Neptune's Brood (A Freyaverse Novel) Kindle Edition

One of the attractions of science fiction is that it plays with ideas. If constructed humans existed, with conscious state that could be represented by check-summed bit streams, then a mind could be transmitted between stars at near light speed, to be reconstructed at the destination. In such a universe, what form would banking and money take? Charles Stross is the master of ideas and their implications. He is the only writer that I am aware of who has ever constructed a fascinating story that revolves around interstellar banking, finance and money.

This is a post human universe, although fragile humans still exist. But most of the sentient universe is inhabited by post human constructs made from biologically influenced but created constructs that have started to fill the niches that would be otherwise inhabited by evolved life. Forms that were, at one time, created, have evolved themselves and created whole ecosystems, which is another fascinating theme in the book.

Because so much of the books deals with the extrapolation of ideas, some readers may find that the plot is slower than some science fiction books. After all, the main character is a forensic accountant. For those who love the interplay of concepts that evolve in the story there will be a great deal to enjoy.

I initially picked up this book for terribly shallow reasons -- Amazon told me it had a) financial intrigue and b) mermaids. Okay, that's enough to get me intrigued.

The mermaids part is really kind of a sideline, apart from exploring some of the practical realities of underwater nations (which I found to be a pretty fascinating read all on its own, honestly). The financial intrigue sounds a bit incredulous on the surface -- the book's summary of "a lost financial instrument of unbelievable value -- capable of bringing down entire civilizations" isn't actually false, but it reads as pretty hyperbolic. The reality, though, is actually a lot more intriguing, once you get into the pages of the book. I won't spoil it by listing it in exhaustive detail here, but I'll say this -- as someone in the financial industry, the constant themes of hypercapitalization, debt, differentiating currencies as a means to cope with a world lacking FTL travel, all rang very true and believable to me.

The worldbuilding, in short, is fantastic.

Krina, as the protagonist, is perfectly positioned. In speculative fiction particularly, there is always a difficult balance to be struck between giving a primary POV character who can introduce the reader to the world (but then winding up as either the overplayed "everyman in a new world" trope or coming off as hopelessly naive to the realities of the world they themselves already inhabit) or having the POV narrated by someone who knows exactly what's going on, but then doesn't give the reader the same sense of discovery and dramatic uncertainty, because they already know what's going on.

Krina, as a native to her world and perfectly well-versed on things like the complexity of the slow/medium/fast dollar economy, is in her own description a "nun-accountant" -- in other words, she's just figuring out what to do and how when it comes to the realities of being smack in the middle of interstellar high intrigue. She's the "everyman in a new world" not in that she's a 21st-century observer suddenly catapulted into the future, but rather that she's someone who has been living a cloistered, academic life where her own person was never in danger and most of her contact was with old records -- and now abruptly thrust into gallivanting across the galaxy, encountering assassins and mad (or simply corrupt and conniving) churchmen, and piratical insurance representatives.

Her tendency to "nerd out" briefly on the things she knows well -- financial scams, the complex economy of a galactic civilization without FTL travel, the academic climate of a multiplanetary society without the means to regularly bring all its intellectuals together in a meaningful way -- paints a realistic picture of someone with a great deal of specialist knowledge and the desire to share it, while serving the more prosaic function of introducing the reader to the way Stross' world functions.

All in all, I highly recommend this book; it's a fun read, especially if you're into finance.

In retrospect, the other piece of popular culture this book most strongly resembles is the 1983 Eddie Murphy / Dan Aykroyd comedy Trading Places. Both of them manage to craft a compelling, engaging piece of entertainment out of financial arcana. Here, though, instead of commodities futures, the mcguffin is an extremely long-term collateralized debt obligation. Like Trading Places, Neptune's Brood actually takes the time to help you understand the mechanism by which its mcguffin operates, so as to help you follow the plot and realize what's at stake, and it does so in a way that's never obnoxious or ham-handed.

Stross has always been sort of a hit-or-miss writer for me. I've despised just as many of his books as I've enjoyed. This is one in the enjoyable column. Here, the appropriate balance has been struck between the narrative and the futurism. The transhumanist elements of the setting are well-integrated with the character development, rather than being ostentatious grafts of gee-whizzery.

This is overall a good piece of SF, smart, and fun. I recommend it even if you don't care too much for Charles Stross.