Glasshouse

Starred review from May 8, 2006
The censorship wars—during which the Curious Yellow virus devastated the network of wormhole gates connecting humanity across the cosmos—are finally over at the start of Hugo-winner Stross's brilliant new novel, set in the same far-future universe as 2005's Accelerando
. Robin is one of millions who have had a mind wipe, to forget wartime memories that are too painful—or too dangerously inconvenient for someone else. To evade the enemies who don't think his mind wipe was enough, Robin volunteers to live in the experimental Glasshouse, a former prison for deranged war criminals that will recreate Earth's "dark ages" (c. 1950–2040). Entering the community as a female, Robin is initially appalled by life as a suburban housewife, then he realizes the other participants are all either retired spies or soldiers. Worse yet, fragments of old memories return—extremely dangerous in the Glasshouse, where the experimenters' intentions are as murky as Robin's grasp of his own identity. With nods to Kafka, James Tiptree and others, Stross's wry SF thriller satisfies on all levels, with memorable characters and enough brain-twisting extrapolation for five novels.

June 15, 2006
Demobilized after the latest civil war, Robin awakens in a clinic with most of his memories gone, a new identity, and an assassin on his trail. To hide from his pursuer, he joins an experimental community, the Glasshouse, to study life in an older culture -that of Earth in the final years of the 20th century. He attempts to settle in to his new world only to find that, even in a protected environment, he is not free from danger. Hugo Award winner Stross (Singularity Sky) takes an original and often playful approach to his visions of the future. He examines questions of identity, gender, and the human condition in the context of this sf thriller, which belongs in most libraries.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2006
Hard on the heels of his acclaimed novel of mankind's evolving technological destiny, " Accelerando" (2005), Stross turns in another bravura performance with a fanciful glimpse at life in the twenty-seventh century. In an era of virtual immortality, where computer backups of human consciousness have become as routine as unlimited body modification, Robin is a patient in a rehab clinic for convalescents of voluntary memory erasure. With only scant clues, contained in a letter from his former self, to his previous and possibly espionage-related career, Robin quickly discovers his new identity offers little protection from several would-be assassins. Seizing the chance to evade his pursuers for good, he volunteers for a three-year experiment, devised by history professors, to simulate the "dark ages" of early-twenty-first-century society. As a participant in the guise of a middle-class housewife, Robin initially feels secure but soon suspects the experiment may simply be a clever front for his, or her, enemies. Stross amusingly recasts our own era into one of "meaningless customs" while blending suspenseful action with inventive, futuristic technology.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)