Wednesday, September 03, 2014

The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi

In early September, I finished reading The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi. This is the third book in a trilogy. I read the first book--The Quantum Thief--in 2011 and the second book--The Fractal Prince--in 2013.

I enjoyed the first two books and found a number of the ideas interesting. I found this book more obtuse and less accessible than the first two. It probably would have helped to read the three books one after the other. The relentless terminology cries out for a lexicon. I eventually found one here after I finished the book…

The heart of the book is the battle between two post human upload collectives with differing goals, while the two main characters are caught in the middle trying to decide where their loyalties lie and what their goals are. The idea of a future where human conscious is uploaded into a "computer" is a common science fiction theme. This story pushes the idea to the limit.

The book was a nice interlude between the World War I book that I finished and my next presidential historical novel. I give The Causal Angel a solid "B".

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