Glasshouse - BoundCovers

English language

ISBN:: 978-1-84149-392-3

(1 review)

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 27th 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, 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 the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche.--From publisher description

6 editions

Will Sargent reviewed Glasshouse by Charles Stross

Review of 'Glasshouse' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

It's a decent Charles Stross book. There are bits that don't make sense, but the overall theme is strong, and the character is likable. I frankly wished that the book hadn't tried to put them in a future pastiche of present day society, with magic "point scoring" and everything -- the economic motives here don't mix with the society, their sampling technique is very skewed, and it's just goddamn dumb given that you have personality altering software already baked in as back story.

Also, Stross has no subtlety about his attempt to look at gender roles in the 20th century, which utterly doesn't work -- the underlying assumptions, root stereotypes and basis of power is completely different and can't be replicated by a scoring system and fancy clothes. It's just dumb. Octavia Butler, this book is not.

But as a thought experiment, it's better than average.