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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.
or
Pater was a young boy,
He had a heart of stone.
He had no money,
Worked his fingers to the bo-one!
AESP SFTP CAT.5 100MHz 26AWGx4P PATCH TYPE CM (UL) C (UL)
BOO! TERRO
I reversed the keys on my keyboard so that the top row now says poiuytrewq instead of qwertyuiop. No one really knows why I did this, but I've done it and there's nothing anyone can do about it. it's not really all that hard to type on if you're a touch typist. it helps if you don't pay attention to the keys. You should try it and see what your coworkers/SO says about it. It makes the keys more interesting and when the helpdesk people come out to fix your computer they cannot, and they tell you you should reboot your computer because the keys on the keyboard are backwards. Now I think I'm going to rave about my linux distribution. love Source Mage so much I don't want to sleep I just want to play with sorcery and cast and dispel and resurrect and compile and install and compile and optimise and optimize and optimise and optionally depend on caffeine and eat nothing but sorcery but mummy said caffeine is bad but I think she just wants my caffeine and I'm awake now and I can't sleep and I need sleep and I can't sleep and I think I've used the word and too much and I just did it again and I just did it again and again and again and I don't think this makes much sense but I can't stop because I can't sleep and I can't sleep because I can't stop and need sleep and I love sorcery and I need sleep and I love sorcery and I need sleep and I love sorcery and I need sleep and I love sorcery and I need sleep and I love sorcery and I need sleep and I don't think I can sleep now and I don't think I can ever sleep again I'll just stay here in front of my computer and hack sorcery and slowly quietly go insane but it doesn't matter because I love Source Mage and I don't care and I really need sleep but I haven't been outside today I don't know what its like outside I've never been outside but thats okay because I have sorcery to keep me company sorcery and the world wide web and its much better in here because in here is world wide and out there is just closed minded automatons who don't understand the power of sorcery and I need sleep and people tell me I need sleep but I don't believe them I think they're just trying to get me vulnerable and I can't sleep or they will come for me and take me and take me away and hurt me and I don't like those people because they're not real people the only people I know I know are real I know through my computer my computer tells me who is real and if you don't have a public key how can i tell you are you what do you mean you don't have a pgp key you must have a pgp key everyone I know who I know is real has a public key you are not real you are not real you can't be real you can't be a real person without an email address and I can't trust you because I can't verify your identity and I don't know you who are you you are an impostor you are not my friend I don't know you all my friends have pgp keys and you are not a pgp key and I can't verify your fingerprint and you wont encrypt your speech and I can't trust you I can't trust anyone any more I can't trust anyone except sorcery sorcery is my friend sorcery knows all and sorcery is cool and sorcery does everything and I love sorcery and I love Source Mage and I need sleep and I love Source Mage and I love sleep and I need Source Mage ande I need Source Mage.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - LZW patent US4,558,302 was found expired in its patent office filing cabinet this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the internet community will miss it - even if you didn't enjoy the litigation, there's no denying its contribution to bandwidth conservation. Truly a compression icon.
My ASS has a cASSinni division - you can see my black hole in there, too.
Linux on every desktop!
STOP SMOKING THAT POLE, TAKE THE MANHAM OUT OF YOUR BUTTSANDWICH AND WASH THE SPERM OUT OF YOU MOUTH OK SLASHFAGS.
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