Accelerando is first and foremost a novel about the future. The book follows the lineage of a single family over several generations, occasionally branching and sometimes taking incomprehensible leaps, but all in all, staying close to the single bloodline of Manfred Macx.
Keep in mind, however, than Accelerando unabashedly uses concept like mind transfers, full neural uploads, longevity treatments, relativity and rematerialization and that the presence of such technologies means that there are parts in the book where characters literally converse with themselves, or with their long dead relatives.
A Novel About the Future - And of the Future
In addition to being a novel about the future, Accelerando is a novel of ideas. The novel addresses directly important futuristic ideas such as the singularity, starwisps, mind uploads, matter reconstruction, nanotechnology, and so much more.
These aren't just touched upon in the text - they have indelible and lasting effects on the lives of the protagonists and their offspring. It is a speculative tale of the future, and examination of the direction of the human race. Sometimes critical, sometimes supremely optimistic, it is at the very least an exciting romp through the realm of possibility.
Stross' spares the reader no technical jargon - some parts of the book are so ripe with high-technology references that at some points you might as well skip the paragraph and try to pick up the pieces a page later. Don't, however, assume that this means that the book is difficult or unfun to read - quite the opposite. If you can let yourself be carried away by the neverending stream of technobabble, Stross will show you some very exciting ideas about the future.
Strong Ideas, Weaker Story
This is the key to the book. The story itself, is good, but not spectacular. Nobody would ever mention or give a second thought to the book if it weren't for the absolutely stunning ideas that Stross has embedded in it. Stross has included, in what is almost, at its core, a frontier families' tale, a well researched and supremely insightful view of the future.
This is not the same kind of futuristic speculation that other authors use to drive their novels - this is genuine speculation. And tied in with the story as it is, these ideas will absolutely shatter the preconceptions of the unprepared.
As a novel, Accelerando is a fairly average piece of work. But for anyone who has any interest at all in what the future has in store for us, it is an indispensable tome of knowledge and insight.
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