Book 59 - Charles Stross "Wireless"
Jun. 24th, 2014 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveCharles Stross "Wireless" (Orbit)
Stross always creates dense political worlds complete with all their economic ugliness. This is his strength, and also his curse. His readers have to be able adapt to his world quickly. He doesn't waste time with infodumps. Yeah! He doesn't waste time with infodumps. Oh no! This means your in for a fast paced story where you better catch on quickly, or in the case of a short story, it will pass you by before you do. His stories are always witty, intelligent and full of allusions that will make the reader in the know chuckle with glee. The reader sort of in the know might wonder if he chose a name like "Manson" to refer to Charles Manson, the murderer? (Hint: I'm sure that was deliberate!)
Some of the stories passed me by before I got my "sea legs" in his world. Some of them, I knew I was working hard to understand them. Some of them were absolutely brilliant though. "Rogue Farm" delighted me with it's novelty, but for some reason the Saturday Night Live phrase "Land Shark" kept running through my head. That only made it quirkier and funnier. "Trunk and Disorderly" was a twisty little romance, a Jeeves and Wooster go partying on Mars... only in this case it isn't Bertie who has to be saved from a bad marriage proposal.
Stross's comments at the ends of the stories were enjoyable too. Even though He comes across as a person with a distinct personality whenever I have read his fiction. Other authors are invisible behind their words, or long dead and perhaps never really lived. They just existed in photographs and quotations. His commentaries are part of why I feel this way about him.
And, of course, Stross is known for his biting humor, so it only seems right to end with a couple quotes.
"Brains, fresh brains for baby Jesus," crooned the farm in a warm contralto, startling Joe half out of his skin. "Buy my brains!" Half a dozen disturbing cauliflower shapes poked suggestively out of the farm's back, then retracted, coyly. from Rogue Farm
Uncontrolled civilization is a terminal consumptive state, as the victims of the first extinction discovered the hard way. from Palimpsest.
Stross always creates dense political worlds complete with all their economic ugliness. This is his strength, and also his curse. His readers have to be able adapt to his world quickly. He doesn't waste time with infodumps. Yeah! He doesn't waste time with infodumps. Oh no! This means your in for a fast paced story where you better catch on quickly, or in the case of a short story, it will pass you by before you do. His stories are always witty, intelligent and full of allusions that will make the reader in the know chuckle with glee. The reader sort of in the know might wonder if he chose a name like "Manson" to refer to Charles Manson, the murderer? (Hint: I'm sure that was deliberate!)
Some of the stories passed me by before I got my "sea legs" in his world. Some of them, I knew I was working hard to understand them. Some of them were absolutely brilliant though. "Rogue Farm" delighted me with it's novelty, but for some reason the Saturday Night Live phrase "Land Shark" kept running through my head. That only made it quirkier and funnier. "Trunk and Disorderly" was a twisty little romance, a Jeeves and Wooster go partying on Mars... only in this case it isn't Bertie who has to be saved from a bad marriage proposal.
Stross's comments at the ends of the stories were enjoyable too. Even though He comes across as a person with a distinct personality whenever I have read his fiction. Other authors are invisible behind their words, or long dead and perhaps never really lived. They just existed in photographs and quotations. His commentaries are part of why I feel this way about him.
And, of course, Stross is known for his biting humor, so it only seems right to end with a couple quotes.
"Brains, fresh brains for baby Jesus," crooned the farm in a warm contralto, startling Joe half out of his skin. "Buy my brains!" Half a dozen disturbing cauliflower shapes poked suggestively out of the farm's back, then retracted, coyly. from Rogue Farm
Uncontrolled civilization is a terminal consumptive state, as the victims of the first extinction discovered the hard way. from Palimpsest.
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Date: 2014-06-24 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-24 08:28 pm (UTC)Hugs, Jon