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Charles Stross

Rule 34 Paperback – 7 July 2011

by Charles Stross (Author)

208 ratings

Book 2 of 2: Halting State

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DI Liz Kavanaugh: You realise policing internet porn is your life and your career went down the pan five years ago. But when a fetishist dies on your watch, the Rule 34 Squad moves from low priority to worryingly high profile. Anwar: As an ex-con, you'd like to think your identity fraud days are over. Especially as you've landed a legit job (through a shady mate). Although now that you're Consul for a shiny new Eastern European Republic, you've no idea what comes next. The Toymaker: Your meds are wearing off and people are stalking you through Edinburgh's undergrowth. But that's ok, because as a distraction, you're project manager of a sophisticated criminal operation. But who's killing off potential recruits? So how do bizarre domestic fatalities, dodgy downloads and a European spamming network fit together? The more DI Kavanaugh learns, the less she wants to find out.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Orbit
Publication date

7 July 2011
Dimensions

15.4 x 2.7 x 23.2 cm
ISBN-10

1841497738
ISBN-13

978-1841497730
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Product description

Review

'Bristles with sharp, satirical wit' TELEGRAPH

'Cracking near-future crime laced with humour that's exquisitely wrong' CHRIS BROOKMYRE

'A savvy, funny, viciously inventive science fiction novel that combines police procedure with the dark side of nerd culture to produce a grotesque and gripping page-turner' CORY DOCTOROW

'Charles Stross is a grandmaster of that most difficult science-fictional era, the near future. His novel, Rule 34, is a seamlessly transformation of our near-term everyday world into serious strangeness' VERNOR VINGE, Hugo Award-winning author

'Dazzling, chilling and brilliant' KIRKUS REVIEWS --Various

You won't look at the internet in quite the same way again after reading this

A diamond-sharp piece of SF... a seriously entertaining and twisted crime thriller SFX

Weird and wonderful... a dizzying whirl of insights, beautiful and addictive. THE SUN --SciFi Now

You won t look at the internet in quite the same way again after reading this --SciFi Now

You won t look at the internet in quite the same way again after reading this --SciFi Now

Book Description

A cutting edge cyber-thriller, set fifteen minutes in the future, from the award-winning author of HALTING STATE.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbit; First Edition (7 July 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1841497738
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841497730
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.4 x 2.7 x 23.2 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 742,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 47,143 in Science Fiction (Books)
- 73,785 in Thrillers (Books)
- 82,362 in Mysteries (Books)

Customer reviews:
208 ratings

About the author

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Charles Stross

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Charles Stross, 50, is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of six Hugo-nominated novels and winner of the 2005, 2010, and 2015 Hugo awards for best novella, Stross's works have been translated into over twelve languages.

Like many writers, Stross has had a variety of careers, occupations, and job-shaped-catastrophes in the past, from pharmacist (he quit after the second police stake-out) to first code monkey on the team of a successful dot-com startup (with brilliant timing he tried to change employer just as the bubble burst).

Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		29%
3 star		12%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Andrew C

Good, but not his best work

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2012

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Set in the same world as Halting State , things have gone downhill since then, it's very much used future, edging toward dystopia.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints, the first of the 3 major ones being a cynical Detective Inspector, Liz Kavanaugh, who we met as a rising star in Halting State. Her star is on the wane now as a result of the events in that book. The other two are Anwar, a small time crook who has gotten in way over his head and the mysterious Toymaker, who runs a rather unpleasant criminal syndicate. Their stories start to interconnect when a ex-con known to DI Kavanaugh is found murdered in an unusual manner.

Things rapidly go South from there, and the body count goes through the roof and conspiracies start to pile up in a rather nasty trainwreck.

I found the twist at the end a bit obvious and disappointing. It's almost as if Stross were ticking the Cyberpunk thriller boxes and found he'd left a cliché out, so he shoved it in there.

Overall a good read, if disappointing at the end. Not Stross's best, certainly not as good as Halting State, but better than most

One person found this helpful

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Strv 74

Interesting but not enough flow

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2012

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Charles Stross has written a near future crime novel where some sort of artificial intelligence murders people. We are reading this story from the viewpoint of several people. This makes it interesting at best but it also keeps you jumping around instead of trying to know one or two main characters. The First half of the book you keep wondering how it all is interconnected but then Mr Stross manages to bring all these individual stories into one main sequence of events so the book picks up from there. Unfortunately there are to few explanations to get you into whats is going on and the end just leaves you hanging wondering why it ended abruptly and what will happen to all the participants.

I found the book to be interesting at best but had a hard time feeling engaged by the story. It might have a larger value to some people that are into AI and the latest in network technology but for me it was a long journey at times interesting but towards an abrupt ending.

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D. R. Cantrell

Unconditionally recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2013

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This is a sequel to Stross's earlier Halting State, although you don't need to be familiar with the earlier work to make sense of this one.

It's a page-turner alright, filled with believable characters having an awful time for our entertainment, and the text sizzles with humour. You'll have to be a geek to understand all the little jokes, but that's not a pre-requisite for enjoying the book, you'll just get more out of it if you're from the right background.

Unconditionally recommended for all but the most puritan of agèd aunts, as it gets a bit nasty at times.

One person found this helpful

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someenglishrose

Probably the most literary sci fi I've ever read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 June 2013

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I don't normally go in for near-future sci fi, but the reviews convinced me to give it a go and boy, were they right. This detective/crime novel set in a dystopian near-future has some things in common with the earlier parts of Hugh Howey's "Wool" (which I did enjoy, but was not so struck by) but it's much better written and better plotted. The entire novel is written in the second person, which I thought I would find grating, but I quickly found absolutely immersive. And without wishing to give away too much of the ending, there's a reason second person narrative turns out to be absolutely appropriate. The plot is gripping. Definitely recommend.

One person found this helpful

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Dave Henniker

Up-to-date Science Fiction / Crime novel based in Edinburgh

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2014

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Up-to-date Science Fiction / Crime novel based in Edinburgh with a wicked sense of humour. Detective Inspector Liz is involved in a series of bizarre deaths e.g. a compromised colonic irrigation machine. Police personnel all wear augmented reality glasses, and occasionally use Segways which can autonomously return to base themselves. 3D printers and pirate model data is used illegally by 'fabbers' to make all sorts of things including prepubescent animatronic sex dolls. I found this excellent book easier to read than Halting State.

One person found this helpful

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Impertinent

Enjoyable 'Hard' SF

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 December 2020

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I like the author's work (especially his 'Laundry Series').
Written with 'tongue in cheek' and discernible Scottish humour.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2011

Verified Purchase

While "Rule 34" follows on from "Halting State" a few years later in the same dystopian independent Scotland and features some of the same characters you don't need to know the first volume to enjoy this one. The lives of a psychopathic mafia project manager, a lesbian detective inspector and a bisexual Muslim ex criminal intersect in a story of serial killing, artificial intelligence and puppet states. It's all quite exciting and rather fun though I wonder if Stross actually understands half his high tec jargon.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2013

Verified Purchase

If you don't know what Rule 34 of the Internet is, you might not get the reference. That doesn't matter, as the book itself is well-written and with believable characters. It's a police procedural of the near future, told in a great story, full of twists and turns, and comes to an unexpected but lovely conclusion. Recommended.

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