"When people ask me what I did during the war, I tell them I used to be a tank regiment. Or maybe I was a counter-intelligence agent. I'm not exactly sure: my memory isn't what it used to be."

When Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn't take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him. It's the twenty-seventh century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees’ personalities and target historians. The civil war is over and Robin has been demobilized, but someone wants him out of the picture because of something his earlier self knew.

On the run from a ruthless pursuer and searching for a place to hide, he volunteers to participate in a unique experimental polity, the Glasshouse, constructed to simulate a pre-accelerated culture. Participants are assigned anonymized identities: It looks like the ideal hiding place for a posthuman on the run. But in this escape-proof environment, Robin will undergo an even more radical change, placing him at the mercy of the experimenters — and at the mercy of his own unbalanced psyche...

"The censorship wars — during which the Curious Yellow virus devastated the network of wormhole gates connecting humanity across the cosmos — are finally over at the start of Hugo-winner Stross's brilliant new novel, set in the same far-future universe as 2005's Accelerando. Robin is one of millions who have had a mind wipe, to forget wartime memories that are too painful — or too dangerously inconvenient for someone else. To evade the enemies who don't think his mind wipe was enough, Robin volunteers to live in the experimental Glasshouse, a former prison for deranged war criminals that will recreate Earth's 'dark ages' (c. 1950 — 2040). Entering the community as a female, Robin is initially appalled by life as a suburban housewife, then he realizes the other participants are all either retired spies or soldiers. Worse yet, fragments of old memories return — extremely dangerous in the Glasshouse, where the experimenters' intentions are as murky as Robin's grasp of his own identity. With nods to Kafka, James Tiptree and others, Stross's wry SF thriller satisfies on all levels, with memorable characters and enough brain-twisting extrapolation for five novels. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Where Charles Stross goes today, the rest of science fiction will follow tomorrow." Gardner Dozois, Editor, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

"A new kind of future requires a new breed of guide — someone like Stross." Popular Science

"Stross amusingly recasts our own era into one of 'meaningless customs' while blending suspenseful action with inventive, futuristic technology." Booklist

"Hugo Award winner Stross...takes an original and often playful approach to his visions of the future. He examines questions of identity, gender, and the human condition in the context of this sf thriller." Library Journal

In the 27th century, interstellar travel is by teleport gates, and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees' personalities. On the run from an unknown enemy, the memory-less Robin volunteers to participate in a unique experimental civil order--a decision that places him at the mercy of the experimenters and his own unbalanced psyche.

Charles Stross was born in Leeds, England in 1964. He holds degrees in pharmacy and computer science, and has worked in a variety of jobs including pharmacist, technical author, software engineer, and freelance journalist. He is now a full-time writer.