Until this week, I’d only read one of Charles Stross’s books, Iron Sunrise, which I read in preparation for Hugo voting in 2005 (I didn’t actually vote on the Best Novel Hugo that year, but I thought about it…). I enjoyed it, and when I happened to be in the library earlier in the week and decided I wanted some SF in hand, so I picked up two of his.

Singularity Sky takes place before Iron Sunrise and introduces some characters who figure in the latter book, but it wasn’t critical to read them in the right order. I did something with Singularity Sky that I haven’t done in a long time — I read it in one evening. The story moves along briskly, with enough red herrings to keep me interested. This story is set, like Iron Sunrise, in a post-Singularity world where the Eschaton (which appears to be the transcendent computers of Earth) has scattered about 90% of the population of Earth across a few hundred light-years. There is FTL travel and instantaneous communication, but causality violations are Right Out…Or Else. The story opens with a weird infovore culture, The Festival, raining telephones on the New Republic, which has all the lovable characteristics of the Soviet Union of the 50’s and 60’s, but without the technology…except for the military. There are secret agents and wheels within wheels galore — strongly recommended.

I can’t say the same for Missile Gap, a short alternate-history-with-aliens piece. The McGuffin here is that, in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis (which became a hot war), the surface of the Earth was picked up and deposited on a huge flat world in the Magellanic Cloud; there are, of course, many other continents across the ocean, and the US and Soviets are desperately exploring and colonizing. But…We Are Not Alone.

The premise was intriguing, but there were too many threads for so few pages, and none of the characters really came to life for me. It was a pleasant read, but no more.

I just finished reading The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling, which Sacha had recommended to me in a conversation last week.

Many years ago, I’d realized that pure technical competence would only get a person so far — it was important to be able to talk with people and explain ideas. In other words, to be able to tell a story. And, every bit as importantly, to be able to listen to other people’s stories and help them tell them better. So I was very interested in reading what Steve Denning had to say on the subject.

I’m not sure I learned a lot that I didn’t already know — that’s not to say that the book wasn’t worthwhile, but there wasn’t much that surprised me. I was amused to read, yet again, the story of IBM’s embrace of the Internet (I was there, although not in the meetings in Armonk which were critical to making things happen — and that’s a valuable lesson: there’s no substitute for being in the room), but this time with a concentration on the role of persuasion and leadership (as contrasted with management).

I very much like the final chapter in the book, describing “interactive, Tolstoyan” leadership. I’ve worked for “Napoleonic” managers…and I haven’t enjoyed it. I’ve also worked for “Tolstoyan” managers, and it’s been a pleasure (and I’ve made stronger contributions in that environment, too).

I did not work through the exercises in the book (hey, I am on vacation!), so I’m sure I didn’t get the fullest benefit from reading it, but life is full of choices. And I can always go back to the book another day (though this copy has to go back to the library!).

Recommended.

I just finished Michael Chabon’s latest, Gentlemen of the Road, which tells the story of two Jews with swords, Amram and Zelikman, as they roam the Kazakh Empire near the year 950 CE.

It’s definitely minor Chabon, but it kept me interested and engaged, despite the rather stunted character development and the predictable plot twists.