Singularity Sky is Charles Stross' first novel, and it's a blast from the past. I mean that literally: the bulk of the text was completed in the mid-nineties. That it's published as part of the flowering of the 'New Space Opera' alongside Light, Justina Robson's Natural History, and the work of Alastair Reynolds - may say something about the current climate of SF, but it's worth bearing in mind that it's not the original context of the work. This book was largely written contemporarily with novels such as Excession and The Star Fraction; A Fire Upon The Deep lies in its recent past, Cryptonomicon a few years into its future, and this version of Stross has yet to write 'Antibodies' or 'A Colder War' or any of the 'Accelerando' stories - the justly-acclaimed work that, to readers like you and I, precedes this novel.

And if you can wrap your mind around all that easily enough you may well enjoy Singularity Sky, which features similar relativistic time-frame shenanigans, or at least the threat of them. The novel is set in the same universe as the short story 'Bear Trap' (published in 2000?) - a strongly superhuman intelligence called the Eschaton awoke in an early 21st-century singularity, scattered humanity across 3,000 light-years' worth of planets and then more-or-less left everyone to their own devices. The crucial less, it turns out, being an injunction not to develop causality-violating technology; the Eschaton is understandably less than keen on the idea of some primitive ape-descendents erasing it from history, and is not above dropping the odd asteroid or ten on anyone who threatens to do so. Against this backdrop, Singularity Sky focuses on a good old-fashioned culture clash: The rigid, imperialistic, isolationist and downright archaic New Republic finds one of its colony worlds threatened by an exuberant post-human upload culture known as the Festival - and promptly launches a military mission to Sort Things Out. Unfortunately, the fleet is instructed to fly a relativity-abusing trajectory that comes perilously close to violating the Eschaton's commandment, something that makes various parties somewhat nervous about the possible consequences. Plot ensues.

This structure is what you might describe as Stross' version of Vinge's Zones: It's a hack, one that allows pre- and post-singularity cultures to coexist - or more aptly, collide - with a maximum of fireworks and mutual incomprehension. Watching the New Republic flail around doing all the patently wrong things in their attempts to deal with the Festival is hugely entertaining. Unfortunately, things occasionally stray to the wrong side of caricature, and the underlying messages of the novel become somewhat laboured. This is never a novel of real debate; that the New Republic is wrong is presented as a fait accompli, and it's hard not to wish for a touch more nuance.

There are a few other problems with the novel, too. Some of the characters can be hard to empathise with - particularly one of the principal viewpoints, not least because it turns out fairly early on that they're keeping secrets from the reader, as well as the other characters. And whilst at 300 or so pages it's not a long book, it still feels padded; there is a little too much repetition, a few too many explanations of exactly what a closed timelike curve is and why it matters to the plot. In fact, overall the whole venture feels surprisingly safe - there's a lack of ambition, at least by the high standards Stross has gone on to set for himself. The novel is always readable, with the numerous conflicting agendas deftly balanced throughout, but overall this is a work that seems stronger in concept than execution. You're left wondering if there isn't more that could be made of this universe.

Despite all of the above, though, there's no denying that fundamentally, the book works. Stross breezes past any flaws with a little charm, a lot of style, and a healthy dose of wit. Singularity Sky is a lot of fun - and it comes with the exciting guarantee that Stross' work is only going to get better from hereon in.