Friday, November 23, 2018

Glasshouse by Charles Stross

3.5 Stars


I can be very creative when comes time to get violent.

Hmm... bit of a sleeper. Starts off with the gorgeous, wild panorama of unbridled awesome futuristic visions and then veers wildly into archaic visions--visions much more like now. Don't be fooled, it's just lulling you into complacency. Stay alert, and read on.

Leans towards geeky tech speak, the fact that I actually followed along means I've been infected. It's hard for me to judge how geeky, I spend most of my time with people who have advanced degrees in engineering and computer science, and trying to explain that while I'm really interested in this work they've been doing, that no, I don't have the horses to follow their tensor mathematics. All of this made sense to me, but not sure if that's everyone's takeaway.

I also wonder if dudes read this and go, that's interesting, and chicks go, let me out--let me out!

Commentary of society and technology. Reward mechanisms of societies, how states use power to control, kind of Marxy. Examination of gender roles, sexuality, and free agency. IF all our dreams of technology were to come true, and there were no longer enforced mortality or scarcity would we be better? Would we? Or would we still be kicking the same problems down the road? Different can, different street.

[A]n island of thinking jelly trapped in a bony carapace endless milliseconds away from its lovers, forced to squeeze every meaning through a low-bandwidth speech channel.

3.5 / 4 stars: Didn't write like I was an idiot, decent execution, but nothing I haven't seen before. Nicely wrapped though and I laughed, usually at all the inappropriate times, so keep that in mind when considering my rating.


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