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Charles Stross

Halting State Hardcover – October 2, 2007

by Charles Stross (Author)

4.1 751 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Halting State

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Sergeant Sue Smith is called in to investigate a daring Edinburgh robbery at a dot-com startup company, a crime perpetrated by a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow in the virtual reality land of Avalon Four, but she soon discovers that events in the virtual world could have a devastating impact on the real one, especially when an unknown enemy launches attacks on both.

Book 1 of 2

Halting State
Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ace Hardcover
Publication date

October 2, 2007
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

6.38 x 1.25 x 9.18 inches
ISBN-10

9780441014989
ISBN-13

978-0441014989
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This brilliantly conceived techno-crime thriller spreads a black humor frosting over the grim prospect of the year 2012, when China, India and the European System are struggling for world economic domination in an infowar, and the U.S. faces bankruptcy over its failing infrastructure. Sgt. Sue Smith of Edinburgh's finest, London insurance accountant Elaine Barnaby and hapless secret-ridden programmer Jack Reed peel back layer after layer of a scheme to siphon vast assets from Hayek Associates, a firm whose tentacles spread into international economies. The theft is routed through Avalon Four, a virtual reality world complete with supposedly robbery-proof banks. As an electronic intelligence agency trains innocent gamers to do its dirty work, Elaine sets Jack to catch the poacher. Hugo-winner Stross (Glasshouse) creates a deeply immersive story, writing all three perspectives in the authoritative second-person style of video game instructions and gleefully spiking the intrigue with virtual Orcs, dragons and swordplay. The effortless transformation of today's technological frustrations into tomorrow's nightmare realities is all too real for comfort. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Reviewers expressed shock and awe at Charles Strosss imagined future, because its just a bit too probable. Even his minor details, such as clothing with RFID tags that can speak to washing machines, are mind-bending. Overall, Halting State is a fast-paced, tightly plotted, and highly intelligent novel. While some of it may read as gibberish to a less in-the-know crowd (its helpful to know such gamer slang as "nerfed"), the tech-savvy will rejoice. One reviewer thought the plot became convoluted at the end with a too-neat resolution. But others, like Cory Doctorow in BoingBoing, commented, "This is a book that will change the way you see the way the world works."
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0441014984
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace Hardcover; First Edition (October 2, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780441014989
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0441014989
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.25 x 9.18 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,193,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,572 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- #24,798 in Police Procedurals (Books)
- #50,603 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.1 751 ratings

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Charles Stross

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Charles Stross, 50, is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2015 Hugo awards for best novella, Stross's works have been translated into over twelve languages.

Like many writers, Stross has had a variety of careers, occupations, and job-shaped-catastrophes in the past, from pharmacist (he quit after the second police stake-out) to first code monkey on the team of a successful dot-com startup (with brilliant timing he tried to change employer just as the bubble burst).

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

751 global ratings

5 star		42%
4 star		38%
3 star		13%
2 star		5%
1 star		1%

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T. Gustafson

Pleasantly bizarre

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2012

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It is always a struggle to sit down and give a concise, understandable review and summary of a Charles Stross' novel, but that is also where the magic lies. His novels are the kind of "blow your mind" science fiction that most of us wish we had created, written in a style that makes you think around every corner, lies some new twist like in the old nautical maps that warn "Here be monsters, or at least some sort of technological marvel or soul-sucking bureaucratic abomination".

Stross has created two of my favorites worlds in his Laundry Files series and now with the near-future augmented reality-driven world of Halting State and Rule 34. Stross transports us a few years into the future with amazingly realistic (and similarly fantastic) portrayal of day-to-day life with technology, where today's frustrations have become the future's frightening normality. Such as 90's films like "The Lawnmower Man" embraced the future being defined by virtual reality, Stross brings us to a near future where always on internet combined with wearable computers in glasses ("goggles") layering our view of the real world with information that is referred to as "augmented reality". Imagine yourself 10 years ago faced with an iPhone 4, then jump forward years to where police record everything for the record, fight crime with the help of law enforcement augmented reality called "CopSpace" and people play espionage in computer-commanded augmented reality games. That, and your clothes have RFID tags in them to tell the washing machine what settings to use.

The story...

Edinburgh detective Sue is called out to an unusual robbery case in what initially appears to be an abandoned shack. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes complicated as the supposed "victim" is a large corporation and the crime was a bank heist of a virtual bank inside an enormous massively multiplayer online game by a band of Orcs. Layers of the onion are quickly peeled to reveal this is more than some online griefing and may be the tip of the iceberg in regards to computer espionage.

Enter Elaine Barnaby, a forensic accountant for the corporation's underwriter who's there to prove that the company was somehow negligent so her employer doesn't have to pay the inevitable claims. She quickly realizes that her live action role playing (LARP) experience does not qualify her to examine a bank in a game world. Jack Reed, recently unemployed game programmer and knowledgable in STL (Structured Treasure Language), is hired to serve as her native guide in these online worlds.

The three quickly discover the theft is just the beginning. The thieves' motivation could be anything from stock market manipulation, griefing on an epic level, or the start of the next world war.

Tom's Two Cents

Every single novel in the Halting State and Laundry Files universes are almost irresistibly bizarre, yet so utterly close to reality that you can just taste the technology (or odd Cthulu mind-devouring monster) around the corner. From the believable evolution of augmented reality, ever-growing business of MMO's and their inevitable absorption of LARP, to the mundane realities of British beuracracy, the "Halting State" universe is disconcertingly believable. You will grow to love (and largely feel sorry for) Jack Reed and his "uber micro" of his online avatars and cringe at the growing romance between him and Elaine. You will boggle and trying to wrap your head around autonomous black-net nodes that allow criminals to exchange information and favors under the direction of a CPU master.

And then you will wish, wish, wish that you could just get your hands on one pair of "goggles" and never take them off.

God, I love this series. And god, do I hate trying to interpret Britsh slang and whatever the heck a "ned" is.

2 people found this helpful

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Brian Goubeaux

A good purchase for cyberprrps.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 12, 2023

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I heard about this series when I was looking at the Cyberprep wiki on Fandom.com. I thought the premise sounded good so I got it. Looks good. Can't wait to read it.

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Wanderer

Hard to get into; hard to put down

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 11, 2008

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This is a near-future novel. It definitely qualifies as SCIENCE fiction. There was nothing fantasy about it. It seems a natural extension of our rapid expansion in a number of areas of IT hardware and software. If you are reasonably familiar with the current state of the art of IT, you'll end up loving Halting State. If you've ever stayed awake until the wee hours pounding out code or playing some computer game, you'll wonder why you didn't write this book.

You'll probably find the book more accessible if you have a bit of computer gaming background. I don't. You also have to get used to some Scottish dialect, some imaginative extensions of today's IT terminology, and some strange applications and hardware. The concept of alternate `spaces' takes a while to get used to so you may get lost at some point. Stay the course. It will be worth it!

You also need to get past a novel written completely in second-person singular. The reasons for that flow from early Dungeons & Dragons scenarios but it took some getting used to, especially since `you' are three characters. Again, stay the course. It all comes clear in the end. I rated it four stars because there's no ramp-up. The author just dumps you into 2018 and turns you loose.

Initially, I found the Halting State difficult to follow and almost put it down on my pile of `mistakes' after reading the prologue and three chapters. That would have been a mistake. It's a learning experience. By the fifth chapter, I was hooked, hated putting it down, and wanted more when I finished the last page. You need to read this book!

3 people found this helpful

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A. MacFarlane

Halting Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 25, 2008

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Way back when I was in seminary school, there was a person there who said you could never write a narrative in the second person. I wonder if someone rapped Charles Stross's knuckles then too. This novel is stubbornly written entirely in the second person--the first novel I have ever read written that way. Perhaps it was to imitate the vernacular of video games ("you have picked up a level 7 blunderbuss...") to give the reader a closer connection to the characters. At first it was extremely irritating, often requiring me as a reader to do some subliminal translating before proceeding. However, by the time I had reached the climax of the plot, I agreed that this story could not have been written any other way. It left me with an eagerness to pick up the book again and read it over on some later date.

There has been a few negative reviews of this book--mostly that it starts off at a strong pace, but fizzles at the end. I strongly disagree with that assessment. The denouement was more extended than most modern science fiction, but not nearly as winded as Stross's obvious role-model Gibson has been of late. This is a very well-paced story, with intriguing themes and endearing characters. It managed to do something to me that only David Brin has been capable of: make me wonder what the characters are up to when the book is closed.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

D. R. Cantrell

Great near-future romp

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 28, 2012

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Stross has written several times in his blog of the difficulties in writing near-future science fiction. By the time a book has meandered on its way through being written, edited, and published - a process that can take two or three years - it can be out of date as the real world catches up with the world and the gadgets that the author imagined, or wanders off in a direction that makes the author's imagined world inconceivable. In fact, that happened to Halting State's sequel, so badly that he had to throw it away and start again. And then nearly had to do it again.

In the four years since Halting State was published, the real world has indeed caught up in some respects. In particular there is now a thriving market in virtual goods from video games, and there really have been crimes committed - real world crimes - in video games. But it doesn't matter to the reader that this science fictional story isn't quite as science fictional as the author intended. Science fiction doesn't have to be about our future to be entertaining (Jules Verne is still a good read) or about wondrous technologies (Earth Abides has none), it's about modern (post-Enlightenment) people doing or creating plausible things and may explore the ramifications of technology and science (as does A Canticle for Leibowitz). Authors worry about their technologies and the characters' situations being novel because they don't want to appear - at the time of publication - to be incapable of coming up with new ideas, but readers should care mostly about whether the book is entertaining. And this one is. Stross rarely fails to deliver.

I only really have one nit to pick. The political arrangements of Scotland, England, the UK, and the EU are obviously a bit different in the book than they are in our world, with Scotland having rather more independence, but also being somewhat tied to English apron-strings - and both are rather more subservient to an apparently federal Europe. The lack of clarity here was a bit irritating, and more irritatingly it could have been done away with entirely. Every single bit of that, even Scotland's greater independence, isn't particularly important to the story and the politics's role in the story could easily have been taken by purely domestic bodies.

But that's a very minor concern. The book is great fun, and you should read it.

4 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Amazingly well-written, holds you till almost the last page

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 21, 2010

Verified Purchase

The biggest hurdle for any reader coming cold to Halting State will be writer Charles Stross's unusual writing frameworks. He often writes in the present tense, which I nornally hate but he does it with such great fluency and immediacy you just don't notice. This book is also told in the present tense AND the second person, so instead of "I" or "he" it's "you". Even after enjoying several of his other books this put me off completely, until I heard him read from the sequel-in-progress, which is written in the same style. The writing was simply strong enough for the tense and person to be irrelevant, and I bought Halting State the next day.

It's a simple enough plot. In the near future, a company which runs the bank for a fantasy computer game is robbed, online. The company recruits a mismatched computer games programmer and forensic accountant to investigate. The police have also been called in, by mistake, and there's a race between the two teams to uncover the real motives of everyone involved.

The story is essentially contemporary, with some Gadget Show wish-fulfilment technology thrown in. The novel was inspired by a newspaper story about a real world theft of online resources with real world value, so that element isn't completely science fiction. In the halting State world online computer games are completely immersive, and police body armour comes equipped with self-contained CCTV, which is actually quite a throwback to the old school future seen in early films like Aliens. There's a lot of technobable, but the more you understand computers the more you'll appreciate it's both informed and authentic. The late-entry McGuffin of a new type of supercomputer is probably the most obvious science fiction element, and it flashes in and out across a few pages just to oil the plot machinery.

For the most part the book holds up as a modern police procedural, and it satisfies as hard-ish science fiction because of the author's genuine gadget love, games experience and computer knowledge. It's light comedy and action for about 95 per cent of the way, and the only real flaw is the rushed ending. But sometimes it's better to travel hopefully than to arrive.

The saddest part about the science fiction trappings is that even in such a short space of time they have started to feel dated. What might have seemed outlandish or geek-friendly three years ago is almost commonplace today - hand-held portable high definition video recording, GPS devices which can overlay massive amounts of data over a map of your immediate surroundings, and our increasing dependence on vast mobile networks of incredibly smart phones. The only real misfire is the anticipated continued explosion in online gaming.

The best comparison I can think of for non-science fiction fans is that Halting State has the same fast pace and pop culture savvy sensibility as "proper" contemporary Scottish thriller writer Christopher Brookmyre. It's great.

One person found this helpful

Simon Haine

Good, but complicated

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 28, 2010

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The idea behind this book is really clever, and there are lots of good ideas in the world Stross has created. Some of the writing reminded me of One of Us , and I think that probably helped my enjoyment of this book.

The main plot device in this book is the use of VR technology and mass online gaming. Even though I work in software development, I've never felt a need to experience World of Warcraft and the like. This probably hindered my reading enjoyment as there was a lot of technical jargon to get through.

I liked the idea that it was set in an independent Scotland, but I feel this aspect could have been expanded on more.

Overall, I kinda liked this book. It had a lot of good points, and did draw me in - but I did also find the whole online gaming stuff hard to follow at times. Although I don't know if I'd recommend this book, it hasn't put me off reading other Stross novels.

Kindle Customer

Totally addicted to Stross

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

So, there I was in a bookshop, minding my own business, looking for something to read and I saw this book cover. I saw the little chibi characters, I read the blurb "Online bank robbery through a world of warcraft game" and thought "Pfffft, this'll never work."

Wow, was I wrong. And extremely pleased to be too. It starts off in near future Edinburgh and then the plot thickens and thickens. I'll not spoil the plot, but I will say that when you think you've got it all worked out, you're wrong. And each twist is internally consistent with what went before. If "Hackers" and "The Usual Suspects" had a love child delivered by "The Matrix" then this would be it's autobiography.

One person found this helpful

a nixon

a good holiday read by a smart writer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 23, 2013

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I'm writing this in July 2013 with the 20/20 hindsight the author could not have had. I enjoyed the book, it was a thought provoking read. I do some future stuff too and know the amount of research and thought that goes in to seemingly throwaway lines such as 'glassed-up' and 'hoovering the top deck of a bus'. Smart stuff. If you are the author reading this you have my admiration.

It is often said that those who predict the future often over estimate the near future and underestimate the long term. My slightly smug hindsight is tempered by the thought - oh dear, what if he's underestimated the future...

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