Charles Stross – Halting State
Halting State (UK/US/ebook) is one of Charles Stross‘ latest books, and it is set in a very near future and plausible independent Scotland. It revolves around the viewpoint of three of the main characters, in succession (it flows better than I expected!). It starts very simply by the investigation of bank robbery… inside an online multi-player role playing game.
This is one of the books that I can’t really tell anything else, because the fun is in exploring the “onion” of concentric plots. What I can say is that the book pulls it off very well, without stretching your disbelief – you do get wrapped up in the story very deeply.
Another thing – this isn’t a “classical” science fiction novel. Although it’s pretty heavy on technology, I think the book is very readable by someone that would enjoy a classical political fiction novel.
My only criticism perhaps is that some things are over-explained (perhaps it’s the price to pay to make the story more accessible to non-geeks… 
). I also loved the double meaning of the title, which only becomes clear by the end of the book. I recommend it highly.
Ian McDonald – River of Gods
In River of Gods (UK/US), Ian McDonald (author’s blog) weaves a story of our near future in a divided India, on the 100th anniversary of the independence from the British Empire, in 2047. The world is on the brink of the so feared technological singularity, with the majority of world aligning with the US in banning advanced artificial inteligence systems. Centered around nine central characters, and around the holy river Ganges, it follows a plot that will slide each character into their role for the story, always going back to the city of Varanasi.
I might be getting slightly blasé, but I felt the grand finale didn’t live up to the journey that the book is – perhaps because the story itself is so rich in its settings. Even if you already know something about India, this book will totally immerse you in a very believable atmosphere – there’s a helpful glossary of Indian terms in the end of the book, but it doesn’t cover anywhere near all the terms encountered in the book – having access to the internet while reading the book for some clarifications will make the story more understandable in its intricacies.
The book felt perhaps a bit too long – some characters are just there to make the setting more understandable as a whole, or to explain the motivations of other characters. Perhaps a few glimpses of the thought processes of the aeais (AIs – Artificial Intelligences) without breaking the main secrets of the story would make it more interesting – using some kind of unreliable narrator device, it might even add to the beautiful complexity of the book.
I enjoyed it as an experience, and I felt that I might have learned some things about what makes India what it is, and what it might eventually be in the future. It’s a book to be read with concentration, as it demands attention from the reader/traveler. Perhaps like India itself.
Trading History
Here’s the first of my ideas for a science fiction story, one that has been in my head for a couple of years.
In the past few years, the discovery rate of exoplanets (planets in other solar systems beyond our own) has increased a lot, using indirect methods, such as measuring the wobble of the solar system’s star caused by the gravitational interaction with such a planet, or by measuring the decrease in brightness if the planet’s orbit puts it between its sun and us. With the understanding that science and technology will keep the ever increasing rates of growth, it can be postulated that it will be possible, within the next 50 years, to image directly such planets, down to a resolution that would permit very detailed observations – down to the level we achieve with satellites imaging our own earth today, or better [note: what would the possible resolution limits be? Considering multiple viewpoints from the sun's orbit].
Considering that light moves at a maximum speed, when we’re seeing a planet, say, 2000 light years from us, we’re actually recording what happened twenty centuries ago.
Now imagine, that the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) bears fruit, and that the civilizations we find have accomplished the same radio-optical astronomical achievements as us, probably even in the past – they might have a recording of our own planet, from their viewpoint, of all, most, or some of our history, depending on when they achieved this capability, on their interest of recording, studying, and storing such views, and their longevity as a civilization.
Now the possibilities for the story become two-fold: a) there is no faster than light (FTL) transmission of information, therefore we would have to wait a long time to communicate and exchange data with our far away neighbours; or b), we could have some kind of instant communication medium that would permit us to trade our histories (or any other info) with each other without delay. Both possibilities open different story structures and rhythms.
There are lots of different possible stories based on these basic premises. Who controls the image acquisition hardware and software? Who “owns” the images? What will guarantee the veracity of arriving (and departing) information? What impact will our “true” history have on us and our institutions? How will the “alien” histories we watch impact us?
I’m not really sure (as far as I know) if anyone has had this idea and developed this or a similar concept before. If you think it’s an original concept, feel free to use it, commercially or not, within a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Science Fiction Ideas
As any passionate reader of science fiction literature will tell you, one of the great things to enjoy about this passion are the instant alternate ideas that pop up in your mind. There’s a latent science fiction writer inside each science fiction reader. I guess it’s the inherent “what if…” frame of mind of the whole genre – it tends to drag us, screaming and smiling into the whole thing.
I have some ideas, if I was a writer, that I could use. They’re not complete frameworks of anything immediately writeable – they sound more like a lunchtime spiel a scriptwriter would give a film producer to try to sell “the next big thing”. As such, I don’t know if they’re crap or not, and I don’t have the availability in my life at the present moment to invest time and effort to know if I could be a writer.
So, I’ve decided to put some of those ideas and fragments here, to see if anyone likes and wants to use them, within a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. I rather have my ideas brought to life by others than having them rot away in my brain!
Charles Stross – Glasshouse
A recipe for a great singularity mistery adventure:
Ingredients
- 4 parts of Accelerando
- 3 parts of 1984
- 3 parts of Cryptonomicon
- 1 part of Pleasantville
- 1 part of The Tunnel Under the World
- 2 parts of Use of Weapons
Preparation
Start by pouring two parts of Accelerando, plus one part of 1984, mix gently with the stove on low. Check that it doesn’t have any clumps and add a part of Cryptonomicon. Keep mixing while adding one part of Pleasantville, let it simmer for a while. Add one part of The Tunnel Under the World, increase the temperarature, mix vigorously while adding two parts of Accelerando, two parts of Cryptonomicon, and one part of Use of Weapons, raise it to a boil and add two parts of 1984 and one more part of Use of Weapons, turn the fire off and let it cool down.
Serving
It’s better served in one go, saving some portions for later is not advised.
I think this recipe worked really well, it’s the first book in ages that I’ve read in a single weekend. It suffers from a few predictable plot twists, but which don’t detract from the book’s brilliance. I recommend it, especially if you’ve already read Accelerando, as the universe in question has a lot of common points.
