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Pass or Fail
Let me crib from wikipedia for a moment: the Bechdel test, named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, is a measure of the representation of women in film and other fiction. The test asks whether a work features at least...
Yet another novel I will no longer write
So, some years ago I blogged a whole bunch of times about books I wasn't going to write for one reason or another. Now, thanks to COVID-19, I can add another to the list. Some of you have been waiting...
The iron law of development
(Or: when fiction comes true, part 93.) I'm used to "Halting State" moments, when something I invented in a work of near-future SF slides disturbingly close to reality a few years later. I'm a lot less used to that happening...
Interlude: Swords! Or how I met Charlie, and became an author too
Back when the world was young, a large Goth (long hair and black clothes, rather than long hair, pointy helmet and lamellar as per Shieldwall: Barbarians!) threw me through a pile of chairs. As he helped me up, I realised he'd cured the nagging shoulder pain I'd been suffering. That miracle cure was the least of the many good things that stemmed from that moment. (Though if we'd turned it into an alternative therapy, perhaps we'd both be rich! Stand here madam. Try to relax while Igor lovingly hurls you through our stack of handcrafted homeopathic crystal chairs arranged on a bed of natural herbs according to a traditional feng shui pattern...)
The Rhesus Chart: Chapter One
(Note: this chapter was manually converted from the final manuscript. It may contain minor typos and other errata that differ from the published book.) "Don't be silly, Bob," said Mo, "everybody knows vampires don't exist." I froze with my chop...
Spook Century
Gratuitous link of the day: SpyMeSat is an iOS app that lets you know which satellites are looking at you. (No, it probably doesn't have the Evolved Enhanced CRYSTAL or Zirconic spysats, but these days your typical Indian or South...
Crib Sheet: The Apocalypse Codex
(I'm closing in on the end of this sequence, now: I'm going to establish a rule that I won't emit a crib sheet essay until a book has been out in its final edition in the US and UK for...
"Rule 34" moments
The 'chemputer' that could print out any drug. For implications, see "Rule 34". (Or 1998's "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling, for a look a little further down the line ... Bruce is always a decade ahead of the rest of...
The death of genre
This is not the blog entry you are expecting. Science Fiction literature is unusual in that much of the work within the field exists in constant dialog with other works. Author A writes something; Author B reads it and writes...
Sometimes I hate being right
Back when "Halting State" had just come out, I began having "Halting State moments"—flashes of deja vu when aspects of a work of near-future science fiction began cropping up in the news. Now I'm having Rule 34 moments:"At one major...
Rule 34 moments
Back while I was working on "Halting State" I had a number of what I called "Halting State moments" — the eerie experience of seeing something I'd invented for a near-future novel's background colour showing up in the news, in...
CMAP #9: Ebooks
There is no topic in the publishing industry this decade that is the source of as many misconceptions, superstitions, lies, plausible untruths, and idiocies as ebooks. Ebooks generate more email to my from my readers than just about any other...
Fiction by Charles Stross: FAQ
(Last updated March 7th, 2024) Who is Charles Stross Charles Stross, 59, is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of seven Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2014 Hugo awards for...
2009 Redux
Working today. (What, you thought I took Christmas off work? Hardly — but I've been lying on my back panting for the past week, having finished the first half third of "Rule 34", and you've got to go back to...
News from the Future Front
I'm going to be on the road again this week (same time, same place, same errand — more or less). In the meantime, though, here's this month's Halting State moment; the BBC report that the police are on course to...
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