Reviews

Glasshouse by Charles Stross

howwoolatthemoon's review against another edition

Nope. That's a little too soon to be way too graphically, uh, "male perspective." Gross. Ditch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual content

halski's review against another edition

1.0

Good ideas for a short story, but as a novel, it falls flat and disintegrates into a crimson puddle. Stross tells, doesn't show, and as a writer he's quite dull.

I wanted to give it another star for the ideas and the references to The Prisoner, but I just can't; the latter actually started getting so overt that they actually did more harm than good. A good ending could have saved a lot, but this one was really, really rushed, and failed to gather the pieces, which were all over the place.

nwhyte's review against another edition

http://nhw.livejournal.com/837590.html[return][return]I think this is my favourite of Stross's books so far. In his previous sf books I've tended to find myself overwhelmed by the ideas about far-future post-Singularity existence; those are all still here, but very nicely balanced by the experience of the narrator who has signed up for a social experiment attempting to simulate the "dark ages", ie human society from 1950 to 2040, a period from which most information has been lost because paper was being used less and the digital media used for storage all became obsolete. This gives us an excuse for many sideswipes at the nature of American/European society as it is today; but in the meantime the far-future background is being unfolded in more and more detail, and the narrator becomes conscious of his/her own unreliability - often I find the "unreliable narrator" a really annoying excuse for incomplete world-building or sloppy characterisation, but Glasshouse very much avoids that trap.

cindywho's review against another edition

3.0

The premise of post humans who can move from body to body, make copies of themselves and erase memories as needed seems like it might be flighty fun until Robin joins an experiment to live like a 20th century woman for an indeterminate amount of time cut off from the rest of the universe. The past of the inhabitants and the past of the human race turn out to be darker and uglier than expected - and the anthropological "experiment" also is not what it seems. I'm never really sure that I like Robin/Reeve all that much - but then neither is s/he.

eowyn's review against another edition

3.0

This is the second Charles Stross I've read and I'm not sold on him yet. This was an interesting idea, an interesting society, but was really confusing and jumbled. I kept reading and was mostly engaged, but it's not great.

psteve's review against another edition

3.0

The best of the Stross novels that I've read or tried to read. In this case, what makes it interesting is the changes the characters go through, as their minds are stored and retrieved into different bodies, often of different sexes. Their attitudes get reprogrammed, but Stross is able to make the essential 'character' of the characters apparent. It's a challenging writing job, and the kind of thing that can get an author into trouble, but here, at any rate, he pulls it off.

tome15's review against another edition

4.0

Stoss is one of the best science fiction writers now working. His work compares well to that of the late Iain M. Banks. What we have here is a post-singularity panopticon dystopia. It is in the same fictional universe as Accelerando.

bent's review against another edition

3.0

Let’s start with the positive. This book was a fast-paced read. I found myself picking it up fairly regularly and reading it longer then I intended to at any one sitting. I couldn’t believe how quickly I read it. The story kept me interested right until the end.

That said it was an unsatisfying read. I found the characters two-dimensional, the story poorly plotted with unnecessary plot twists, and the universe the novel inhabits not very convincing. Stross seems to be trying to comment on gender roles and socialization, but not in a very coherent or thought-provoking manner.

While I enjoyed the writing, I spent a lot of my reading time being annoyed by choices the author has made. This book reminded me of other books I’ve read, particularly John C. Wright’s The Golden Age trilogy, which had a much better realized universe . I don’t know whether to praise Stross for his writing, or excoriate him for his loose structure, weak characters and poor plotting. In the end, I’d say an enjoyable read, but definitely not life-changing. I suspect this won’t be a book that stays with me.

mirk's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed reading this book, but there was much about it that was awkward and the plot felt a bit jammed. Stross needed to explain back events in order to make the current events work, and how these events are reveled are less than convincing. However, I wasn't unhappy that I spent the time reading the book.

chewbacca's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5