Awards
2008 Hugo Award nominee Best Novel
2008 Locus Award nominee
Synopses & Reviews
Now in paperback from the author of
Saturn's Children.
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.
Review
"[A] fast-paced, skillfully constructed computational mirror-maze." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"This is his tightest-plotted novel to date, a detective story with a million perfectly meshed moving parts, and a hundred magnificent surprises that had me gasping and shouting YES (to the general alarm of the guy in the next seat on my airplane)....[A] book that will change the way you see the way the world works." Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
Review
"Stross again displays his genius for envisioning a complex future society that appears all-too-inevitable." Booklist
Review
"[A]nother winner for Charles Stross, a writer who has more than ably grabbed the high-tech baton from last century's forebears...and is still running laps with it, without any sign of tiring." SFReviews.net
Review
"Hugo Award winner Stross's fast-paced sf techno-thriller shows promise as a series opener and belongs in most libraries." Library Journal
Synopsis
In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. A daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates, a dot-com startup company that's just been floated on the London stock exchange. 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. For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But she soon realizes that the virtual world may have a devastating effect in the real one and that someone is about to launch an attack upon both...
Synopsis
"Halting State is] a near-future story that is at once over-the-top and compellingly believable." - Vernor Vinge, author of Rainbows End In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. A daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates--a dot-com start-up company that's just floated onto the London stock exchange. But this crime may be a bit beyond Smith's expertise.
The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four, and the robbery was supposed to be impossible. When word gets out, Hayek Associates and all its virtual "economies" are going to crash hard.
For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But the deeper she digs, the bigger the case gets. There are powerful players--both real and pixelated--who are watching her every move. Because there is far more at stake than just some game-head's fantasy financial security...
About the Author
Charles Stross is a full-time writer who was born in Leeds, England in 1964. He studied in London and Bradford, gaining degrees in pharmacy and computer science, and has worked in a variety of jobs, including pharmacist, technical author, software engineer, and freelance journalist.