r/books • u/cstross • Jul 08 '15
ama I'm Charlie Stross, author of "The Annihilation Score"! Ask Me Anything!
I'll be around from 2pm EST (7pm BST) to answer your questions!
Attention conservation notice: back again, answering more questions this afternoon. (But this is the last round.)
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u/bwanab Jul 08 '15
You've previously written about your own burnout in the workplace and in Halting State Nigel mentions burnout in his own work experience. I've certainly seen it and experienced it myself. Do you think there's any escape other than leaving tech behind to write books or gaze at jellyfish?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Burnout is often a symptom of workplace stress, and in my experience it's usually caused by managers being idiots. Most people -- especially experienced workers -- don't need constant supervision: elbow-jogging causes a loss of self-confidence and self-respect. Some people are good at multi-tasking, others aren't: in my case I'm terrible at it (I'm at my best when working on a single multi-month -- or even multi-year -- project). Finally, we tend to easily lose track of the fact that almost all of us work to live: we don't live to work. Take a vacation! Pick up a hobby. Go for a long walk on a beach. And remember, in the bigger scheme of things, it's all transient
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u/lortik Jul 08 '15
Burnout is a huge problem in my industry (Information Security), and is always creeping up on you as a consultant. A few talks have surfaced due to the prevalence.
Jack Daniel Interview@ Bsdies Las Vegas
Jack Daniel Survival Skills for Infosec Pros
Ours comes from a fast paced heavy workload, and the simple fact that when I succeed in a pentest for a client I've just created a whole lot of work for a lot of people and I slightly feel guilty about it just a bit. A lot of us operate unmonitored, and without interaction unless we're on site, which can create a feeling of loneliness as well. We also have idiot managers who occasionally seem as though they're trying to chase you off from the company, but they don't last terribly long.
I couldn't agree more with getting a hobby, and I personally strongly recommend a physical one. I play rugby and fence, and it helps a lot to work out those feelings of frustration. But I still feel like I'm constantly approaching the edge, and I'm not sure if my tolerance is getting higher for the shit, or if I'm being successful in finding that happy medium long enough to stave off the burnout.
What other advice/steps to take or signs to watch out for can you give to individuals like myself who are battling their burnout?
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u/itwebgeek Jul 08 '15
Burnout is often a symptom of workplace stress, and in my experience it's usually caused by managers being idiots.
I'm considering printing this out, framing it, and hanging it above my desk right now.
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u/hazywakeup Jul 08 '15
Thanks so much for doing this! I'm newish to your work, so forgive me if I'm asking a silly question.
From reading Glasshouse, hearing about Rule 34, and seeing some of your personal blog posts and panel appearances, I gather that you support the idea of authors including more non-stereotypical diversity in their character casts when possible.
Whether or not that's true, do you have any thoughts on the topic? I'd be especially interested in hearing your personal reasons for choosing to represent the groups that you have. For instance, did it take a lot of research, or was it based mostly on real life experience? Was it a conscious choice, or just what felt right for each character?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I generally base my characters on what feels right for them in context. Abstract research will only get you so far when trying to describe identities and cultures you have no experience of, so to some extent I'm constrained by what I have direct experience of: travelling and meeting people is helpful.
It also helps to recognize that people who disagree with your own viewpoint or life choices are not [metaphorical] mustache-twirling villains; they've usually got sincerely held axiomatic beliefs that simply don't align with your own, their lived experiences reinforce their belief framework, and -- like all of us -- they're inconsistent from time to time. Not everyone wants to be just like me; that's fine, it makes the world a more interesting place and gives me more weird things to write about. Nor do I necessarily want to be just like you. But you shouldn't find that threatening: it just means I'm happy the way I am.
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u/hazywakeup Jul 08 '15
Thank you so much, this is helpful and insightful! I admire and appreciate your ability to make all sorts of readers feel included without making it the moral of the story (or making it sound like you're preaching out of your characters' mouths), and I will remember your advice.
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u/F0oker Jul 08 '15
Do you foresee a non scarcity based economy (like the end of accelerando) any time before the distant future?
Wouldn't we need quasi limitless resources to bootstrap the singularity and/or "space diaspora" needed for the human race to survive?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
i wish!
What I think is most likely is that we're about halfway to the physical limits on computation -- the computer revolution today is about where steam locomotives and railways where in 1900. Progress doesn't stop, it just slows, rapidly. The physical limits to our high energy transportation economy began to bite in the 1960s; to make progress now we have to work smarter, not simply throw extra resources at problems. So you've got things like SpaceX trying to build reusable cheap rockets, and really fast nuclear powered trains (they just leave the reactors beside the track and send current to the motors via overhead cables: it's less risky that way!) but we're not seeing nuclear-propelled interplanetary spacecraft or hypersonic airliners because our current energy economics don't really support them.
We're also pretty close to the crisis of capitalism, (c) Karl Marx, 1848. It's taken a long time to get here -- retarded if anything by the appalling attempt at building Communism on top of the creaking bones of the 19th century Russian Empire -- but if you can look around at the current state of the world and swear that everything is just fine with capitalism as it is practised today, then derp. We need something better before we cook ourselves in our waste heat or are enslaved and exterminated by the AIs we invented in the 18th century.
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u/F0oker Jul 08 '15
So, (and I apologise for the follow up) if someone like Elon Musk gets it right and we get a second chance somewhere with the current / near future tech level, but new government/society/ethos a la Martian colony, could we start anew and avoid the mistakes of giving money power? (somewhat akin to Robinson's Mars trilogy where corporations and immigrants still thinking like capitalists where pretty much seen as a threat)
Or are we doomed to live through "the decline of the American empire" and the subsequent dark ages?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I'm pretty sure that even if we could make a viable offworld colony and avoid the current mistakes, it would invent new and exciting mistakes all of its own. And because there are no other environments in the solar system where we can survive without life support for more than single-digit seconds, they'd probably be unpleasantly exciting (and non-survivable) mistakes.
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Jul 09 '15
We're also pretty close to the crisis of capitalism, (c) Karl Marx, 1848. It's taken a long time to get here -- retarded if anything by the appalling attempt at building Communism on top of the creaking bones of the 19th century Russian Empire -- but if you can look around at the current state of the world and swear that everything is just fine with capitalism as it is practised today, then derp. We need something better before we cook ourselves in our waste heat or are enslaved and exterminated by the AIs we invented in the 18th century[1] .
Did you know the Chinese stock market was going to crash harder today?
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u/Snubsurface Jul 09 '15
We should take a look at abandoned technologies and meld them with our new materials and understanding to allow a disconnection from the web of infrastructure we've come to depend on. Rely on. Would die without. Will do so, quite soon.
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Jul 08 '15 edited Oct 12 '16
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I have some ideas for another novel in that universe, but not enough to start writing it just yet -- and I've got enough other work on my plate that it couldn't be published before 2018/19 at the earliest. But yes: it involves a planet populated by humans, and their interactions with the nearer worlds ...
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u/TastyBrainMeats Jul 08 '15
Speaking as a (non-research) CS guy, sounds to me like our discipline is the richer for having you in it!
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u/Chronophilia Jul 08 '15
What a touching story :)
(You've met Gell-Mann? Please excuse my fanboyish giggles.)
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Jul 09 '15
Thanks for introducing Accelerando and its author, Charles Stross, into my life just with your single response.
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u/alexanderwales Jul 08 '15
You're one of relatively few authors to spread your literary seed across a number of very different genres. What are the benefits and pitfalls of this approach, as opposed to being someone who writes within a more narrow niche? Is this difference predicated more on what you enjoy writing, or some commercial aspect of the actual business of writing?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Genre is just a marketing label: it's there to help readers in a dead-tree bookstore or library find items similar to the other ones they liked. I try to pay as little attention to it as possible, and just write the stuff I want to write. (If making money was my priority, I ought to have gone into investment banking.)
Pitfalls: well, it confuses editors and booksellers. So it helps to keep your output just consistent enough they have a ghost of a hope of coming up with a marketing plan.
Benefits: if someone likes sub-genre A but doesn't regularly read sub-genre B, and you write in both, you might eventually get them to cross over and try something new.
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u/Jourdy288 Jul 08 '15
What pitfalls should young authors avoid falling into?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Uncritically accepting the advice of old farts like me would be one of them. (The conditions under which I learned my craft and began to publish no longer apply: anything I could tell you about the minutiae of the business is of questionable relevance.)
What I will say is: you can't write if you don't read, broadly and voraciously. You can't improve your writing if you don't try and stretch yourself in directions that challenge you and force you to experiment with new techniques. And you won't ever have any readers unless you finish at least some of your beginnings.
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u/Jourdy288 Jul 08 '15
Thank you for the advice! I'm definitely on board with reading broadly; I find inspiration in weird places.
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u/DCBiologist85 Jul 08 '15
Thanks for doing an AMA Mr. Stross! The r/books community greatly appreciates it.
My question is: Does your knowledge in computer science and pharmaceuticals influence your writing? I'm not very familiar with your work, so that might have an obvious answer. I was just curious to see if your knowledge in those two areas helped you create stories, characters, ideas, etc.
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Does your knowledge in computer science and pharmaceuticals influence your writing?
Yes. (Blinks in disbelief at the idea that somebody didn't know this.)
Obligatory joke: I graduated as the world's first academically qualified cyberpunk SF writer just as cyberpunk was declared dead.
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u/DCBiologist85 Jul 08 '15
My apologies. Like I said, I'm not very familiar with your work. I've been thinking about starting Saturn's Children or The Family Trade, perhaps you could make a recommendation?
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u/EclecticDreck Jul 08 '15
Saturn's Children remains the single greatest bit of misdirection I can recall reading. I saw it on a bookshelf and it had some weird anime inspired vaguely sexy thing which seemed out of place flanked as it was by pictures of starships and men in huge suits of power armor and so I picked it up. The premise on the jacket was sexbot in a world without humans. Almost as a joke I bought it expecting some sort of erotica garbage.
When I sat down the book as dawn filtered in through my window I was stunned that you could write a book about a sexbot in a world without humans, fill it with sex and hard sci fi all while presenting a philosophical quandary cool enough to turn over in my head for days afterward. I've never been more pleasantly surprised by a purchase.
Since that book was from a used book store, I went out and picked up a digital version of it and the sequel since I figured the author deserved my money.
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
The cover on "Saturn's Children" was a tribute to the original cover of Heinlein's Friday (the book "Saturn's Children" was not coincidentally a tribute to). Another un-coincidence: my editor on "Saturn's Children" had worked on "Friday" with Mr Heinlein ...
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
There's a run-down here that gives brief thumbnails of the books and explains how they fit together in series or as standalones. As there's about 20 of them so far, and more coming, and they fall into several categories (do you want near-future SF, lovecraftian/office/comp sci comedy, space opera, or ...) maybe this will help you decide?
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u/DCBiologist85 Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 09 '15
This website looks incredibly helpful, and will definitely make my decision easier. Thanks!
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u/llllIlllIllIlI Jul 08 '15
Speaking of cyberpunk...
I know fanboyism is probably looked on with some distaste but I didn't expect to see you on reddit so screw it.
Accelerando is the first piece of sci-fi I've read in years that actually made me giddy and excited about the current state of the world. If it means anything, I haven't had that happen to this degree since I first read Neuromancer probably a decade ago.
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Um, I've been on reddit for years. Mostly on r/printsf, but even so ...
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u/llllIlllIllIlI Jul 08 '15
Given your themes, I've no idea why this wouldn't be more obvious to me.
Anyway, cheers and let me know if you ever need a fixer in the godforsaken hole that is Buffalo, NY.
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u/thefnord Jul 08 '15
Mr Stross! Hello to you, to @feorag and the feline fellows.
My questions are -
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If you had to pick an author to pen a Laundry novel, who would you pick?
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If you could continue the oeuvre of another author, what series from what author would you shoulder?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
Q1: I'd be really interested in seeing what Neal Stephenson made of the Laundry universe. (Spoiler: he isn't available.)
Q2: I've written a John Varley novel (Glasshouse) and a [late period] Heinlein novel (Saturn's Children). I've iterated over British cold war spy thrillers (Len Deighton, Ian Fleming, Peter O'Donnell, Anthony Price). So I'm a bit burned-out on channelling other writers.
I'd love to see someone do justice to the late Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, but (a) he didn't leave any notes on the one he was planning before cancer so tragically intervened, (b) the designated collaborator if any notes existed would have been Ken MacLeod (not me), and (c) I'm not enough of a literary stylist to do justice to his universe.
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u/thefnord Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
Thank you so very much for your reply, sir. It's funny how just a little bit of interaction with someone I immensely respect and admire makes one's rubbish day markedly better.
Edit - The Culture novels were a complete do-over of my view of Science Fiction; my first poking at the question mentioned him by name, but I felt I should just let you answer without priming. I'd still be immensely curious to see your take on his Minds. And speaking of things I removed due to priming concerns, a Warren Ellis Laundry story would most likely be my pick, but I'm sure we all know how busy the bloke is nowadays, as well.
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Jul 08 '15
Firstly, thank you for many hours of entertainment. Do I give you more money by buying ebooks or paperbacks?
Did it bother you to kill off Angleton (Laundry Files spoiler)? Fantastic death, by the way.
Would you care to comment on Iain M. Banks legacy in British and world science fiction?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I get a higher royalty (percentage of sale price) from ebooks. Next is hardcovers; paperbacks pay badly. I also get more money from a book sale by a local specialist bookshop than a big chain like B&N or Waterstones, and a big chain bookstore pays better than Amazon.
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u/1pennythought Jul 08 '15
Can you recommend a place to buy the ebooks? BTW I have read so many of your books but I just stumbled upon this AMA and now can't think of anything. So here's just a big THANK YOU for so many hours I was allowed to spend in your universe(s).
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u/MantridDrones Jul 08 '15
I only recently realised Bob's initials were BOFH!!
do you frequent theregister still, or comment on it?
Also I really loved the Merchant Princes books, are there plans for anymore?
Cheers!
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I try to avoid The Register these days, but yes, that was a deliberate shout-out.
On the Merchant Princes ... the series title didn't sell, but you should keep your eyes open for a book titled "Dark State", very provisionally due out from Tor in September 2016. It'll probably be billed as the first book of the Empire Games trilogy, but it's really (don't tell anyone I said this) Merchant Princes book 7.
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u/ouroborostriumphant Jul 08 '15
Which (non-viewpoint) character in the Laundry series is most fun to write?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
I'm in danger of spoilering a book that doesn't come out until next year here: let's just say she's a character in "The Nightmare Stacks" and leave it at that until next July!
Let me expand on that:
"Equoid" is the Laundry universe take on unicorns.
You can therefore extrapolate pretty clearly what the Laundry universe take on elves would look like.
Now imagine what a Manic Pixie Dream Girl would look like in the Laundry universe -- and be afraid. (Is she manic because she's tripping on crystal meth and vampire blood, or was she just born like that?)
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Jul 09 '15
You can therefore extrapolate pretty clearly what the Laundry universe take on elves would look like.
I don't have to extrapolate. Just go and teach some math to Terry Pratchett's Elf Queen!
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u/neuronexmachina Jul 08 '15
This sounds awesome, I need to catch up on the Laundry series so I can read The Nightmare Stacks when it comes out. (Currently on Rhesus Chart)
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u/hnc89 Jul 08 '15
Mr Stross, I recently started Accelerando, it's not an easy read and I am not native speaker, but will finish it, promise. My question is: What is that one piece of technology, which you looking forward the most and why?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I'm getting pretty jaded with looking forward to new technology: after a bit you begin to see past the shiny and recognize the cold-bloodedly manipulative marketing behind it.
(I am hoping to receive a Waytools Textblade some time before the heat death of the universe, but that's kind of trivial.)
What I'd like most would be a healthy new body, without the accumulated malfunctions (not to mention aches and pains) that this middle-aged one has accumulated. Trust me, growing old sucks! (Not the life experience bit, but waking up every morning feeling like Wile E. Coyote after the anvil fell on him -- and that's just middle age.)
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u/webauteur Jul 08 '15
Do you think programming appeals to people with a penchant for the occult? In the sense that it is a dark art requiring mastery of arcane knowledge to perform wizardry.
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Oh hell yes, and vice versa! The crossover is huge: you need to look no further than TempleOS if you want a glaring example of the mysticism/programming nexus, or consider the history of numerology in kabbalism.
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u/chilari Jul 08 '15
Conversely to u/hourdy288's question: what pitfalls should young authors absolutely fall into, if only to learn an important lesson first hand (or for your amusement or that of someone else)?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Definitely go to an SF convention with a printed-out manuscript in a carrier bag, and go bug a senior editor to read it. This will get you lots of attention! (Worked for me when I was 18.)
NB: whether it's the kind of attention you want is another matter entirely.
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Jul 08 '15
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
A CS degree from 1990 and a decade-plus in the industry, although I've been writing fiction full time since 2005. It's a bit like having an aerospace engineering degree from 1926.
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u/elforastero Jul 08 '15
How that directly reference to Dresden files come to be? (I don't remember which one of the Laundry books was)...
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
The Rhesus Chart.
It came to be because my editor at Ace got into the habit of feeding me ARCs of Jim's novels before they came out, because I wheedled them out of her, because I'm a sad and pathetic fanboy.
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u/towo Jul 08 '15
Who do you always shelve near-future series sequels when the near-future doesn't pan out the way you'd think, e.g. the Halting State line?
Is it a market estimation thing or a kind of authorial narrative integrity issue? One would assume alternate timelines can still exists while invalidated by reality, since you do it in other series (e.g. Laundry).
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Authorial narrative integrity. And it's not an "always" habit: there's a different reason each time.
Also consider multi-book projects take many years to execute, and you're not always the same person by the time you get there that you were when you started. I'll bet the 20 year old you is not interested in the same things that interested you at 15, or 10, or 5 years of age; similarly, the 50 year old me currently writing the Laundry Files books isn't necessarily interested in the things that preoccupied by 35 year old me who wrote "The Atrocity Archives".
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u/towo Jul 08 '15
"Always" was just a filler word issue, sorry for that brainfart. Thanks for the response.
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u/psykocrime Jul 08 '15
I don't even really have a question to ask, just wanted to say that I really enjoy your books. I haven't read them all, but I've read all the Laundry Files to date, as well as Halting State and Glasshouse. Glasshouse was, BTW, absolutely amazing, and definitely deserves to be considered "literary fiction". If anything, I'd say that book is an existence proof that a book can be "genre" AND "literary".
Sadly, while I love your fiction, I think we are at odds politically, at least if I'm remembering some things I think I read on your blog correctly. Am I right in thinking that you have quite a bit of disdain for (American style) Libertarians? I suppose that thought does lead to an actual question: Do you ever try to make explicit political points in your fiction, to advocate for the things you personally believe in? Or do you try to keep your work and your politics separate?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I tend to think of Libertarianism as Leninism for Americans -- it's an elegant, consistent, purportedly globally applicable ideology that takes certain basic rules and extrapolates them to build a framework for living life and organizing society. And it can only work if the human beings trying to live in it are perfectly frictionless spheres of uniform density. Real human beings are gnarly and misshapen, with odd defects and virtues: no ideology can hold all the answers, because we're all different and, furthermore, our conditions change over time.
Yeah, I try to hammer that point in all my books. But I try to do so by painting a picture, not standing on a soap box with a megaphone, because that's boring.
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u/psykocrime Jul 08 '15
Thanks for answering, and I look forward to your next book. We may always disagree on politics to some extent, but I will certainly continue to enjoy your writing!
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Jul 12 '15
Leninism is pretty nice.
The longer I've been reading and thinking about the way stuff works, the more I think my libertarian acquaintances are just a right-wing and more self-interested version of the so-called Sunshine people*. (aka, useful idiots)
*naive, well-meaning. The kind of people who go bust Israeli blockade or advocate for moar immigrants because they have no clue about EU population density, and have never even bothered to read Putnam's findings about what multiculturalism does to communities..
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u/po8crg Jul 08 '15
You've said that you don't regard yourself as a good enough writer to pastiche John LeCarré or Graham Greene. What particular literary skills or talents did they posses that you don't feel you do?
Are there writing ideas that you've had and rejected because you didn't consider yourself skilled or talented enough as a writer to take them on?
If so, if you were suddenly to find the skills and talents of a LeCarré or a Greene, what ideas would you want to take on with your new-found talents?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Well, let's see: Graham Greene managed to die before they could give him the Nobel Prize for literature, and John LeCarre is merely one of the foremost literary novelists of his time -- sniffed at by some (because genre), but widely regarded as having elevated the spy thriller to the level the sniffees considered to constitute "great literature".
I generally try to push my limits -- consider The Annihilation Score as an example of an attempt to do an interior character study of a middle-aged professional woman -- but there is one problem with genre fiction: as Isaac Asimov pointed out, you need to make room for the ideas and the way to do that is to leave something else out.
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u/some-freak Jul 08 '15
i really liked halting state and rule 34 was freaking brilliant. i know that the lambda functionary got scuppered cuz the real world failed to coöperate, but are there plans to bring back some of its content in a future book? and more generally, any plans for other second person present tense novels?
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
No current plans for a second person book.
Plans are in hand for another near-future novel with some of the same ambiance and ideas -- but it's going to be very different (and it's not definitely scheduled yet: if it happens, it'll be a 2017 title in place of a Laundry Files novel, because I've just written three in consecutive years and need a change).
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u/KarlSolanas Jul 08 '15
I believe you've talked about this in your blog before, but what are the best venues for buying your books, both in physical and digital formats, such that you and your publishers get the most out of it? I understand that, although convenient, Amazon ranks pretty low at that.
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Pick a local specialist SF/F bookshop. They not only pay me a higher proportion of the cover price, but they provide a public service to people like you insofar as they're really cool places to find new shit.
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u/Dvorjk Jul 08 '15
Do Accelerando and Glasshouse take place in the same universe? The habitats linked together with t-gates at the end of Accelerando seem like they could be the distant ancestors of the civilisation in Glasshouse.
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
No they do not. (I originally planned to do a sequel to Accelerando, then saw sense, hence the superficial resemblance in settings ...)
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u/boomfarmer Jul 08 '15
Do Accelerando and The Rapture of the Nerds take place in the same universe?
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u/infinitewindow Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
Recently you cleaned up and re-wrote your six Merchant Princes novels into three larger novels for the UK market, and it seems to have worked; you're planning on writing more novels set in that universe, so the sales must have rebounded. I've never read any of those. Which versions should I get: the six as originally published, or the three as neatened up for the UK market? I don't even know if they're available as such in the US.
*Edit: never mind, in the fiction FAQ you linked above you explicitly say "Read the revised edition, it's MUCH better."
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
Read the omnibus versions. Not only are they cheaper but I made a lot of tweaks to tighten them up. Yes, they're available in the US from Tor.
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Jul 08 '15
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u/cstross Jul 08 '15
I wanted to broaden out the series -- make it not merely Bob's confessional, but a whole universe.
The next novel is already written in first draft, by the way: the viewpoint character is Alex (from The Rhesus Chart). Book 8 is due to be Bob again, but book 9 could be someone else entirely.
I'm not really a TV/film guy, so I can't comment on media adaptations. (If I was a film/TV guy I'd be writing scripts and pitches, not novels.)
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u/metaphysicalsnuggles Jul 08 '15
Thank you for your books - I hadn't heard of you until I picked up a copy of Halting State on a second hand bookstall in Amsterdam, and I've since read everything of yours I could get my hands on. Very excited to start The Annihilation Score this evening.
Is there a chance of you ever collaborating with Neal Stephenson on a book?
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u/Mister_DK Jul 08 '15
Was Mo already on Mahogany Row as AGENT CANDID?
What is the relationship between the Auditors and Mahogany Row?
Are all auditors on MR, but not all of the Invisible College auditors?
Do the auditors outrank MR, in either the organizational sense or that they can throw down well enough to enforce any dictates against people on MR?
Was Andy on MR? (He came when Bob called a meeting of it in RC, but Bob's pretty junior so it wasn't clear if that was MR turning out for him or just he was invoking their assets)
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u/BaptisteC Jul 08 '15 edited Jul 08 '15
First of all, thank you for all your work. Rule 34 managed to send me back in a 3-years-SF-binge-reading-frenzy after years off the thing.
Are we going to see more occult agencies from around the world in the Laundry Files? It seems to me we have been pretty much seeing only the US and the UK so far. Full disclosure: I haven't gotten around reading The Annihilation Score yet. And as a mathematically inclined French, I am always a bid sad inside when I remember you haven't yet used Cedric Villani as a character. Come on, if this guy is not a computational demonologist, who is?
I also wanted to ask whether you thought you wrote yourself into a corner in the Merchant Prince series but I'm delighted it's not the case. [edit: 1 question per comment so I split mine in two]
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u/nakedproof Jul 08 '15
I remember reading a piece where you really ragged on bitcoin, have your views changed at all since then?
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u/turlian Jul 08 '15
Hi Charlie,
Huge fan of the Laundry novels, but I'm a bit afraid to pick up your latest after reading The Rhesus Chart. I can understand that you need to make each novel independent in order to have somebody new to the series be able to jump right in wherever, but it seemed like TRC spent a ton of pages going over stuff we already know. After the previous novels, which did a great job of building a continuing foundation, the switch to spoon-feeding was a bit of a surprise. What can we expect with Annihilation?
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u/Sunfried Jul 08 '15
Reading Accelerando resulted in some deja-vu to my USENET days in the mid-90s, where we definitely read some of the same stuff if not necessarily crossed paths. (self-*plonk*)
I find that what I got from USENET I now get mostly from reddit (content wise, at least, if not the familiarity with people). Do you still use USENET? Do you have a replacement community? I've seen you around MeFi from time to time, but I don't know if you're active there.
Thanks for your time and I'm elated to see a new Laundry novel. The Rhesus Chart left us with plenty of uncertainty for the future for Bob, so I look forward to seeing how things are turning out.
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u/heresybob Jul 08 '15
No question - just a big thanks for Laundry Files, Accelerando, Saturn's ... oh, fuck it, when you were thinking up cybernetic lobsters and the ownership of Beatles tunes, did you giggle to yourself?
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u/lurgi Jul 08 '15
You seem to cover all the writing questions well on your blog (and many other things besides), so here's something else.
Societies of different types need different numbers of people to survive. Hunter/gatherers don't need much more than their own clan to keep their civilization going. Move to farming and you need more people doing more things. As the society gets more and more complex you need more and more people just to keep the society running. You couldn't maintain an early 21st century lifestyle on a world with just 10,000 people (10,000,000? Maybe). BTW - I'm not trying to rank all societies on simple scale from worse to better, even though it may sound like it.
I can imagine that you start to run into problems if the number of people required to maintain the society is a significant percentage of the number of people in the society. Any thoughts as to where that percentage might fall?
But it's also not that simple. Once you get beyond a certain point (automation and self-repairing machines), you might find that you need fewer and fewer people to maintain your lifestyle (taken to the extreme, I'm the king of my own planet, serviced by intelligent machines). Long term survival of humanity might require us to reach this point (which is not the same as the singularity, but isn't entirely unrelated). Again, your thoughts?
Probably not what you were expecting...