Halting State
Feb. 18th, 2009 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournA while back ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeliza et al gave me a copy of Charles Stross' Halting State. On my 7+ hour flight back home Monday I had plenty of time to read it.
Like most of Stross' books, the protagonists are geeks. It's a heady blend of sci-fi fueled MMORPGs, VR game development, cryptography, EU politics, and futuristic infowar. What's not to love about a click-through EULA that makes you an unwitting spy? It's also doubles as a 350+ page setup for a Nigerian spammer joke. While it lacks the Cthulu joy of The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue, it keeps with his snappy dialog and ever-unfolding plot. The fact that it is all written in the chapter-rotating second person takes some getting used to but it provides for much fun.
jeliza et al gave me a copy of Charles Stross' Halting State. On my 7+ hour flight back home Monday I had plenty of time to read it.Like most of Stross' books, the protagonists are geeks. It's a heady blend of sci-fi fueled MMORPGs, VR game development, cryptography, EU politics, and futuristic infowar. What's not to love about a click-through EULA that makes you an unwitting spy? It's also doubles as a 350+ page setup for a Nigerian spammer joke. While it lacks the Cthulu joy of The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue, it keeps with his snappy dialog and ever-unfolding plot. The fact that it is all written in the chapter-rotating second person takes some getting used to but it provides for much fun.
