The Rapture of the Nerds - Hardcover

Doctorow, Cory; Stross, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765329107 ISBN 13: 9780765329103

Publisher: Tor Books, 2012

Synopsis

Welcome to the fractured future, at the dusk of the twenty-first century.

Earth has a population of roughly a billion hominids. For the most part, they are happy with their lot, living in a preserve at the bottom of a gravity well. Those who are unhappy have emigrated, joining one or another of the swarming densethinker clades that fog the inner solar system with a dust of molecular machinery so thick that it obscures the sun.

The splintery metaconsciousness of the solar-system has largely sworn off its pre-post-human cousins dirtside, but its minds sometimes wander...and when that happens, it casually spams Earth's networks with plans for cataclysmically disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems. A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there's always someone who'll take a bite from the forbidden apple.

So until the overminds bore of stirring Earth's anthill, there's Tech Jury Service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Young Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury, a task he does his best to perform despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on bathroom floors.

About this title

Review:

"mindbendingly entertaining... the novel is a surefire hit for genre fans. Fans of Adam Roberts' elegant, intellectually challenging SF will also be on firm ground here." --Booklist

Both Doctorow and (especially) Stross are writers who like to keep the ideas-per-page ratio as high as possible, and the level of inventive concepts thrown at the audience makes THE RAPTURE OF THE NERDS a thrillingly imaginative read. --SFX Review

"Rapture of the Nerds is a glorious ride, that will make your head spin and fingers keep wanting to turn the pages." --Nerd Like You

About the Author:

CORY DOCTOROW is a coeditor of Boing Boing and a columnist for multiple publications including the Guardian, Locus, and Publishers Weekly. He was named one of the Web's twenty-five influencers by Forbes magazine and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. His award-winning novel Little Brother was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.

CHARLES STROSS, author of several major novels of SF and fantasy including Singularity Sky, Accelerando, Halting State, and Rule 34, is widely hailed as one of the most original voices in modern SF. His short fiction has won multiple Hugo Awards and Locus awards. He lives in Edinburgh.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0765329107
• ISBN 13: 9780765329103
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 349