Iron Sunrise

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: George Guidall

Not only is Charles Stross' Iron Sunrise a "hard-science fiction masterpiece" ( Library Journal), it's also "a Hollywood thriller with a cyberpunk heart" ( Entertainment Weekly).

Planet Moscow is vaporized by an unnatural star explosion, prompting those who escaped to counterattack the likely culprit - planet New Dresden of the neighboring system. But New Dresden wasn't to blame, and as worlds go to war, an unseen enemy labors to destroy the universe itself.

©2004 Charles Stross (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Better than Singularity Sky, but still not there.

The story line and characters in this 2nd Eschaton book are much better. The bad guys are truly menacing and evil in way that is worthy of Stross's best writing. But the narrator is less than emotionally gripping. He just does an adequate job, but somehow he does not convey the menace, the fear, and the horror of it all. You can sense in the background because of the quality of the writing, but it does not ooze out from the lips of the characters as he reads the dialogue.

Is it the Eschaton's doing?

Charles Stross' Iron Sunrise is the second installment in his Eschaton series but is a standalone tale. In this universe, the Eschaton is an advanced AI that has inexplicably distributed the human race across the galaxy. Faster than light travel is feasible, but the Eschaton forbids causality violation. The tale opens with the recent destruction of a planetary civilization apparently by such a device. The main plot revolves around the investigation of the event and the prevention of a deadman kill switch initiated by the destroyed civilization that can take out the presumed perpetrators. A young girl who survived the destruction (and possesses an implant connected with the Eschaton), a pair of UN spooks, and a bizarre semi-religious sect that can thrall people gradually converge with plenty of plot twists to the end.

Stross plays with some heady concepts, not the least is the notion that human can create an AI so all powerful and so far beyond man's capabilities as to be unstoppable. At the same time, while many of the trappings of 21st century life persists (especially teenagers), a religion evolves to create their own gods in their own image with terrifying results. All the while, in the background, the Eschaton is watching and fiddling.

The narration is superb with excellent character distinction and smooth even pacing throughout.

Compelling

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes it is interesting, clever, compelling. It moves very fast, which I really like in an audio book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Iron Sunrise?

Not giving anything away.

most underrated Sci-fi author I've ever found

I don't know how this author has so few good reviews on this platform but this guy blows my mind with his Intense working knowledge of The subject matter surrounding genre while bringing an amazing wit humor and cold realism into it. Novel possibilities never presented to me before. Unique and novel style of of the use of metaphor and adjective. I'm already depressed that there isn't A lot more of his work available for me to dig into.

good, not so good as Singularity Sky

The previous book in the series, Singularity Sky, is awesome. It's a fun, playful concept, being stuck in a future ruled by a mysterious and capricious post-human intelligence of human creation. Abounds with crazed juxtapositions of the suposed human diaspora with tongue-in-cheek-contemporary relevance. This one is good for the same reason, but it lacks the freshness and playfulness of the earlier one. Stross has brought in a new protagonist or two for this one, which is just as well, as the surviving protagonists of the earlier version were not so interestingly conflicted and/or flawed that you'd want to follow them through a whole new book. In fact, I reckon he could have ditched them entirely because they don't bring much to the new book apart from setting.

But leaving aside the dead weight, there is still a lot fo fun to be had in this book, and he does get some nice twists out of the Nanotech-nazis-in-space theme. And that's really Stross's strong suit - taking hackneyed old SF tropes and spinning them in a cheeky post-dotcom way. Worthwhile.