Bookshot #50: Rule 34

Set in the not-to-distance future of early 21st Century Scotland (now a semi-independent, partially privitazed nation of it's own) Rule 34 is the story of Inspector Liz Kavanaugh of the Edinburgh Police, head of the Innovative Crime Investigation Unit (ICIU) that's responsible for monitoring the internet, following trends to make sure people toe the line between harmless fantasies and illegal acitivies. Usually, they're just hunting down freaky and (at least by the standards of 2023) sick porn. But occasionally other patterns emerge...

Soon Kavanaugh finds herself on a bloody trail of murder as ex-cons keep getting murdered across Europe that only have one thing in common: arrests for spamming and a taste for unorthodox erotica. She has to figure out who- or what is doing the killing before the killings accelerate... and go viral.

This is one of those books you can read in one sitting if you really wanted to. It's a bit of a slow start, but once you get past the first couple of chapters, the thing really takes off on you and you find yourself turning pages at a brisk clip, eager to find out with the final resolution of this near-future thriller is going to be. (It's an interesting one, I'll give you that.)

It's been a summer of British Science Fiction thus far and although the last time I picked up an Iain M. Banks novel my brain just about melted after Chapter 1 I might be willing to try him and Alistair Reynolds again just to get a good sampling of the depth of talent out there. Stross ranks right up there with science fiction authors that you should be reading- he shoves the reader the proverbial 'ten minutes' into the future and drops you into a world that's familiar and yet totally alien- as in, you could easily see a lot of this stuff appearing right around the corner.

Most fascinating aspect of this book: describing a law enforcement agency that's totally integrated with all aspects of technology possible. Uploading reports via phone or 'police-specs', managing the work flow of information and data-mining for trends and patterns. It's all one, big wired system and it seemed a little jarring at first but not too out of whack in my book. (Getting people to embrace new technologies is an uphill battle sometimes in law enforcement, I've discovered... it'd be almost paradise if I could ahold of half of the stuff Stross describes right now.)

Interesting Factoid of this book: The title, Rule 34 is a reference to meme Rule 34 of the internet, which states 'if it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions.'

Freakiest Thing About This Book: it's written in the second person singular- I didn't really catch on to that until about three chapter in and it wigged me out a little at first because I don't think I've ever read a book in the second person singular. I don't think it limits the story but it does feel a little impersonal from time to time. Yet despite that, it's a useful little point of view because it bring the reader in and invites them to 'walk a mile' in a character's shoes. Kind of intriguing when you think about it...

Overall: A sizzling page turner and exciting romp through the not-to-distant future. Second person weirdness aside, Stross can write and write well. Worth a read.