Score: 8
the concept of the core is an excellent way to deal with the singularity, especially considering the books age. i loved the usenet style of communications, message boards, OTPs, and all that. Surprisingly, it seems twitter is the spiritual successor here. the tech jumpstart on the planet provides some outlook into how an intelligence explosion might play out. In total, a very enjoyable reaed. I loved Pham Nuwen as a character and will definetly read the prequel.