Finished this last weekend. Thought it was interesting, but overall disappointing.
The idea of this, to me, was "find out what's up with the Chenzeme and why they made the cult and the warships". And then you just... don't.
I think I might be suffering a bit from mismatched expectations, but I was hoping to get at least some exploration of *why* you'd create something like the cult virus. Why, if your nanotech already makes you immortal, create this weird group-mind virus thing?
There are a lot of cool tech ideas in there though.
Nikko resetting is mind to turn a centuries-long voyage into three minutes.
The "ghosts" that get sent out as partial personalities.
Nanotech to control emotional reactions.
The setting is a very nice exploration of transhumanism.
One thing that does strike me is that, moreso than books like Accelerando or The Quantum Thief, this feels very much like the futurism of a specific moment. It is *very* interested in specifically nanotech, and the "zero point field" the Chenzeme use is another idea I've not seen in recent scifi.
