I’m not a huge fan of Charles Stross. I only like some of his books and I’ve given up on a few of his series. However, I did enjoy Saturn’s Children, so I decided to read his followup Neptune’s Brood. It’s not a sequel, since we don’t follow the same characters. But it’s set in the same universe with a lot of the same technology and ideas. The book is basically an accounting primer in far future accounting with the trappings of a science fiction story. Let’s check it out.

The basic plot of the book follows Krina, a descendent of Sondra, who is a forensic accountant in the far future. Krina is on Taj Beacon and needs to get to Shin-Terhys since her sibling, Ana (who Krina was going to intern with), has left Taj Beacon. Krina jumps on a chapel ship, gets captured by pirates and finally gets kidnapped and brought to the far underwater city in Shin-Tethys. Along the way, we are led through Krina’s past and, since her specialty is forensic accounting dealing with financial scams, through the history of the futuristic accounting and scams.

Basically, the entire book is an accounting primer with a cast of characters along the way to keep us interested long enough until enough financial information is given to the reader to allow us to understand what the real story of the book is. It’s a tale of financial shenanigans wrapped in a science fiction tale. I realize that I’m making it sound dryer than an accounting textbook, but it really is a fun little story. The tale of Krina’s search for Ana and growing realization about the scope of the scam she was researching is actually quite interesting (even with the occasional aside for an info dump on some monetary topic).

Overall, it’s a decent Charles Stross book. It’s not one of his better ones, but I wasn’t bored reading it and enjoyed spending time with Krina. I’m a little less likely to read Charles Stross books going forward though. I recognize his strengths, but am not sure he’s writing the types of books I really want to read. Mildly recommended.