I’m currently at the the World Future Society meeting in San Francisco, and one of the highlights will be getting to ask science fiction author Ramez Naam some questions tomorrow afternoon.  I just finished the last book in his trilogy (Nexus, Crux, and Apex) on the plane on the way down. I was really just blown away, not just by Apex but by the whole series.

Ramez has taken one of the core questions that interests me – what might a transhumanist future look like – and he’s pushed the boundaries both on exactly how wrong and how right such a future could be for the humans involved.  Many transhumanist stories are songs of risk and warning, and this series does that, but it also flies high and clear. As I read, I glimpsed a fabulous future that I want to be part of, and a way to solve some of our myriad problems that’s deeper than technological Nirvana alone.

Most importantly to me, the series includes science, spirit, and politics.  In SF, we usually only look at two of those. When we leave off the spiritual dimension, we sell ourselves short.

For the best reading experience, enjoy all three together, back to back.  Even though I mentioned that these books include spirit (in this case primarily via buddhist monks in Thailand), make no mistake; these books are thrillers.  You might be up late turning pages.