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A war breaks out in the 24th century between humans and the more advanced post-humans. The latter descend from people who transformed themselves with technology to live a thousand times faster, which accounts for their rapid progress.Tags
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In many ways, the plot of Ken MacLeod's third "Fall Revolution" novel is like that of a Star Wars movie: it features a protagonist with a painful family history seeking out and recruiting a necessary sage, a further "side quest" that turns out to be integral to the resolution of the main challenge, and a climactic space battle. Even the fact that the main character is a black woman doesn't much distinguish it from the latter-day Star Wars pictures, with their increasingly diverse central cast. What really sets it apart is a genuinely speculative sensibility, as contrasted with the reactionary space fantasy of the Forced films. Replacing the Rebel Alliance with a Cassini Division who protect the anarcho-socialist Solar Union against a show more post-human presence on Jupiter makes for a very different story. MacLeod's socialist heroes subscribe to what they call "the true knowledge," which is identified--by a "non-cooperative" character who doesn't accept it--with Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema (albeit with surplus capitalization, 86).
Nor has MacLeod abandoned the complementary anarcho-capitalist setting he has developed on New Mars, at the far side of the wormhole gate created by the ancestors of the Jovians. The theme of disputes over personhood for post-human individuals is carried forward in this book, but where it centered on the notion of slavery in The Stone Canal, it is tied more directly to the issue of genocide in The Cassini Division (as in the first book of the series, The Star Fraction). This book is clearly part of the vanguard of a species of post-cyberpunk space opera for which MacLeod is one of the best representatives.
The chief protagonist is Ellen May Ngewthu, and she is the first-person narrator throughout the book. Ellen is an interesting character, and not a profoundly reliable narrator. McLeod does not offer a documentary rationale for her role as the book's speaker as he has for points-of-view in other novels. It's just a narrative convention, and part of the fast-reading package. Despite the surfeit of new ideas in this book, they build cleanly on the previous volumes, and I read the whole thing with pleasure in a little over two days. show less
Nor has MacLeod abandoned the complementary anarcho-capitalist setting he has developed on New Mars, at the far side of the wormhole gate created by the ancestors of the Jovians. The theme of disputes over personhood for post-human individuals is carried forward in this book, but where it centered on the notion of slavery in The Stone Canal, it is tied more directly to the issue of genocide in The Cassini Division (as in the first book of the series, The Star Fraction). This book is clearly part of the vanguard of a species of post-cyberpunk space opera for which MacLeod is one of the best representatives.
The chief protagonist is Ellen May Ngewthu, and she is the first-person narrator throughout the book. Ellen is an interesting character, and not a profoundly reliable narrator. McLeod does not offer a documentary rationale for her role as the book's speaker as he has for points-of-view in other novels. It's just a narrative convention, and part of the fast-reading package. Despite the surfeit of new ideas in this book, they build cleanly on the previous volumes, and I read the whole thing with pleasure in a little over two days. show less
Ken Macleod's third novel sees him becoming more assured with his material and expanding his 'Fall Revolution' sequence to a wide-screen format. At the end of 'The Stone Canal' we found ourselves returned to the Solar System via a wormhole to see what changes had been wrought in human space whilst Wilde and Reid had been building their anarcho-syndicalist new world on New Mars. The action moves almost seamlessly on from that novel, though the viewpoint changes; we follow Ellen May Ngwethu of the Cassini Division, the force tasked with defending Earth and its off-world settlements from the post-human AIs who built the wormhole to New Mars in the first place and dramatically altered Jovian space.
She sets out to recruit assistance in the show more form of I.K. Malley, who had first defined the physics that made the wormhole possible. We see more of England and London in the post-technological age before travelling to Jovian space, where other AIs are emerging in the cloud-tops of Jupiter itself. Along the way, we see more of Macleod's vision of a socialist future which looks nothing like the sort of society we usually associate with that concept.
In each of the Fall Revolution novels, Macleod has broadened the focus. He has also given us characters with different perspectives on his future societies, both for and against. Each has their own view on their society; what we see is that people will accept the society that they have grown up with, even if they can envisage change. In each novel, we have seen people's different ideas of political structures, how they accommodate living with them, and what they can do to change them. Of course, it helps that the author is able to write his protagonists (mainly) into positions of influence; but there are no cardboard cut-outs here. In the preceding novels, events were forcing change; so it is with 'The Cassini Division'. This is an intelligent novel, but not just a novel of thought and discussion; there is sufficient action and glittery future tech to satisfy. show less
She sets out to recruit assistance in the show more form of I.K. Malley, who had first defined the physics that made the wormhole possible. We see more of England and London in the post-technological age before travelling to Jovian space, where other AIs are emerging in the cloud-tops of Jupiter itself. Along the way, we see more of Macleod's vision of a socialist future which looks nothing like the sort of society we usually associate with that concept.
In each of the Fall Revolution novels, Macleod has broadened the focus. He has also given us characters with different perspectives on his future societies, both for and against. Each has their own view on their society; what we see is that people will accept the society that they have grown up with, even if they can envisage change. In each novel, we have seen people's different ideas of political structures, how they accommodate living with them, and what they can do to change them. Of course, it helps that the author is able to write his protagonists (mainly) into positions of influence; but there are no cardboard cut-outs here. In the preceding novels, events were forcing change; so it is with 'The Cassini Division'. This is an intelligent novel, but not just a novel of thought and discussion; there is sufficient action and glittery future tech to satisfy. show less
Post-humans. Uploaded human minds inhabiting the robots and computer networks of a civilization in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Sneering at those still living in the "meat", they bombard the inner solar system with computer and "mind viruses." They brought on the Collapse, the destruction of man's computer-dependent civilization, and ushered in the age of the Solar Union, a socialist anarchy.
But some in the Union have had enough of the post-human threat, namely the Cassini Division, self-appointed cold warriors manning their version of the Berlin Wall on Jupiter's moon, Callisto. They want to wipe out the Jovians once and for all with a cometary bombardment. And they aren't listening to any arguments from "appeasers" or those who think show more the Jovians are sentient and deserve to live or don't pose a threat.
Ambiguity, irony, and philosophical debate make up a lot of this book, but it's not a dry tome unlike the many utopian and dystopian novels that supply several of Macleod's chapter headings. Macleod keeps the arguments short, the action coming, and shifts the scenery frequently from a pastoral London inhabited by the few die-hard capitalists to Callisto and, eventually, New Mars, man's sole outpost beyond our solar system.
The narrator, Ellen May Ngewthu, is engaging, fun, witty, and hard-edged. She's given herself the job of wiping out the Jovian post-humans, and she's willing to go to a lot of trouble to finish the job. She gets into a lot of arguments in the book: about the virtue of socialist anarchy versus the capitalist anarchy of New Mars, the sentience of those beings with uploaded minds, and whether the universe has any moral rule other than doing whatever you can get away with.
Macleod explores some of the implications in the ideas of Vernor Vinge's Singularity and copied, uploaded, and indentured minds familiar to readers of Phillip C. Jennings. This is a short book. The superscience isn't as astonishing as Peter Hamilton's work, but Macleod keeps his tale interesting and knows how to write a philosophical tale that moves.
Readers of George Zebrowski and Charles Pellegrino's THE KILLING STAR should especially like this, another novel where genocide is shown to have an unplesantly rational aspect to it.
This is the third book in a series. I haven't read the first two since this was the first published in America. But I had no trouble following the story or assimilating the background. show less
But some in the Union have had enough of the post-human threat, namely the Cassini Division, self-appointed cold warriors manning their version of the Berlin Wall on Jupiter's moon, Callisto. They want to wipe out the Jovians once and for all with a cometary bombardment. And they aren't listening to any arguments from "appeasers" or those who think show more the Jovians are sentient and deserve to live or don't pose a threat.
Ambiguity, irony, and philosophical debate make up a lot of this book, but it's not a dry tome unlike the many utopian and dystopian novels that supply several of Macleod's chapter headings. Macleod keeps the arguments short, the action coming, and shifts the scenery frequently from a pastoral London inhabited by the few die-hard capitalists to Callisto and, eventually, New Mars, man's sole outpost beyond our solar system.
The narrator, Ellen May Ngewthu, is engaging, fun, witty, and hard-edged. She's given herself the job of wiping out the Jovian post-humans, and she's willing to go to a lot of trouble to finish the job. She gets into a lot of arguments in the book: about the virtue of socialist anarchy versus the capitalist anarchy of New Mars, the sentience of those beings with uploaded minds, and whether the universe has any moral rule other than doing whatever you can get away with.
Macleod explores some of the implications in the ideas of Vernor Vinge's Singularity and copied, uploaded, and indentured minds familiar to readers of Phillip C. Jennings. This is a short book. The superscience isn't as astonishing as Peter Hamilton's work, but Macleod keeps his tale interesting and knows how to write a philosophical tale that moves.
Readers of George Zebrowski and Charles Pellegrino's THE KILLING STAR should especially like this, another novel where genocide is shown to have an unplesantly rational aspect to it.
This is the third book in a series. I haven't read the first two since this was the first published in America. But I had no trouble following the story or assimilating the background. show less
Many SF books that tackle humanity's not-too-distant future tend to assume a never-ending capitalist/liberal system, and Ken MacLeod's books have always challenged that assumption. Deftly mixing social critique, action and humour (I didn't remember the other books in this series being this funny), this is a solid read. Bonus points for having a black female protagonist (who is a complex and well-rounded individual), and a supporting cast boasting a variety of ethnicities and political views.
Great story, dumb ideas: I am very surprised by the hostile reviews to this engaging novel. I suppose many could be put off by the socialist orientation of the author and the story. I agree that at times the book reads like a propoganda piece for the Socialist International. I am certainly no socialist, very much the opposite as some of my other book reviews will attest. To describe this as a novel of ideas is correct. Many of them are dumb, unrealistic, and totally discredited ideas. So what, the story was great and in spite of my hostility to these ideas I loved it. It just requires a little suspension of disbelief. It also helps to know where Macleod is coming from upfront. The socialism bothers less if it is expected.
I agree with show more several of the other reviewers, do not start this series with this book. If you do start here you may be confused at times.
If you are easily annoyed by politics and political ideas you disagree with, this book and this author, are not for you. If you can enjoy a good story and can look past some pretty loopy ideas you will enjoy this series. show less
I agree with show more several of the other reviewers, do not start this series with this book. If you do start here you may be confused at times.
If you are easily annoyed by politics and political ideas you disagree with, this book and this author, are not for you. If you can enjoy a good story and can look past some pretty loopy ideas you will enjoy this series. show less
If there was such a thing as sci-fi beach reading, this would be it. It's a fast-paced adventure that doesn't happen to go very deep (although I think that it might intend to). Character development besides the main character is minimal. The more scientific explanations are glossed over with technobabble. There's plenty of sex. The ending is slam-bam and neatly wrapped up. There were lots of bits that were thrown into the book and then never developed (if you can explain to me why this book was better off for the pregnancy bit, please do). Over all this is an entertaining read but it just doesn't require much brain power and therefore isn't very engaging.
Third of the four books forming the Fall Revolution series. Interesting exploration of the singularity and various kinds of politica philosophy. As with many of MacLeod's books it would help to know a lot more about the various leftist political splinter groups and their philosophies.
The Cassini Division is the group of elite troupers defending post-singualrity against post-singularity AI's and "fast" people (1) who have uploaded, colonised the planet Jupiter, gone insane and then become "rational" again; and (2) who have migrated through a wormhole extending to the end of time. Normal humans also managed to pass through the wormnhole at an angle to colonize New Mars some 10,000 lightyears distant.
The story developed in this framework show more is interesting and worth reading. show less
The Cassini Division is the group of elite troupers defending post-singualrity against post-singularity AI's and "fast" people (1) who have uploaded, colonised the planet Jupiter, gone insane and then become "rational" again; and (2) who have migrated through a wormhole extending to the end of time. Normal humans also managed to pass through the wormnhole at an angle to colonize New Mars some 10,000 lightyears distant.
The story developed in this framework show more is interesting and worth reading. show less
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- Canonical title
- The Cassini Division
- Original title
- The Cassini Division
- Original publication date
- 1998-03
- People/Characters
- Ellen May Ngewthu; Isambard Kingdom Malley; David Reid; Jonathan Wilde
- Important places
- New Mars; Callisto
- Epigraph
- Man is a living personality, whose welfare and purpose is embodied within himself, who has between himself and the world nothing but his needs as a mediator, who owes no allegiance to any law whatever from the moment that it ... (show all)contravenes his needs. The moral duty of an individual never exceeds his interests. The only thing which exceeds those interests is the material power of the generality over the individuality. --Joseph Dietzgen, The Nature of Human Brain-Work
- Dedication
- To Mairi Ann Cullen
- First words
- There are, still, still photographs of the woman who gate-crashed the party on the observation deck of the Casa Azores, one evening in the early summer of 2303.
- Quotations
- 'What's with the imperial units?' Malley asked, as we watched and listened to Andrea guiding us in to dock with the ice tanker.
'You'll hear arguments about human scale and intuition and so forth,' I explained, 'but th... (show all)e older and coarser characters in space will sum it up in two words: fucking NASA. Most of the space settlements were built with ex-NASA stock or to NASA spec way back in the early days, and ever since then it's been too much trouble to change. We're locked into it.'
'Yeah,' said Andrea. 'Which is why we are now two point five seven miles from a hundred thousand metric tons of ice. You've just got to love the consistency of it all.' - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Our day will come, again.
- Blurbers
- Vinge, Vernor; Robinson, Kim Stanley; Wilson, Robert Charles; Brust, Steven; Palwick, Susan
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- English
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