polish applied. One of the thing that I liked best about Singularity Sky was the clear glee that Stross took in setting up his universe. We hear less of that here, and while it may make it more professional it also made it just a little bit less fun.

This said, Iron Sunrise is still a pretty great read. I still want to run out and read Acccelerando and the Merchant Prince books as quickly as possible. I would recommend it highly to anyone with an interest in smart speculative fiction. You may miss some background if you begin here and not with Singularity Sky, but the plots are different enough that the book stands largely on its own.