It's very much modern SF with body-morphing, mind-reprogramming, replicators and so on. Managed to integrate them very well into the plot, rather than just saying "hey look at this cool stuff". Also managed to avoid obvious clichés like replicators that somehow never duplicate people. Quite amusing in places, as the high-tech future characters are plunged into a simulation of the primitive 20th century; with some creepy moments too.

Has a certain amount of action: not that much, but the book is pretty succinct and doesn't drag at all. Overall, well worth reading, I'd say one of Stross' best.

Next up: "Saturday" by Ian McEwan.

Listening
Finished the Teaching Company's anthropology course, Peoples and Cultures of the World by Edward Fischer. Did get better later on, as it moved away from the trivial stuff to a deeper analysis of some cultures. Fairly informative. The course is too short to really give a sense of the diversity of world cultures, concentrating on just a handful of examples instead. So, it has some interesting bits of information and gives you an overview, but doesn't go too deep.

Watching: BSG
Belated response I don't know if Starbuck's going to be leaving the show, but I'm pretty sure she didn't die at the end of the last episode. She was seen holding the ejection handle, and they were considering launching raptors so there must be a chance of survival. More importantly, it just doesn't make dramatic sense for her to die like that. Find out she's dead would just be a pointless anticlimax. My guess: all the Leoben stuff means she's about to be rescued by the Cylons.

Overall, very disappointed with series 3. I liked the New Caprica storyline, but it's all gone to hell since then. I think they saw diminishing ratings from that, panicked, and decided to go full on for soap mode. Plus they're running out of ideas in their fairly limited universe, with no convenient aliens or planet-of-the-week.

I think another problem is that they're using scriptwriting formulas instead of thinking. You can kind of see the way they're thinking: "Hey, plot is all about conflict, right? And a boxing match is conflict, and breaking up with an ex is conflict, so if we do them together it's twice as conflicted and twice as good, right? Except no: it's really fucking stupid.

Me
Was OK for a few months, but getting grouchy, sleepless and irritable again. Gah.