Glasshouse by Charlie Stross

I reviewed Accelerando last year about this time. I didn’t finish Accelerando, it was... not very good. So when I saw that Stross was nominated for a Hugo this year I was less than enthused about reading this book. Much to my delight, Glasshouse was an excellent book. I don’t know why, but it reminded me of some of Heinlein’s books.


Robin wakes up from his most recent memory wipe at loose ends and perplexed about why he wiped everything. While he is in rehab he meets Kay, a four armed gal also recovering from memory wipe and finds out about the Yourdon-Fiore-Huanta project. An experiment to recreate the "dark ages" of 1950-2020. The experiment runs for three years after which they will get a substantial sum of money. Robin and Kay decide to give the project a whirl, hoping to meet-up on the inside.


When Robin wakes up next he has become a she - Reeve - and he/she has no idea where Kay is. In the first meeting of his co-participants, Reeve is required pick a "spouse" for this project and matches up with Sam. From here, it is a spiral into an appalling situation - the "parish" is awarded points for behavior befitting the time period both individually and collectively. This includes how often they have sex with their partner, how they dress, how they behave in public, mandatory church attendance and how often they interact with other people. Reeve quickly realizes that all the women are fertile and there is no contraceptives anywhere to be bought. Gears start turning and she begins to realize that they have all signed on for something much, much worse than a mere sociology experiment. And the more she finds out, the more her past memories start to resurface.


This was a very interesting read - the setting was rather unique (Reeve finds out they are on an old spaceship prison, known as the Glasshouse, where there is only one way in or out); the concept of a future generation not understanding how a past generation lived was very relevant and the attempt to re-create that society morbidly fascinating. The science in this was intriguing, that people could live hundreds of years and when they became tired of one existence, they could wipe their memories and become someone - something - else.


Of the three Hugo nominees I was able to read before the Hugo Awards (previous post), this one was the strongest.


The other nominees in the Novel category were:
Eifelheim - Mychael Flynn
His Majesties Dragon - Naomi Novik
Rainbow’s End - Verner Vinge
Blindsight - Peter Watts