Rule 34 by Charles Stross
Review by Bowden P. (Trey)
Rule 34 picks up five years after the events of Halting State. Its a sort of sequel, because Liz, coder and Sue are nowhere to be found (I assume coder & Liz are busy working for the government and Sue has earned a well deserved promotion). Instead our guides to the weird and disturbing world of police and criminals in the 21st century are:
Liz Kavanaugh, one of our two points of continuity with Halting State. Formerly a high flying star with a lot of potential, but after her involvement in the events of Halting State she’s been on a long term punishment detail heading up the ICIU – Internet Criminal Intelligence Unit – aka the Rule 34 squad. Yes, that Rule 34.
Anwar, a recently paroled computer criminal and poster child for the Dunning Kruger effect. He’s also bisexual, a family man Pakistani-Scottish and nominally Muslim.
The Toymaker, someone who’s true name is never learned and I’d like to avoid meeting ever. He’s a violent criminal, practicing what he calls Gangster 2.0 (criminal enterprise without the inefficient management), talks a good line of self serving patter and is a sociopathic schizophrenic. He’s also a very broken human being.
We also get minor viewpoint characters from a minor criminal (Jaxxie), to a poly- corporate ethics auditor, a professor and Kemal – the cop in black from Europol in Halting State.
So what do we have? A wild tale of of technologically influenced crime and policing. It starts with a two wetsuit fatal accident that summons Liz to the scene. It has Anwar taking advice from a sometime lover leading to a consular job for an odd new country. Then we meet Jaxxie a local crook that’s fairly savvy, but “no likie the learning”and leads to the Toymaker who has to clean up after Jaxxie’s screw up.
As it moves along we get to know them all and learn that there have been a series of unlikely “accidents” affecting spammers and other internet criminals (like the “fatal accident” that brings Liz to the scene. Then things begin to get rolling.
Rule 34 is frequently neat (ICIU, drones sniffing out dog poop, Segways as police drones, widespread 3D printers (and the DRM and crime that goes with them)) and disturbingly widespread to ubiquitous surveillance (and what it takes to avoid the same), ruthless government plans and execution of those plans. Its also pretty liberal for a crime thriller. None of the major viewpoint characters are heteronormative.
I liked this a lot, a lot more than the e-ARC I’d read. The minor characters have more of a role and do more to connect the major characters as well as move the action along. It also brings the panopticon singularity in a big way.
Folks, go out and get this book. Five stars easily. Its fun, disturbing, thought provoking and occasionally (if uncomfortably funny.
Likes: Cop space augmented reality; Life logs and the chain of evidence; The idea of Gangster 2.0; Liz Kavanaugh; 3D printers and what its version of ransom ware and penis enlargement spam is like; the ICIU for all that its a brutal posting; Artificial intelligence vs. artificial identification; The economics and global political maneuvering.
Dislikes: The Toymaker’s aliases – those got a bit heavy handed; The fact that the characters couldn’t do a thing against Athena.
Suggested for: Charles Stross fans; folks who liked Daemon and Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez and This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams. I’d also suggest it those who enjoyed Cory Doctorow’s For The Win, Makers and Little Brother.
I loved this book – my newest “favorite”.
Of note, Person of Interest (TV show) came after Rule 34 (lots of similarity but without the AI (so far)).