Stross, Charles: Halting State
Halting State
Writer: Charles Stross
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 324
So I've read Charles Stross before. His work left me...I'm not sure what the word is for it. Suspicious? Cautious? It's not that I didn't recognize the talent he has, because I did, but I didn't believe that what I was reading was the pinnacle of SF. The ideas were really awesome and really cool, but the stories I read never gelled as actual stories, if that makes a lick of sense. I learned a lot from Accelerando, but I also learned that ultimately, I wasn't Stross's target audience.
Why bother with Halting State? Do you really have to ask? I mean, LOOK AT THAT COVER!!!! The moment I saw it I was drooling. I'd gaze at the hardcover longingly in bookstores, but never spent the cash. I knew I wasn't the target audience, and all the reviews reminded me, over and over, that I should let this one go.
But then I saw the mass-market paperback. And it got nominated for the Hugos. And the funny thing about the Hugo nominations this year was that I'd already read one of the nominees (Ian McDonald's Brasyl), I was already planning to purchase ANOTHER nominee (John Scalzi's The Last Colony) and the other titles looked interesting enough that I thought why not make the list a project and read each nominee this year?
So that's what I'm doing. It also works out that this title is mine and digitalclone's August challenge read (we had to take a couple of months off due to scheduling). But I'll be honest: as much as I loved this cover, I thoroughly expected my reading experience to be the equivalent of wading through sludge. The only perk was that I knew it was written in multiple second-person POV, and that's just too delicious for words.
Turns out, this was a surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable read.
The premise: a bank in the virtual reality land of Avalon Four has been robbed. Only, robbery is SUPPOSED to be impossible, and if word gets out, the company and the virtual economies are going to crash hard. Three characters are brought on for investigation: Sue, a cop; Elaine, a forensic auditor, and Jack, a gamer. The investigation leads to something much larger, something a little more sinister, than anyone expected, and it doesn't take long for human lives to be on the line.
There's no point in a cut here: the multiple second-person POV worked wonderfully, provided you paid attention to the headers, which provided the name of the character who was the "you" in that chapter. And fortunately, Stross falls into a predictable rotation, always going from Sue to Elaine to Jack in that order. So there's a sense of expectation and continuity that keeps the pages turning, because you know that once the pattern's been established, he's not going to throw you for a complete and total loop.
And I'll be honest: I don't think I would've been NEARLY as invested in this book had it not been for the awesome, stroke-of-genius POV. It delighted me to no end, and it amazes me to think that there was once a time when I shuddered at the thought of second person POV. Downright HATED it in fact. I've sense learned the error of my ways, and Stross has just delivered a healthy reminder that when done well, the impact is amazing.
The story itself takes a wee bit longer to piece together, but as you gather puzzle pieces, it starts to make sense. Here's where I don't trust my own judgment: I feel like I'm still missing out on quite a lot, not understanding EVERYTHING, but for the most part I was able to keep up and actually understand what was happening and what's at stake. I don't know if my experiences have changed me as a reader or if this book is simply more coherent than I found Accelerando to be, or a little bit of both. It's probably a little bit of both. But I followed what was necessary, enjoyed the characters, and enjoyed the snappy, up-beat style of the prose. Even the gaming elements of the story didn't turn my brain to mush, though I did have to slow down in those sections. I suspect that readers more educated in that field will probably grasp more than I did, but hey, that just comes with the territory.
I did struggle a little: Sue's dialect about killed me until I reminded myself that I'd seen this stuff before in print and could handle it. And references to current, modern trends like iPods and Desperate Housewives threw me out of the book, because I wondered just how I was supposed to read them. They're currently popular NOW in 2008, but in ten years? The iPod might have a new name (or might not exist, given the iPhone's rise and the likelihood of the consolidation of the two products), and I can't see Desperate Housewives being a current hit in ten years.
But one thing I did appreciate was the futuristic feel of this 2018 Edinburgh, which threw around a lot of terminology I wasn't familiar with but kept me mostly grounded the whole time. This is smart SF in that it doesn't really coddle the reader. Yes, you get appropriate info-dumps when necessary (Stross works those in well), but he doesn't stop to explain EVERY foreign term or EVERY single freaking abbreviation. You're thrown in the SF world: it's time to sink or swim.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: drawing close to a "must-have." It's a fun read, but not for the SF-impaired, or those new to the genre. I think for my part, reading some William Gibson and Vernor Vinge has helped me relate to what's going on in this book better than had I not, but really, it was the POV that had me hooked. It's a fun read, once you resign yourself to playing by Stross's rules. I'm definitely more inclined to read more of his work in the future, but I'll go ahead and say unless the cover to the mass-market copy of Saturn's Children is VASTLY different than the hardcover copy, you can sure as HELL bet I won't read that one!
Book: The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Graphic Novel: Hellboy Library Edition Volume 1: Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil by Mike Mignola