Accomplished tour of writing technique and the future

books:


	• Halting State Charles Stross Ace Hardcover, 2007 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 43 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Fun Ride Through a Near-Future Gaming World

This book combines a good detective story along with a great new near-future world. It's a fun story told in second person (to emphasize the gaming environment and aspect) from the point of view of three of the main characters. It's even more fun if you've spent time in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Another Tour de Force

Although I doubt he will ever write anything equal to the almost cultish appeal of "Accelerando" this is another winner. In fact, I liked it better than his previous work ("Glass House") because it seemed so much more plausible.

It is 2018 and more and more, people are "living" in virtual reality worlds. But this is ony a portent of things to come. Scotland has broken away from the UK and that is the setting for the story. My biggest complain was the overuse of the Scottish language and dialect. It would be if my review was in "hick Southern" (how I sound) and I made readers decipher not only what I was saying but what I was trying to say. It sound simple: The Police are called when a "bank" containing objects used in a game similar to WOW is "robbed".

Since they did not reside on a data base - operations are distributed - the question is how it was done. To this end, Jack, a programmer and a game player, is hired (@ 1,000 Euros/hour) for expertise. It sounds almost innocent until one discovers that nothing is as it seems. We are in the world of undercover spying in the 21st century. What stands out the most is the tie-in between a virtual world and a real world and the fact that the spies think they are playing a game (SPOOK) when they are actually being trained as foreign agents.

Along the way, Stross gives us a glimpse of the near future - driverless taxis, indentity cards, globalization gone wild and the power of human emotions and relationships. It's hard to describe the plot without giving it away so read the book.

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Network World Security Strategies review

'Halting State' a good read for security geeks
01/24/08
By M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP

I have just finished reading a novel called 'Halting State,' by Charles Stross, that strikes me as a significant event for security specialists in the development of today's science fiction. Much as William Gibson's Neuromancer is credited with popularizing the notion of cyberspace in establishing the cyberpunk style, I think Halting State may be the first book that speaks directly to the culture of information security specialists.

... entire review online at
[...]

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Accomplished tour of writing technique and the future

Stross is a tremendous creative talent. I was impressed - nay, tickled - with his nod to the original 2nd-person, text-based games that laid the foundation for today's GUI MMOPRGs. (I played the former, not the latter.) My only fault with this book (no spoilers) is the fundamental conceit of one of the online games, though I concede it's the author's dramatic license to create the plot that will drive the story. Otherwise, I think Stross proved adept at meeting the challenge of engaging readers with multiple characters in 2nd person. Importantly, the technological underpinnings of the story ring true: a reminder to consider carefully the tradeoffs we easily and invisibly make in exchange for greater/faster connectivity and improved personal/professional productivity. Consider this slight reflection a resounding recommendation of Halting State.

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Future Imperfect

Charles Stross has come through again with a very eerily real vision of the future. Like Vernor Vinge's "Rainbow's End," this is set in a very near future that is so plausible that you expect the plot lines to come out in tomorrow's headlines. The ubiquitous game reality overlays of our everyday world are being explored in places like Second Life right now and he extrapolates what it might be for the next generation. The idea of a virtual crime environment for police is so real that you can imagine seeing it on the next version of CSI from Jerry Bruckheimer.

That being said, there is a lot of jargon and many, many inside jokes from the worlds of gaming and programming. This may be off-putting to some and others may be lost. Still, for those of us with a little tech savvy, that just ads to the spice.

Some of the reviewers thought that the shifting points of view and second person voice were annoying and that is too bad. I was not bothered, but loved the way the view point shifted and you kept seeing the previous event from another perspective.

Bottom line - buy this book and read it first before you see it on CNN tomorrow.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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