

Why there won't be a third book in the Halting State trilogy - danohuiginn
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/12/psa-why-there-wont-be-a-third-.html

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jwr
The message is very clear: Charlie, you must write faster. Because of your
lazy ways, you're not keeping up with reality, and reality has just caught up
with you (in the sf writer world that is a bad thing, remember).

So crank it up already.

~~~
kbenson
Not necessarily. Gibson has weathered it well, IMHO.

~~~
auxbuss
I think jwr is attempting to wind-up Charlie, given his notoriety for tweeting
his daily word counts and the degree of trauma that this has caused him; often
doused by evening libations in a local hostelry.

None of which is an excuse for his sluggishness.

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alan_cx
I reckon that there must be a lot of writers out there thinking: "Hell, it was
meant to be a cautionary tale, not a creepy government manual".

Although, I do think that in essence we are seeing nothing new from
governments, just new ways to perform the old tricks, with greater efficiency.

Hmmmm, now I wonder if the actual problem is efficiency. We mere humans are
pitted against technology we simply have no sporting chance against.

~~~
salient
Yeah, the last thing we need is another _manual_ for how governments should
control the society in the future, as if 1984 wasn't enough. My guess is the
people in NSA are already thinking about how to implement a Minority Report-
like pre-crime system, that can be shared with all government agencies.

~~~
mikeash
Precrime has been around since at least 2001 when the no-fly list was created.

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gaius
That's fine, I'd rather another Laundry book anyway.

~~~
JulianMorrison
Except, those sorta feel a bit worryingly realistic too, these days.

~~~
walshemj
Yes real question is will Bob ever get that cat5 cabling project finished

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kabdib
Dammit, Charlie, stop writing predictive near-future fiction! :-)

~~~
walshemj
Actually I could think of some nasty disutopias post Scottish independence if
there's a hung election and the hardline nats get their way.

~~~
teh_klev
Well go ahead and enlighten us rather than trolling this thread with baseless
Better Together FUD.

Edit: I just saw the full version of your comment on Stross's website:

 _" And post Independence disutopias I could think of a few real world nasty
outcomes for that as my Red Clydeside comrade said the NAT's have a (now well
disguised) nasty sectarian/racist streak."_

Disclosure: I've been a SNP voter for all of my voting life (~29 years) and a
card carrying member on and off during that time. I've encountered many
criticisms about the SNP, some of which I agree with, others not, but that's
quite a serious accusation and one I've never encountered, maybe you could
cite examples of this? I've met plenty of sectarian voters who vote Scottish
Labour (having campaigned for the party in Glasgow many times), but I wouldn't
accuse the Scottish Labour party of having a hidden seedy sectarian
underbelly.

~~~
walshemj
yeh you right its both "traditions" As one of my Scottish colleagues said the
thing that saddened him him about Scotland was the "nasty element of anti
englishnes" and sectarianism that was common. And he was very knowledgeable
about scotish politics and his facility with "engineering" language makes
malcom tucker look like a middle class mommys boy.

There are parts of Scotland where I would feel uncomfortable coming from a
mixed (RC/PROD) background.

I could see a post Independence Scotland pandering to right wing anti
emigration lobby and or religious or anti gay presure - the same thing
happened in Northern Ireland John Major had his feet held to the fire by the
hardline unionists -

I think thats on the far end but in the context of a future sf dysutopia not
that much of a stretch after all coutrys like Holland had far right
politicians making ground.

~~~
arethuza
"I could see a post Independence Scotland pandering to right wing anti
emigration lobby and or religious or anti gay presure"

There are far right nutters everywhere - but I like to think we actually have
relatively few of them in Scotland, certainly UKIP seems to be doing
remarkably badly here:

[http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/11/18/ukip-s-scotland-
op...](http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/11/18/ukip-s-scotland-operation-
falls-apart)

~~~
walshemj
Well the EU is seen positively by Scotland as it gets a fair bit of subvention
for infrastructure.

Though go to one of the fishing ports and ask a Scottish fisherman about
fishing quotas and You might get a different answer.

~~~
teh_klev
The EU and Europe is seen as valued by Scots because of things like the
European Convention on Human Rights [1] which the current Westminster
government are doing their damnedest to undermine.

Also Europe is a huge trading partner for Scotland. I'm not saying the EU is
without its faults, but at least an Independent Scotland would ensure Scots
have a better say in European policies than the efforts being made by Cameroon
and Co.

I agree that fishing in Scotland has suffered badly over the past 20 years,
but the blame is squarely with Westminster and the Scottish parliament hasn't
been able to do much to reverse the current situation because it's a reserved
matter.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_R...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights)

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chiph
UK leaving the EU. Scotland leaving England (but presumably still a
Commonwealth nation...). So take that to the extreme, with the return to city-
states, Burning-Man style with citizens moving house in their shipping-
container homes as their loyalties/desires change.

~~~
jerf
One of the great stories of the political landscape today is the... impedance
mismatch, for lack of a better word... between technology enabling ever more
decentralized control (and for "control", read "government"), and the fact
that everywhere you look, centralized governments are expanding their power.

It's one of those thing we're all too close to see clearly, and I do not
exempt myself from that problem, but I suspect in a hundred years it'll be one
of the "big stories" told about this time period.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
Strange how centralized governments everywhere are expanding their power under
what are, universally, "small government" neoliberal regimes.

~~~
Nutella4
Not strange at all. Neoliberals are for big government everywhere except
government regulation of big business. They want government and big business
to work together as one organization of plutocrats to control everything.

~~~
eru
Have you burned all the strawmen, yet?

~~~
jerf
Again, by words, "nobody" wants that. By actions... there's plenty of
governing official that clearly do. Many of them have a "liberal" label on
them. Many of them have other labels on them, too. Labels aren't as
interesting as actions, though; distracting people with labels is one of their
prime tools.

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jobigoud
I love Charles Stross but I've had a really hard time with the second person
narrative in Halting State.

~~~
Sharlin
At first it felt weird, after a few pages it started to feel like a fun
gimmick, and after a few more pages I didn't really even notice it anymore.

