4 ms·

Charlie is on Mastodon, toots regularly and actually replies to others https://wandering.shop/@cstross https://wandering.shop/@cstross

gpderetta 2y ago
cstross is also here on HN.
- flir 2y ago
  He's everywhere, and not just as a PR presence, he's actually involved. I've had a couple of interactions with him on Reddit where he politely drive-by corrected me (a real brush with fame for me). Add to that everything he's written on antipope (https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=antipope.org https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=antipope.org) and I find it amazing he gets commercial work done at all. The first third of Accelerando is a tour de force - the ideas-per-page ratio is just phenomenal, and 20 years ago it left me feeling future-shocked. But it's pulp, in the sense that it's very much rooted in the time it was written (the curse of near-future SF). If anyone knows of any works that idea-dense but written in the 2020s, I'd love to hear about them. Short fiction especially.
  - dogtimeimmortal 2y ago
    Wow, cstross posts on reddit! That really makes me want to read his next book.
    - flir 2y ago
      Not sure if sarcastic or not (and I'm normally pretty good at that). https://old.reddit.com/user/cstross https://old.reddit.com/user/cstross
      - dogtimeimmortal 2y ago
        So, to be fair reddit is supposedly the 18th most visited site online today[1]. Given it's popularity i guess i won't hold it against Stross. I, myself, find it somewhat hard to avoid, though i try my best and steer clear. IMHO it's just one of those toxic places, though there are many of them online. Actually it's becoming sort of like a fundamental law of tech and online these days(that everything is toxic - actually there are a few places that aren't so bad, but they are becoming harder to find). Someone should write a book. Funny, i didn't realize Ohanian had a connection to HN[2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Ohanian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Ohanian
  - datadrivenangel 2y ago
    It's easy: Write 2 good hours a day, maybe more if the spirit moves you. Then post for 6 hours.
    - amonon 2y ago
      depending on your personality this is a recipe for enlightenment or neuroses
  - photonthug 2y ago
    > If anyone knows of any works that idea-dense but written in the 2020s, I'd love to hear about them. Short fiction especially. Fails for the 2020s part, but check out Greg Egan if you haven't already (his Diaspora is mentioned elsewhere in this thread). Dark Integers is a short-fiction collection. Also Vacuum Diagrams, by Stephen Baxter. These three authors are, IMHO, the absolute pinnacle of hard scifi. But be advised they are definitely kinda optimizing for being idea-dense. For more literary stuff with deeper focus on story structure & consideration of the individual characters, etc, you might want to look elsewhere. EDIT to say, Dennis E Taylor is more recent and on reflection definitely deserves a mention. Also an ex-programmer-turned-author IIRC. The Bobiverse series is aimed at a wider audience of more casual nerds than the stuff above, and more of a recap of "big ideas" from other scifi without the head-spinning future shock of stuff like Stross and Egan. But it's solid nevertheless and easier to call it "fun". And despite the artistic license with the more dreamy far-future tech that's available to protagonists in the not-so-distant-future.. Bobiverse is kind of a "scifi procedural" flavor, so that probably makes it appealing to people who like stuff like Weir's the Martian.
    - OgsyedIE 2y ago
      Ted Chiang and Sam Hughes are two high-concept writers from the 00s-10s decades yet to be mentioned if anybody feels like looking for more to read.

gpderetta 2y ago

cstross is also here on HN.

flir 2y ago
He's everywhere, and not just as a PR presence, he's actually involved. I've had a couple of interactions with him on Reddit where he politely drive-by corrected me (a real brush with fame for me). Add to that everything he's written on antipope (https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=antipope.org https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=antipope.org) and I find it amazing he gets commercial work done at all. The first third of Accelerando is a tour de force - the ideas-per-page ratio is just phenomenal, and 20 years ago it left me feeling future-shocked. But it's pulp, in the sense that it's very much rooted in the time it was written (the curse of near-future SF). If anyone knows of any works that idea-dense but written in the 2020s, I'd love to hear about them. Short fiction especially.
- dogtimeimmortal 2y ago
  Wow, cstross posts on reddit! That really makes me want to read his next book.
  - flir 2y ago
    Not sure if sarcastic or not (and I'm normally pretty good at that). https://old.reddit.com/user/cstross https://old.reddit.com/user/cstross
    - dogtimeimmortal 2y ago
      So, to be fair reddit is supposedly the 18th most visited site online today[1]. Given it's popularity i guess i won't hold it against Stross. I, myself, find it somewhat hard to avoid, though i try my best and steer clear. IMHO it's just one of those toxic places, though there are many of them online. Actually it's becoming sort of like a fundamental law of tech and online these days(that everything is toxic - actually there are a few places that aren't so bad, but they are becoming harder to find). Someone should write a book. Funny, i didn't realize Ohanian had a connection to HN[2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Ohanian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Ohanian
- datadrivenangel 2y ago
  It's easy: Write 2 good hours a day, maybe more if the spirit moves you. Then post for 6 hours.
  - amonon 2y ago
    depending on your personality this is a recipe for enlightenment or neuroses
- photonthug 2y ago
  > If anyone knows of any works that idea-dense but written in the 2020s, I'd love to hear about them. Short fiction especially. Fails for the 2020s part, but check out Greg Egan if you haven't already (his Diaspora is mentioned elsewhere in this thread). Dark Integers is a short-fiction collection. Also Vacuum Diagrams, by Stephen Baxter. These three authors are, IMHO, the absolute pinnacle of hard scifi. But be advised they are definitely kinda optimizing for being idea-dense. For more literary stuff with deeper focus on story structure & consideration of the individual characters, etc, you might want to look elsewhere. EDIT to say, Dennis E Taylor is more recent and on reflection definitely deserves a mention. Also an ex-programmer-turned-author IIRC. The Bobiverse series is aimed at a wider audience of more casual nerds than the stuff above, and more of a recap of "big ideas" from other scifi without the head-spinning future shock of stuff like Stross and Egan. But it's solid nevertheless and easier to call it "fun". And despite the artistic license with the more dreamy far-future tech that's available to protagonists in the not-so-distant-future.. Bobiverse is kind of a "scifi procedural" flavor, so that probably makes it appealing to people who like stuff like Weir's the Martian.
  - OgsyedIE 2y ago
    Ted Chiang and Sam Hughes are two high-concept writers from the 00s-10s decades yet to be mentioned if anybody feels like looking for more to read.