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.
