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A review by misterjay
Wireless by Charles Stross
5.0
It's always interesting to read single author story collections. As a reader, you can see themes and ideas as they form and interbreed across stories. In fact, that seems to be the point of this collection:
Two of the stories collected here show the origins of Stross' popular Laundry novels. "Colder War" and "Missile Gap" are variations on the ideas of Cthulu, Cold War, alternate history, and ways in which we're all doomed and don't even know it, and how they might all interact in the confines of a story.
Likewise represented is Stross' nascent far future world of humanity's orphaned, robotic, children, seen in the novel "Saturn's Children" and here in the story "Trunk and Disorderly." Given that the former is somewhat dystopic, almost bleak, in parts, finding that the universe started as a comedic, far future, take on a Wooster and Jeeves novel was, to say the least, interesting.
Other stories provide glimpses into Stross' favorite ideas, although with less clear-cut connections. Having said that, there are a few stories that don't seem to fall into one of the general patterns. "Snowball's Chance," for example, is a fun story but a far, far cry from the far futurism and alternate history on display elsewhere in the collection. That's not really a bad thing however, as each story in the collection is well written and highly readable; truthfully, it's one of my favorite single author collections.
This is highly recommended for any fans of Stross', far futurism, the cold war, Cthulu, deals with the devil, runaway farms, or just your standard drunken dwarf mammoth.
Two of the stories collected here show the origins of Stross' popular Laundry novels. "Colder War" and "Missile Gap" are variations on the ideas of Cthulu, Cold War, alternate history, and ways in which we're all doomed and don't even know it, and how they might all interact in the confines of a story.
Likewise represented is Stross' nascent far future world of humanity's orphaned, robotic, children, seen in the novel "Saturn's Children" and here in the story "Trunk and Disorderly." Given that the former is somewhat dystopic, almost bleak, in parts, finding that the universe started as a comedic, far future, take on a Wooster and Jeeves novel was, to say the least, interesting.
Other stories provide glimpses into Stross' favorite ideas, although with less clear-cut connections. Having said that, there are a few stories that don't seem to fall into one of the general patterns. "Snowball's Chance," for example, is a fun story but a far, far cry from the far futurism and alternate history on display elsewhere in the collection. That's not really a bad thing however, as each story in the collection is well written and highly readable; truthfully, it's one of my favorite single author collections.
This is highly recommended for any fans of Stross', far futurism, the cold war, Cthulu, deals with the devil, runaway farms, or just your standard drunken dwarf mammoth.