I haven't read any of David Marusek's short stories, but I'd heard the hype for his debut novel Counting Heads. I'd say that it is worth the hype, but with a few minor niggles.
The novel starts with the novella "We Were Out Of Our Minds With Joy". Though this sets the foundation for the book, it did feel like a novella tacked on at the start. And whilst a great story I think the novel could have stood on its own without it.
The story has a few plots, many of which seem totally unconnected until right at the very end. To begin with the shifting focus between characters is a bit disorientating, as there doesn't seem any pattern to it (unlike, say River Of Gods). Because of this it took me a while to get into the story, and overall quite a long time to read it all.
The world in which it is set is super dense with ideas and feels very complete. There are a handful of major SF ideas, all of which are explored at length and developed nicely, on top of that there are lots of other cool ideas tossed out in passing statements. It's very dense, and it takes a while to figure out what some of the things are and how the world works, but I like that and it's much better than big chunks of exposition. In fact there's no exposition (please take note Dan Brown, this is how you do it), but by the end of the novel you know the world well.
Most of the loose ends of the plots are tied up by the end of the novel, and there's a sense resolution that I didn't expect, but which was quite pleasing.
It feels and reads like 21st Century SF. SF for now. Highly recommended.
