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Title: Toast: And Other Rusted Futures by Charles Stross ISBN: 1-58715-413-7 Publisher: Wildside Pr Pub. Date: February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Cory Doctorow is right: Charles Stross IS better than drugs
Comment: "Toast" is, bar none, the best short story collection I've ever read.
Nearly every story gave me a whole-body physical thrill - goose bumps, tingling scalp, and other reactions I omit for fear of Amazon's censors. (Come to think of it, Amazon's censors will severely limit this entire review - you'll have to interpolate as best you can.) The only comparably exciting book I've read lately is Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep."
"Lobsters" is my favorite short story, and gives a fair taste of the rest of this collection. In the not-too-distant future, Manfred Macx is busy implementing the principles of open source in the world of intellectual property. His ex-dominatrix/girlfriend is hunting him down; she works for the IRS and is pissed off because Manfred's system of high-tech altruistic barter is robbing the U.S. government of tax revenue needed to pay Social Security, the biggest pyramid scheme of all time. In between, Manfrend fends off a charmingly quirky Russian AI, hit-and-run rubberizations, and a slashdotting, among many other things. Sex, drugs, and patent law - all the ingredients of a fantastic short story, plus Stross's completely unique gritty/gonzo writing style. You can read it on the web - google "charles stross lobsters" and click on "I'm Feeling Lucky."
If you are, like me, a computer geek, I have some urgent advice: You want this book. Now. Don't think, just buy it. You'll thank me. If you aren't a computer geek, you'll enjoy this collection anyway.
Rating: 2
Summary: Not as bad as some people say, but not as good either
Comment: This is a disappointing collection that could have waited a while longer to include Stross's better fiction. Instead, we're left with three great pieces ("A Colder War", "Antibodies", "Extracts from the Club Diary") adrift in an ocean of mediocre prose and stories that range from the average ("Yellow Snow", "A Boy and His God" -- funny story, this, but not much else) to the atrocious ("Big Brother Iron").
I still believe that Stross has potential, as evidenced by the better stories. Unfortunately, the rest of the collection fails to meet the same standards, not to mention that it's under-edited and poorly produced (quite a few typesetting errors, and too much text crammed into a single page to save on the page count).
Rating: 5
Summary: Hot new writer
Comment: Original, wild, and never lets up in any of his stories. This is one writer to keep an eye on as I am sure he will set new marks in excellence !!
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Title: Singularity Sky by Charles Stross ISBN: 0441010725 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan ISBN: 0345457684 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Golden Age by John C. Wright ISBN: 0812579844 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Pub. Date: 14 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2) by Neal Stephenson ISBN: 0060523867 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 13 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: A Place So Foreign and Eight More by Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling ISBN: 1568582862 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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