Glasshouse

Variations on what humanity might look like post-singularity are Stross's reason d'etre as a writer, and here he does something very clever by (1) focusing on the ability to re-engineer human biology as the focus of the singularity (instead of the more common super-human AI), and (2) showing us how late-twentieth, early twenty-first century humans might look to their post-human descendants in the remote future. There are some thought-provoking questions about just how much of our humanity we could leave behind when going post-human, and the clever historical distortions and gaps in understanding that he describes show a deep appreciation for the slippery nature of history. Although the plot twists are a bit too well telegraphed to be surprising when they happen, the overall story arc is excellent. The battle between good and evil is as alive for post-humanity as it is for us today, and it's gratifying to read an optimistic take on how that battle might go.

I nearly always enjoy Stross...but I strongly suspect he has an allergy to editors. Yet the old saw, "everyone needs an editor" is more true of him than most. This work, thankfully, is generally free of the irritating continuity problems that plague his other work. Exciting, engrossing, and paranoid, with intimations of Dick.

The story was wonderful and thrilling. The main character was engaging the secondary characters were a bit two dimensional but not too dull as to drag the story on. The conclusion though, setting aside the abrupt ending that wasn't expected, felt jerky and didn't feel like it flowed as well as the first half of the book. Overall the story wasn't bad but I wouldn't put it in my top 10. Maybe my top 50 though.

I am a Charlie Stross fan already, and I found this to be again a great listen from him. The story is very interesting, and it is hard to see the final resolution coming. The ideas are important and I find myself still thinking about it long after being done. On the one hand I wanted it to finish so I could know the resolution, but on the other hand, I did not want it to end as the characters were interesting and the story creative.

The performance was good, but tricky since the main character has two genders. The reader does not do a good female voice...but once I got used to it, it was no longer distracting.

Glasshouse deserves reverence at the level of Speaker for the Dead, Brave New World and Stranger in a Strange Land. The universe created by Stross is unique and fascinating, forcing you to consider the nature of consciousness, identity and gender.

The performance is wonderful. Free does a great job of conveying the male and female voices with equal gravitas, which I'm sure was difficult considering how the same character changes genders more than once.

I've read a lot of fantasy/sci fi and it's rare that you come upon a book that is truly original. This book is Stross's masterpieces as far as I'm concerned, far surpassing the laundry series in scope and emotional depth. My only comment is that I think you need to have a bachelors in science to completely appreciate his writing, as he references things like 'c' (the speed of light constant) and uses other technical jargon on occasion.

I liked the concepts that this book had going for it:
- sci-fi high tech while being very low tech 1950s
- gender swap roles as a statement on gender roles in society today
- intervening in domestic violence
- sci-fi for the non-scifi crowd

I liked some of the tropes from the genre:
- espionage and memory wipes
- body swapping
- meeting yourself and beating the crap out of yourself
- high tech hidden worlds
- waif-fu
- MMORPG

But I found myself finishing the book just because I wanted to finish it, not because I was enjoying the story.

Maybe because it wasn't fiction enough for me, the view points of domestic abuse, rape, and violating someone's mind just were to stark for me. Even at the end, I would have been happier if the whole lot of them just blew each other up instead of leaving them to languish in that false construct.

But it was a Charles Stross book, so it was well written and the characters were consistent in their motivations and there were some minor explosions.