The Rapture of the Nerds, by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross

Perhaps some things are not meant to be combined.  I have read and thoroughly enjoyed several of Cory Doctorow's novels.  His free-wheeling, near-future stories present a believable tomorrow and strong social and cultural commentary.  I have struggled through a couple of Charles Stross's novels.  While his hard sci-fi future, including detailed conceptions of space travel and the colonization of space, have been solid and memorable, his stories tend to spin out of control.

These two have teamed up in a new novel, The Rapture of the Nerds: A Tale of the Singularity, Posthumanity, and Awkward Social Situations.  As the subtitle suggests, there's plenty of good humor and zany sci-fi fun here, including some friendly nods to the greatest comedy sci-fi writer, Douglas Adams.  But the end result of this mish-mash of humor and hard sci-fi ultimately disappoints.  Rapture is chock full of clever ideas, of both the scientific and the silly sort, and manages to weave a convoluted plot leading to the prevention of earth's destruction by an intergalactic, multi-species hive mind.

I really wanted to like this book.  I am certain that Doctorow and Stross had a ball collaborating on it, and it will surely hold some appeal for fans of both.  But I was happy to get to the end and be done with it.