Neil Fein's Blog

Toast and Other Rusted Futures
by Charlie Stross

The electronic wristwatch needs only a display to be feasible today.
Gordon Moore, 1965

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
Vernor Vinge, 1993

"Think", writes Mr. Stross in his introduction, "how many dramas used to rely on the hero's telephone wire being cut to stop them calling for help!" This collection of stories berates itself in its first few pages for being out-of-date or nearly so -- there is a Y2K story, a near-future technological society with no internet, and so on. But the author underestimates his own ability to entertain and distract; he is too hard on himself

"A Colder War" is a political thriller with shades of Robert Anton Wilson and H.P. Lovecraft. "Bear Trap", about a fleeing investor, takes wearable computing to an extreme of controlled insanity. (This story's world feels distinctly like that of Singularity Sky, Mr. Stross's 2003 novel.)

"A Boy and His God" tells us of a child and his pet, with a twist. "Dechlorinating the Moderator" is a convention report (there are two such in the book) that imposes Moore's Law onto physics hackers. And "Big Brother Iron" takes the world of George Orwell's 1984, perhaps a hundred years after the novel, adding one additional slogan of truth -- TRUST THE COMPUTER. Mr. Stross's open-source leanings show here the most prominently.

This collection is Charles Stross's R&D, his exploratory jabs into new territory. Sadly missing is "Lobsters" and its sequels, but according to the author's website this saga will be published in its own volume next year.

Some of the stories are rough around the edges, and some of the writing is clunky. But his talent in these mostly near-future stories is present throughout, and this is a good collection in particular for those looking, after cyberpunk burned itself out, for the next step.