Halting State

bad reviews

I found it surprisingly tough to finish this book. It wasn't the second-person perspective (which I didn't notice until reading other reviews), and it wasn't that the story lacked any interesting ideas, but somehow everything felt jumbled together in a way I couldn't get fully engaged with.

Surprisingly, the most interesting parts of the story had nothing to do with the overt “theme” of virtual/game worlds advertised by the cover text, celebrity testimonials etc. Hidden behind the seemingly pointless talk of LARPing and orcs is a story about a threat that is much closer (as in, it could happen tomorrow) than any augmented reality overlay or VR world. The exception to this was the SPOOKS game, which ironically wouldn't require any technology more advanced than a cell phone.

In general, I feel like this story would have been more compelling and easier to follow if it was present-day fiction rather than some vague near-future sci fi.

This was brilliantly cool on multiple different levels:

1) The voice. Stross wrote the novel in second-person, and I think it's the only time I've read a second-person novel. It's much more naturalistic and easy to read than your English lit teachers told you it would be.
2) The plot. Bank robberies that happen in the middle of an MMORPG are a fascinating cyberpunk twist on a classic genre and the blending of real-world political implications with game dynamics makes for a really cool story.
3) On a personal level, I was reading this in the immediate post-Brexit aftermath, so the idea of Scotland being independent from England and being in the EU in 2018 was no longer necessarily anachronistic :o) (Seriously, though: internet crime is by nature international, and the difficulty in managing that while working within a nation-state paradigm made for a really interesting plot element)

What we have here is a thriller set in a near-future independent Scotland, in which a cop, an IT geek, and an accountant try to solve what initially appears to be an in-game heist inside an MMORPG, but gradually turns out to be rather more. It's well-paced, with plenty of geeky references and some of Stross' rather off-the-wall touches of humour.

The thing one can hardly fail to mention, though, is that it's written in second person, present tense. The intent, of course, is to make it sound like a GM's narration (“you walk down the corridor, and see...”). I found it a little off-putting to begin with, but quickly got used to it, and yes, I have to admit that it works.

All in all, I found this good, intelligent fun.

I love games. I run a game club at the elementary school wear I work. I play board games with friends every Saturday. I've done video games, pen and paper RPGs, and a messload of Tabletop games. I feel that games are great training for life and give people much needed practice at strategy and cooperation.

Halting State takes that idea to the next level.

The book is clearly a different sort of novel from the beginning. It is told in the second person, immediately immersing the reader into one of three characters alternating by chapter. At first, this was a little disconcerting, especially trying to make my brain read in a thick Scottish brogue, but I was able to adjust to it and appreciate Stross' finesse with his theme. In any case, Stross creates such a fascinating vision of the future, the reader wants to inhabit the world.

The story centers around the idea of Life as Game. Most people in the future LARP, but they do it with the assistance of augmented reality glasses(neatly prediction of Google Glass in 2007). The glasses are as common and indispensable as smart phones today, and indeed are basically an app (again, this was written in 2007 before smart phones were indispensable). Cops use the glasses to tag and read information about locations and people, gamers use it to take a trip to the Plateau of Leng or Discworld instead of their morning commute. The plot involves the ways such a tech dependence could be exploited. Yet, Stross sets the book in Edinburgh and makes reference to how very little has changed. Coffeemakers are more complicated, but stone buildings don't fall down. Cars can drive themselves, but no one can bug a piece of paper. Stross cautions against putting all our eggs in the wireless basket, but he makes a point of emphasizing the real world we have to fall back on.

The characters, our guides through this world, are all believable and easy to inhabit. I especially appreciate that Stross uses two female narrators, both of whom are written as characters and instead of stereotypical damsels or “Strong Female Protagonist” archetypes. They are real characters with real strengths and weaknesses. Stross even uses two female police officers. Admittedly, Liz Kavanaugh is much more interesting than our narrator, Sue Smith, and I'm quite excited to know that the next book in this universe has Liz as the lead protagonist. Sue's chapters are a bit more dragging than Elaine's or Jack's, probably because Sue is there to be the non-technical interpreter for readers like me who know next to nothing about code or accounting. Jack and Elaine, on the other hand, are very fun personas to slip on, especially Elaine, the Claymore wielding accountant.

The technical details of the plot did go pretty far over my head, and I think the ending would pack a lot more punch for people better versed in technology than I am, but regardless of your level of expertise in the field, you should be able to appreciate Stross' vision of the future. You truly fill as if you are playing Spy vs. Spy, reading the flavor text and preparing for your character's next move. I highly recommend this book to fans of MMORGs and anyone who thinks maybe we are a little too plugged in these days.

Honestly, I didn't get very far in the book. I couldn't get past the second-person narrative conceit. I like Stross, but I don't need the “Oh, I am an auteur!” bullshit getting in the way of the story.

From the back cover:
In the year 2018, a daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates. The suspects are a band of marauding orcs, with a dragon in tow for fire support, and the bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four. But Sergeant Sue Smith discovers that this virtual world robbery may be linked to some real world devastation.

The story is told from the perspective of three characters (and in the second-person style of video game instructions). There's Sargeant Sue Smith of Edinburgh's finest; Elaine Barnaby, a forensic accountant; game-developer Jack Reed (who has a few well-hidden secrets). This techno-crime thriller has a number interesting ideas (some of which are waaaay esoteric). Along the way, there are various terms like LARP, griefing, and nerfing that it helps to be aware of. It's pretty cool and of course, as the characters start digging into the mystery, it gets bigger and more dangerous. Although I'm not a gamer, I enjoyed the story, but I imagine gamers would get even more out of it. Much of the author's ideas seem all too plausible.