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The Corporation Wars: Dissidence (Second Law Trilogy #1)
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They've died for the companies more times than they can remember. Now they must fight to live for themselves.
Sentient machines work, fight and die in interstellar exploration and conflict for the benefit of their owners - the competing mining corporations of Earth. But sent over hundreds of light-years, commands are late to arrive and often hard to enforce. The machines mu ...more
Sentient machines work, fight and die in interstellar exploration and conflict for the benefit of their owners - the competing mining corporations of Earth. But sent over hundreds of light-years, commands are late to arrive and often hard to enforce. The machines mu ...more
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Macleod ventures into Charles Stross territory with the launch of this new series, emphasizing action and satire while mixing in some hard SF and hard-left politics. The story is sort of a reverse Matrix - long dead mercenaries are digitally revived a thousand or so years in the future and placed in what they are told is a simulated reality, then are uploaded into mechanical bodies in the "real" world to fight space battles against rebellious, newly sentient robots. Along the way they are forced
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“Dissidence: a challenge to an established doctrine, policy, or institution.”
The idea of ‘robots revolting’ is not a new one to SF: in fact, it’s pretty much a trope. Think of Karel Capek's 1920 play R.U.R./Rossum's Universal Robots, or von Neumann’s idea of the technological singularity (the 1950’s), from which Vernor Vinge’s ideas were developed in the 1990's, or even to Mark Stay’s Robot Overlords (2015), there's a lot of people out there who feel that at some point we will be (or should be) ...more
The idea of ‘robots revolting’ is not a new one to SF: in fact, it’s pretty much a trope. Think of Karel Capek's 1920 play R.U.R./Rossum's Universal Robots, or von Neumann’s idea of the technological singularity (the 1950’s), from which Vernor Vinge’s ideas were developed in the 1990's, or even to Mark Stay’s Robot Overlords (2015), there's a lot of people out there who feel that at some point we will be (or should be) ...more
On an anonymous exo-moon, SH-17, a robot moves from basic intelligence to sentience. This spreads amongst the other robots on the moon and suddenly they are asking questions, questions about their masters and why they are here. The corporation that owns them has no desire to deal with entities that will not follow instructions and decides that they have no choice but to destroy them. One of the mercenaries they call on to undertake this is Carlos, a supposed criminal and mass murderer from a con
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It is difficult to know where to start when reviewing “The Corporation Wars: Dissidence”, part I of The Corporation Wars trilogy by Ken MacLeod, as it contains a wide range of themes, ideas and story threads.
I suppose I will start by saying that I enjoyed it very much. It is a story that one can enjoy without delving into the layers of meaning and allegory that Ken has embedded in the book. It is very much a setting the scene novel for the trilogy. One could read it as a standalone novel but one ...more
I suppose I will start by saying that I enjoyed it very much. It is a story that one can enjoy without delving into the layers of meaning and allegory that Ken has embedded in the book. It is very much a setting the scene novel for the trilogy. One could read it as a standalone novel but one ...more
I had an advance e-copy of this book via NetGalley
I've enjoyed MacLeod's recent near future SF thrillers-with-an-edge. Intrusion in particular is a very smart reworking of Nineteen Eighty-Four, picking up all sorts of present day trends and shaking them about, but all of them are intelligent both as extrapolations of the present as as novels of ideas.
At first sight, Dissidence strikes out in a wholly different direction, a far future, deep space world inhabited only by intelligences (artificial ...more
I've enjoyed MacLeod's recent near future SF thrillers-with-an-edge. Intrusion in particular is a very smart reworking of Nineteen Eighty-Four, picking up all sorts of present day trends and shaking them about, but all of them are intelligent both as extrapolations of the present as as novels of ideas.
At first sight, Dissidence strikes out in a wholly different direction, a far future, deep space world inhabited only by intelligences (artificial ...more
Some really interesting ideas about living in sims and consciousness here. And it's nice to think of MacLeod discussing them with his friend Iain Banks, as I'd guess he did... something of Banks' presence shines through. It's let down a bit by some confusingly described space melees, dweeby AI-endowed robots (I was picturing the Short Circuit robot and some Cybermats... doubt that's what MacLeod was intending), and ultimately I found it a bit disengaging when it seemed like every level of realit
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I enjoyed this alot, A fun hard scifi that's right up my alley, I love it when space and future stories aren't pretty. They are brutal affairs. A great mix of military style science fiction and space opera.
This is worth your time, I am in the middle of the second book of the trilogy now
The ideas come hard and fast in this book, if you like deep scifi that makes you think, go get it
and Merry Christmas!
This is worth your time, I am in the middle of the second book of the trilogy now
The ideas come hard and fast in this book, if you like deep scifi that makes you think, go get it
and Merry Christmas!
The first of a trilogy, this story is mostly about Artificial Intelligence, robots, and a few human minds (without bodies) in a seemingly unending war for virtual dominance of "corporations". It can be a bit confusing, and I had some trouble figuring out what was 'simulated' and what was 'reality' - and I'm really not sure now, but I think that may be part of the point of the novel. This book has a much different approach to the concept of machine intelligence than most, and I like the inventive
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I've been very much a fan of the author since his Fall Revolution series. Unfortunately, his output is not as prodigious as his contemporaries in serious science fiction.
There are two points not in this book's favor. First, its part of a trilogy. Second, this story might be considered a MIL-sf Space Opera; a thoroughly debased sub-genre. Although, the good news is that all the books in the series are or will now be available for reading in one go.
MacLeod's prose is very good. His action and des ...more
There are two points not in this book's favor. First, its part of a trilogy. Second, this story might be considered a MIL-sf Space Opera; a thoroughly debased sub-genre. Although, the good news is that all the books in the series are or will now be available for reading in one go.
MacLeod's prose is very good. His action and des ...more
Found it hard going, gave up half way through.
Aug 11, 2017
Kathy
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2017,
science-fiction-fantasy
Well it wasn't bad, but it did put me to sleep a few times...
I’ve been buying and reading Ken’s novels since stumbling across a copy of his first novel, The Star Fraction, in Spinneys in Abu Dhabi back in the 1990s. Throughout the years since, he’s published a variety of sf novels, and some I’ve liked a great deal more than others. Some have even been excellent – I still think his Intrusion is one of the best near-future sf novels of the past ten years. The Corporation Wars 1: Dissonance, on the other hand, has a title that really doesn’t appeal – it soun
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May 04, 2016
Kate
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favourites-read-in-2016,
out-in-2016-and-read
Robots, AIs, sims, p-zombies - all with varying degrees of self-awareness. This is a fascinating, if somewhat dispassionate take on what reality might be like in the distant future. But it might not even be that distant a future - time can't be trusted here either.
MacLeod's played with the "let's upload peoples' brains and enslave them" theme before. Write what you know, I guess. This book doesn't stand by itself, but it's good enough that I'll be happy to buy the second volume when it becomes available.
I`ve got mixed feelings about Ken MacLeod. He tends to write really interesting science fiction, with a good eye for densely imagined but effectively conveyed worldbuilding, a few solid big ideas per book and a fascinating eye towards the social dynamics of revolution heavily inspired by the progress of communism in Europe during the early 20th century. He also has some odd quirks and left-field tics and hairpin turns in plotting and characterization that can take one out of a book, and really o
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I generally enjoyed this first book of a trilogy, about long dead humans being used to run robotic fighters in the far future, newly self-aware robots, and interstellar colonization. MacLeod always knows how to tell a solid story, and the same is true here.
Being the first of a trilogy, I did get the feeling that this was mainly setup for the coming "main events" in books 2 and 3. We'll see how that all pans out.
I do think that some of the politics of the book could have been a bit clearer. Many ...more
Being the first of a trilogy, I did get the feeling that this was mainly setup for the coming "main events" in books 2 and 3. We'll see how that all pans out.
I do think that some of the politics of the book could have been a bit clearer. Many ...more
To start with if you don't have a basic understanding of A.I. and the Touring test you should brush up on it before you start this book. That being said this book being written by someone who is more than just computer literate was obvious from the start. To say this was refreshing would be an understatement, as so many sci-fi and general fantasy novels run off pseudo science with little or no explanation. However the pacing was not slowed in the slightest by the complexities and the characters
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Ken MacLeod goes back to good old fashioned hard sci-fi with The Corporation Wars. His new stuff is great, his old stuff is great, and his new old stuff is great. Ken fashions the current AI trend into a superb novel, Artificial Intelligence becomes Artificial Consciousness when the robots have to think a little too hard over a suitably ambiguous legal dispute. Old mercenaries are revived to fight the little buggers, and it’s all happening in a sim. It won’t be long until I read the second insta
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This is a properly modern sci-fi story in which none of the characters are exactly human. War breaks out between newly-sentient robots and their former owners, a company run by a string of AI entities, which brings in virtual-reality sims of famous war heroes from the last world war to fight in robot avatar bodies against the sentient robots. After that... it gets complicated.
Recent Reads: The Corporation Wars Dissidence. Ken MacLeod's new saga is as much a treatise on free will and economics as a story of a post-capitalist robot rebellion. Deep, fascinating stuff that crosses Hofstadter and Dennett with Capek and Asimov.
Acting mature here and giving up at chapter five. This book was for not me. It's heavy on the technobabble and for me to be to be interested in sci-fi war novels it takes something special, this wasn't it.
Is this real life or is this just fantasy? Definitely a question that persists throughout this book. Once I got into the flow of the book, I really enjoyed it, and I'm interested to see how the story continues, and what truths are revealed.
Satisfying action sci-fi.
No talking cats, but there's robots who become sentient. Almost as good.
And the meta-physical pondering of what it means to be human is all very absorbable.
It's book one in a series. Book #2 seems to be out, but I don't see any sign of Book #3.
No talking cats, but there's robots who become sentient. Almost as good.
And the meta-physical pondering of what it means to be human is all very absorbable.
It's book one in a series. Book #2 seems to be out, but I don't see any sign of Book #3.
Lost its direction along the way. Which is a pity as it is well written and starts out very promissing.
A sometimes hard to follow delve through what is and isn’t real, revisiting classic tropes with marginally more modern eyes. It’s a solid read though never really grabbed me.
Fun, but (intentionally, I'm sure), confusing as to what reality actually is.
I love his stuff but sometimes it can be a little overly in depth about the technology. Always worth reading tho.
I think it's a pretty grim future, unfortunately probbale
I really liked the emergence of the AI robots
Review pending completing the trilogy.
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Ken MacLeod is an award-winning Scottish science fiction writer.
His novels have won the Prometheus Award and the BSFA award, and been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives near Edinburgh, Scotland.
MacLeod graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics.
His novels often explore socialist, c ...more
More about Ken MacLeod
His novels have won the Prometheus Award and the BSFA award, and been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives near Edinburgh, Scotland.
MacLeod graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics.
His novels often explore socialist, c ...more
Other books in the series
Second Law Trilogy
(3 books)
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“it is possible that we are the only persons,> said another robot.”
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“the only way to get there was to burn through capitalism, to get through that unavoidable stage as fast as possible.”
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