Missile Gap

by Charles Stross, J.K. Potter (Illustrator)

It's 1976 again. Abba are on the charts, the Cold War is in full swing -- and the Earth is flat. It's been flat ever since the eve of the Cuban war of 1962; and the constellations overhead are all wrong. Beyond the Boreal ocean, strange new continents loom above tropical seas, offering a new start to colonists like newly-weds Maddy and Bob, and the hope of further glory to explorers like ex-cosmonaut Yuri but nobody knows why they exist, and outside the circle of exploration the universe is inexplicably warped. Gregor, in Washington DC, knows but isn't talking. Colonel-General Gagarin, on a years-long mission to go where New Soviet Man has not gone before, is going to find out. And on the edge of an ancient desert, beneath the aged stars of another galaxy, Maddy is about to come face-to-face with humanity's worst fear???

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Horror, Short Stories, Novella, Fantasy

99 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy.

Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Richard Morgan.

SF Encyclopedia: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...

Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/author/charle...

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Stross's "Missile Gap" is Yet Another Stross replay of the Cold War, set on a Very Big Dumb Object.... I can't say much more without spoiling the fun (which has a dismal outcome, for us Old Humans), except to say that "Missile Gap" will leave you scratching your head, wondering what the hell really happened. Who was that CIA 'man'? Veterans of rec.arts.sf.science will see the results of Charlie's past inquiries about ekranoplans. Stross is an astonishingly inventive author who's giving staid old SF some well-needed kicks in the pants. Stories like this are why I keep reading this stuff.
[Review written c. 2006]

Publishers Weekly described the novella as a "blend of 1900s H. G. Wells and 1970s propaganda, updated for the 21st century in the clear, chilly and fashionably cynical style that lets Stross get away with premises that would be absurdly cheesy in anyone else's hands."

Updated link to archived online copy of the novella: https://web.archive.org/web/201712120...

[Ardent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neznama entita sa rozhodla olupat Zem v roku 1962 a natiahnut ju na Aldersonov disk. Alebo urobila jej kopiu. Kazdopadne, ktokolvek alebo cokolvek co dokaze vytvorit Aldersonov disk a presunut svet nejakych milion rokov neskor je zaujimave a ma zjavne svoje plany.

Ked sa z gule stane doska s rovnakou lokalnou gravitaciou, vedlajsim efektom je ze medzikontinentalne rakety prestanu fungovat (resp. vzhladom na to, ze gravitacia sa nezmensuje podobne ako na sferoide s pribudajucou vyskou, ich dolet rapidne klesne).
Toto dost zmenilo geopoliticku situaciu - ked zrazu nemozte poslat z USA do ZSSR balisticku raketu cez severny pol, doktrina MAD prestava fungovat a v zapadnej Europe sa ludia urychlene ucia citat azbuku...

Technologie sa musia prisposobit novemu svetu, ale ako to uz byva, je jednoduchsie postavit namiesto ICBM SLAM, nez zmenit sposob rozmyslania nad civilizaciou, zelenymi muzikmi (nie z Krymu) a filozofiou...

Posledna veta (volny preklad z pamate) - Na inych castiach disku hra opice a mravca pokracuje, ale tu a teraz je rozhodnute a nie je tu ludskych vitazov

Velmi pozitivne hodnotim odkaz na (nielen) Strugackich ohladom toho ze kazda dostatocne vyspela civilizacia musi nevyhnutne byt komunisticka (brothers communists from the stars!), paralelu Gagarinovho Ekranoplanu a Enterprise, Gagarina a Kirka etc.
Za mna jedna z top knih. Ano, dala by sa kludne napisat na 800 stran a bolo by pisat o com, ale na 100 stranach obsahuje vsetko co potrebuje :)

[Hedoga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Madre mía ... si tomo distancia, a lo mejor hasta soy capaz de ver que efectivamente debajo de todo hay una historia de ficcgión, pero, ¡demonios! me ha costado 7 días leerlo y no es ná ...

Mucho Premio Locus, pero os aseguro que me ha parecido un tostón ... y al final, encima, me he quedado con cara de ¿ cómo ... ? ¿ que ya ... ? ¿ no hay más ... ? ¡ p'os vaya !

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

’Brecha nuclear’ es una recopilación que la editorial Grupo AJEC compiló especialmente para el mercado español. Se trata tres relatos de ciencia ficción que mezclan sabiamente la ucronía con el hard y ciertos toques lovecraftianos, todo ello impregnado de una fina ironía. Esta mezcla puede parecer arriesgada, y hasta cierto punto absurda, pero Stross sale airoso al no explicar los fenómenos hasta la saciedad, sino dándolos por hechos, para de esta manera centrarse en las historias.

Estos son los tres relatos incluidos en ’Brecha nuclear’:

Brecha de misiles (Missile Gap, 2006). El escenario resulta fascinante: un buen día, la Tierra es pelada como una uva y abducida y depositada en una especie de disco de dimensiones asombrosas, con lo que la Tierra ya no es redonda, sino plana. Esto tiene graves implicaciones, entres ellas el que la fuerza gravitatoria impide el despegue de cohetes. A todo esto, hay que decir que la historia como tal es diferente a la que conocemos: la Guerra Fría sigue más vigente que nunca, así como la lucha por el poder a nivel mundial entre EE.UU. y la Unión Soviética. Bajo estas extraordinarias condiciones, tanto ambientales como socio-políticas, se desarrolla la historia que nos propone Stross, que se alzó con el Premio Locus en 2007. Es un buen relato, pero me parece ue podría haber dado para más, ya que Stross lo finiquita de manera bastante apresurada.

Una guerra más fría (A Colder War, 2000). En este relato, como en el anterior, el enfrentamiento entre EE.UU y la URSS sigue vigente hoy en día. La peculiaridad, esta vez, reside en que Stross introduce los Mitos de Cthulhu de Lovecraft en la trama. Resulta que los seres creados por Lovecraft son reales, y las dos potencias quieren hacerse con ellos, pese a existir un tratado en el que se acordó por ambas partes a no hacer uso de los mismos. Pero parece ser que los soviéticos pueden estar preparando algo para su guerra en Afganistán. Armas nucleares, portales a otros planetas, espionaje, política, shoggoths, etc., en un relato original, sin duda, pero algo irregular en su desarrollo.

En la Loquería (Down on the Farm, 2008). Este es un relato encuadrado dentro del mundo creado por Stross en sus obras ‘The Atrocity Archives’ y ‘The Jennifer Morgue’. La historia está protagonizada por Bob Howard, un agente de La Lavandería, una sección secreta del gobierno británico que se dedica a resolver fenómenos sobrenaturales. A Bob se le encomienda la misión de entrar en la Loquería, una especie de asilo para agentes altamente peligrosos que fueron afectados por fenómenos taumatúrgicos. Buen relato, que te deja con ganas de saber más cosas sobre La Lavandería.

Recapitulando, se trata de tres historias atractivas y originales, que sin ser extraordinarias, cuanto menos entretienen.

[Nikola Tasev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, just wow. I read it in one sitting. It's not very long, and I admit, it has some 'not as interesting as the rest' parts, but the style was clever, and the ending was the the greatest Grand Finale I've read in some time.
Someone, or something, has moved the whole surface of the Earth and placed it on a solar-system-sized disk. Is this a superinteligent race experiment, or a simulation? What are the implications?
Humanity is deprived of spaceflight, but given endless territory to explore and colonize, so what happens? The book shows how the politicians, scientists, explorers and colonists react. Will the possible danger from other races thump the danger of real ideological enemies expanding beyond proportion?
The story offers a lot of questions, and even some answers. Make no mistake, this is a short story, and it feels finished. But the setting is so epic it just cries for more stories in the same world.

[Veeral · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second novella this year after Connie Willis's Fire Watch (which was just above average kind of a read).

This novella served as an introduction to Charles Stross's works to me and I think it was not a bad place to start. The amount of detail Stross crammed into this less than 100 pages novella was really amazing. With characters like Yuri Gagarin and Carl Sagan, Stross successfully managed to held my attention throughout. And the illustrations were funny too.

The staggering dimensions of the flat-earth and intelligent alien insects in this alternative historical setting made me wish that this was a full length novel rather than just a novella.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a frustrating story because it could be a great novel and instead it just kept almost being great. I kept getting lost which seemed completely unnecessary. There were great ideas but 1) a novel was probably called for to do the ideas justice, and 2) great ideas tank if the writing and editing confuse the reader.

Stross wrote a blurb at the end in his "Wireless" collection where he expressed his discomfort at far future sci-fi writing. It really is too bad he feels that discomfort, because this could have been a classic novel if he were comfortable. I could see it being much better than Ringworld for example. There were many more fun ideas to play with.

I loved the use of Carl Sagan as a main character.

[Xan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mundo Anillo + Mundodisco + 4 cervezas + 4 chupitos whisky + unos cuantos cigarrillos aromáticos + noche de cine clásico: Dr Strangelove + Cuando ruge la Marabunta + La invasión de los ultracuerpos = Brecha de Misiles

Se queda corta, demasiados personajes y demasiadas tramas para tan pocas páginas.

[birdbassador · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wish sci fi writers weren't so impressed with a) math and b) endings.

might just be my hangup though

[Costin Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Missile Gap is a mere novella by Charles Stross, which frustrates the reader when the story ends. The universe the author describes is so interesting and full of potential, but it is only used once, for a short story that ends suddenly and depressingly.

Well, imagine the world of 1976, suddenly finding itself transplanted on a huge artificial disk that spans enough to provide space for millions of planets Earth. Nobody explains how or why it happened and the few realities that the world has come to accept, like the ability to reach outer space, or a finite geopolitical area which can be controlled via routes on a sphere and the threat of ballistic missiles, have flown out the window. Yuri Gagarin is leading a 5 year mission of exploration on the other continents on the disk, to go where no man has gone before, while Carl Sagan is trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Are there other species on the disk? Whodunnit? Why? Very few answers are provided as ideological differences, transplant shock and paranoia, plus a few other agents that I am not going to spoil - the name Brundle is a hint, though - lead to a less than fulfilling ending.

I wish there were entire book series set on this Discworld. I love Stross' ideas and I would have loved to see how people handle the exploration of a new "outer space" which is now both more accessible and less so, due to communication breakdown. Perhaps the aliens that did the transplantation would deem necessary to bring Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro people there. That's my solution for the immediate sense of loss I felt when the story ended. It's a brilliant idea, stuck in a glass jar, like an insect specimen, only to be studied occasionally when it's feeding time. I really wish it would have bloomed into something greater.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3078994.html

It's 1976, and fourteen years ago, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the entire planet Earth and all its inhabitants were transported to a huge flat surface, extending for many millions of mile/kilometres in all directions. New worlds can be found further out by adventurous explorers. The story separately follows Yuri Gagarin, Carl Sagan, and a young woman colonist of the new worlds trying to make sense of the new universe. The path is dark and so is the ending. Memorable chills down the spine!

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This creepy WTF alternative history(but not really..so there is hint)treads similiar ground to Stross's "Colder War" with another take on the cold war, but this one is very different and filled with a wider sense of wonder and dread also. Hints of Invasion of Body Snatchers, George R.R. Martin's Sandkings, and Kafka. Plus it has Carl Sagan as a Character.P.S. get it from a library it is expensive..or find the cheaper Gardner Dozois edited collection it is in.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent Stross riff on the cold war-era and super beings, this one dark and intensely disturbing. To describe too much of the story would be to ruin the experience of having it unfold for you over the brief arc of this novella, but it was like no other science fiction (other than Stross) that I've read, despite some vague reminisences of Robert Charles Wilson's "Protocols of Consumption" and the creepy Twilight Zone feeling I was left with at the end (and it's an awesome ending).

[Luca Cresta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bello questo romanzo breve di Stross. Una rutilante serie di eventi della più classica SF lega il lettore alla pagina, che l'autore solletica inserendo di volta in volta tematiche modernissime. Un testo che meriterebbe una dimensione più importante, se non una serie di novellette ambientate nello stesso "universo". Grande SF.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sciapo insulso banalotto

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right from the start I am going to say I didn't enjoy this novel.

This story is set in 1976 , when the world was on a brink of total annihilation due to eminent nuclear war (which as we know never occurred). The world instead is transported to a Alderson Disk kind of plane (think Ringworld from Larry Niven). So as earth was transported (one of the theories) the rivalry continued. Since we were in a flat surface , ICBM don't' work or even satellites so URSS conquers most of Europe.

This story then takes a turn more on the investigation of nearby continents since this "world" is vast beyond any hope of total discovery. There are some hints here and there what this is all about (the most probably is that we are just duplicates from the "real" earth and the aliens are just seeing how we handle adversity). There is also a underlying hint that socialism/communism is the way to go. Well to be fair it's beyond communism. It's Hive Mind (think of ants/termites). Is it though? If you know me, I am against totalarist regimes (communism or fascism) although my political stance is to the right - and the reason (among others - I will try to simplify) is that I don't think humanity can be so self-conscious to think on others before oneself. I am not saying there aren't good people out there because there are, but we are mostly due laws and our upbringing. Put people out of food for 3 meals or adversity and they will revert to think for themselves like the cavemen did. I am not saying that communism don't have a value (and it does in small communities where everyone knows one another) but as of today or any other given time where you don't know your neighbour you can't really be that altruist. I am not saying it would not be good BUT at the same time, evolution is also due to competitiveness, due to high rewards and such are not possible or viable on communism. See a communist state and they all failed eventually. Humans want to be free, they don't want to be told what to do in every single aspect. They accept rules because it's convenience, it's safe but making of too much rules breeds insatisfaction. Oh well, I don't have the time to speak everything...

Overall, interesting to see Sagan or Grigory (and other made-up characters) and the philosophical, scientific debates although, again didn't understand the need to involve a plot set in cold war (unless you think about what I said and this was just a propaganda/rant about the good communism is). The ending is a bit confusing as well. If you see reviews you can see some of these topics mentioned here and there. Overall I won't say it's a bad book but it's also not good. It's ok. I would rate this 40/100.

[Baul De · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee toda la reseña aquí: https://goo.gl/X7gG7q

En Brecha de Misiles, Stross plantea una distopía de ciencia ficción en la que la Tierra, en plena Guerra Fría, es trasladada a un disco. No se sabe absolutamente nada más. Ni quién o qué lo ha hecho, ni los motivos. Narrada de forma coral por tres protagonistas (lado USA, lado URSS y una civil) vemos como todos intentan comprender qué ha ocurrido, de forma racional, mientras intentan seguir con sus vidas y con el conflicto bélico en ciernes. Una historia bastante trepidante, escrita de una forma fluida y con un planteamiento científico interesante, puesto que la vida en el disco y ciertas leyes de la física no son las mismas que las de la Tierra.

El resultado es una novela breve bastante potente, algo atropellada hacia el final, que aunque podría haberse alargado muchísimo más, está más que bien contenida en el centenar de páginas que ocupa.

[Malapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una premisa interesante y una narración entretenida. Me ha tenido enganchada durante sus escasas cien páginas. Lo único que le echo en cara es su duración, qué estupenda novela (larga) podría haber sido si hubiera desarrollado más sus tramas.

[Txisko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nunca suelo poner comentarios en Goodreads, pero el cabreo que siento me obliga a ello.
La historia está bien. A mi gusto le faltan páginas para quedar redonda (todo está narrado de manera muy apresurada, a base de simples pinceladas), pese a lo cual se disfruta. Por eso se llevaría las cuatro estrellas.
Pero se lleva tres. ¿Por qué? Pues por la edición:
1-. Maquetación y formato horribles: de puro fanzine. Tamaño inapropiado (demasiado grande para la extensión de la obra), pésima calidad del papel de las cubiertas (muy blanco, tipo cuaderno), tamaño de letra casi infantil, excesivos márgenes, un índice que parece hecho de manera automática con el Word...
2-. Le falta una corrección profesional. Por lo menos ortotipográfica, que algunos diálogos dan vergüenza. Espero que con el dinero que ganen por las ventas contraten un corrector y solucionen ese problema para una futura edición.
3-. Mala traducción: en algunos momentos hay que leer dos veces. Y aun quedan dudas de si de verdad quiso decir eso el autor (a ello no ayuda el estilo tan taquigráfico y tangencial, rebasando incluso a James Tiptree Jr.).
El autor se merece más respeto que esta edición. Ignoro hasta qué punto tiene la culpa el editor en lo relativo a la maquetación (al final del libro pone que se trata de una impresión de Amazon, y he odio malas cosas de Amazon como impresora), pero del resto la tiene él y solo él. Doy por hecho que el señor Stross no ha visto el resultado, porque no creo que le agradase. He leído libros de esa editorial mucho mejor tratados. No entiendo qué ha pasado con este.

[Gost · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cuba crisis is overshadowed by the destruction of Earth and the relocation of all of its continents and inhabitants to an impossible cosmic construct. Both superpowers of the time are trying to cope with the sudden redrawing of the strategic situation and the unsettling discoveries that they are making on the nearby newfound continents.
A little bit sketchy for my taste. A common people's story was added to provide human perspective but feels unrelated to the plot and is as if put there just to provide a few additional metaphors.

[Jorge Sanchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in spanish and didn't like the translation, kind of lost the narrative and made it more complex, its short and kind of let me the feeling of being left in the middle of something, read if you like conspiracy theories spies and a very different end to the cold war.

[Behizain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iba a escribir la reseña de otra novela y me he encontrado con que no había puesto esta como leída.
Después de leer tantos tochazos, viene bien leer una novelita corta. No es una gran maravilla pero el planteamiento es bastante curioso interesante.

[Ismael Julio · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me he enterado absolutamente de nada, he captado la idea pero muy superficialmente, no me ha terminado de convencer

[Jhon Peranquive · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/3,0

Corto, pero entretenido. Pequeña reflexión sobre el espíritu humano.

[Charl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Transplanted to a disc world, 60's-era US and Russia struggle to adapt and overcome. Excellent story, highly amusing.

[Matias Matonti · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the more disturbing science fiction novellas ive read. its short, yet packed with lots of story, almost to a fault. I would recommend reading this twice.

[Santiago Moreno rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es novedosa pero creo que su problema es que es demasiado corta. El final viene de sopetón como si el escritor dijera : “ya he escrito bastante”

[Maner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peccato sia così breve...

[Raunak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of science fiction that I love. Take a seemingly absurd premise and stretch it out to something weird and vast. Highly recommended.

[C.E.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 estrellas
Ciertamente una de esas narraciones en las que importan más los conceptos e ideas que cosas como los personajes.