I'm finding this inclines me to class it with The Fountainhead in the category of books I'm glad found me at the wrong time.

Nothing against you, the work, or the author -- who, by all accounts including my own, deserves to be found in much better company than I have just implicitly placed him! Only that in both cases I think I would not much like the person I might have become for the radical influence of such a work.

For me, I've found his series the Laundry Files to be formative. And yes I'm worried about the proliferation of too many computational devices in the world. Also, interdimensional elves.

I should read it again in light of that. I did find that Stross's early work (Accelerando, Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, Colder War) heavily influenced my worldview and path in life. I haven't touched Accelerando in over a decade although I go back to the other novels on occasion.