Glasshouse (2006)

Ex-soldier Robin dodges mysterious killers in a far-flung future where folks travel to distant galaxies via wormhole. To escape his paramilitary past, Robin volunteers to simulate Earth-bound society in the late 20th century — the ''dark ages'' — but gets stuck in the body of a suburban housewife. He must adhere to traditional gender roles based on incomplete (and much-askew) historical sources. It's comic to watch this battle-wearied warrior try to buy pants or build a crossbow out of household items. In the end, though, the twisted reality-show angle in Glasshouse is crushed by Charles Stross' actual plot, which involves an overly complex war and high-tech espionage both baffling and uninteresting.