Slashdot Mirror
The Cassini Division
At the beginning of the 24th century, the inner Solar System is dominated by the socialist Solar Union. Their front-line fighting force, the Cassini Division, defends against viral attacks from post-human Jovians and keeps careful watch on a wormhole. Ellen May Ngwethu, a member of the Division's Central Committee, travels to areas of Earth occupied by "non-cos", low-tech anarchists who still use such antiquated devices as money. Her goal is to find the physicist Malley, whose help is necessary to find a way through the wormhole. And after taking the losing side in a debate over whether to bomb the Jovians or to try to communicate with them, Ellen travels through the wormhole to ultra-capitalist New Mars.
After a slower opening, there largely to link back to earlier books set in the same universe, The Cassini Division rattles along at a good pace. It is not particularly compelling as a novel, however, with no characters that really come to life. Ellen has centre-stage throughout but remains something of a cipher, her dominant feature her dedication to "the true knowledge" on which the Solar Union was founded ("self interest") and her hostility to non-humans, both rooted in her personal history. And none of the other characters gets much play at all. Suze, for example, is a sociologist who joins Ellen early on in the story and has as high a profile in it as anyone else, but she could still have been trivially edited out.
The science is "space opera" style, deployed when necessary for the plot but otherwise passed over, and the intellectual interest comes from the politics. This takes the form of open discussions of political theory and depictions of different forms of social organisation in action, but it never becomes didactic or stodgy. MacLeod himself is a Trotskyist libertarian, a label which gives some feel for his eclecticism, and he depicts very different political systems working reasonably well -- though he often verges on parody. There are also plenty of little jokes, such as a statue of Mises in the Central Planning Committee building.
A significant factor is that aging has been stopped, so many people are centuries old and have political views formed in the 21st century. This makes the recurrence of current political ideologies three centuries down the road more plausible, but it is also a key stabilising factor. Whether in non-co areas of Earth, in the Solar Union, or on New Mars, to a great extent the system works because it's what people are accustomed to. And even the Jovian "fast folk", descendants of humans who moved into computers and experienced a kind of singularity, have some continuity with their past.
Overall? There's not much more to it, but The Cassini Division makes a decently entertaining action story, with plenty of ideas for anyone interested in political theory. I'm not going to rush off and buy Ken MacLeod's other books, but I'll keep an eye out for a chance to borrow them or scam review copies.
You can purchase the The Cassini Division from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Jennifer Government by Max Barry.
Very near-future society where multinationals have been carried to their logical conclusion. Funny, interesting and thought provoking and highly reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's earlier work (in a good way).
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.
Entertaining story along with two extremely interesting concepts: the intragalactic usenet and well-executed small group-minded aliens. If you like it, A Deepness in the Sky by the same author is a definate next stop. Vinge reminds me a lot of Larry Niven, again in a good way.
Harry Potter
Just go ahead and buy it -- you know you want to. Don't let the disapproving looks from the book snob working the checkout counter at Borders deter you -- they're working at Borders, few chrissake, who are they to criticise? A little fluff reading never hurt anyone.
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
A lot of people are crazy about American Gods, and I agree it's a good read. However, Neil Gaiman's real strongpoint is his short stories, of which this is a collection. "Murder Mysteries", "Only the End of the World Again" and "Don't Ask Jack" are my personal favorites, although there's really good stuff throughout.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Oh please don't think I consider that too "deep". I don't. It is just rare unless you read fictional independent books. Rare in the way of anarchist fiction per say as a genre. You should check out V for Vendetta which was an interesting comic mini series which more than touches on it but in a very original and admittedly strange way. It is a good break from Kropotkin and Malatesta anyway.
./revolution
I think this reviewer is missing out; reading this book by itself is kinda like watching Return of the Jedi without have seen the two previous parts. MacLeod's first work, The Star Fraction, is a good prequel (now available in the US), but to really grasp the setup for The Cassini Division, it is very helpful to read The Stone Canal first. (The Sky Road is a sequel to The Stone Canal as well, but the world described is mutually exlusive with The Cassini Division)
Personally, I've enjoyed all of MacLeod's works (including the trilogy in progess that starts with Cosmonaut Keep). Part of that is the well paced/structured stories, the intriguing look at tech and/or politics, and especially the low-key humor that he works in. In The Cassini Division, the story is peopled with ber-socialists; guess what the euphemism, "Go employ yourself!" refers to...
"I'm a scientist! I don't think, I observe!" - Dr. Clayton Forrester
Ken MacLeod keeps an active weblog at
http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/
This is a long and pointless holy war. If you like I will call it libertarian socialism. I prefer to let the people who defined and lived the political movements of the past to dictate what they mean. A society "without leaders" (that is the original meaning) isn't necessarily chaotic, though it can be. Similar to the way a society with leaders can be chaotic or not (although most anarchists would argue any society with leaders is inherently chaotic). Have you read anything by Kropotkin/Prouhdon/Bakunin/Goldman/Rocker/Malatest a/Bookchin? I would recommend reading something by any of them if you are at all interested in history or politics.
./revolution
Yes, it is so hilarious. It is impossible for people to be economically equal and have little to no government. For instance, the spanish civil war which saw much of spain collectived under an anarcho-syndicalist union (the CNT) never happened. Just like every non western example of large scale communes that had an ardent history of libertarianism also never happened.
./revolution
For those looking for some books to read this summer, check out Peter Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" "trilogy." In paperback, its actually 6 books- The Reality Dysfunction (Parts 1 and 2), the Neutronium Alchemist (Pts 1 and 2), and the Naked God (parts 1 and 2). The series probably totals about 4000 pages in paperback, and is really just one huge book. It'd do someone little good to read the first and give up.
However, do not be dismayed- it may be a huge read, but it is worth it. Hamilton's universe is vast and very detailed; a million subplots that aren't just filler.
It takes place in the 27th century; humanity is basically divided into two camps- Adamists and Edenists. Adamists are what most folks would think of as the natural progression of today's society; and Edenists are a group of commies that have a form of genetically-engineered telepathy (called "affinity") and rely on organic technology. Humanity really only knows of two other sentient species other than themselves. It sounded cheesy to me at first, but it is an amazing series. I only finished it 6 months ago, and I'm having to stop myself from reading it again...
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Hmm, I suspect as far as the grammar and concord errors go, you're talking about Gibson's writing style, which is deliberate - the kind of thing you can learn if you study creative writing at university and you get very, very good at it.
There are quite a few literarily-admired non-SF authors who write in some variation on this style. One that comes to mind is E.L. Doctorow. At its best, this kind of writing borders on poetry: a stream of words communicates ideas, feelings, sensation, mood, not necessarily by following purely grammatical and factual communication techniques, but for example by using words that have certain connotations, using unusual sentence structures and punctuation that - ideally - forces the reader to look past the superficial meaning of the sentence itself, past its structure and presentation, to the ideas that the author is trying to communicate. Typical grade-school or business communication grammatical no-nos - like the previous run-on sentence - are not necessarily a bad thing, if they serve a purpose and don't make the text unreadable.
All that an author can ever do is try to communicate ideas from his head to his readers' heads. You can do that with plain, matter of fact language, in the Hemingway-inspired way someone like Tom Clancy tends to do: "The man fired." In this mode, much of the flavor of a story is actually filled in by the reader, since the author may not do much to help communicate anything other than facts and dialog, with some basic descriptive filler. Or you can paint an impressionistic word picture, which is what Gibson does. The Gibsonesque style is much more ambitious, but also therefore more risky. Gibson is good because a lot of the time, he pulls it off - but at times, it can instead seem forced.
As for spelling errors, I'd love to see some examples. I didn't notice many in the editions I've read, and I'm an excellent speller.