Halting State by Charles Stross Search Amazon for other books by or about Charles Stross. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

It is a few years in the future, 2018, and the world is a little bit more connected, a little bit more attached to the life online. People can more fully immerse themselves in the increasingly rich and developed virtual worlds in which they can shape themselves, their shape and their personality in ways which continue to escape them in the real world. New forms of interactivity provide games in which the real world and the worlds of the imagination collide and overlap: many people sign up as spies, for example, taking part in unexpected assignments on an urgent basis but rarely able to discern the higher level patterns that govern the nature of such a game. These virtual worlds are increasingly important on an economic basis as the time invested in them by customers is reinforced by monetary investment--there is the original registration fee and subscriptions, of course but, perhaps more important, there are the value-bearing objects (the magic swords, the wands of great power and so forth) which enable the player characters to have a greater level of control over the virtual world and over the interactions with other individuals. However, there are limits on how much individuals can physically carry, even in virtual worlds, as well as concerns about the inflation of power-bearing objects and so banks and safety deposit boxes are created as a means of quietly draining money from the game world. Alas, what would happen if such a bank were to be robbed? Dire problems for Hayek Associates, upon whose property this outrage is perpetrated and the nature of it the burglarious assault only adds insult to injury: a band of orcs acting as front line troops and porters with a seriously large red dragon along to provide artillery support as required. Such a thing seems to be impossible on several different levels and, even if it has happened, Sergeant Sue Smith, investigating officer of the Edinburgh constabulary, cannot really see what if anything she can do about it. The insurance company that suspects fraud/has identified a pretext for possibly refusing to pay out thinks differently and a team of high-powered types swoops down upon the offices of the Hayek people (the name is a nice touch).

This being Charles Stross-land, we are subsequently treated to a lengthy and detailed development of the original premise with vivid and mostly interesting protagonists follows by a break-out into a much broader perspective before the action is brought back to the personal level for the final denouement and the shackling of the guilty and the justification of the lesser sinners. As ever, ideas are emitted from the narrative at a very high rate and left twitching and wriggling where they are bashed against the walls of the reader's imagination. There are drunken interludes, partially-satisfying sexual encounters, revelations of injustice and cruelty and a good few jobs thrown in along the way. Some of the revelations, well one in particular, seems to me a little too much and a little out of place but tastes will no doubt vary about this. Rather than search for flaws or logical inconsistencies, which would be hard to avoid in such a busy plot and world as this, I would recommend going along with the flow and allowing the skilful and talented author go where he will with the action.

Readers familiar with the work of Charles Stross will know what to expect--those who have yet to come across him have a treat in store.