Rule 34
Charles Stross
2011 · 358 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
Rule 34 is science fiction (cyberpunk police thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in a big city setting, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are justice, power and politics and identity. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It's a later book in a series — you'll usually want to start earlier. The ending resolves happily. At 358 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something tense
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want to be sure it ends well
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you want dense, lingering prose
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- prolific veteran
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- tense
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- later in a series
- Themes
- justice, power and politics, identity
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- InfluxDaniel SuarezShares: science fiction, tense mood, balanced tone, fast paced
- Lock InJohn ScalziShares: science fiction, tense mood, balanced tone, fast paced
- RecursionBlake CrouchShares: science fiction, tense mood, balanced tone, fast paced
- Great North RoadPeter F. HamiltonShares: science fiction, tense mood, balanced tone, fast paced
- GeminiDylan QuinnShares: science fiction, tense mood, balanced tone, fast paced
- The End of MenChristina Sweeney-BairdShares: science fiction, tense mood, balanced tone, fast paced
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