R34: Reading Halting State first...

[Bruce]

For some obscure reason, I don't like reading a book in a series of books out of order. Therefore, I'm reading through _Halting State_ prior to diving into _Rule 34_.

So far, I'm really impressed. It seems to lie somewhere between _Ready Player One_ and _Reamde_, and more technical than both (which appeals to me, a systems engineer).

Thoughts? Anyone else read _Halting State_?

[Mike]

I read (listened to) it first. I'm now 2/3 into Rule 34. So far I'm wishing the pick had been Halting State instead.

I finished Halting State in two days and enjoyed it for the most part. I'm having to force myself to fire up the Audible app and finish Rule 34.

I agree Halting State had me thinking of Reamde and Ready Player One as well. Seems like it would have been the better S&L pick than Rule 34.

Oh, and as for some people saying this book is too sexual. I have to say its not that bad. Did these people read 1Q84? That had a lot more sex in it.

[Ed]

Halting State is one of my favorites of recent years. It's the book that made me a Charles Stross fan. I agree that it's a stellar work and that it would probably have more appeal than Rule 34.

[Kate]

I'm also glad I read Halting State first, I didn't like the characters as much as much as those in Rule 34*, but I felt like it was a better 'way in' to the world and the plot resolution was a little better.

*Anwar is my absolute favourite stock character type, the hapless patsy with terribly bad luck.

[Bruce]

Mike, Ed, and Kate: thank you so much for your feedback! I'm continuing to enjoy Halting State as much as Reamde.

I loved when the author used grep in a sentence in the correct context. How often does that happen?

[Tora]

Mike wrote: "Oh, and as for some people saying this book is too sexual. I have to say its not that bad. Did these people read 1Q84? That had a lot more sex in it. "

I totally agree. I was much more put off by the sex in 1Q84 than I was by the sex in Rule 34.

[terpkristin]

To me, the sex in 1Q84 felt more like art than that in Rule 34.

[Ewan]

I read Halting State a while back. I absolutely loved it but I can understand why they decided to do Rule 34 instead as the two are connected by a shared universe and the characters are only tangentially intertwined. One isn't really necessary for the other. That said, If I hadn't already read it I would definitely have read it first.

[Nick]

terpkristin wrote: "To me, the sex in 1Q84 felt more like art than that in Rule 34."

Really? Should I remind you of the ear comparison? On the whole, the descriptions weren't that odd and pretty well done in 1Q84 but sometimes while I was listening to the audio book I had to do a "Wait! What?".

[Sean]

Nick wrote: "terpkristin wrote: "To me, the sex in 1Q84 felt more like art than that in Rule 34."

Really? Should I remind you of the ear comparison? On the whole, the descriptions weren't that odd and pretty..."

Oh, come on, like you've never had sex with an underage girl whose vagina was a wormhole into the womb of a girl you had a crush on when you were ten? If you think something that normal is weird, I'd hate to see your reaction to Clive Barker or Angela Carter.

[terpkristin]

Nick wrote: "Really? Should I remind you of the ear comparison? On the whole, the descriptions weren't that odd and pretty well done in 1Q84 but sometimes while I was listening to the audio book I had to do a "Wait! What?"."

I didn't say it was logical that it felt more like art...but with Murakami's writing style and language, I felt like I was looking at art rather than reading smut (which is kind of how I felt with Rule 34). Surroundings lend a lot to interpretation, I suppose.

[Kris]

Halting State was my into to Stross and it was great. I also read this way before Daemon, RP1, or Reamde came out so it was the first book for me with the interactive story line since really Snowcrash so it made it that much more interesting. I also think Stross did not deal with to much controversial stuff which made it an easier read than Rule 34...

[Patrick]

I've never read Charles Stross before and I'm loving "Halting State", odd perspective choice be damned.

It feels like a curiously plausible vision of the very near future - although I get the sense that the mass acceptance of games depicted in the book would skew closer to Facebook-style casual click-mongers than the "WOW"-style online realms focussed on by Stross here.

Reading this book makes me eager to add "Rule 34" to my to-read pile, which gets more daunting by the day...

[Tora]

terpkristin wrote: "I didn't say it was logical that it felt more like art...but with Murakami's writing style and language, I felt like I was looking at art rather than reading smut (which is kind of how I felt with Rule 34). Surroundings lend a lot to interpretation, I suppose."

That was exactly my problem with it. In both books we get: women going to private places to have sex with men they've just met (in 1Q84 one of them actually gets murdered, while in Rule 34 she just realizes how close she came to danger); men having sex with prepubescent girls, including their own daughters (except that in Rule 34 they were dolls, not living beings).

So which is worse? The one where a woman actually gets killed and the incest and adult men having sex with prepubescent girls actually happens, or the one where the woman gets away and the incest is a fantasy with a doll?

And which one made the reader react with visceral horror? If you're like most readers, you were probably far more disturbed by Rule 34 than by 1Q84. Stross took horrifying things and made them viscerally horrifying. Murakami took horrifying things and twisted them around to make them seem...not really that bad. And it made my skin crawl, and still does every time I think about it.

In Rule 34, I was horrified at what some of the characters were doing. In 1Q84, I was horrified by what the *author* was doing.

[Nick]

Just went to Stross's blog page. His "About Me" section is pretty funny.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-...

[Paul]

I'm the same, I have top read a series in order, if at all possible, even if the connections aren't strong. I love Stross - he's become one of my favourite writers since I discovered him with Accelerando so I almost caved and went with Rule 34, but I'm leaving it I read Halting State, which I do already have.

[Nick]

Started Halting State on audio book. Really liking it so far. Definitely starts out moving a bit faster than Rule 34.