Charles Stross: Halting State

First and foremost, the newest Stross novel, Halting State, is fun. Maybe not as much fun as the "Laundry" series, but still. Set into the very near future, and mixing the realms of finance and gaming (with some espionage thrown in), it proved to be quite un-put-downable. The end comes somewhat abruptly, but that's to be expected: reading the book feels like sitting in a car accelerating towards a brick wall; there's not a lot happing after the moment of the crash.

The scenario is believable; the book is set only 10 years in the future, so any futuristic bits are mostly linear extrapolations of current trends. The security problems described are just too realistic - after reading the book, you might think twice before switching to an IP telephony system.