(Mostly) very brief overviews of some short fiction of Charles Stross

At rasfw - in two parts.

Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

Charles Stross' "Overtime" (novelette, satire, free): Life in a British government office

Probably the most readable story I've seen from Stross so far - at least the jargon doesn't come in the way, is much less than his normal, & appears late in the story.

There is a separate underlying nonsense plot of Santa Claus' visit to office on Christmas eve. Only this Santa Claus is evil! And hero must throw him out before any damage is done.

I've a feeling its appeal is likely to be uneven across locales.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 23 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

Charles Stross describes publisher's workflow to turn manuscript to a book

Link.

This is about paper books that comprise most sales today, not about the (far?) future that I think will be mostly electronic & will cut several steps from his workflow.

Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

Charles Stross outlines the general structure of publishing industry

Link.

Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

Free fiction: Charles Stross & Paolo Bacigalupi

1. Several works of Stross, including short story collection Toast, at author's site.
   
2. Paolo Bacigalupi's novel "The Windup Girl"; download.

[both via Free SF Reader]

Real science: Earth is uninhabitable!

Charles Stross tells us why aliens looking for an earth-like world are far more likely to conclude that earth is uninhabitable than otherwise, in this rather longish article. Or why our search for earth like worlds is even more complex than intuition suggests.

[via Bibliophile Stalker]

Charles Stross does some 21st century future gazing

Link. Technology, politics, religion, ...

Charles Stross' "Snowball’s Chance": A criminal cons the Devil

This is either a particularly bad piece by Stross, or he writes only for audiences that have English as their first language. How else can humor be such a tedious read, from one of the supposedly better modern authors of the genre?

Thing I found most irritating was dialogs that are phonetizations of some dialect of spoken English, rather than in normal English. And somewhat liberal use of less common words. While I could follow the gist of the story, there were portions that just went over my head.

You can download the full text of the story here.

Story summary.
Global warming has made life miserable at many places on earth. "collapse of the West Antarctic ice shelf" has sunk many former lands under the sea. But resulting changes to some ocean streams has made England a much colder country. US has deployed a large parasol in space to reduce some of the solar heat reaching earth.

Davy, a criminal, is visiting Deid Nurse, a bar, somewhere in Edinburgh, England. That is where he is visited by the Devil! Looks like Devil owes Davy a debt - because Davy's criminal activities would normally have been Devil's job. Devil grants Davy a boon.

After some negotiations, Davy demands removal of US parasol in sky - so his place will warm again. Granted. Devil has arranged a "rock about the size of this pub, traveling on a cometary orbit" in space, to hit the parasol & destroy it. Apparently, it will not actually come closer to earth to cause direct harm, because there is no further talk of it.

That is when Davy gives his nasty smile & demands further boons. Devil doesn't think any further boons are due. Until Davy reminds him that he got the first boon by making life miserable for only a few thousand people; how many billions' lives will be made miserable by destruction of the parasol?

Fact sheet.
"Snowball’s Chance", short story, review
First published: Subterranean, Summer 2007.
Rating: B

Charles Stross's "MAXO Signals": Interstellar spammers!

This very readable & very short first-contact-with-aliens story takes a track I haven't seen in fiction before.

Full text of this story is available online.

Story summary.
MAXO is short for "microwave artifact of xenobiological origin" - a kind of radio signals received on earth where the signals are of alien origin.

Story doesn't specify the year it happens. At the time of narration, at least 21 MAXO signals have been received - all from nearby star systems. Many talented individuals have spent a lot of time decoding them.

Decoding turns out to be simpler than expected. And out pops a very familiar message!

Beautiful.

Fact sheet.
MAXO Signals, short story, review
First published: Nature magazine, 25 August 2005
Rating: A