http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1280532...

An excellent merging of numerous MacLeod themes, shaken and stirred to produce a thought-provoking result. The book is set in a relatively near-future independent Scotland, after the victory of secularism against religion throughout the English-speaking world, but is nothing like as polemical as that summary might make it sound; it is told from the point of view of the policeman investigating the murder of a Catholic priest, a crime which leads him into the underground world of the surviving Christian churches and the existential and political problems of intelligent robots, built for a war which is now over. (In general, I hate cute anthromorphic robots, but these are not cute and only optionally anthroporphic, and I was entirely satisfied by their psychology.) I wished the ending had been unpacked a bit, but I also know that MacLeod sometimes expects a bit of brain-work from his readers.

Although this is a stand-alone book, and so is MacLeod's forthcoming The Restoration Game, astute readers will note that both feature U.S. intelligence, computer games, and New Zealand, though to differing extents. ( )

This is the other 'science-fiction/detective story set in future Edinburgh' that I've read this year. MacLeod is one of the most intelligent sf writers out there - just reading his work you'll get an introduction to politics, technology, etc. This one's set in the 2020s, following a major war between the west and Islam, leading to a general loss of faith and second Enlightenment. Christians are officially ignored by the government. But then a priest is murdered...linked into the story is an American fundamentalist living in New Zealand, and a load of sentient robots. Another good story, with several twists that I didn't see coming.

This book takes place in 2021, in Edinburgh, where I live, and Rotorua, New Zealand, which I visited when I worked for four months in Wellington. The only incongruity I spotted was the lead character, DI Adam Ferguson, jumping on and off trams in a variety of locations in Edinburgh, which now seems unlikely given the recent cutbacks in the planned routes. The 'night sessions' link these two locations, as they are sermons, given in the morning in New Zealand but listened to live in the evening in Scotland. John Richard Campbell, who gives these sermons, is a free-thinking theologian, who contemplates, among other things, whether intelligent robots can have souls. This is more dangerous than might be expected, as the world is now resolutely secular, after a nuclear exchange in the Middle East. Space is slowly being tamed, aided by two ocean-based orbital elevators. DI Ferguson earned his spurs in the police in the period which saw churches dis-established, and believers dispersed, sometimes by force. A murder of an ex-Catholic priest leads to an escalating series of incidents for DI Ferguson to investigate, aided by his robot sidekick Skulk (an ex-war droid). It seems as though an obscure religious sect are trying to bring on the "end of days", according to some printed religious tracts found in the few remaining churches in Edinburgh. It is no coincidence that the anniversary of 9/11 is nigh. Unlike Ken Macleod's previous novels, politics takes a back seat to religion, and the result is an excellent police-procedural/thriller, with an unexpected twist as to motive. There are plenty of throw-away clever details, such as the need to back up hackable/volatile crime scene digital data with hand-written notes and drawings. If trams might not be ubiquitous in 2021 Edinburgh, at least global warming will have kicked in, so that one can arrive at the airport "to be welcomed by a hot Scottish summer"! ( )

[i]The Night Sessions[/i] by Ken MacLeod is his most recent novel, and it has already picked up the 2009 BSFA best novel award.

It is set in a near future Scotland (primarily) and New Zealand, some 30 or 40 years ahead of now (by my guess - it’s unclear from the book as I recall it). The Faith Wars (also known as the Oil Wars) are over and the West lost. Nuclear weapons were used on the plains of Meggido. Two space elevators have been built. Giant solar sails help protect the Earth from further warming. Artificial intelligences exist, some of which became self-aware in battlefield epiphanies where they were serving as the controllers of autonomous war robots. Humanoid robots are no longer readily produced.

In the aftermath of the Faith Wars, Western governments have spurned religion, and become fiercely secular. Christian fundamentalists have been driven from the US, and many have ended up in New Zealand, some even setting up a Creationist theme park. Some AIs/robots work in the park, and others use the park forests as a common retreat from human society.

In Scotland religion is no longer officially recognised but is now tolerated and no longer actively suppressed. DI Alex Ferguson is a veteran of the God Squad police units and remorseful about his old duties. His off-sider, Skulk, is an ex-military AI (called a LEKI) now housed in a body reminiscent of a tripod from the HG Wells’ War Of the Worlds, but much smaller.

In Edinburgh, a Catholic priest is killed by a homemade bomb. Ferguson is assigned to investigate.

MacLeod has here written what was, to me, two distinct novels. One is a futuristic police procedural, the other is an examination of the nature of religion and dogmatism – one that also asks the question: can an AI have a soul? If machine intelligences are possible, are they then susceptible to the attractions of organized religion? And if they are, how might that play out taken to its logical extreme?

The book works well for me on both levels. In some ways it’s difficult to see the Edinburgh setting and not think of Ian Rankine’s Rebus or Jardine’s Bob Skinner, but MacLeod does a good job of combining the (literary) familiar and the societal changes of its future setting. I also liked the way he updates the police procedural format with the newer technologies available (clearly extrapolated from modern IT in the main) but preserves its essential nature at the same time.

Morgan’s Black Man universe can be seen as an interesting counterpoint to this book in a way: in that book, America’s religious fundamentalists prevailed and Jesusland was created. In [i]The Night Sessions[/i], MacLeod considers an alternate result and I found myself wondering which of those two possible futures is more likely to occur from where we all stand right now.

MacLeod has written a thought provoking book that also entertains d*mn well.
Recommended. ( )

http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/2009/03/30... ( )