Another near-future independent-Scotland-based crime novel - a follow up to Halting State. This is probably my favourite of his series, outside Accelerando/Glasshouse. Despite the title, there's not really any porn in the plot, or indeed much internet meme-ing, although it's still firmly in the realm of internet crime. It's also somewhat darker.
If you liked Halting State, you're very much likely to enjoy this too. That is, if you can ignore the utterly atrocious CDS sub-plot (I guess fewer readers will be financial types than general geeks). As with Halting State, you'll probably still be scratching your head a little at the resolution. It could be that Mr. Stross is fundamentally not very good at this whole crime genre thing, but I suspect he's just trying to get across the result of a murky and confusing crime, where resolutions aren't clearcut.
Overall, pretty fun.
Posted 2011-09-08.