Glasshouse begins with Robin (the narrator) in rehabilitation after memory surgery. The surgery turns out to have been unusually extensive – Robin is uncertain about all of his past, including his reasons for removing so much of his memories. He soon suspects that someone is trying to kill him, due to something in his past life.

When he is invited to participate in a psychological experiment recreating 20th century society, closed off from the outside world, it seems like a good idea – the bad guys will never be able to find him there!

Inside the experiment, Robin and his co-subjects have to get used to the obsolete concepts of marriage, jobs, church etc, plus (relative) material deprivation and physical danger. The subjects lose all the perks of the 28th century – fabrication machines, an ever-present network connection, body rebuilding, and consciousness backups (which effectively assure their immortality). Even worse, the rules (which he has consented to) include no communication with the outside world, no way to get out, and almost nothing in the way of civil rights.

The subjects get points for acting in character, and negative points for breaking the rules. This is enforced by extensive surveillance, plus enthusiastic tattling by your team members, since points are shared.

The experiment is a sort-of humourous look at our times, both because of how odd some of our modern habits seem to them, and because of the inevitable misinterpretations. Enough to make me wonder how future historians might really see us – and how much we have gotten backwards of the history and archaeology we think we know.

Anyway, Robin soon becomes suspicious of the experimenters’ aims and senses something sinister behind this project. Slowly he finds out just how sinister it is, and by the end he’s fighting not just for his life, but for mankind’s freedom.

Glasshouse is a hardcore SF thriller with good pace, lots of suspense, great storytelling and interesting ideas. Stross keeps surprising all the way to the end. Lots of fun.

Amazon US, Amazon UK.

Here’s a somewhat critical review whose author read the book far more attentively than I did and saw all kinds of things that I never even noticed.