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Glasshouse by Charles Stross
01/03/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Orbit. 388 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-393-0. Buy Glasshouse in the USA - or Buy Glasshouse in the UK  check out website: www.orbitbooks.co.uk www.orbitbooks.co.uk and www.antipop.org/charlie/index.htmlwww.antipop.org/charlie/index.html
The reality that surrounds 'Glasshouse' is only briefly touched upon. Set in the 27th century, travel between worlds is by either a fast teleport gate or slower interstellar spacecraft. There is also a lot of unrest and ex-war veterans wanting to forget what they've been through can choose to have some of their memories erased. When Robin finds people are still intent on killing him, he has a body and sex-change and becomes Reeve and hides in part of an experimental test colony called the Glasshouse.
Here they will be monitored as they re-enact a period from the 21st century with customs learnt from the textbooks. The initial number of real humans involved is relatively small and other members of the population, by all intents and purposes, programmed people nicknamed 'zombies'. The human inhabitants are expected to form husband and wife relationships and Reeve chooses Sam, mostly because he's the only one left unattached.
There is a period of adjustment and the regular Sunday meetings at church to meet the supervisor where they are graded as to how well they are doing. Things start to go wrong when a couple commit adultery and some of the human inhabitants form a lynch mob and hang them. There is also a case of another couple where the husband is abusing his wife and no one seems to want to stop it at first. Reeve unravels what is going on, tries to escape and finds her memory is tampered with.
Although this is a pleasant enough a read, I did think the ending and the twist demonstration of shall we say duplication came rather too quickly as if author Charles Stross decided there was something called a page count and wanted to draw the story to a close. Any swipes at current day reality aren't exactly pondered on, especially when it indicated that this reality is based on a mixture of at least a fifty year period and seems like a missed opportunity. There is no mention of the people pursuing Robin after the initial encounter and with his memory wipe, he or rather she could have been an entirely new character in a different story.
The observation of current day society as seen through future textbooks became somewhat muted, mostly I suspect from acknowledging the comparisons and needing to move the story along. If anything, the Glasshouse almost resembled a holographic version that I almost expected the discovery that events were actually going on inside their heads.
I came away from this book with mixed feelings. If anything, a little too contrived and formulaic. For a story set in the future, Stross seemed determined to forget various elements and continually re-invent while bringing a rabbit out of a hat as if to say, 'Did you miss this?' If you like safe SF then you'll enjoy this and it makes for an interesting page-turner but my instincts feel he could have raised the level more than he did here.
GF Willmetts
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