Halting State (Halting State, #1)

by Charles Stross

English language

Published July 30, 2007

ISBN:: 978-0-441-01498-9

(79 reviews)

Halting State is a novel by Charles Stross, published in the United States on 2 October 2007 and in the United Kingdom in January 2008. Stross has said that it is "a thriller set in the software houses that write multiplayer games". The plot centres on a bank robbery in a virtual world. It features speculative technologies, including Specs and virtual server networks over mobile phones. The book is on its second printing in the United States. The novel was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 2008.The main story is split between three main protagonists, Sue, Elaine, and Jack, whose sections are always in the second person, with italicised thoughts in first person during each character's respective chapter. Each chapter is followed in sequential trilogies (Sue, Elaine, Jack) for the duration of the novel. This pattern excepts only the prologue and epilogue of the novel, which both …

9 editions

Pentapod reviewed Halting State (Halting State, #1) by Charles Stross

A fully second-person novel

3 stars

This is very odd to read as it's written entirely in the second person, despite switching between a few main characters. Interesting experiment but for an entire novel it's a bit tiring. It was written in 2007 and deals with a heist involving online computer games; and while Stross evidently had some experience with computer games at the time, and while I have seen far worse mistakes made by the likes of Gibson and Stephenson, nonetheless even with the most generous suspension of disbelief I really struggled with some of the "technical details" (since I personally have worked making online computer games since 2007, and know exactly why some of these things don't, or couldn't possibly, work that way). Still, if you aren't personally bothered by those details it's a decent plot - as long as you can wrap your head around the second person. Overall it was quite a …

Blind_Mapmaker reviewed Halting State (Halting State, #1) by Charles Stross

Review of 'Halting State (Halting State, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A good, page-turning techno-thriller with mostly believable characters. Some things are a bit silly, like changing cocde while logged into a game with a VR avatar, but overall it has some pretty nice extrapolations of then-current technology. Definitely thinking about reading the next volume. Way more modern in sensibility than The Laundry Files too, especially the female POV characters.

Jelmer reviewed Halting State (Halting State, #1) by Charles Stross

Review of 'Halting State (Halting State, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Fun to read as this story is set in the centre of Edinburgh, with plenty of little nods to it.

ceoln reviewed Halting State (Halting State, #1) by Charles Stross

Review of 'Halting State (Halting State, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Reviewed some time after reading, but I remember it as a fun and smart and plausible romp in a particular part of the near-future, with lots of interesting tech and societal impacts and little memes and nerdy references thrown in. I am a big Charles Stross fan, and enjoyed this one quite a bit, although Accellerando is still my favorite.

betty reviewed Halting State (Halting State, #1) by Charles Stross

Review of 'Halting State (Halting State, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Every once in a while I get the idea I'm not reading brainy enough SF, and that all the other SF readers will sneer at me for not reading enough Hugo winners. [b:Halting State|222472|Halting State (Halting State, #1)|Charles Stross|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442097389s/222472.jpg|930563] hasn't won a Hugo, but it says "Hugo Award-winning author of" on the front, so it probably count for half points.

Sue Smith is a tough, no-nonsense cop who takes occasional flack for being the only out lesbian in her department. And that was the last time the book gave me something I liked.

The entire book (well, let me be honest: right up until I stopped reading it, which was not far in at all) is written in the second person. This is the sort of show-off-y trick you had damn well better prove you're good enough to use. Sue (you) speak(s) with a brogue, and occasionally the narration from her (your) POV borrows it. The future we are in is signalled by heavy use of acronyms, abbreviations, and neologisms:

You shake your head and get out of the car, tapping your ear-piece to tell your phone to listen up: "Arriving on SOC, time-stamp now. Start evidence log." It's logging anyway--everything you do on duty goes into the black box--but the voice marker is searchable. It saves the event from getting lost in your lifelog.

Gives you the general gist. We are in the future! Surveillance is pervasive and inescapable! We have fun new acronyms! And then the crazy, are you ready for it, no really, make sure you are sitting down because this will Blow. Your. Mind. crime? Someone has knocked over a bank in Second Life Avalon Four.

I couldn't keep reading, it was like listening to my parents try to use teenage slang. In Stross's defense, this was written in 2007, which is probably a decade in internet-years, but he has somehow posited a future were people have just discovered virtual economies, which ought to be just as much speculative fiction as stories where Hannibal crosses the Alps in zeppelins, and yet really isn't.

So, anyway. Presumably lots of fun stuff happens after page twelve, but you'll have to ask someone else about that.