Kristian Glass - Do I Smell Burning?

Mostly technical things

Go Read All The Stross

Ok I haven’t read everything by Charles Stross but everything I have read has been awesome and I’d recommend it highly.

I guess I’d describe a lot of it as “accessible hard sci-fi”, where the technology isn’t just “magic science” (like much of Star Wars and Star Trek), but its consequences and impact are considered and explored.

Particular recommendations:

Glasshouse

What would life be like in a world where replicator technology exists, and memory editing is a possibility?

One of my favourites, exploring ethics, identity, futuristic war and more, in a single self-contained book and universe I’d love to read more about.

Accelerando

Human augmentation, AI corporations, information and energy economies, and relationships in a world where you can upload and clone yourself.

Written as a series of interconnected short stories spanning three generations, I particularly enjoy how the first part manages to feel simultaneously futuristic yet tantalisingly close.

Halting State

First of a series of near-future crime dramas, looking at how criminals, policing, and life in general might look in just a couple of years, when currently-“experimental cutting-edge” technologies have become mainstream and commoditised.

Self-driving taxis, ubiquitous alternate-reality MMORPGs, and more.

The Atrocity Archives

First book of The Laundry Files - “science fiction Lovecraftian spy thrillers”. The most “fantasy” Stross I’ve read, but incredibly good fun. Set in the modern day where magic is real, but it’s basically just an advanced form of maths, so with an iPhone and the right equations you can do some terrifying things.

Full of British cultural references, geek jokes (the main protagonist is a Civil Servant named Bob Oliver Franklin Howard), and just generally good fun.

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