The sky road (original 1999; edition 2000)

Of the series, #2 & #4 (The Sky Road) are my favorites.

I remember reading this when I was 15 or so and being blown away.

This is the kind of book you will remember reading 10 years later. ( )

The Sky Road is one of Ken MacLeod's best novels
It manages to focus very well on its two main threads and avoids getting sidetracked by its complex back story.

Odd-numbered chapters tell the tale of Myra Godwin, the leader of a small leftist state in a mid 21st century Eastern Europe.
The fairly complex political situtation was well-developed in the previous novels in the series but explanations of this background are kept to a minimum here, which allows the story to focus on Myra's attempts to save her country from being overrun by the Seenisov, an anarchic post-technological movement that has already taken over China and the Soviet Union.
While doing this, she looks for political alliances, meets a new lover, has to deal with a military AI and finds herself faced with a lot of tough decisions. These make up the perfect ingredients for a political near-future sf story.

In the even-numbered chapters, we meet Clovis colha Gree, a history student in a far-future Schotland, on an Earth that has returned to a pastoral way of life.. All this has come about due to the actions of the "Deliverer".
In the summer season, Clovis is working as a labourer on a project to build the first satellite in centuries. He meets the beautiful Merrial, an engineer, and they fall in love. Merrial turns out to be expecting problems with the satellite project and she believes the key to these may be burried deep in the past of the Deliverer, which just so happens to be Clovis' area of expertise.
They dig into the past, and find themselves in an adventure that teaches them a lot about their present...

The story is well told and through both series of chapters, we find out step by step what happened in Myra Godwin's age to inflict such a change on Earth and how this affects the lives of Merrial and Clovis.
There is of course MacLeod's typical political sf, but it is interspersed with more than enough intrigue to make these 292 pages a quick and interesting read. ( )

The second book of his I've read and equally rewarding in its writing, subject matter and plot. A two-stranded plot from the late 20th and early 21st centuries and 400 years later. A digital archive at Glasgow University plays a central role. Full of brilliant observations on the politics of the far left again and funny, thought-provoking and suspense-filled all at once. ( )

This is a solid book, but a pretty quick read. One nice highlight is that one of the two main threads is centered around Kazakhstan. That certainly doesn't happen very often. Some funny computer jokes at the expense of the characters in the other section, and something that we, of course see coming, but the protagonist, does not.
Then he throws in one sneaky, very political AI, and it is not a bad story, along with being hopeful, even with a bit of the good old nuclear destruction.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/11/sky-road-ken-macleod.html ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?ID=105 ( )