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I usually like satire, but this felt too obvious. Subtlety is in my opinion a key part of good satire. Otherwise it feels too forced or too in-your-face.

But as the specialist external reader said: "Stross can clearly write workmanlike, commercial prose". I can definitely agree with that!

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How do you satirize something subtly when the point is that real life is so outrageous that it beggars belief?

I like subtle satire too, but that doesn't mean it works in every instance.

Interesting, though, that the concepts expressed in this narrative, had they been written in 2010, and promptly rejected, might have provided all the more grist for the paranoia mill.

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