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The Rapture of the Nerds

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In "The Rapture of the Nerds," authors Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow present a wild and imaginative tale set in a future world post-singularity, where much of humanity has transitioned to a posthuman state. The story follows Huw, a technophobic potter thrust into a complex political dilemma involving a mix of quirky characters, including a crazy judge, insane American fundamentalists, and his own mother. The narrative navigates through a blend of technobabble, philosophical musings, and fantastical ideas, offering a mix of humor, heart, and soul beneath the gizmos. The plot, while dense with ideas and references, ultimately centers on Huw's journey through a post-singularity world, exploring themes of ludditism, human-machine interaction, and the limits of technology and the economy.

Characters:

The characters are diverse, with Huw serving as an awkward and resistant protagonist amidst a cast of eccentric figures, highlighting the societal shifts post-singularity.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is humorous and satirical, filled with technical jargon and cultural references, creating a playful but often chaotic narrative.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot revolves around a technophobic protagonist in a post-singularity world, navigating a jury trial concerning new technologies and their impact on humanity.

Setting:

The setting is a fractured society in a post-singularity world, illustrating the stark contrast between uploaded beings and those who remain physically human.

Pacing:

The pacing varies throughout the book, starting slow and meandering before picking up speed in the latter sections.
This is by no means unusual, but for once Huw’s head hurts more than his bladder. He’s lying head down, on his back, in a bathtub. He scrabbles for a handhold and pulls himself upright. A tub is a ter...

Notes:

The novel is set in a post-singularity world where much of humanity has uploaded their consciousness to a digital cloud.
Huw Jones, the protagonist, is a technophobe who rejects the trend of uploading himself.
The book explores themes of identity, technology, and human relationships in a radically changed society.
There are elements of humor and satire related to the absurdities of technological advancement.
Huw's journey includes serving on a jury that decides if a new technology, sent back by uploaded humans, should be allowed on Earth.
The narrative includes bizarre characters, such as a judge who is a Dalek.
The text is dense with technobabble and cultural references, appealing to readers with a deep understanding of technology.
The authors, Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow, are known for their imaginative and sometimes outrageous science fiction.
The book presents a chaotic and comedic look at post-human life, juxtaposed with serious themes about existence and humanity.
Huw encounters various extreme societies, including religious fundamentalists, in the remnants of Earth.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Content warnings may include themes of existential anxiety, critiques of religious extremism, and depictions of societal collapse.

From The Publisher:

A brilliant collaboartion from Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, two defining personalities of post-cyberpunk SF-now repackaged with a new cover!

Welcome to the fractured future, at the dusk of the twenty-first century.

Earth has a population of roughly a billion hominids. For the most part, they are happy with their lot, living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who are unhappy have emigrated, joining one or another of the swarming densethinker clades that fog the inner solar system with a dust of molecular machinery so thick that it obscures the sun.

The splintery metaconsciousness of the solar-system has largely sworn off its pre-post-human cousins dirtside, but its minds sometimes wander…and when that happens, it casually spams Earth's networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems. A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there's always someone who'll take a bite from the forbidden apple.

So until the overminds bore of stirring Earth's anthill, there's Tech Jury Service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury, a task he does his best to perform despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on bathroom floors.

About the Author:

Cory Doctorow is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Locus, and many other publications. He is a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an MIT Media Lab Research Associate and a visiting professor of Computer Science at the Open University. His award-winning novel Little Brother and its sequel Homeland were a New York Times bestsellers. His novella collection Radicalized was a CBC Best Fiction of 2019 selection. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.

CHARLES STROSS (he/him) is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. He has won three Hugo Awards for Best Novella, including for the Laundry Files tale "Equoid." His work has been translated into over twelve languages. His novels include the bestselling Merchant Princes series, the Laundry series (including Locus Award finalist The Dilirium Brief), and several stand-alones including Glasshouse, Accelerando, and Saturn's Children.

Like many writers, Stross has had a variety of careers, occupations, and job-shaped catastrophes, from pharmacist (he quit after the second police stakeout) to first code monkey on the team of a successful dot-com startup (with brilliant timing, he tried to change employers just as the bubble burst) to technical writer and prolific journalist covering the IT industry. Along the way he collected degrees in pharmacy and computer science, making him the world's first officially qualified cyberpunk writer.

 
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