Product Description

When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn't take him long to discover that someone is 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 and target historians. The civil war is over and Robin has been demobilized, but someone wants him out of the picture because of something his earlier self knew. On the run from a ruthless pursuer and searching for a place to hide, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse. Constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated 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 of his own unbalanced psyche ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27167 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
"Stross's enthralling blend of action, extrapolation and analysis delivers surprise after surprise" KIRKUS REVIEWS, 'Stross is an author who anyone interested in SF should read and relish' SFX, 'Darkly funny and crackling with high-bandwidth ideas' PAUL McAULEY, 'Where Charles Stross goes today, the rest of science fiction will follow tomorrow' Gardner Dozois, 'Charles Stross is the cutting edge of modern science fiction' SF SITE

About the Author
Charles Stross was born in Leeds, England, in 1964. He has worked as a pharmacist, software engineer and freelance journalist, but now writes full time.

Customer Reviews

Move in Now!
This is an excellent book. Yes you get the clever posthuman stuff, identity, politics, society and everything but the story here is just great. Characters to care about don't hurt and an insight into how future historians might view 1950 to 2000 really makes you think and provides a few laughs too. This is the author's best book to date and that's saying something.

Interesting... (A Book Swede Review)
It is the 27th century. Urth is now legend, all have fled it, fleeing not only from a series of holocausts, but from their own horrific memories. Some will go as far as having a mind wipe...so that they might sleep again at night. Some will have no choice...

The result: billions living in artificial environments, undergoing psycho-therapy. It is a time of highly advanced technologies, where death is not always the end...alas...

The Glasshouse was once a prison. Robin, not knowing this, willing signs up to a programme that aimed to recreate life in the 20th century onwards. They are forced to take wives, attend church, etc--all in bodies, even sexes, not of their own, and with no memory of ever signing up. It soon becomes apparent that they are there for the long haul, with no way out, and the will to escape being gradually destroyed in cruelly psychological ways.

Wow. It has been said that reading Charles Stross' work is like being trapped in an ideas factory without a helmet. This is certainly true!

The first twenty or so pages were a bit slow and laden with too much technical information, but, the pace soon picked up, and the premise was certainly very interesting. I rarely read a book this though-provoking.

As well as the simple tale of the struggle of human life and, basically, a kidnapping where psychology is used against it's test subjects to create a realistic 'dark ages' environment (20th century onwards!) this book is also a potent comment on a vast array of subjects. In Glasshouse, Charles Stross talks of the severe danger we face from information loss, the dangers of immortality, and even advanced technology--somehow managing to make all this crucial to the story and page-turning!

I also felt it was rather clever while he was doing all this, that the characters were looking back on the 'dark ages' and wondering how we could have coped at all with things that the reader finds perfectly normal. Such as cooking food, and books made from paper...

There was never any pretence that this book was going to be at all humorous, but, although deeply disturbing in places (and sometimes, just downright weird!), this book is definitely gripping and fun to read.

There are some great lines, too: Now let's go upstairs. We've got a library to open before we can overthrow the government..

An excellent SF book but make sure you have your 'thinking head' on when you read it! I look forward to reading more of Charles Stross' work :) 8 out of 10.

For more fantasy/SF reviews, regular amazing competitions, and author interviews, visit: www.thebookswede.blogspot.com

His best work to date
I enjoyed Singularity Sky and its sequel, and admired Accelerando for its brave attempt to describe the transition of humanity through the technological singularity, but I really feel that this is Stross's finest book so far.

I say this not only because of his excellent and original depiction of a far-future society, but also because of the rich storyline and characters, which will be enjoyed even by those who do not consider themselves hard sci-fi junkies.

The plot could be described as a futuristic retelling of The Stepford Wives, rewritten as a contemporary science fiction novel instead of a 70's schlock horror story.