Glasshouse 
asked by rob33 on November 20, 2006 7:18 AM
When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn't take him long to discover that someone's trying to kill him. It's the twenty-seventh century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities-including Robin's earlier self.
On the run from unknown enemies, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse, constructed to simulate a preaccelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities: it looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape-proof environment, Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters-and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche.
On the run from unknown enemies, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse, constructed to simulate a preaccelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities: it looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape-proof environment, Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters-and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche.
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Glasshouse is set in the future of the future portrayed in Charles Stross's Accelerando. It's actually a completely independent novel -- I suppose it was convenient to set it in the same future, but not really necessary.
The book is set some decades after a war which fragmented the human (untranscendent) civilization, which occupies numerous space habitats in surrounding brown dwarfs and the like, linked by FTL T-gates and by A-gates which allow bodies to be reassembled -- fixing health problems, but also choosing different bodies types -- extra arms, different sex, or even wholly alien bodies. (I was reminded of the fax machines of Wil McCarthy's Queendom of Sol stories.) The war was caused by an attempt to take over the minds of everyone by a virus replicated through A-gates. The good guys won, but at the cost of a united humanity -- it was necessary to isolate most polities in order to cleanse the gates of the virus.
Robin is a man who had a prominent role in the war, and who as a result seems to have decided to wipe his memory -- too much horror, too much guilt. During his recovery, he meets a woman, Kay, and begins to fall for her. And they both discover something they are interested in doing -- a group of researchers have set up an experimental polity based on Western civilization in the late 20th Century. They want people who have undergone memory wipes to send some time there, trying to live lives as people in England and the US in the 1950s (or so) did.
Robin ends up in a woman's body, and as such trapped in a woman's role in a fairly funny parody (with a mixture of sharp truths and funny misconceptions) of the 50s (pretty much). She, now named Reeve, is more or less randomly assigned to marry a man, Sam. Reeve tries to figure out who Kay is in this situation, while she also realized that they are in a rather scarier situation than they thought. The experimental polity seems more and more like a prison, and one dedicated to reinforcing some downright evil behavior, such as lynching. And there is no way out. And, as Reeve/Robin's memories begin to return, she realizes she has a mission -- possibly related to a repurposed -- and scarily improved -- version of the virus that caused the past war.
This is a fascinating and intellectually interesting novel -- and it's full of neat action as well. But I didn't find it quite as intriguing as Accelerando. I couldn't quite get a handle on the motivations of the villains, nor indeed on the implications of all the tech -- and I was left with the idea that too much that happened was by authorial arrangement -- the bad guys were just a bit too incompetent -- as far as I could tell, they really should have won. But maybe I just think that because I didn't understand the setup well enough.
The book is set some decades after a war which fragmented the human (untranscendent) civilization, which occupies numerous space habitats in surrounding brown dwarfs and the like, linked by FTL T-gates and by A-gates which allow bodies to be reassembled -- fixing health problems, but also choosing different bodies types -- extra arms, different sex, or even wholly alien bodies. (I was reminded of the fax machines of Wil McCarthy's Queendom of Sol stories.) The war was caused by an attempt to take over the minds of everyone by a virus replicated through A-gates. The good guys won, but at the cost of a united humanity -- it was necessary to isolate most polities in order to cleanse the gates of the virus.
Robin is a man who had a prominent role in the war, and who as a result seems to have decided to wipe his memory -- too much horror, too much guilt. During his recovery, he meets a woman, Kay, and begins to fall for her. And they both discover something they are interested in doing -- a group of researchers have set up an experimental polity based on Western civilization in the late 20th Century. They want people who have undergone memory wipes to send some time there, trying to live lives as people in England and the US in the 1950s (or so) did.
Robin ends up in a woman's body, and as such trapped in a woman's role in a fairly funny parody (with a mixture of sharp truths and funny misconceptions) of the 50s (pretty much). She, now named Reeve, is more or less randomly assigned to marry a man, Sam. Reeve tries to figure out who Kay is in this situation, while she also realized that they are in a rather scarier situation than they thought. The experimental polity seems more and more like a prison, and one dedicated to reinforcing some downright evil behavior, such as lynching. And there is no way out. And, as Reeve/Robin's memories begin to return, she realizes she has a mission -- possibly related to a repurposed -- and scarily improved -- version of the virus that caused the past war.
This is a fascinating and intellectually interesting novel -- and it's full of neat action as well. But I didn't find it quite as intriguing as Accelerando. I couldn't quite get a handle on the motivations of the villains, nor indeed on the implications of all the tech -- and I was left with the idea that too much that happened was by authorial arrangement -- the bad guys were just a bit too incompetent -- as far as I could tell, they really should have won. But maybe I just think that because I didn't understand the setup well enough.
reviewed by gilbert on November 23, 2006 5:51 PM
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Charles Stross' GLASSHOUSE tells of one Robin, who wakes up in a clinic with amnesia - only to discover someone's trying to kill him. It's the 27th century, when the world has been changed by network worms and interstellar travel: apparently what Robin knows but can't recall threatens the stability of the world - and Robin's search for sanctuary leads him to the Glasshouse project, simulating a pre-accelerated culture, where his new identity gains him both protection and trouble. A fast-paced, hard-hitting story evolves with many unpredictable twists of plot.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
reviewed by redapple on November 24, 2006 8:15 PM
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Charles Stross has really delivered a great novel with this recent work, filled both with a lot of genuine feeling by the characters as well as an interesting perspective on modern life.
I especially enoyed several scenes within the novel, namely when the main character realizes that she *gasp* was fertile, which while an absolute fact for most of the population, would be a tremendous and shocking burden to be suddenly weighted with if reproduction had long been externalized. Additionally, the scene where she threw off her clothes in a restaurant and then got arrested was definitely pretty amusing. The writing, dialog, and actions for the central couple was excellent, and most of their reactions to their situations seemed completely believable and reasonable. The group dynamic portions were often very humorous, however, they seemed to exaggerate conformity pressures and vindictiveness (at least I hope they were exaggerated, ya never know).
The authors thoughts on far-future civilization given some physics leeway (macroscopic FTL teleportation is most likely not possible) were fascinating. And it is implied that freedom of movement given these conditions becomes the central human right when you can literally pick whichever polity to join from choices among (possibly) millions spread across the galaxy.
The book did disappointingly leave open the question what happened to the AIs and the Sol system, as well as all the other degenerating Matrioshka systems.
I especially enoyed several scenes within the novel, namely when the main character realizes that she *gasp* was fertile, which while an absolute fact for most of the population, would be a tremendous and shocking burden to be suddenly weighted with if reproduction had long been externalized. Additionally, the scene where she threw off her clothes in a restaurant and then got arrested was definitely pretty amusing. The writing, dialog, and actions for the central couple was excellent, and most of their reactions to their situations seemed completely believable and reasonable. The group dynamic portions were often very humorous, however, they seemed to exaggerate conformity pressures and vindictiveness (at least I hope they were exaggerated, ya never know).
The authors thoughts on far-future civilization given some physics leeway (macroscopic FTL teleportation is most likely not possible) were fascinating. And it is implied that freedom of movement given these conditions becomes the central human right when you can literally pick whichever polity to join from choices among (possibly) millions spread across the galaxy.
The book did disappointingly leave open the question what happened to the AIs and the Sol system, as well as all the other degenerating Matrioshka systems.
reviewed by tsu on November 26, 2006 2:56 PM
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Decisions, decisions. Is this the best book this year, or is Rainbows End (by Vernor Vinge)?
Glasshouse is set later in the same univers as Accelerando, but the story is completely separate and it's not necessary to have read the earlier book. Robin wakes up in a clinic, recovering from memory surgery which has eliminated most of his memory for the period of about an old-fashioned human lifetime. He meets a woman, Kay, who's also recovering from (rather less extreme) memory surgery, and they hit it off--but he also quickly discovers that someone is trying to kill him. He suspects this is because of something he did during the blank period--the little he remembers hints that he was a soldier (a tank?) in the Censorship Wars. At the suggestion of his therapist, he signs on with an experimental social/historical reconstruction, which will put him in a safely sealed environment for a year or two. Kay says she's planning to sign on, too, and they agree to look for each other inside.
Robin wakes up inside the experiment as a woman, now named Reeve. The experiment is an attempt recreate the social culture of a period about which most information has been lost--1950 to 2050. The experimental subjects have to pair off as married couples, and live according to rules that are a nightmare version of 1950s, with technology that's closer to the early 21st century. Individuals gain or lose points according to how well they comply with the rules, and the entire cohort is scored by how well its members do overall. Reeve pairs off with a man named Sam, and suspects that a woman named Cass may be Kay.
Reeve gets off to a bad start because, quite simply, she can't believe how stupid the rules are. No nudity. No wearing the other gender's clothes. When she wants to buy tools, she has to say they're gifts for her husband, Sam. Sam is assigned a job, so he's gone all day. She has nothing to do but go shopping and do household chores, but all the money she has to spend is what he earns, which makes them both uncomfortable.
But this is the good period, before Reeve and Sam and a few others start to notice that there's something seriously wrong. Reeve starts to suspect that the experimenters are in fact war criminals, agents of the Curious Yellow worm at the root of the Censorship Wars, very likely the people who were trying to kill him on the outside. She needs to get out, she needs to warn--somebody--but they're all inside, not a normal habitat, spread out and linked by A- and T-gates, but a glasshouse, a military prison on board a starship, a Mobile Archive Sucker, with only one long-distance T-gate, firmly under the control of the bad guys.
And the bad guys have all the weapons, all the zombie manpower they need, and an expert and ruthless memory surgeon. Reeve has a couple of people she can almost trust, a crippled memory, and the ghost of memories of skills needed to fight back.
Fantasically good.
(As a last note, I'd like to point out that R. Kelly Wagner is only partially right: the reason you should read some sf written before you were born, and specifically Cordwainer Smith/Paul Linebarger's sf, because is because you're missing out on some fantastically good reading if you don't. The added layer of understanding and enjoyment of Glasshouse and a lot of other things is just an added bonus.)
Glasshouse is set later in the same univers as Accelerando, but the story is completely separate and it's not necessary to have read the earlier book. Robin wakes up in a clinic, recovering from memory surgery which has eliminated most of his memory for the period of about an old-fashioned human lifetime. He meets a woman, Kay, who's also recovering from (rather less extreme) memory surgery, and they hit it off--but he also quickly discovers that someone is trying to kill him. He suspects this is because of something he did during the blank period--the little he remembers hints that he was a soldier (a tank?) in the Censorship Wars. At the suggestion of his therapist, he signs on with an experimental social/historical reconstruction, which will put him in a safely sealed environment for a year or two. Kay says she's planning to sign on, too, and they agree to look for each other inside.
Robin wakes up inside the experiment as a woman, now named Reeve. The experiment is an attempt recreate the social culture of a period about which most information has been lost--1950 to 2050. The experimental subjects have to pair off as married couples, and live according to rules that are a nightmare version of 1950s, with technology that's closer to the early 21st century. Individuals gain or lose points according to how well they comply with the rules, and the entire cohort is scored by how well its members do overall. Reeve pairs off with a man named Sam, and suspects that a woman named Cass may be Kay.
Reeve gets off to a bad start because, quite simply, she can't believe how stupid the rules are. No nudity. No wearing the other gender's clothes. When she wants to buy tools, she has to say they're gifts for her husband, Sam. Sam is assigned a job, so he's gone all day. She has nothing to do but go shopping and do household chores, but all the money she has to spend is what he earns, which makes them both uncomfortable.
But this is the good period, before Reeve and Sam and a few others start to notice that there's something seriously wrong. Reeve starts to suspect that the experimenters are in fact war criminals, agents of the Curious Yellow worm at the root of the Censorship Wars, very likely the people who were trying to kill him on the outside. She needs to get out, she needs to warn--somebody--but they're all inside, not a normal habitat, spread out and linked by A- and T-gates, but a glasshouse, a military prison on board a starship, a Mobile Archive Sucker, with only one long-distance T-gate, firmly under the control of the bad guys.
And the bad guys have all the weapons, all the zombie manpower they need, and an expert and ruthless memory surgeon. Reeve has a couple of people she can almost trust, a crippled memory, and the ghost of memories of skills needed to fight back.
Fantasically good.
(As a last note, I'd like to point out that R. Kelly Wagner is only partially right: the reason you should read some sf written before you were born, and specifically Cordwainer Smith/Paul Linebarger's sf, because is because you're missing out on some fantastically good reading if you don't. The added layer of understanding and enjoyment of Glasshouse and a lot of other things is just an added bonus.)
reviewed by wendi on November 28, 2006 12:41 PM
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While this book contains references to many SF books of the 50's and 60's, what it mainly is, is an homage to the author Cordwainer Smith, who was really Paul Anthony Linebarger. Apparently, no other reviewers have mentioned this, yet I find it one of the most important things about this book. Smith/Linebarger wrote SF for only a few years, right around 1960, and no one since has written anything like his stuff. In this book, Stross manages to incorporate some of Smith's recurring themes, and tie them into his own recurring vision of a post-Singularity techno-human future, while also bringing in new takes on the old idea of generation ships. Some of the obvious references include one of our protagonist Robin's past lives as a "Linebarger Cat" and there are others that will be familiar to those of us who have read Smith. Those of you who haven't read Smith - well, this will be a fun read anyway, a fast-paced story of recovering from interstellar warfare with dubious psychological help. But you really should go back and read Cordwainer Smith. His few novels and many short stories are collected into less than half a dozen paperbacks; get them while you're at it.
Why, you say, should I read SF written before I was born? Because it's part of the history of the genre, and HISTORY IS IMPORTANT - that's the main point of the book!
The ideas include: what makes us human? Is it human shape? Is it being able to reproduce, creating other humans? Is it free will? Is there such a thing as free will? Stross does not concentrate on religion as much as Smith did, and Stross's ideas about it are a bit more simplistic, but he pays every bit as much attention to free will, and to being able to shape the environment one wants to live in. In Smith's books, the Instrumentality of Mankind had to decide whether to allow people to make mistakes again, and to allow them to live in environments which are not perfect, instead of protecting them (cf. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard"); here, Stross plays with the idea of psychological conditioning to give people the lives they *should* want, and with erasing memories in order to control people. Smith's part-animal Underpeople had limitations on their reproduction, but some overlooked Underpeople started having thoughts of being their own owners and of raising their children free of the conditioning given servants; Stross has humans who have forgotten natural reproduction and are being co-erced into it in order to bring children up unaware of freedom.
There is more here - wordplay in the Asian-ish names of organizations and some people is another connection to Smith, for example, but there are also subtle bits of humor that seem to invoke everything from fantasies with too many elves and swords, to a person who seems to have become a unicorn My Little Pony. We even get some *really* old classics - "Never bring a knife to a gun fight," for example.
In short: it can be read and enjoyed as a decent, fast-paced thriller combining space war and some post-human body modification/back-yourself-up-on-computer cyberpunk, but it can be enjoyed even more as a way to connect those genres to some of the greatest science fiction of the 1950's and 1960's, the stuff that kept the genre from dying out as just a fad.
Why, you say, should I read SF written before I was born? Because it's part of the history of the genre, and HISTORY IS IMPORTANT - that's the main point of the book!
The ideas include: what makes us human? Is it human shape? Is it being able to reproduce, creating other humans? Is it free will? Is there such a thing as free will? Stross does not concentrate on religion as much as Smith did, and Stross's ideas about it are a bit more simplistic, but he pays every bit as much attention to free will, and to being able to shape the environment one wants to live in. In Smith's books, the Instrumentality of Mankind had to decide whether to allow people to make mistakes again, and to allow them to live in environments which are not perfect, instead of protecting them (cf. "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard"); here, Stross plays with the idea of psychological conditioning to give people the lives they *should* want, and with erasing memories in order to control people. Smith's part-animal Underpeople had limitations on their reproduction, but some overlooked Underpeople started having thoughts of being their own owners and of raising their children free of the conditioning given servants; Stross has humans who have forgotten natural reproduction and are being co-erced into it in order to bring children up unaware of freedom.
There is more here - wordplay in the Asian-ish names of organizations and some people is another connection to Smith, for example, but there are also subtle bits of humor that seem to invoke everything from fantasies with too many elves and swords, to a person who seems to have become a unicorn My Little Pony. We even get some *really* old classics - "Never bring a knife to a gun fight," for example.
In short: it can be read and enjoyed as a decent, fast-paced thriller combining space war and some post-human body modification/back-yourself-up-on-computer cyberpunk, but it can be enjoyed even more as a way to connect those genres to some of the greatest science fiction of the 1950's and 1960's, the stuff that kept the genre from dying out as just a fad.
reviewed by sandi on November 28, 2006 7:33 PM