Hardcover, 352 pages
English language
Published June 27, 2006 by Ace Hardcover.
When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn't take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him. It's the 27th century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities and target historians. The civil war is over and Robin has been demobilized, but someone wants him out of the picture because of something his earlier self knew. On the run from a ruthless pursuer, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse, constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities: it looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape-proof environment, Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters--and the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche.--From publisher description
стилем дещо нагадує стефенсона, але сміливість фантастазії — типово строссівська. вельми читабельна фантастика!
Fairly standard fun generic hyper futuristic universe where death is no longer a problem, and you can get downloaded into bodies of whatever gender, shape, type you want. Interesting twist is that characters have had their mind wiped to deal with the longevity of their lives, to deal with lost loved ones, or heinous crimes commited.
Briefly of covers some of the problems relating to gender discrimination and gender dysphoria and then kind of decides that it wants to be a standard sci-fi action book (which is fun, but I've read a few of those now) by forcing the characters into a 1950's-ish (mostly ish) society, and swapping round their genders.
Sort of got tired of it half way though, but this seems to happen a lot with Stross books, then it picked up again towards the end.
