“Altered Carbon” by Richard Morgan
Richard Morgan is a British Science Fiction author whose first novel was 2001’s “Altered Carbon”, a science fiction murder mystery set on Earth several centuries in the future that quickly gained a reputation as a modern classic of the genre. Every science fiction universe tends to have a defining technological gimmick; in this case, it is the use of technology that allows a human mind to be digitised. A person's mind can be captured by equipment implanted in the base of their skull, retaining all of the person’s memories up to the moment of death (assuming that the equipment itself isn't damaged in any fatal incident). It can then be scanned in from the corpse (or from a living person) and transferred or stored like any other form of computer data. If a recently deceased person has enough money he can have his personality re-implanted into a new clone. Rich people also have regular 'backups' taken so that even if their body's own storage is damaged beyond repair they still have a recent record of the state of their mind.
The concept makes for a murder mystery with a difference. When a rich and powerful Californian businessman named Bancroft is killed, the police investigation quickly decides that he committed suicide. After his digital backup is installed into a clone body he refuses to accept the decision – claiming that he would never commit suicide and that the police are prejudiced against him. The man he calls upon to investigate the cause of his death is Takeshi Kovacs – a mercenary and former member of the elite UN Envoy Corps, a military unit feared throughout the galaxy for their effectiveness and ruthlessness. Taken out of a virtual prison and beamed across light-years Kovacs finds himself on Earth for the first time. He is faced with the dual challenges of a puzzling mystery and culture shock from the huge differences between Earth and the colony worlds.
Kovacs is a very charismatic character, despite his abrasive personality, obvious serious personality flaws and tendency for excessive violence. Many of his actions may be quite well intentioned, but he is a former mercenary with a very murky background and he is quite willing to shoot first (and second, and third and…) and then ask questions later. His investigations soon manage to irritate some of the more powerful locals, and he finds himself the target of assassins. However, Kovacs has an aptitude for combat and anyone who gets in his way would be well advised to have had a digital backup made recently. The supporting characters – such as Bancroft, his scheming wife and the policewoman leading the investigation (who is both a help and a hindrance to Kovacs) – are often intriguing, and although the actions of various characters may sometimes be reprehensible Morgan does provide some explanations for why they act the way they do.
The futuristic background is convincing and interesting, and although it has been influenced by past dystopian science fiction and cyberpunk, there is also a fair amount of originality. Like all the best science fiction mysteries the explanation for the crime is inextricably linked to the futuristic technology and society – although it does take a long time for the reader to have any clue about what might be going on. The biggest criticism might be that the plot does seem to ramble a bit, not until the end is the structure of the plot revealed and until then it mainly consists of Kovacs collecting seemingly unconnected leads and engaging in occasional brutal action set-pieces. There’s also a James Bond moment towards the end where Kovacs and the villain discuss the villain’s evil plot for a few minutes instead of immediately trying to kill each other. Early on it is also a bit difficult to care too much about the outcome – the effects of the crime on Bancroft are purely temporary and he isn't particularly likeable anyway. However, as the plot progresses it becomes clear that Bancroft is far from being the biggest victim of the events leading up to his death. In addition to the investigation, we get more than a few flashbacks to earlier incidents in Kovacs' life – from his underprivileged upbringing on a squalid colony world to a disastrous military campaign on Innelin. These flashbacks are interesting, and help to explain Kovacs' unique character, but they do distract from the main plot to some extent.
The action sequences are possibly the most memorable part of the book – although anyone squeamish might want to consider reading something else. The action is violent, uncompromising, fast-moving, clearly-described and sometimes more than a bit unpleasant. Kovacs' occasional outbreaks of idealism mean that he ends up being more of a vigilante than an investigator and the fact that some of his opponents are truly despicable does make it easy for the reader to support him, even if Kovacs isn’t necessarily a much better person than the people he is fighting against.
In summary, a fast-moving, intelligent, entertaining and ambitious science fiction novel whose only flaw is an occasional lack of focus.
Rating : 9 / 10
“Wise Man’s Fear” by Patrick Rothfuss
Patrick Rothfuss’ debut fantasy novel “The Name of the Wind” was a huge hit when it was released in 2007 so there was a great deal of anticipation about its sequel, the middle book in the Kingkiller series. I thought the original book was highly entertaining although also with some flaws so I was curious about whether Rothfuss would be able to improve on it in book two.
I'm convinced that someday Patrick Rothfuss is capable of writing a superb fantasy series. However, I am increasingly doubtful that it's going to be this one. That's not to say the book isn't great fun to read, because it is - Rothfuss is a fantastic writer of prose and dialogue and even when not much is happening in the plot (which is quite frequent) the book is still entertaining to read. The plot has a lot of potential but ends up being a bit underwhelming and at times Kvothe's adventures do start to feel a bit formulaic. The overall plot of the series does have a compelling premise as Kvothe tries to track down the near-mythical Chandrian who killed his family, but despite the book being 960 pages long very little progress seems to be made towards that goal and at the end of the book little seems to have changed for Kvothe other than him learning a few new talents. Much of the first novel took place at the University where Kvothe was studying and arguably too many pages had been spent on his escapades there which were fun to read but increasingly repetitive and it is a relief when Kvothe leaves the University (albeit temporarily) a third of the way through the novel to go travelling. During his travels he is thrown into poverty for what feels like the hundredth time in the series, becomes an adviser to a powerful nobleman who wants help to woo a potential bride, attempts to find and stop a ruthless group of bandits, is kidnapped by an amorous faerie woman and is trained by the Adem, a civilisation of secretive martial arts experts. Some of the subplots along the way are definitely entertaining and occasionally surprising (for example, the extent of Kvothe's potential ruthlessness when dealing with the bandits or with a rogue band of travelling players) but few of the characters Kvothe meets on his travels are as interesting as some of the characters back at the University, although the enigmatic Count Bredon is one of the more interesting characters in the series. Kvothe’s time in the faerie world and his time among the Adem both seem to go on a bit too long and seem to rely on reusing a few fantasy clichés (particularly the Adem’s warrior culture). Kvothe is a slightly frustrating character as well due to his combination of being brilliant at most things he tries to do and being irritating foolhardy and prone to doing the worse possible thing at times. Despite that, he is charismatic and reasonably likeable, although I like the Kvothe from the framing story more than the one from the main storyline. Kvothe’s love interest Denna is also a frustrating character with her own secrets, I don’t find her to be a very likable character (I suspect she isn’t meant to be likable) but I can understand why Kvothe could become so obsessed with her.
When the series is finished I think there is some potential for this book to seem better when re-appraised. There are quite a few hints that Kvothe may not be the most reliable of narrators and the story might become more interesting if it turns out that he hasn’t been entirely honest with some of his accounts of various events. Close inspection of the story does reveal quite a lot about the mythological background of the series that isn’t necessarily immediately apparent, and even if Kvothe doesn’t seem to learn much about the Chandrian through the book there are quite a few semi-hidden hints as to what their plans and motivations are. The potential unreliability of Kvothe’s narration does tie in to one of the main themes of the series, the process of storytelling and how the storyteller can shape the story to match what they want to say and their perspective. It is an interesting theme, although it is questionable whether it is interesting enough to justify three very long novels exploring it, and it is slightly frustrating when Kvothe doesn’t spend any time on some of his escapades because he claims that they weren’t important to the overall story he is telling.
This is a good book that's a lot of fun to read, but it's also a bit disappointing because I think it had the potential to be a great book and a lot of that potential wasn't realised. Superficially it seems to be lacking in depth, closer inspection of the book does reveal more depth than is apparent at first glance, however I’m not sure there’s quite enough substance here to justify nearly a thousand pages.
Rating : 7½ / 10
“A Dance With Dragons” by George R.R. Martin
Six years after the release of “A Feast For Crows”, 2011 saw the long-awaited released of the fifth novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. It arrived on a wave of hype and expectation heightened by the hugely successful first season of the HBO’s TV adaptation of the series.
I find this a slightly difficult book to really decide exactly how I feel about it. On the one hand, Martin's writing, characterisation and world-building is as good as ever and I enjoyed reading all 1000 pages of it. On the other hand, although quite a lot did happen in the book and the pacing didn't feel too slow the lack of any real conclusion to many of the plotlines is a bit disappointing - admittedly one of the plotlines does have what appears to be a conclusion, but based on past experience with Martin’s writing I'm not sure I believe that it is a really a conclusion. It's particularly frustrating because it did appear about three quarters of the way through the book that the Winterfell and Mereen plotlines were building to a climax but the book stops some way short of that. Of course, I don't expect book five out of (allegedly) seven in a series to work as a standalone novel, but the first three books in the series did have more of a climax than either A Feast For Crows or A Dance With Dragons did, and I think they were stronger novels because of that. I also suspect that if I drew up a list of the 10 best moments in the series they'd probably all be in the first three books, which is not to say that there aren't some great scenes in the book, there just aren’t as many as in the earlier novels.
I think Jon's storyline at the Wall and the political manoeuvrings as different forces contend for control of the North (as shown in Reek’s chapters) were the best bits of the book and they are the two plotlines where I'm most keen to find out what happens next. Bran's plotline is also interesting although he arguably doesn't get enough chapters and barely appears in the second half of the book. During the writing of the book Martin made several comments about having difficulty making the Mereen plotline work, and I think it is still one of the weaker plotlines due to having a lot of sometimes repetitive build-up and only a partial conclusion, Dany also seems to get less character development than other characters with a lot of chapters like Jon and "Reek". Away from the East and the North there are a few token chapters for Jaime, Cersei and the Dornish but not much progress is made in those plotlines, and I suspect they may have been included largely as a reaction to the complaints about some characters being completely missed out of the previous book. Griff is one of the more interesting new characters and plays an important role in an intriguing new plotline, but perhaps a bit more time could have spent on that part of the story. Tyrion's plotline is a bit of a travelogue which sometimes feels a bit contrived and many of the incidents in it seem a bit irrelevant in the context of the story as a whole.
I think the comments above may make it sound like my reaction to the book was more negative than it actually is. I did enjoy the book, and it was a good experience to be back in Westeros after such a long wait, and I suspect this will still rank as one of the best fantasy books of the year, but I think it still falls a bit short of the best books in the series, probably the fourth best out of the five, a little bit ahead of A Feast For Crows. I suspect any readers who may already have had mixed feelings about the series probably would not get much out of the book, fans of the series will probably still mostly enjoy it but may regard it as being a bit of a missed opportunity.
Rating : 8/10
“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
“Ready Player One” is the debut novel by Ernest Cline, while it isn’t a flawless work it is quite an impressive first book and a consistently entertaining read.
The novel is set in 2040 in a dystopian America where decades of economic and environmental collapse have left most of the population, including the novel’s protagonist Wade, scratching out a meagre existence in the trailer park slums now dominating most of America’s cities. Wade is a geeky teenage who escapes from the horrors of his day-to-day existence using the same means as billions of others around the world, by logging in to OASIS, a virtual-reality online role playing game which has evolved into an immensely complex and detailed virtual world that has supplanted the Internet as the world’s primary means of communication and socialisation. Wade attends school online in the OASIS but spends most of his time in a quest to find an Easter Egg left by the game’s designer James Halliday. Five years earlier Halliday had died, leaving as his will a message that his vast fortune and control of the OASIS would pass to whoever managed to complete a quest he had left hidden in the game. There were few details about the quest, but Halliday had mentioned that solving the three puzzles necessary to find the Easter Egg would require a detailed knowledge of the computer games, RPGs, music and films that Halliday loved, mostly from the 1980s era when Halliday had himself been a teenager and had first began to realise the potential of computer games. As a result Wade, like millions of others on the quest, had spent much of the five years devouring every piece of media linked to in Halliday’s journals, from Dungeons and Dragons to Back To The Future, Monty Python’s Flying Circus to Pac Man. Wade quickly develops an obsessive nostalgic fondness for a time many decades before his birth which seems like an American Golden Age compared to his own time, and his knowledge will come in very useful when he comes up with a brainwave about what Halliday’s first clue means and where the first of the three keys he has to find is hidden.
I thought this was a fairly good book; it was a lot of fun to read although it had too many flaws to be a truly great book. Some of the characterisation was a bit simplistic - particularly the clichéd Evil Corporation antagonists - the story was predictable and there were a few plot holes. Wade and his small group of friends are likable characters but they’re not particularly deep or morally complex characters and most of Wade’s characterisation is quite predictable given his basic biography, although he does have a reasonable amount of character development throughout the book, his initial obsession with the quest for the Easter Egg continues throughout the book but he does start to become aware that there are other things that matter other than winning the contest. Wade’s narration of the book is entertaining and witty (although some of his attempted witticisms are a bit clunky), but when there is actual dialogue between characters it does tend to be a bit simplistic - which is understandable given that the protagonist is a socially inept loner. I think James Halliday is potentially the most interesting piece of characterisation, although he never actually appears in the flesh in the book. The book does seem quite ambiguous in his attitude towards him, while he may have constructed a wonderful virtual world the novel does start to question whether he used his vast wealth responsibly and whether OASIS for all its positive attributes might also be causing harm. I think it could have spent a bit more time exploring Halliday’s ambiguous legacy, for example it doesn’t seem to spend much time considering the bleak implication of the novel that very little that is genuinely new has been created since OASIS began.
I think the biggest problem with the plot was that the egg hunt didn't seem to be as hard as it was portrayed to be, particularly obtaining the first key - it may not have been easy (although the meaning of the "much to learn" clue was glaringly obvious), but it wasn't hard enough that millions of people would have spent five years failing to find it. In some ways parts of the quest might work better in a visual medium (apparently a film adaptation is being considered), since it is hard for a book to make compelling scenes where the protagonist spends hours playing 80s arcade games or re-enacts a classic film. There is some memorable imagery throughout the book, whether it is the bizarre sight of an undead sorcerer straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign playing on an arcade game or the climatic battle between Wade and his friends and his corporate-funded rivals being fought between giant robots from various cartoon series.
I think the setting was probably the best bit of the book, and the author did a good job of incorporating all the myriad references without having them get in the way of the plot too much, although arguably he could have spent more time explaining why the things being referenced were so great that they had such appeal decades later. While I am familiar with a lot of the 80s references in the books, there were a number of games referenced that I've heard of but never played and I therefore don't have any nostalgia about them, so it might have been a good idea for the book to explore exactly why people were so nostalgic about them that they would construct virtual tributes to them decades later, sometimes the nostalgia does seem a bit undiscerning. I don’t think it would be necessary to understand all the references to enjoy the book, although some familiarity with the things being referenced will probably make it more enjoyable.
In summary, this is a fun adventure novel that perhaps doesn’t have a huge amount of depth but its gleeful virtual reconstruction of 1980s pop-culture makes it a very likable book.
Rating : 8/10
“The Execution Channel” by Ken Macleod
Macleod’s next novel returned from far future sci-fi to Earth and is his most contemporary novel to date. The focus of this book is on the ‘War on Terror’, set a few years in the future it details a Britain damaged by its alliance with America and a world under increasing strain due to a bloody war in the Middle East. Although it is not immediately obvious, the novel is set in a slightly alternate universe where Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election and an alliance of America and Britain faces the twin threats of a Middle East and Central Asia ravaged by Al Qaeda and Islamic Fundamentalism and a loose alliance of anti-American powers between France, Russia and the resurgent communist states in China and North Korea. The novel starts with a vaguely-worded message sent by Alec Travis, a British soldier in Central Asia, warning his sister Roisin that she may be in danger in her current position, as part of a peace camp protesting against the American airbase at RAF Leuchars in Fife, Scotland. Before abandoning the peace camp Roisin manages to take some covert photographs of a mysterious device arriving by plane at the air base. A few hours later the air base is destroyed by what appears to be a nuclear explosion, and when this event is followed by a serious of terrorist attacks on various British targets, Roisin knows that she needs to get the pictures out to the public. Before long, she comes to the attention of both MI5 and the CIA, who quickly become suspicious of Roisin, her brother and especially her father, computer expert James Travis who, unknown to Roisin, is also working for the French intelligence service. The rest of the novel focuses on Roisin’s and James’ attempts to meet up while avoiding their pursuers, and the attempts of both Roisin, James, the various intelligence services and conspiracy theorist blogger Mark Dark to figure out just who is behind the series of terrorist attacks and what really happened at RAF Leuchars. Eventually, the novel comes to a surprising conclusion, which is cleverly foreshadowed early in the book, the foreshadowing being concealed by some cunning disinformation.
It is fairly refreshing after reading a number of Science Fiction novels which make plenty of coded messages and allegories to the War on Terror to read a Science Fiction novel that is explicitly about the War on Terror. Macleod manages to make some interesting (although arguable) points about the War, and thankfully manages to avoid preaching any one particular point of view. The effects of the terrorist attacks and their aftermath on Britain are convincingly described, without ever getting too close to the actual attacks. Macleod also does a good job of dealing with the online aspects of the plot, all too often fiction reveals itself to be a bit illiterate regarding the Internet but Macleod obviously knows what he is talking about. Once it is finally explained the plot does seem to make sense, although parts of the plot do come out of left-field and perhaps would only entirely make sense to those of us who have read a certain classic Science Fiction work.
The quality of the writing is, as usual with Macleod, good and the characterisation is generally strong although some of the supporting characters do feel a bit under-developed and James Travis’ motivations are frustratingly opaque (even to himself).
The novel’s biggest problem isn’t that it has any particular single flaw or weakness but somehow it still feels some way from being Macleod at its best during the middle part of the novel. After the shock of the initial attacks has faded the novel is arguably not particularly exciting, and although the characters are interesting enough it is difficult to really care about them or their predicament too much (especially as a large part of that predicament is self-inflicted).
In summary, this is an interesting and topical story that is well written and has a reasonably good plot; it does drag a little bit in the middle but the conclusion does make up for this to some extent.
Rating : 8 / 10
“Learning The World : A Novel of First Contact” by Ken Macleod
After eight novels and several shorter works some elements of Macleod’s stories were starting to be overused a bit so 2005’s “Learning the World” was a refreshing change – a novel not partially set in Scotland and with very little mention of A.I.s, Singularity Theory or obscure left-wing politics.
The fundamental premise of the novel is revealed in its subtitle – “A Novel of First Contact” – this is a book that returns to a once-popular but now often neglected (at least in novels) subgenre of Science Fiction – the First Contact novel. In this case the contact is initiated by the crew of the eccentrically named starship “But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!” - a huge generation starship full of human colonists travelling on a centuries-long voyage to found a new human colony in a previously-unexplored star system. They believe the star system to be uninhabited, a reasonable assumption because millennia of human exploration of space have not found any sign of any sentient alien races. However, their assumption in this case is not correct and they are surprised to discover as they decelerate into the star system that one of the planets is already inhabited.
The planet is called Ground by its inhabitants; a winged race described irreverently by the main human character as ‘alien space bats’. They are intelligent, civilised but several centuries of technological and scientific progress behind the humans, still in an early industrial stage where they may have universities and scientists and a stable society but where the concept of a heavier-than-air flying machine is still regarded as the stuff of science fiction. They are however advanced enough that Darvin, an astronomer, quickly realises the implications of the new comet he has just found – a comet that appears to be decelerating in defiance of the laws of physics. The inhabitants of Ground have no way to contact what they suspect may be an alien spacecraft, and they are also distracted by a potential conflict between two of their major military powers, as well as some controversial questions raised by Darvin and his fellow scientists about their civilisation’s treatment of some of the semi-sentient lesser species on their planet.
The incoming humans are also unsure how to respond. The main character, a teenage girl called Atomic Discourse Gale believes they should try to contact the inhabitants of Ground, but the more senior members of the expedition introduce a ban on communications while they study the problem, using their technology to spy on the planet while they ponder what to do. A large part of the human part of the book is based around the diary entries in Gale’s public ‘biolog’ as she wrestles with the implications of finding alien life and her exasperation at the actions of the older members of the crew. Gale’s biolog does seems likely to be a topical reference to the blogs that were starting to become a major part of the Internet society around the time the book was written, and its use is effective in making her an engaging character.
This is a book that would easily have fitted into the so-called Golden Age of science fiction, it is a classic Science Fiction story in the tradition of Arthur C Clarke or Poul Anderson, although naturally the technology and physics is updated to modern standards. The novel largely ignores the political dimensions of Macleod’s other novels, instead concentrating on issues such as scientific progress and how to deal with encountering an alien civilisation. It makes an entertaining, interesting and compelling story, although one flaw is the slightly rushed (although admittedly clever) ending.
Both the human and alien protagonists are interesting and entertaining characters, both largely used to introduce the reader to their respective worlds. Atomic Discourse Gale provides a viewpoint on her world, the generation starship she was born in that is the only world she knows while Darvin and his colleagues are used to provide an introduction to their species’ society that skilfully avoids clumsy exposition.
In summary, this is a good novel that sees Macleod moving away from the premises of his other novels and instead choosing to write an entertaining modernisation of the “First Contact” novel subgenre.
Rating : 9/10
“Newton’s Wake” by Ken Macleod
After the “Engines of Light” trilogy Macleod reverted to writing stand-alone Science Fiction novels. The first of those was “Newton’s Wake”. The world of this novel is in some ways similar to his earlier books, in some ways different. It is the 24th Century, several hundred years after a cataclysmic singularity occurred on Earth. In the middle of a war between Europe and the USA a military Artificial Intelligence had become fully self-aware leading to what the survivors would later call the “Hard Rapture” as the A.I. spread itself through the world’s computer systems, spawning new A.I.s and disregarding the wellbeing of the humans it was quickly surpassing. Many humans died, others were engulfed in the explosion of technological development and ended up with their minds boosted so that they became unknowable posthumans. Not long after the Hard Rapture the A.I.s and the posthumans disappeared into deep space leaving behind a battered Earth and a plethora of mysterious and powerful artefacts scattered across Earth and dozens of other nearby star systems. One of those artefacts is the ‘Skein’, a system of wormholes stretching across dozens of star systems.
The main character is Lucinda Carlyle, a member of the infamous Carlyle clan – a family poised somewhere between being daring entrepreneurs and organised criminals. Her job is to explore the Skein, looking for undiscovered posthuman artefacts to exploit, a dangerous but lucrative job. She finds more than she expected when she stumbles upon the previously unexplored planet of Eurydice and finds a thriving human society there who escaped Earth in the Hard Rapture and have been living in isolation ever since. There is inevitable culture shock between the Carlyles and the inhabitants of Eurydice, especially when other factions such as the Knights of Enlightment (keen to exploit posthuman technology) or the Communist DK get involved. It also throws the previously idyllic civilisation of Eurydice into turmoil. It was formed after a disagreement during the Hard Rapture between two groups – the Runners who wanted to get as far away from the singularity as possible and the Returners who wanted to return to Earth and fight to regain humanity’s place in control of its own planet. The Runners won the argument but Returner sympathisers seize upon the revelation that Earth survived the war to argue for a renewed attempt to cleanse the remaining posthuman artefacts and restore the uploaded copies of human consciousnesses trapped inside them.
The above plot summary probably makes the book sound more serious than it actually is. While there are a lot of serious ideas in this book regarding the perils of runaway technological progress, this book is also to some extent a comedy, frequently being satirical, particularly once the characters Winter and Calder (two pro-Returner folk musicians) are resurrected from data storage by a playwright on Eurydice who is keen for controversy. This is probably the biggest problem with the book, the light-hearted tone makes it difficult to take the book entirely seriously. Unlike Macleod’s other books the societies in this are never portrayed well enough to be convincing and even some reasonably important plot points are undermined by some cheap puns. Although occasionally amusing, it is never funny enough to work as a comedy so the attempts at humour largely damage the book rather than adding to it. The characters are generally likeable but largely lacking in depth compared to the main characters in some of Macleod’s other novels. Another related problem is that because the plot is never taken entirely seriously it is not particularly compelling. The setting does have some fairly original points, but does also reuse some of Macleod’s favourite references (Scotland, Communism, the Singularity) which are starting to feel a bit over-familiar after they’ve been used and reused in most of his earlier books.
In summary, this is far from being Macleod’s best work. There are some genuinely interesting ideas and the premise has the potential to make a good novel, but ill-advised and not entirely successful attempts at comedy and satire detract from the book.
Rating : 6/10
“The Human Front” by Ken Macleod
As well as his many novels MacLeod has also written a novella - “The Human Front”, available in the “Infinities” anthology. It takes place in Scotland (unsurprisingly) in an alternate universe, where the Americans and British started World War 3 against the Soviets shortly after the end of World War 2. The main character is John Matheson, who as a young boy witnessed some strange events when one of the American's secret anti-gravity flying saucer-shaped bombers calls in for medical assistance at a remote air base. John's father is called upon to treat the pilot – who seems to John to be merely child-sized, although he doesn't get a close look. Years later, John and his family have moved to Glasgow, where John, now a naive, idealistic teenager, becomes increasingly involved in a pro-Soviet militia, despite his father's despair at John's gullibility where the Soviet propaganda is concerned. As events progress John eventually gets a second opportunity to get a look at one of the flying saucers – this time in rather different circumstances.
The background is typical MacLeod, with the result that the early stages might now feels a bit over-familiar to anyone who has read his novels already. Also, this doesn't really have the depth of his novels, and although there are some interesting ideas, they aren't really developed very much – in particular, the climatic revelation is merely given a handful of pages of hurried exposition, whereas it had the potential to be the premise for a decent-sized novel. It is well-written, the characterisation is good and is quite entertaining, but the ending feels far too rushed and it might have worked better as a novel rather than a short story.
In summary, a reasonable short story that doesn't really live up to the potential of its premise.
Rating : 7 / 10
“Engine City” by Ken Macleod
The third – and final – book in the “Engines of Light” series is “Engine City”. While on a routine survey mission of a nearby star system, Gregor Cairns' wife Elisabeth discovers the corpse of a large spider-like alien being. Matt Cairns and his associates realise that an interstellar war may soon be on the horizon. Earlier on, Matt's rival Volkov had flown off to the ancient trading Nexus of Nova Babylonia. His aim is to overthrow the millennia-old traditional government and replace it with a new, more progressive government that is capable of organising the technological force to fight off the threat of the 'Multipliers', as the Spider-aliens are named. However, Matt begins to doubt that the Multipliers are really the threat that Volkov thinks they are, despite the asteroid-Gods' millennia-old antipathy to the Multiplier race. It all ends up with a military confrontation on Nova Babylonia, as Matt and his multiplier allies must somehow deal with the remnants of Volkov's military regime (now leaderless after their leader's assassination). However, is Matt doing the right thing?
Whereas “Dark Light” could be criticised for a comparative lack of ambition, this novel has plenty of fascinating ideas. Rather than the traditional political and technological concepts that usually take precedence in MacLeod's novels, he decides here to focus on the potential of an utterly alien race. The Multipliers are fascinating, if outlandish, creatures, ranging in scale from human-sized creatures down to tiny clones of the larger Multipliers that effectively function as biological nanobots. These tiny creatures allow the Multipliers to offer the humans a seductive choice – if they allow the nanobots into their bloodstream they will gain immortality – as well as increased cognitive abilities and a greater sense of togetherness. The benefits are obvious – but they lead to the dilemma of whether the Multipliers can be trusted, and are the humans that accept the treatment still fully human? It's an intriguing question, especially given the lack of a definitive answer.
There are also plenty of other interesting ideas, as well as an entertaining plot, some good characters and quite a bit of humour. The writing is among MacLeod's best, and the only real criticism might be that the plot does bounce around a lot from place to place, making a bit challenging to follow at times and it does occasionally feel slightly rushed trying to cram so much plot into a relatively short book.
In summary, “Engine City” is a superb work of science fiction, packed with intriguing ideas and with a highly entertaining plot. The previous two books in the trilogy may not have been MacLeod's best, but this surpasses them and ends up as a potential future classic of the genre.
Rating : 9 / 10
“Dark Light” by Ken Macleod
The sequel to “Cosmonaut Keep” is 2001's “Dark Light”. The plot is simpler this time, there is only one plot thread with little mention of Earth and all the action takes place on the planet of Croatan, the nearest planet to Mingulay. Matt and Gregor Cairns, along with their other companions, arrive in orbit around the (mostly) human-populated planet. They find a planet in the middle of a transition from a feudal society to a 20th Century-era industrial economy, complicated by the presence of a large population of primitive tribes in the hinterlands, and the frequent visits of the comparatively cosmopolitan interstellar traders, who have travelled from the relatively advanced planet of Nova Babylonia on alien starships.
The new arrivals make contact with the asteroid-inhabiting Gods in the Croatan system, some of whom warn that their fellow Gods' intentions may not be entirely benign, and may be part of a millennia-old war with another alien species. After the local authorities prove obstructive, Matt and his companions are faced with the question of whether to use their superior knowledge and superior technology to meddle with the political situation on Croatan. Eventually, they come to believe that the only possible solution is to join with the working-class rebel movements on the planet to challenge the bureaucratic Port Authority that runs the planet's main city. However, not all of Matt's companions – principally the former cosmonaut Volkov - agree that he is trying to bring about the right changes.
This book is simpler than any of MacLeod's other books, although it still packs in quite a lot of politically-centred discussion the plot is very straightforward and it doesn't have the surfeit of ideas that can make some of his other books slightly daunting – if satisfying – to read. The plot works quite well, but it isn't terribly memorable - although it is entertaining. One small irritation is the use of a present tense for Matt's viewpoints, which is a bit disconcerting and seems a pointless difference from the style of the rest of the novel.
In summary, an entertaining fast-moving book that doesn't have the ambition of MacLeod's other novels.
Rating : 7½ / 10