Accelerando: Difference between revisions

*Accelerando*
Written by:	Charles Stross
Central Theme:
Synopsis:	"[A] collection of nine short stories telling the tale of three generations of a family before, during, and after a technological singularity." (Wikipedia)
Genre(s):	Short story collection
First published:	July 5, 2005
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Latest revision as of 21:40, 9 December 2022

Accelerando is a Speculative Fiction short-story collection by Charles Stross.

Accelerando follows the lives of the Macx family through several generations as the world goes through The Singularity, beginning in a near-future setting and progressing through more and more advanced settings.

Tropes used in Accelerando include:

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: In several manners of speaking.
Apocalypse How: A variation on Stellar, in the sense that the solar system isn't destroyed per se, just converted from dumb mass to computronium by the Vile Offspring. The (trans)humans who weren't active (or involuntary) participants got the hell out while the getting was good.
Augmented Reality: Pretty much everybody.
Cats Are Snarkers / Cats Are Superior: Aineko lives for this.
Brain Uploading: A large part of Accelerando is from the viewpoint of characters who uploaded themselves as a way of saving space on an interstellar journey
Fantastic Religious Weirdness: Accelerando does strange things with the intersection between shari'a and corporate law.
- To say nothing of the difficulties inherent in facing Mecca to pray while you're in space.
Invisible Aliens: In Accelerando, they built Matrioshka brains and subsequently vanished.
Generational Saga Accelerando has three generations of protagonists.
Non-Human Sidekick: Manfred's cat who is a combination of a Talking Animal and Robot Buddy and, it turns out, is behind almost everything.
Patchwork Story: Accelerando started its life as nine short stories.
The Singularity: The entire point of Accelerando.
Space Elevator: Used by the Matrioshka brain in Accelerando to disassemble the inner solar system.
Transhuman Treachery: The Vile Offspring became so technologically and neurologically divergent from humanity that the humans had to flee the solar system to avoid being being used as Matrioshka Brain feedstock -- along with the planets of said system.

Glasshouse

Glasshouse is a standalone novel, according to Word of God: 'I originally wanted to use the "Accelerando" setting for other novels, including "Glasshouse", but decided it was too cluttered/unpredictable. So "Glasshouse" is a stand-alone' However, fan thought at the time of the TVT/ATT fork was that Glasshouse was a sequel to Accelerando, so it has some tropes on this page. Rather than simply deleting those tropes, they have been moved here until Glasshouse gets its own page.

Amnesiac Dissonance: The main character of Glasshouse practically exemplifies this trope, although it's subverted in that he was good both before and after he had amnesia, but he was simply more violent.
Memory Gambit: In Glasshouse, the main character erased whole chunks of his memory so he could infiltrate a secret facility.
Mind Virus: "CuriousYellow", a virus that's done an unknown amount of damage...because one of the things the virus did was erase the memories of anyone who knew why it was released in the first place.
Shout-Out: In Glasshouse, Curious Yellow is named after to the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow) (or more directly, after a paper about computer worm design).
- the Linebarger Cats are named in honor of Paul Linebarger, who literally wrote the book on psychological warfare, and his well-known proclivity for cats and catgirls. He's better known to sci-fi fans as Cordwainer Smith. One of the cover companies the Cats use is Cordwainer Heavy Industries. Another is the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.
The Virus: Curious Yellow is a worm in Glasshouse that infects people when they pass through A-gates so they, in turn, infect other gates and other people. It not only erases blocks of memory, but erases the reason for what started the war in in the first place.

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 {{work}}
-{{cleanup|Tropes about ''Glasshouse'' need to be moved to a page for that work.}}
+{{cleanup|Tropes about ''Glasshouse'' need to be moved to a page for that work. }}
 {{Infobox book
  | title = Accelerando
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  | author = Charles Stross
  | central theme =
+ | elevator pitch = "[A] collection of nine short stories telling the tale of three generations of a family before, during, and after a technological singularity." ''(Wikipedia)''
- | elevator pitch =
  | genre = Short story collection
  | franchise =
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  | wiki name =
 }}
+'''''Accelerando''''' is a [[Speculative Fiction]] short-story collection by [[Charles Stross]].
-'''''Accelerando''''' is a [[Speculative Fiction]] series by [[Charles Stross]].<!-- MOD: Need a citation on this, since Wikipedia says Stross says they aren't connected:   Originally just the one book, ''Accelerando'', but then Stross released the seemingly-unrelated ''Glasshouse'' and revealed that they're in the same universe. At least one more book is planned. -->
 ''Accelerando'' follows the lives of the Macx family through several generations as the world goes through [[The Singularity]], beginning in a [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|near-future setting]] and progressing through more and more advanced settings.
-<!-- MOD: Need a citation on this, since Wikipedia says Stross says they aren't connected:  ''Glasshouse'' originally seemed to be an unrelated novel until [[Word of God]] revealed that they are in the same universe. ''Glasshouse'' appears to be set after Accelerando, much farther into the future. -->
 {{tropelist}}
-* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: in several manners of speaking.
+* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: In several manners of speaking.
-* [[Amnesiac Dissonance]] (the main character of ''Glasshouse'' practically exemplifies this trope, although it's subverted in that {{spoiler|he was good both before and after he had amnesia, but he was simply more violent}})
 * [[Apocalypse How]]: A variation on Stellar, in the sense that the solar system isn't destroyed per se, just converted from dumb mass to computronium by the Vile Offspring. The (trans)humans who weren't active (or involuntary) participants got the hell out while the getting was good.
 * [[Augmented Reality]]: Pretty much everybody.
 * [[Cats Are Snarkers]] / [[Cats Are Superior]]: Aineko lives for this.
-* [[Brain Uploading]]: a large part of ''Accelerando'' is from the viewpoint of characters who uploaded themselves as a way of saving space on an interstellar journey
+* [[Brain Uploading]]: A large part of ''Accelerando'' is from the viewpoint of characters who uploaded themselves as a way of saving space on an interstellar journey
-* [[Fantastic Religious Weirdness]] (''Accelerando'' does strange things with the intersection between shari'a and corporate law)
+* [[Fantastic Religious Weirdness]]: ''Accelerando'' does strange things with the intersection between shari'a and corporate law.
 ** To say nothing of the difficulties inherent in facing Mecca to pray while you're in space.
-* [[Invisible Aliens]] (in ''Accelerando'', they built Matrioshka brains and subsequently vanished)
+* [[Invisible Aliens]]:  In ''Accelerando'', they built Matrioshka brains and subsequently vanished.
-* [[Generational Saga]] (''Accelerando'' has three generations of protagonists)
+* [[Generational Saga]] ''Accelerando'' has three generations of protagonists.
+* [[Non-Human Sidekick]]:  Manfred's cat who is a combination of a [[Talking Animal]] and [[Robot Buddy]] and, it turns out, {{spoiler|is behind almost everything}}.
-* [[Memory Gambit]] (in ''Glasshouse'', the main character erased whole chunks of his memory so {{spoiler|he could infiltrate a secret facility}})
+* [[Patchwork Story]]: ''Accelerando'' started its life as nine short stories.
+* [[The Singularity]]: The entire point of ''Accelerando''.
+* [[Space Elevator]]: Used by the Matrioshka brain in ''Accelerando'' to disassemble the inner solar system.
+* [[Transhuman Treachery]]: The Vile Offspring became so technologically and neurologically divergent from humanity that the humans had to flee the solar system to avoid being being used as Matrioshka Brain feedstock -- along with the planets of said system.
+==Glasshouse==
+''[[Glasshouse]]'' is a standalone novel, according to [[Word of God]]: '[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/06/crib-sheet-glasshouse.html I ''originally'' wanted to use the "Accelerando" setting for other novels, including "Glasshouse", but decided it was too cluttered/unpredictable. So "Glasshouse" is a stand-alone]' However, fan thought at the time of the TVT/ATT fork was that ''Glasshouse'' was a sequel to ''Accelerando'', so it has some tropes on this page. Rather than simply deleting those tropes, they have been moved here until ''Glasshouse'' gets its own page.
+* [[Amnesiac Dissonance]]: The main character of ''Glasshouse'' practically exemplifies this trope, although it's subverted in that {{spoiler|he was good both before and after he had amnesia, but he was simply more violent}}.
+* [[Memory Gambit]]: In ''Glasshouse'', the main character erased whole chunks of his memory so {{spoiler|he could infiltrate a secret facility}}.
 * [[Mind Virus]]: "CuriousYellow", a virus that's done an unknown amount of damage...because one of the things the virus did was erase the memories of anyone who knew why it was released in the first place.
-* [[Non-Human Sidekick]] (Manfred's cat who is a combination of a [[Talking Animal]] and [[Robot Buddy]] and, it turns out, {{spoiler|is behind almost everything}})
-* [[Patchwork Story]] (''Accelerando'' started its life as nine short stories)
 * [[Shout-Out]]: In ''Glasshouse'', [[The Virus|Curious Yellow]] is named after to the Swedish film ''I Am Curious (Yellow)'' (or more directly, after a paper about computer worm design).
 ** [[La Résistance|the Linebarger Cats]] are named in honor of Paul Linebarger, who literally wrote the book on psychological warfare, and his well-known proclivity for cats and [[Catgirl|catgirls]]. He's better known to sci-fi fans as [[Cordwainer Smith]]. One of the cover companies the Cats use is Cordwainer Heavy Industries. Another is the [[Kill Bill|Deadly Viper Assassination Squad]].
-* [[The Singularity]]: the entire point of ''Accelerando''. ''Glasshouse'' on the other hand stars the people who survived it and decided it had been a really bad idea for the most part.
+* [[The Virus]]: Curious Yellow is a worm in ''Glasshouse'' that infects people when they pass through A-gates so they, in turn, infect other gates and other people. It not only erases blocks of memory, but {{spoiler|erases the reason for what started the war in in the first place}}.
-* [[Space Elevator]] (Used by the Matrioshka brain in ''Accelerando'' to disassemble the inner solar system)
-* [[Transhuman Treachery]]: The Vile Offspring became so technologically and neurologically divergent to humanity that the humans had to flee the solar system to avoid being being used as Matrioshka Brain feedstock -- along with the planets of said system.
-* [[The Virus]] (Curious Yellow is a worm in ''Glasshouse'' that infects people when they pass through A-gates so they, in turn, infect other gates and other people. It not only erases blocks of memory, but {{spoiler|erases the reason for what started the war in in the first place}})
 {{reflist}}