Charlie StrossNov 22, 2022

Six ideas from my WIP:

1. There are starships and an interstellar war but it's space opera like a cow is a burger

2. Starships are psychopomps

3. Our species is extinct: we were the last common ancestor species

4. It's about a Sad Boner Professor love triangle, but HE'S the one who ends up pregnant in the kitchen

5. Everyone believes they're going to live forever in the AI afterlife: shame it doesn't work ...

6. Ninja space monks with Cotard's delusion are terrified of Basilisks

Show threadCharlie Stross

I also forgot to say:

Book goals: to enrage TERFs, Nazis, Longtermists, Singularitarians, and Authoritarians ALL SIMULTANEOUSLY BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS. (And to take the piss out of the great academic litfic novel, and to hopefully supply a watered-down hit of the drug Iain "M" Banks used to push, and, and ...)

Nov 22, 2022 at 9:08pmWeb
Show threadRemiNov 22, 2022
@cstross You had me at "enrage <huge list of dopes>"! :D
Show threadC. L. PolkNov 23, 2022
@remi we love a good dope enraging
Show threadMatt CrumpNov 22, 2022
@cstross Yes please again, and this deserves a Leslie Nielson emoji 
Show threadStephen MastersNov 22, 2022
@cstross Put me on preorder. Just not the kind of preorder where I wait 5 years to get it and then the battery explodes. To be safe I should probably order the hardback or paperback, rather than the ebook. Wouldn’t want anything with too much processing power.
Show threadWill SmithNov 22, 2022

@cstross If you're pissing off all those people, you're clearly doing something right.

The world needs more of whatever Iain M Banks was pushing.

Show threadStefan SchollNov 23, 2022
@will @cstross one of the most prominent Banks fan has problems with the gender identity of one of his children.
So the Banks stuff isn’t always reaching everybody. 😕
Show threadJames DevineNov 22, 2022
@cstross Worthy goals indeed sir! I look forward to reading it one day.
Show threadSimonNov 22, 2022
@cstross hmm. Adds 'terf/s/' to filter.
Show threadLars Marowsky-Brée 😷Nov 22, 2022
@cstross I want to preorder now.
If you'd also consider enraging SWERFs and, if it wouldn't be an inconvenience, cryptobros, I'd volunteer as a beta reader.
Show threadSam Easterby-SmithNov 22, 2022
@cstross standard “take my money already” problems going on.
Show threadstunnNov 22, 2022
@cstross The starships, what about their names? Teaser, pls!
Show threadKevinNov 22, 2022

@cstross

Presumably this is the Charlie Stross version of Effective Altruism

Show threadEd G.Nov 22, 2022
@cstross I suppose I can't put in a preorder before you've even turned in a draft to the publisher. Drat.
Show threadSpeakerToManagersNov 22, 2022
@cstross
Yes, this is excellent. Intersection with my own list of deadbeat ideologies is quite good:
“Allergic to libertarianism, AI hype, trans-humanism, crypto currency & web3.”
I assume the ninjas are libertarians.
Show threadHighlandLawyerNov 23, 2022
@cstross
Show threadStefan SchollNov 23, 2022
@cstross sounds like Hugo award material. But please make it entertaining. The last few Hugo award books I bought only had a political gimmick but were boring as oatmeal.
Show threadBrian HawthorneNov 23, 2022
@cstross hell yea
Show threadC. L. PolkNov 23, 2022
@cstross okay i was all signed up with starships as psychopomps and then I hit singularitarians and I hooted with laughter
Show threadSpeakerToManagersNov 23, 2022
@cstross @clpolk
The funny thing is that there’s nothing singular about them. They’re dull as oatmeal without sugar and cinnamon.
Show threadCharlie StrossNov 23, 2022
@clpolk The whole idea started out (in 2014—it's been a long time emerging) as "what if Space Opera in a far future where singularitarianism is treated as the One True Religion, but there isn't actually a singularity?" (Because it *is* a religion, and ...)
Show threadBrian McNettNov 23, 2022
@cstross These are all worthy goals indeed.
Show threadClifton RoystonNov 23, 2022
@cstross
This sounds excellent! I think many of your best books have been written when you're furious and trying to piss somebody off. I still remember the spammers you put onto that doomed spaceship.