(1964- ) UK writer of science fiction and fantasy, as well as journalist on other subjects. (He has published work in computer and Role Playing Game magazines.) He began publishing work of genre interest with "In Search of a Fergussen Event" in Focus for August 1985, though his first professional publication was not until "The Boys" (Winter 1987 Interzone), and he continued publishing throughout the 1980s and 1990s, occasionally in collaboration with Simon D Ings and once under the pseudonym Charles Davidson (> Games Workshop). However, he only fully came to prominence in the late 1990s, when he began publishing fiction on a more regular basis; the publication of Toast: and Other Rusted Futures (coll 2002) was perhaps the first occasion on which his distinctive voice fully emerged. Although clearly influenced by Cyberpunk, the volume demonstrated his willingness to evoke other tropes: the Club Story, Mathematics, and the extrapolations of Hard SF.
But it was his engagement with Vernor Vinge's concept of the Singularity that has shaped his career more than any other influence, beginning with the publication of "Lobsters" (June 2001 Asimov's), which became the first of nine sections of his novel Accelerando (fixup 2005). Accelerando marks the fullest attempt yet in sf to depict the impact of a Singularity on human life (> Communications; Information Theory). Its speculation- and information-dense telling, along with Stross's willingness to follow through the consequences of the smallest hints in the earlier parts of his story, made it one of the most memorable works of the decade. It won the Locus Award as best sf novel. The standalone novella Missile Gap (in One Million A.D., anth 2006, ed Gardner Dozois; 2007 chap) is also of interest for its depiction of an Alternate World in which an unknown number of iterations of Earth are laid out flat on an astronomically huge flat disc (> Macrostructures), where humans beings, now in effect creatures in a Zoo, are displayed for inspection by Aliens. This too won a Locus Award as best novella.
Stross's first-published novel, however, was Singularity Sky (2003), a post-Singularity novel set in a Space Opera cosmos watched over by a vast and potent AI known as the Eschaton; a grimmer sequel, beginning with a colony world's destruction by an artificial supernova, is Iron Sunrise (2004). Both foreground Stross's ability to make use of ideas from across the field of the fantastic. Perhaps most surprising is their closeness in tone to the work of Douglas Adams: Stross has a very keen eye for the potential absurdities inherent in his worlds. Saturn's Children (2008) is so far a singleton, though a sequel is promised: it is Stross's most direct engagement so far with issues of Gender, and also explores Robot society and some philosophical implications of the Laws of Robotics. Saturn's Children acknowledges its debt to Robert A Heinlein's Friday (1982), and like that book has a female artificial human as protagonist.
His subsequent novels have fallen into a number of sequences. The Laundry sequence beginning with The Atrocity Archives (November 2001-November 2002 Spectrum SF plus additional story; coll of linked stories 2004) – the added story, "The Concrete Jungle", won a Hugo as best novella – posits a secret British government department whose chief purpose is to fend off the intrusions of Cthulhu Mythos beings from other Dimensions. Despite this premise, the tone is often joky, with much time spent on the horrors of office bureaucracy (a recurring Stross theme). It also allows Stross the chance to guy the conventions of spy novels, with each book in the sequence pastiching a different author; this is most visible in the second, The Jennifer Morgue (coll 2006), which nods wryly to Ian Fleming's James Bond; the first two volumes of the sequence were assembled as On Her Majesty's Occult Service (omni 2007). The sequence continues with The Fuller Memorandum (2010), which is similar. The Halting State sequence, so far comprising Halting State (2007) and Rule 34 (2011) is a series of Near Future police procedurals set in Scotland (where Stross now lives). Though perhaps distractingly told in the second person, they enable Stross to engage with some of his long-standing interests. In addition to the effects of the Internet in general, these include Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, and the post-9/11 security state. The Merchant Princes series beginning with The Family Trade (2004), though premised on the idea of travel between Parallel Worlds, operates principally as Fantasy rather than sf – however, as with Terry Pratchett's Discworld sequence, the effects of Technology become an increasingly prevalent issue. Glasshouse (2007) is set mainly in a kind of Pocket Universe within an isolated Starship, featuring issues of Gender and Identity as the male protagonist is afflicted with Amnesia and placed, as a female, in a Dystopian artificial society recreating the sexism and oppressive Religion of the forgotten "Dark Ages" (the latter twentieth century); there are interesting twists on Matter Transmission.
Stross won a second novella Hugo for Palimpsest (in Wireless, coll 2009; 2011). The impact of his work, and its often dazzling density of ideas, is perhaps in danger of being blunted by his astonishing rate of production. Some of his works feel all too visibly spun out to their required length. At his best, in a work like Accelerando, he creates worlds in which the reader feels compelled to believe. There is no question that he is one of the central sf writers of the moment. [GS/DRL]
see also: Basilisks; Cities; Dyson Sphere; Economics; Hive Minds; Holocaust; Interzone; Matter Duplication; Memory Edit; Mercury; Money; Prometheus Award; Rays; Sidewise Award; Skylark Award; Time Police; Upload.
Charles David George Stross
born Leeds, West Yorkshire: 16 October 1964
died
works
series
Eschaton
- Singularity Sky
(New York: Ace Books, 2003) [Eschaton: hb/Danilo {DUCAK}] - Iron Sunrise (New York: Ace Books, 2004) [Eschaton: hb/Danilo {DUCAK}]
- Timelike Diplomacy (New York: Science Fiction Book Club, 2004) [omni of the above two: Eschaton: hb/Stephan Martiniere]
Laundry
- The Atrocity Archives (Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press, 2004) [coll of linked stories: first version appeared November 2001-November 2002 Spectrum SF: one story added: Laundry: hb/Steve Montiglio]
- The Jennifer Morgue (Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press, 2006) [Laundry: hb/Steve Montiglio]
- Down on the Farm (New York: Tor, 2008) [story: ebook: Laundry: na/]
- The Fuller Memorandum (New York: Ace Books, 2010) [Laundry: hb/Mark Fredrickson]
Merchant Princes
Halting State
- Halting State (New York: Ace Books, 2007) [Halting State: hb/Sophie Toulouse]
- Rule 34 (New York: Ace Books, 2011) [Halting State: hb/Alberto Seveso]
individual titles
collections and stories
- Approaching Xanadu (Sheffield, Yorkshire: Back Brain Recluse, 1989) [story: chap: pb/]
- Lobsters (no place given: Fictionwise, 2002) [story: ebook: first appeared June 2001 Asimov's: na/]
- Toast and Other Rusted Futures (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press/Cosmos Books, 2002) [coll: pod: pb/]
- Missile Gap (Burton, Michigan: Subterranean Press, 2007) [novella: chap: first published in One Million A.D. (anth 2006) edited by Gardner Dozois: hb/J K {POTTER}]
- Wireless (New York: Ace Books, 2009) [coll: hb/S Miroque]
- Scratch Monkey: A Novel and Two Essays (Framingham, Massachusetts: NESFA Press, 2010) [coll: intro by Roz Kaveney: hb/Gregory Manchess]
- Palimpsest (Burton, Michigan: Subterranean Press, 2011) [novella: first appeared in Wireless (see above): hb/]
nonfiction
about the author
links
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