The Golden Age - Part 1

Here's part one, which basically gives a brief description of the world of the Golden Age and the highlights of the first book.

The Golden Age is a highly speculative bit of science fiction by the intrepid John C. Wright. Set (I think) 100,000 years in the future, technology has continued to develop to the point that people are able to alter their bodies to pretty much any configuration, change, erase or add memories at will and transfer their minds into "mannequins" so that they never actually have to move in their real bodies (much like the movie Surrogates). As for society, there is unheard of wealth, it seems everyone has access to most of the fruits of the age save for those who choose not to make use of them.
That last actually brings me to one of the more interesting aspects of the trilogy, the fact that people are still people. There are still people who reject most technology, others who worship it; there is still pettiness and jealously, rebels, control freaks, etc.
Getting back to the story, we meet the main character, Phaethon, who is a an accomplished engineer and the "son" (a word that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing in Wright's world as ours) of Helion, another engineer whose claim to fame is that he rearranged the sun so that its "useful life" has been extended. In any case, he is confronted by two mysterious figures who both claim that he is not who and what he thinks he is. Essentially, he is informed that rather than the popular well-loved figure he believes himself to be, he is a pariah and his memory has been altered such that he cannot remember why this is. In fact, almost the entire society has also had its memory altered. Naturally, he starts asking questions and ultimately is attacked by an unknown enemy, which forces him to open up his memory casket, despite the risk of permanent exile.