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Charles Stross

Goodreads Author

Born

in Leeds, England, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.accelerando.org/

Twitter

cstross

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Crime, Horror

Influences

Only bad ones!

Member Since

November 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/cstross

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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... ...more

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Can you tell us a two-sentence horror story?

Charles Stross "I'm sorry, but the root canal surgery you have just awakened from caused you to exceed your permitted lifetime healthcare budget, and consequently yo…more"I'm sorry, but the root canal surgery you have just awakened from caused you to exceed your permitted lifetime healthcare budget, and consequently you are medically bankrupt. Luckily we found a good histocompatibility match for your liver in our database, so this surgical robotic operating theatre will now assist you in paying down your debt."(less)

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Hi Charles, I read recently that Iain Banks (RIP) asked his good friend Ken McLeod to pick up where he left off on the Culture series and use his notes to write the next book. Unfortunately Iain was not able to complete these notes and Ken has no plans to write a Culture novel. Understandable but a pity he would write a great book as I believe you could. Pure hypothetical if asked to write a Culture novel would you?

Charles Stross Short answer: nope, I would not write a Culture novel.

Medium answer: I'm a huge fan of Iain's work and I feel trying to piggy-back on it for profit al…moreShort answer: nope, I would not write a Culture novel.

Medium answer: I'm a huge fan of Iain's work and I feel trying to piggy-back on it for profit alone — which at this point is what a Culture novel would be -- would be disrespectful. Having said that, if at some future point his executors put together a collection of tributes to his work, that'd be another matter.

Longest answer: asking any other author to write a Culture novel is futile; they could use the setting but it wouldn't feel quite right because Iain was a marvelous and subtle literary novelist who just happened to use space opera to explore big (often political) questions that didn't fit inside the restrictive frame of his realist-mode novels. I can't write an Iain M. Banks novel because I am not Iain M. Banks. However, I am currently writing a Charlie Stross novel that just happens to be a wide-screen far future space opera (in a wholly new setting), that attempts to examine big political questions. I'm not borrowing Iain's setting: I'm attempting to borrow his toolbox to come up with something of my own that scratches the same itch that the Culture series scratched so successfully. (Ghost Engine is currently scheduled for publication in mid-2018; if successful, there will be more in that universe.)(less)

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Combine Editions
Charles Stross’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 282,440 ratings · 18,953 reviews · 161 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files, #1) 3.89 avg rating — 27,467 ratings — published 2004 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Accelerando 3.87 avg rating — 22,410 ratings — published 2005 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Singularity Sky (Eschaton, #1) 3.84 avg rating — 16,142 ratings — published 2003	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files, #2) 4.02 avg rating — 15,058 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fuller Memorandum (Laundry Files, #3) 4.19 avg rating — 12,712 ratings — published 2010 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files, #4) 4.18 avg rating — 11,446 ratings — published 2012 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Halting State (Halting State, #1) 3.80 avg rating — 12,484 ratings — published 2007 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Glasshouse 3.88 avg rating — 11,709 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rhesus Chart (Laundry Files, #5) 4.19 avg rating — 9,490 ratings — published 2014 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Iron Sunrise (Eschaton, #2) 3.98 avg rating — 9,434 ratings — published 2002 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Charles Stross…

1335 posts
Charles Stross's Blog

More in Sadness than in Anger

Sorry I haven't updated the blog for a while: I've been busy. (Writing the final draft of a new novel entirely unconnected to anything else you've read—space opera, new setting, longest thing I've written aside from the big Merchant Princes doorsteps. Now in my agent's inbox while I make notes towards a sequel, if requested.)

Over the past few years I've been naively assuming that while we're ruled

Series by Charles Stross

Laundry Files (13 books)
by

Charles Stross (Goodreads Author)

4.05 avg rating — 129,692 ratings

Merchant Princes Universe (9 books)
by

Charles Stross (Goodreads Author)

3.70 avg rating — 29,083 ratings

Eschaton (2 books)
by

Charles Stross (Goodreads Author)

3.89 avg rating — 25,705 ratings

The Merchant Princes (6 books)
by

Charles Stross (Goodreads Author)

3.65 avg rating — 26,727 ratings

Halting State (2 books)
by

Charles Stross (Goodreads Author)

3.79 avg rating — 21,017 ratings

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Charles’s Recent Updates

Charles Stross made a comment on More in Sadness than in Anger " Tom wrote: "I guess our fault is that we lack the imagination to truly fathom the depths of corruption and depravity some people have as a way of life ...more "
Mar 04, 2026 01:27PM · see blog post
Charles Stross wrote a new blog post More in Sadness than in Anger Sorry I haven't updated the blog for a while: I've been busy. (Writing the final draft of a new novel entirely unconnected to anything else you've rea Read more of this blog post »
Feb 22, 2026 12:03AM · 13 likes · like
Charles Stross answered idiffer's question: What is the status of Ghost Engine? Latest mention I could find was early 2023, where you were going through the second draft... Thanks in advance. It's in the works! The next book due out is "The Regicide Report", in early 2026. "Ghost Engine" is about 80% finished … but I got stale, so I've been taking time out since early April to work on a new project that bit me and wouldn't let go, set in See Full Answer
May 22, 2025 02:52PM · 6 likes · like
Charles Stross made a comment on Nirkatze’s review of A Conventional Boy (Laundry Files, #13; New Management, #4) " I didn't choose the additional stories to round out the book: that was an editorial decision. (My preferred choice would have been "Equoid".) Never mi ...more "
Feb 10, 2025 01:20PM · see review
Charles Stross made a comment on What SF/F genre tropes should I tackle next? " Steve wrote: "It's 100% fantasy, but I've stumbled into the sub-genre of "cultivation" and find that it's really good fun. Seems to often go hand in h ...more "
Dec 06, 2024 07:46AM · see blog post
Charles Stross made a comment on They don't make readers like they used to " Yuri wrote: "7. BTW. Are there the requests to use the Laundry Files for movies, animation, comics, fan memorabilia?" Yup. There's a second edition of t ...more "
Sep 06, 2024 07:10AM · see blog post
Charles Stross made a comment on Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide? " H wrote: "oh, yeah, and as a matter of course they are ending support for Windows 10 (including security upgrades of course) in Oct. 2025, for those o ...more "
Jun 17, 2024 06:14AM · see blog post
Charles Stross is now following Ali L's reviews
Apr 11, 2024 10:08AM · like

More of Charles's books…

Quotes by Charles Stross (?)

“Gene police! You! Out of the pool, now!”
― Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives

tags: humor

86 likes

“Like the famous mad philosopher said, when you stare into the void, the void stares also; but if you cast into the void, you get a type conversion error. (Which just goes to show Nietzsche wasn't a C++ programmer.)”
― Charles Stross, Overtime

tags: geek, humour

76 likes

“Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting machinery work again.”
― Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives

tags: bogons, computers, hacker-folklore, humour, idiots, it

73 likes

See all Charles Stross's quotes »

Polls

Themed Sci-Fi For May: Detectives in your Sci-Fi

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon

62 votes, 29.8%

Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

44 votes, 21.2%

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

34 votes, 16.3%

Rule 34, by Charles Stross

24 votes, 11.5%

Flashback, by Dan Simmons

20 votes, 9.6%

Spin State, by Chris Moriarty

16 votes, 7.7%

A Fire in the Sun, by George Alec Effinger

8 votes, 3.8%

208 total votes

7 comments

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