Equoid by Charles Stross

[[deleted user]]

This is the place to discuss our chosen May, 2014, SF/F novella:


Equoid by Charles Stross


2013 Hugo nominee.


"Equoid" can be read on line at Tor.com: "Equoid" by Charles Stross.

It is also in the free ebook, Some of the Best From Tor.com, 2013, which you can download for free from Amazon or check Tor.com to download Some of the Best from Tor.com 2013 in a variety of formats.

[[deleted user]]

Well, this is what happens when I vote for something because, "it's the story I haven't read yet." :) I don't honestly know if it's a good story or a bad story, but it's not for me. Horror is just not my thing.

I also didn't realize it was part of Stross's "Laundry" sci-fi/horror fusion series (that began with The Atrocity Archives.)

It's concept is that mathematics and algorithms are linked to the supernatural, and it borrows its supernatural mythos from H.P. Lovecraft. The "Laundry" is a secret organization dealing with supernatural menaces. (In the tradition of X-files, Torchwood or Fringe division.)

And in this story, the menace is evil unicorns, based on Lovecraft's Shub-Niggurath.

As I said, not a horror fan. Consequently, not much of an H.P. Lovecraft fan. So all the Lovecraftian stuff in the story is over my head, including the secret "unpublished writings" cited within this story.


I do, by the way like many of Stross's other sci-fi works, e.g. Halting State (near-future crime solving in Edinburgh) and Saturn's Children (post-humanity solar system.)

Stross's writing is often very clever and amusing. Some of that works here, but not enough to make me really like the story.

So, any H.P. Lovecraft fans in the group?

[Ben]

Only dipped into Lovecraft and not got got into his writing style yet. Although this story can be seen as a horror story it has plenty of fantastic elements so I can see many fantasy writers enjoying it.

It terms of enjoyment though it will depend on how you find Stross as a writer. On the basis of this I am not particularly a fan but I can see other people enjoying him.

In terms of references Stross has absolutely stuffed this with references and whilst there is lots of lovecraft there is plenty of UK stuff I am not sure how well US readers will pick up...then there is even references to Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, a book I do not imagine all that many SF/horror readers will have read despite its popularity.

Whilst I do think the novella loses something to people who have not read others in the series (charactisation, sense of setting, multiple references etc) I can still it making a decent enough entry into the Laundry series for anyone and I do not think much if anything of previous stories would be spoiled.

Do not want to say too much so early in the book discussion but I did post a review on GR if anyone wants to check it out.

[[deleted user]]

Ben wrote: "there is even references to Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, a book I do not imagine all that many SF/horror readers will have read despite its popularity...."

I've seen the movie; does that count?

[[deleted user]]

I am a big Lovecraft fan, I haven't read this one from Stross yet,but I know the series...I can't wait til Code Nightmare Green gets here. :)

[RachelvlehcaR]

I love Charles Stross. I was introduced to his books by one of the bookstore guys. I asked him for something exciting and new to me, he asked what kind of books I liked and walked my right over to the Laundry series. I loved the book, and went back for more.

I'm a Lovecraft fan and also enjoy action as well, so the James Bond/Lovecraft style was totally for me. What even made it better was the computer science part of it.

It's neat how he tied in Lovecraft in this short story. I read it last night and it was a great story. I love the total spin to the Equoid.

@Ben, there is a huge following of Stross in the United States. :)

[Anish]

Liked the concept of the story,specially the tinge of Lovecraftian horror,even though the story felt a bit rushed at certain points..This being my first exposure to Stross,perhaps some of his longer novels will be more to my liking :-)

[Michael]

My first Stross.

I enjoyed this, although it was quite different to most things I tend to read. I thought the Lovecraft stuff was handled well and although the story did feel rushed at points, I think it would have been spread a little too thin if it had be decompressed further. I was a little worried about the humour as I find it tends to really misfire if it isn't very cleverly done, but in this case I think he pulled it off.

Will be putting one of the longer Laundry stories on my To Read list as I like the world and would be interesting in seeing how Stross handles it over a longer narrative.

[Ben]

What do people think of Christopher Priests comments about Stross (in that case Rule 34) - for me they hit the nail on the head with how I experienced stross's writing?

This is from Priest's blog http://www.christopher-priest.co.uk/j...

"Stross writes like an internet puppy: energetically, egotistically, sometimes amusingly, sometimes affectingly, but always irritatingly, and goes on being energetic and egotistical and amusing for far too long. You wait nervously for the unattractive exhaustion which will lead to a piss-soaked carpet. Stross’s narrative depends on vernacular casualness, with humorous asides, knowing discursiveness, and the occasional appeal of big soft eyes. He has PC Plod characters and he writes och-aye dialogue!"

[[deleted user]]

Michael wrote: " I was a little worried about the humour as I find it tends to really misfire if it isn't very cleverly done, but in this case I think he pulled it off...."

For the most part I enjoy Stross's humor, which I find mostly ironic observations. (As opposed to a writer like Scalzi who uses snarky dialogue to provide the ever present comic sidebar.)


Christopher Priests wrote: "Stross writes like an internet puppy: energetically, egotistically, sometimes amusingly, sometimes affectingly, but always irritatingly..."

I'm not sure what an "Internet puppy" is, but I'd agree with the "energetically, egotistically, sometimes amusingly, sometimes affectingly" part, but I only find him occasionally irritating, and generally successful, if a tad inconsistent.

Rule 34, about which Priest is specifically complaining, is the successor to Halting State, and both are quintessentially hard sci-fi. They pick a decade time horizon, in which Stross takes a serious look at some of the consequences of 3-D printing, ubiquitous international networking, automated network processes for financial transactions and augmented reality (the police use what would now be Google Glass to provide instant information on people and places within the city of Edinburg.) He's taken some currently-emergent technologies and imagined a near-future they might produce, which is a classical sort of science fiction, (and one which will seem obsolete in only a few more years, as if it carried an expiration date.) It's the ideas that recommend these books rather than their prose. Its hard science stands in stark contrast to the fantastical ideas of "Equoid".

(They're both also written in a strange style, the only novels I've ever read with multiple PoVs using second-person present tense. An odd choice that seems... irritating. :)


Christopher Priests wrote: "He has PC Plod characters and he writes och-aye dialogue!.."

I do not know what that means.

[Ben]

"Christopher Priests wrote: "He has PC Plod characters and he writes och-aye dialogue!.."

I do not know what that means." - Christopher Priest, like Stross is a brit and he is using some British references and vernacular.

PC Plod is an Enid Blyton Character who is not really well formed and is pretty stereotypical. "Och-aye" I am not 100% sure about but i read it as OTT and cliched.

I found with Stross that his writing was for me both too energetic, too look at how clever I am being and too digressive. One moment there would be a bit I liked or enjoyed and the next moment I would be either tired of the writing or annoyed. Its like spending an afternoon with a young child who has been given lots of E number filled sweets, true an intelligent and well meaning child but that was still how it felt for me.

[[deleted user]]

So, if we've exhausted the subject of Equiod, would anyone be interested in moving the discussion on to some of the other Hugo/Nebula short fiction nominees?

(If not, I'll just have to nominate one for the July Novella topic. ;)

[[deleted user]]

OK, I guess we're just plain exhausted :) Plan B.

[Ben]

Didnt see your posts G33z3r - been a tiring week or two. Not read any of the other nominees yet but will be getting to them soon.

For me Stross is a writer who writes in a way that some will love and some will hate and some will be something in between. His writing style is pretty distinctive though and I kind of think that is a good thing, even if it results in a style that I would generally avoid reading from again.