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Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Ken MacLeod |
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 Our
Ranking Star Fraction is Ken MacLeod's debut
novel, the first of what is currently a three part series. The main reason I picked
this one up is that I've seen Iain Banks raving about him in several reviews.
If Iain likes him, well then I guess I've got to give him a shot right? Well,
after finishing this one, I have to admit I have pretty strong mixed feelings.
First off, it is pretty obvious this is MacLeod's first novel. The writing style
is very choppy and at times very hard to follow. This isn't to say that it is
a bad style, it's just that it is very raw. He seemed to struggle a bit getting
his visions across, especially those scenes surrounding the main character's Moh's
trips to his version of cyberspace. I had to reread these scenes a few times to
really catch what was happening. To make matters worse, these scenes wound up
being very key to the story. Unfortunately the writing seemed to carry a bit into
the plot. The plot is very highly politicized. It is basically set in a time in
the future where the world political system is more or less in shambles and everyone
seems to have grasped tightly on to their own beliefs, tight enough to fight for
them. The world has been divided into tons of small factions that have made tenuous
allegiances and the such to try and take control of their goals. Problem is the
politics are very hard to follow. To be fair, a lot of this maybe that it is written
by a European (he's Scottish) and I had the feeling a lot of the views were very
European based. However, I find it hard to believe that even someone intimate
with today's European political scene could follow the tangled web of parties
that MacLeod not only creates but drives the plot with. This is probably my biggest
complaint with the book. I simply really struggled to understand the world MacLeod
was trying to create here. Despite these problems (maybe even because of?), the
book was nearly impossible to put down. The book had a strong feeling of Gibson's
Neuromancer in its plot and to a degree even in the characters. This isn't a bad
thing. It had that very edgy feel to it. I found myself drawn into the characters
and just the chaos of what MacLeod created. I really wanted to understand
where it was going so really immersed myself into it to try. The characters were
written well, I had trouble relating with their motivations since they were mostly
political driven. The action scenes were pretty well done, a bit short but they
delivered the point. All in all, while this was a very tough read, I did enjoy
plodding through it. I see a lot of potential here and will certainly read another
of his, hoping that he can organize his style and world a bit more. If he can,
he has all the makings of yet another awesome UK writer. I hate to give this such
a low rating, but I need to just due to the general confusion around the plot
and setting. well as the original Phillip K. Dick book, Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep, reviewed here. |
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 Our
Ranking The Stone Canal is actually the third
book from MacLeod's series that started with the Star Fraction. To be honest,
I thought I was going in order, but about half way through the book, I just got
the feeling there were way too many references I wasn't getting. So I did a little
research, and sure enough, the Cassinni Division is actually book two. Luckily,
this book stands quite well on its own and even with accidently skipping book
two, this was an incredible book. The Stone Canal is actually two different story
lines, all revolving around the main character, Jonathan Wilde. The first plot
line, takes place around the same time as the first book, The Star Fraction. The
second, and far more interesting line takes place a ways in the future, on New
Mars. The second line, is simply incredible. It basically centers around a reincarnate
of Wilde and a robot, Jay-Dub (who is also quite related to Wilde). They are basically
being sued by the main guy on New Mars, Reid. There's actually some good action
scenes and some terrific settings here. The cities that MacLeod creates are incredible,
and the culture around them just as good. It really is as if he took Star Fraction,
and polished off all the rough edges when it came to the setting and plot. The
first plot line, based in the past is interesting, but just no where near as good
as the New Mars one. The first line, is really about Reid and Wilde and how they
actually knew each other way back before space travel even occurred. It basically
brings you through their tangled past. Now, the plot itself was fine and interesting,
but what sort of dragged this down (and in all honesty, kept this from being a
5 star book) is this line is very political. I don't have anything against
politics, but I just struggled comprehending some of the views, especially Wilde's
incredible anarchist ones. I just didn't see the reasoning behind them. In both
plot lines, MacLeod makes some incredible statements on the future, both cynical
and philosophical. A lot of the second line is centered around what exactly constitutes
living. The discussion around artificial intelligences and back ups of ones mind,
all play in here. Some of the social predictions he makes are equally challenging.
When you read his idea on the future of nuclear war you just shake your head,
first thinking how he came up with it and second telling yourself, "you know,
that will probably happen!" All in all, this was an incredible book. The description,
plot and characters all meshed together incredibly. I was very happy to see the
potential I saw in The Star Fraction, pump this one out. There's no doubt in my
mind now that MacLeod will be a force in science fiction to come. This is a must
read. |
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 Our
Ranking Well, as I mentioned in my Stone Canal
review about, this is the second book in MacLeod's Fall Revolution series and
that I wound up reading it third by accident. However, I was a bit surprised to
find out that this book actually takes place after the 2nd book. So the
third book is actually a prequel to the second book and I wound up reading them,
by pure accident in chronological order. Got it? Well, to throw a wrench in even
further, let me just say that I'm glad I read the 3rd one first since it really
actually enriched the second one for me because I understood a lot of the characters
and the events that are described in this one. Not saying you should go out of
order on this series, but I did, and well, I think I enjoyed this one more because
of it. Well, onto the review. Well, I might as well just come out and say it;
this was a pretty damned good book. I am simply getting more and more impressed
with MacLeod with each book I read. The Cassini Division is actually a bit more
focused of a plot than the other two books I've read. It focuses around Ellen
Ngwethu and her crew aboard the Terrible Beauty. Ellen and her ship are
part of the Cassini Division, which is basically a hard core space marines type
of group based on Jupiter to protect Earth from the AI's that escaped out there
in the Star Fraction (the Fast Folk). The Fast Folk have suddenly managed to escape
the shackles of their virtual reality world and have managed to create a physical
form for themselves. Ellen, along with the Cassini Division are now faced with
the tough task of trying to gauge the level of threat this represents for mankind.
The setting really adds to the plot as well. Basically, Earth is still suffering
the effects of The Fall (once again in The Star Fraction). Due to all of the viruses
that constantly are blasted out from the Fast Folk planet, mankind is at a severe
technological disadvantage, but manage to create new technologies based off of
massive, primitive computers that are just too old to be affected by the viruses.
Also, the three way politics of the Fast Folk, mankind & the Cassini Division,
and the New Mars base (created in Stone Canal) that is a thousand years in the
future, but reachable from a wormhole gate located outside of Jupiter, create
some very interesting dynamics. MacLeod does a tremendous jobs pointing out the
vast differences in these three cultures not just from a technological standpoint,
but politically and philosophically as well. Finally, the characters are also
outstanding. Several of them have been developed over the previous and future
book, and MacLeod stay consistent and really gets you even deeper into them. The
new characters are also very interesting, especially those with The True Knowledge,
which is basically a modern philosophy that Ellen and much of the Division live
by. It creates some very good plot drivers and really adds to the characters and
their motivations. Ellen's character is outstanding and extremely well written.
Overall, this was a terrific book. The ending is just mindblowing, with two very
good twists that really left you guessing right up until the end. MacLeod is really
convincing me he's a major talent, and becoming one of my must read authors. If
you haven't read any of this series, don't start with this one, but please, start
this series to get to this book. It is worth it. |
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| Our RankingThe Stone Canal is the fourth,
and so far, the final book in the Fall Revolution Series. If you've read my earlier
reviews you'll know that this series has gotten better and better with each book,
with the Cassini Division being one well deserved 5 star novel. So, after finishing
Cassini, I quickly ordered The Sky Road from amazon.com/uk (unfortunately only
the UK store had any copies) and waited with anticipation for my chance to read
this. Unfortunately, The Sky Road wound up being a disappointment when compared
to Cassini and even The Stone Canal. It's still a pretty good book, just a step
back from the leaps and bounds MacLeod had been making. As with the other books
in the series, The Sky Road takes place after the Fall Revolution and involves
several of the characters from the previous books. Also, like the other books,
there is no real direct time line here, just another time period of the post revolution
world. Similar to The Stone Canal, this one actually has two story lines, one
in the far future, the other in the nearer future. With MacLeod, we've come to
expect very heavy political visions of the future, and The Sky Road is no different.
He describes a fairly complicated (but very believable) political environment
where after years of almost balanced anarchy, several parties are trying to make
a bid to retake political control of Earth while all of the old powers like US
or UK sit by watching barely able to keep their own borders whole. One of the
old characters from The Stone Canal, Myra, is the central character here as she
attempts to keep her small ex-Soviet state alive throughout this upheaval. Myra,
and the cast around her are all pretty good characters (even though I never really
felt too strongly either way about Myra in the previous books) but certainly not
the strongest MacLeod has written. Overall though, the near future line is a good,
interesting story that moved along at a nice pace. The far future setting is a
little different, and in my mind a bit more unbelievable. (I don't want to go
into the details too much, because it might ruin some of the surprises). To be
honest, the far future story line is fairly weak, and does little to further the
story. The main characters, Clovis and Merrial aren't overly engaging and really
don't drive the story, but rather let the story happen to them. Along with this,
the plot around them really isn't overly strong and just seems to act as a peek
at what happens due to the consequences of the near future story line. Personally,
I think if MacLeod had focused heavily on the near future story, this would have
been a much stronger book. While, being a disappointment, The Sky Road is probably
still worth the read if you've already finished the first three books. Certainly
do not start with this one though. MacLeod is still an amazing writer, and plot
weaknesses aside there is no questioning how good the writing is here. I've already
picked up the first book to his next series, The Engine of Light and look forward
to seeing him rebound back to the levels of Cassini Division and The Stone Canal.
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