Scan barcode
A review by nleiby
Glasshouse by Charles Stross
4.0
A unified interstellar system is fragmented by a civil war sparked by a mind-altering virus (Curious Yellow- great name) that censors memories, propagating by installing itself on every individual that passes through teleportation gates. We don't learn why the virus was made, but its selective memory alterations and special targeting of historians suggest it's trying to erase knowledge about past dictatorships to set up a new one.
The dark ages (~1950-2300CE) happened because information storage fragmented into many proprietary standards and encryption schemes, and over time access to the information was lost. At the same time, the unified systems of the future allowed Curious Yellow to spread easily.
Curious Yellow is beaten back in flashbacks by human insurgents installed in parallel instances of bio-tank physical entities, capturing and replacing infected teleportation gates one by one at great cost of life (combatant and innocent). Post-war, the Glasshouse is set up as an isolated habitation, cut off from outside tech and communication, for rehabilitation, voluntary memory alteration, and recuperation of war vets. The Glasshouse is taken over by surviving pawns or would-be co-opters of remnants of Curious Yellow for their own purpose. They set up an experimental re-enactment of Dark Ages (present day) life as a facade for propagating their updated versions of Curious Yellow.
Our protagonist is a war vet turned intelligence agent who has been inserted into the experimental habitation to figure out what's going on, but only after extensive memory redaction to avoid detection. There is some fun looking at how a post-scarcity, post-human society would view late 20th century life (they incubate their young internally?!), and what records might exist to re-create our current era after an information collapse (heavily skewed towards dead tree records that might survive longer than optical or even magnetic disks).
Some of the character motivations are sketched in at best. There seem to be some plot holes (why not just intercept the interstellar transiting habitation before it makes landfall, even if you don't know its true goals and intentions?). But as a speculative fiction vehicle for fun concepts, it's pretty enjoyable.
Round up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
The dark ages (~1950-2300CE) happened because information storage fragmented into many proprietary standards and encryption schemes, and over time access to the information was lost. At the same time, the unified systems of the future allowed Curious Yellow to spread easily.
Curious Yellow is beaten back in flashbacks by human insurgents installed in parallel instances of bio-tank physical entities, capturing and replacing infected teleportation gates one by one at great cost of life (combatant and innocent). Post-war, the Glasshouse is set up as an isolated habitation, cut off from outside tech and communication, for rehabilitation, voluntary memory alteration, and recuperation of war vets. The Glasshouse is taken over by surviving pawns or would-be co-opters of remnants of Curious Yellow for their own purpose. They set up an experimental re-enactment of Dark Ages (present day) life as a facade for propagating their updated versions of Curious Yellow.
Our protagonist is a war vet turned intelligence agent who has been inserted into the experimental habitation to figure out what's going on, but only after extensive memory redaction to avoid detection. There is some fun looking at how a post-scarcity, post-human society would view late 20th century life (they incubate their young internally?!), and what records might exist to re-create our current era after an information collapse (heavily skewed towards dead tree records that might survive longer than optical or even magnetic disks).
Some of the character motivations are sketched in at best. There seem to be some plot holes (why not just intercept the interstellar transiting habitation before it makes landfall, even if you don't know its true goals and intentions?). But as a speculative fiction vehicle for fun concepts, it's pretty enjoyable.
Round up from 3.5 to 4 stars.