Glasshouse

By: Charles Stross

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross delivers “credible and bold SF” (Science Fiction Weekly) that continually pushes the boundaries of the genre. With Glasshouse, Stross pens a Kafkaesque tale set in a 27th-century of teleport gates and mind-attacking network worms.

After Robin awakes in a clinic, he struggles to summon details of his life, but too many of his memories have been wiped clean. More troubling is the stark awareness of immediate danger: someone is trying to kill him. On the run, Robin makes a desperate gamble and volunteers for what he hopes is the sanctuary of an unusual study at the Glasshouse. Once there, however, he realizes the true terror has only begun.

Stross pulls out all the stops in a searing adventure that will keep listeners’ hearts racing. Propelled by Kevin R. Free’s riveting narration, Glasshouse is a novel SF fans will not soon forget.

©2006 Charles Stross (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Vintage Stross

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.

Stross at his best

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.

An engaging book, until the end

A thoughtfully written and well considered book, with a (somewhat) female protagonist who isn't described in incredible physical detail. There's a lot of to love about this book. The rushed and disappointing ending, though, makes it hard to really enjoy the work.

Heavy handed social critique

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yeah, with reservations. It plays with cool posthuman concepts but doesn't do as much as it could with them.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It just sorta...ended. I mean, it wrapped everything up, but in a really hasty way that felt unsatisfying.

What does Kevin R. Free bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The main character switching sexes repeatedly is a lot clearer when his internal monologue and narration uses a male voice, but the dialogue uses a female voice.

Was Glasshouse worth the listening time?

Yeah, I'm glad I finished it.

I mean, it is a Charles Stross book...

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.

Interesting and thrilling up till the conclusion.

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.

totally an opinion

I didn't struggle to finish the book and I thought the moral of the story was great but I just didn't like the way it played out. I didn't get attached to any of the characters and the story didn't pull me along either. I guess I finished it because it was almost always right on the cusp of grabbing my interest with some enormous twist but it always seemed to fall short in some aspect of the telling.

Not FASCINATING ...but VERY interesting :)

Interesting. Entertaining. Enjoyable. Reminds me of old-school sci-fi sort of thinking... why, how, etc. (re:mankind). Reminiscent of the "golden age of sci-fi" sort of thinking... but from a modern perspective. Some VERY interesting thoughts included within the premise :) Note: The author likes to be in control of the story and tends to hold some things back in order to surprise you...but he doesn't keep you in suspense about it for tooooo long. I'd rather be a part of the story rather than an audience member but that's a teeney thing really. Don't know if I'll be looking up more from the author... but I DID enjoy this ride. It didn't wow me, but it was very nice. The story wasn't what I expected... even when deeply into the tale, it kept trying to move around and change. I like that. LOL. Anyway..."interesting" is the word that keeps coming to mind.

This book deserves an award

What other book might you compare Glasshouse to and why?

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.

Which character – as performed by Kevin R. Free – was your favorite?

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.

Any additional comments?

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.

PKDick flavoured hard sci-fi!

I've been a fan of the author's for years now, but this one was truly an instant classic. The identity mind scramble that Philip K Dick was so fond of is done here masterfully. I rarely listen to a book more than once, but I know I will be listening to this one again!