Customer Reviews

Postsingular

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been a fan of Rudy Rucker for many years and admire the inventiveness and irreverence of his earlier works. However, I feel that his more recent work has become increasingly sloppy and Postsingular is probably the worst example of this. There are some ideas about quantum computation, string theory, cryptography, etc at the heart of this story, but they are so overlayered with slick sounding, brightly colored but ultimately meaningless nonsense that the book has nothing to say about technology or people or the interface of people and technology or, well, anything really. There is no problem encountered in the story that isn't solved a few pages later by an inexplicable application of magic. It is impossible to empathize with (or be the least interested by) the antics of the characters when the rules of the game are constantly being changed by the magical intervention of other dimensional demi-gods and aliens. The book would have been much improved if Rucker had stuck to his original idea (in which von Neumann machines provide infinite computation but at the price of devouring the physical earth and replacing it with a simulation) and actually developed it rather than just piling crazy garbage on top of it hoping that some of it might stick.

In addition to this lazy plotting, the characterization is inconsistent and two-dimensional. Especially the characters from the alternate dimension have no consistent motivation and alternately intervene to help or hinder the protagonists as suits the plot. The protagonists themselves have very little depth. And for a book about life after the technological singularity, the events of the book seem to have little or no impact on the characters, banging them about for a while, but at the end leaving them the same boring caricatures they were at the beginning.

The stories of Cory Doctorow provide far more interesting gonzo technological extrapolations if that's what you're in the market for. And for readers interested in speculation on how infinite computational resources would transform humanity I would recommend Permutation City by Greg Egan. In one of the latter chapters of Postsingular, Rucker describes life inside the simulated virtual earth. His description of this world is so depauperate, so lacking in creativity, that it is almost embarrassing when compared to the works of Greg Egan who developed these ideas really brilliantly over 10 years ago. If Rucker couldn't be bothered to invest this section of the book with creativity or thought, it should have been omitted. I feel the same could be said for about 90% of the novel. If you, like me, are looking for the next great work by Rucker, I guess my best advice would be to keep waiting.

Rudy Rucker's bodacious ideas are easy to love, but it's harder to love the books. His level of creativity will amaze the adventurous reader, but his skills in distilling those ideas into a coherent plot still have some catching up to do. This book is overflowing with quirky forward thinking about the upcoming quantum singularity, in which every atom in the universe possesses computing power and humanity is freed from earthly isolation. And unlike many of his fellow extropian authors, Rucker makes his stories fun and engaging with brightly described settings, oddball adventures, and quirky characters. He also overloads his prose with wild terminology that might seem like made-up slang but are actually constructed neologisms that will mean something a few decades from now (such as "ubbaflop"). It's certainly fun to read this story of geeky villainy, street-kid heroism, and inter-dimensional shenanigans in the race to either save or ruin humanity in the face of the oncoming singularity. That is, after a rocky start that was apparently pieced together from multiple pre-existing short stories, with incredibly vast but under-explained thought experiments by Rucker appearing and disappearing haphazardly. The book eventually becomes more functional, notwithstanding some very inconsistent plotting. But the real problem is the poorly-written romantic relationships - which are so obviously not Rucker's forte. This novel highlights all of Rucker's weaknesses, sometimes to the point of embarrassment, but the strengths of his ideas and cosmos-sized compu-thinking still make for an adventurous read. [~doomsdayer520~]

I really enjoyed Rucker's early fiction ("Software", "Wetware" and "Freeware"), but then I lost track of him. I was pretty disappointed by Postsingular. After reading it, I learned that it was supposed to be teaching me about parallel worlds, nanotechnology, virtual reality, string theory, quantum physics and other mathematical theories. Okay, looking back I can see that. But at the time I just reminded myself that Rucker had a bizarre imagination or that he had been suckling on the Big Pig's teats too often. After all, the plot line is so full of made up adjectives (jitsy? starky? vibby?), coincidences and randomness that why should I assume that any of the math/physics is based on reality at all? On top of this, there's the heavy slathering of Rucker's world view which includes Gaia worship and the smearing of anyone conservative, "Deep down the religious right wants the world to end. They hate women, and they hate Earth. For them, Gaia is a piece of crap for us to use up. The sooner we destroy her, the sooner we get clean and go to heaven. They're equating the nants to their myth of the rapture, see?" Interestingly the "good guys", the hibraners, are Sikh, practice Tai Chi, and also believe that digital technology is rotten, corrupt, and compromised. It was neat to see my favorite Stargate SG-1 submachine gun, the Belgian P90, featured. Overall a bizarre read that I won't be re-reading.

While there are a lot of interesting SF ideas, they do not make for a coherent story. Characters perform purposeless actions to advance a story that makes little sense. Very disappointing.

I had high hopes for POSTSINGULAR since I had never heard of Rudy Rucker before now. I was expecting something in the Charles Stross / Alastair Reynolds mode but what I got was a rather silly, irreverant and slightly juvenile story. Maybe that was the whole point and I didn't get it but the plot (quote unquote) seemed to be a stream of consciousness that reached a logical dead end only to have the author add a "so then". The story would continue until the next absurdity just in time for another "so then".

I was on the fence throughout the book - was it serious? Were the events described (such as destroying/transforming the world and then restoring it to its previous state) suppposed to make sense or was this simply a dizzying exploration of possibilities. If you want Cyberpunk, read Gibson. If you want serious post-Singularity literature go somewhere else. If you want a rather silly tale told in parable fashion, this is the book for you.

Chapter two was originally published as a short story "Nant Day" in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 2006. Chapters three and four were published as another short story titled "Postsingular" in September 2006 of that same magazine. Rudy's decision to take those chapters untouched (as far as I know) and place them into a novel was a terrible idea.

At least the first half of the book reads like short stories munged together. The second half doesn't get much better, but at least the plot doesn't jump around as much. Things move entirely too quickly throughout and there is absolutely no significant character development. Any characters that you may gain affection for in the beginning of the story are recast as villains, or disappear from the storyline all together for too long. Main characters are not introduced until late in the book, and their motivations and history are all rushed.

In addition to the poorly constructed plot lines and shallow characters, the writing itself is immature - at best. If I weren't so determined to get through this one - hoping it would improve, I wouldn't have survived 50 pages, and that's being generous. I can't think how many times while reading, how I longed for a writer who could use simple sentences with powerful effects - like Hemingway. In this book, Rucker strives for simple sentences, but it comes off as nothing but amateurish. Lifting phrases from Lewis Carroll, while in a better book may have been flattering, is just insulting.

In short, bad plot, bad characters, bad writing. The only thing which saves this book from getting one star is his fantastic imagination.

I picked this one up on a whim despite the mixed reviews, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Postsingular offered chapter upon chapter of Rucker's mind-blowing imagination, while always keeping the zaniness rooted by a scientific underpinning. If you enjoyed 'Frek and the Elixir' or 'Spaceland', then you'll enjoy this trip past the singularity.

Sorry in advance for the lack of detail, but I'd just like to say that as a fan of authors such as Neal Stephenson and Charles Strauss, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end. That said, I'll likely be looking into some of Rucker's other works. Cheers!

Postsingular is the latest in a long line of high-speed brain rushes provided by Rudy Rucker. While every one of his novels has combined mind-blowing ideas, vivid characters, and gripping (and occasionally goofy) plots, Postsingular is a more tightly written tale than any to date (which shows that even great writers find ways to continue to perfect their craft).

The story is told in layers, and that device works for a book essentially about the layers between worlds and between objects in worlds (that's as close to a spoiler as I'm dishing out here). While being a science fiction tale, and very much involved with technology (to be expected from a retired professor of computer science), it is ultimately a human story, a story of people and life and the search for meaning and happiness. The book works on all of these levels: feel-good read, brain dance, and sci-fi goodness. (Note: for a non-fiction exploration of some of the ideas in this book, see Rucker's The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, and How to Be Happy).

Rucker has surpassed himself (again) and continues to demonstrate why fellow science fiction author William Gibson declares Rucker "a National Treasure of American science fiction."

That -- WHEENK -- is the name of the "metanovel" one of the POSTSINGULAR characters busies herself creating during the course of the book. It's also a perfect poster word for describing this Rudy Rucker sci-fi extravaganza. This is one wheenkin' ride!

Early in the book, the autistic boy genius, Chu, corrects his joking biotech genius father about a BIG number: " 'Ten to the thirty-ninth is duodecillion' " he chides, " 'Not umptisquiddlyzillion." But umptisquiddlyzillion just about covers the nearly endless gush of ideas that Rucker looses in this novel. What most people wouldn't give to have that many inventive thoughts in ten lifetimes, and he nonchalantly dispenses them in one volume!

Think of POSTSINGULAR as "Jack and the Beanstock" on uppers (and downers). Ye olde fairty tale is updated with extrapolations about the latest theoretical physics (such as "branes") and trendy sci-fi speculations about how artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and virtual reality might revolutionize or even extinguish life as we know it.

The early chapters, entitled "Nant Day," "Orphid Night," and "Chu's Knot," originally appeared as short stories; and in the middle of POSTSINGULAR, the tensile strength of those early chapters slumps just a mite...even though it is filled with mind riffs by the vagrant (and randy) technogeeks who climb onstage beginning in Chapter 5. Then, however, the frantic dash for the finish gets the old adrenaline pumping as all the socially awkward heroes try to save earth from devouring nants!

You may be wondering about the sea creature on the cover. Rest assured you'll learn all about it when you jump into this trippin' mind squeeze! Go for it! Wheenck! [4.7 stars]