So, a round-up of the books I most enjoyed in 2013, two of which particularly stood out, and none of which were actually published last year.
In summary: Post-singularity, augmented near future, young adult, non-technical computer nonfiction, space adventure.
The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi
The second part of an in-progress trilogy, The Fractal Prince is mind-blowing post-singularity stuff. It's ... difficult to describe, but imagine some post-humans, AIs, embodied code, a future earth and an arabian night's story. And some post-post human godlike adversaries. Epic, dense stuff. Looking forward to the final book in the trilogy mid-year.
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
A future somewhere around the mid 2020s, seen through the eyes of an old man awakening from a coma around the year 2k, who has been rejuvenated and is learning how to interpret this new, augmented IoT world. A host of great characters and scenarios, but it's the world itself that's painted that's utterly delicious.
So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
A Young Adult novel, this is about a teenager called Hunter who is always out looking for the new, breaking trends and innovations before getting caught up in sinister plots. Some of the ideas in the novel, especially regarding the trendsetting pyramid, really stuck with me vividly. Was tipped off to this one by Cory Doctorow in Little Brother.
You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier
A point by point rant by Lanier against the Web 2.0 world, the open source movement, the wisdom of crowds, the Singularity and pretty much anything else related to those topics. I didn't always agree with him - perhaps I didn't often agree with him - but he makes a lot of very interesting points and he looks at things from a number of angles.
The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
Another in the Vorkosigan saga, pretty much near the beginning where we see the origins of Miles Naismith Vorkosigan. I've only read a few of Bujold's novels, and whilst I've enjoyed all her stuff, I think this one is probably my favourite for its swash-buckling, puzzle-solving space adventure. An easy, fun read, but not something quickly forgotten. By far the oldest book of this list, first published in 1986, it predates the next oldest, So Yesterday, by 18 years.
