Grey Lotus

Review

Rating: 5

An interesting style and an optimistic view of what telecommunications in the future may hold. Halting State has a couple of oddities going for it… most unusual being that it’s written in the 2nd Person. I’ve never seen that for an entire novel.

As for the plot, I’m afraid that’s the weakest link. This is basically an Idea-based story heavily centered on cyberspace and the development of the internet in the near future. The characters aren’t particularly compelling, though they aren’t necessarily bad either… just not really the focus of the story. The plot itself is kind of convoluted and, in my opinion, comes to an unsatisfying and rather sudden conclusion. The three main characters basically blunder around until the solution stumbles into them, barring a moment of inspiration here and there.

Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the book. Stross has a very keen insight into upcoming technologies, though I have my doubts that they’ll be that advanced in a mere ten years. Eight years, now, but the book was written a few years back. It is, basically, a story that shows off how the internet might be integrated into common life some day. Many of the technologies used, particularly information overlays, are under development now or even in use on the iPhone or the like. I do have my doubts that drone-controlled cars will be coming along any time soon, sadly, but maybe a decade from now I’ll be proven wrong.

I can’t really recommend this book to a casual reader, honestly. While it was entertaining, I suspect that was only the case because I’m an IT professional who does a lot of work with the internet backbone, and this is a book about… the internet backbone. It was enjoyable, and it made me curious of the author’s other works, but I wouldn’t rush out to get it.