"The Golden Age (The Golden Age)" by John C. Wright
Well, it took me weeks and weeks to read this book. While it had some very interesting ideas, I just found it hard to get into the book. However I was enjoying myself by the end when the story suddenly ended with my least favorite conclusion - "Be sure to read (and buy) volume two!" Bah humbug. Frankly I have had enough of those endings from Tad Williams, Robert Jordan and now Neil Stephenson to last a lifetime.
The book takes place in the far, far future and has all kinds of fantastical technology. The main question of the book seems to be about the ultimate fate of humanity and technology. Whatever. This is a huge topic, of interest to philosophers and people with a longer attention span than myself.
Mr Wright is an excellent writer but his future is so distant and so complex, the story was very hard to understand. I repeatedly found myself confused about who was doing what to whom. In fact, I couldn't even tell what they were doing was... Lots of virtual reality and computer intelligences and such. I certainly credit Wright for a terrific imagination and attention to detail but the story has a high entry level.
One idea that I did find really interesting was the idea of digital life. What will happen when computers reach the point that they can backup a personality the way we backup a computer? Immortality is one consequence. An infinite number of duplicate "you"s is another. While our technology is a long way off from this situation, it is foreseeable and interesting to think about.
All in all, I am glad that I read the book but cannot recommend it unless you are really into hard sci-fi. And I am not sure I will be reading volume 2.
