Cosmonaut Keep

Engines of Light #1

by Ken MacLeod

Matt Cairns is a 21st-century outlaw Programmer who takes on the shady jobs no one else will touch. Against his better judgment, he accepts an assignment to crack the Marshall Titov, a top-secret orbital station operated by the European Space Agency. But what Matt will discover there will propel him on an extraordinary and quite unexpected journey.

Gregor Cairns is an exobiology student and descendant of one of Terra Nova's first families. Hopelessly infatuated with a lovely young trader's daughter, he is unaware that his research partner, Elizabeth, has fallen in love with him. Together, Gregor and Elizabeth confront the great work his family began three centuries earlier-to rediscover the secret of interstellar travel.

Ranging from a gritty near-future Earth to a distant alien world, Cosmonaut Keep is contemporary science fiction at its highest level, a visionary epic filled with daring individuals seeking a place for themselves in a vast, complex, and enigmatic universe. 
Cosmonaut Keep is a 2002 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Aliens, Fantasy, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

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, communist and anarchist political ideas, most particularly the variants of Trotskyism and anarcho-capitalism or extreme economic libertarianism.

Technical themes encompass singularities, divergent human cultural evolution and post-human cyborg-resurrection.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine thinking human's space opera

I don't think I'm giving away too much by saying that Cosmonaut Keep is a variant of the old Elder Races Rule the Universe shtick -- in this one, Fermi's Paradox is enforced by stern Galactic Gatekeepers, and woe to junior races who run afoul of the gods. They *hate* spam -- and care about due process about as much as you do when you spray Raid on an anthill.

MacLeod's writing just keeps getting better, and I'll happily put up with his hothouse politics to get to the amazing inventions in his spectacular [then] new universe-playground. Highly recommended.

And I should mention the wonderfully atmospheric cover art, by [then] new-to-me artist Stephan Martiniere, of the Nova Babylonia trader starship landing at Kyohvic port, Mingulay. Bravo!

My 2003 review:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

2021 reread: Not quite as good as I recalled, but still has moments that are wonderfully strange. The strange assortment of sentients on Mingulay, including Architeuthys extraterrestris sapiens, the great krakens, who serve as the navigators for the massive saur/human starships. The political battles back on an alternate early 21st-century Earth have aged less well. Overall, still a first-rate novel. Pity that later books in the trilogy aren't as good.

[Peter Cowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I want to make it clear I am newish to Sci-Fi so will not be comparing it to other authors of the genre.

This book is quite extraordinary for me. It has an unusual style in the it has two story lines running side by side, one revealing the history of the characters on Earth, and one moving through the present in Space. The different narratives alternate between chapters and I found this to be infuriatingly effective. The plots were fascinating to me and so my attention was held by having to read another chapter of Earth story to find out what happened next in Space, and vice versa. I also enjoyed the writing style - I see one review on the site mentioning the Americanisms in the book (spellings are mentioned I think) but I think that must have been the reviewer's edition as this is not something I experienced.

To me, there are certain criteria you must meet to read this book and enjoy it:
1. Be sciency. Ken MacLeod used to be a Computer Programmer and there is some fairly overwhelming technical stuff at times which may go straight over your head if you're not computer-savvy to some extent.
2. You must not object to drugs use in books. My old school librarian hated this book because of the regular references to Marijuana throughout. MacLeod does not set himself on one side of the fence or the other in the legalisation debate, but the stuff does appear many times.
3. Be prepared to take your Sci-Fi with a pinch of salt. Unlike my only other experiences of the genre with Iain M. Banks, the physics of the world simply don't work. Well, theoretically they do, but there is no way they could be possible by the laws we know of today. The engines used to travel across the universe in a split second are Anti-Gravity drives which allow the device to escape all gravitational influence and thus travel instantaneously. Theoretically sound, but implausible. Iain Banks at least used Wormholes for this, which are actually known to exist in Space.
4. Last, but certainly not least, be politically aware. Basically the whole point of these books (this is part 1 of a trilogy) is an examination of political devices and systems. If you get confused by the difference between Trotskyism, Stalinism, Communism and Capitalism and variations thereof, you either need to be prepared to get your head around some concepts or this is not the book for you.

I loved this book unreservedly. It is not often that I can give 5 stars without thinking twice. While I was reading it, I dreamed about it while sleeping, thought about it while awake and was always looking forward to getting back to the read the next chapter (it turned out to be a bad thing to find in the run up to exams!). I will however openly admit to bias. The Earth based narrative largely takes place in Edinburgh, a city in which I lived for some time so I know all the places mentioned. Also I am a programmer/hacker and a socialist, so the society in the book and the political struggles appealed to me. It was the kind of future I could dream about becoming a reality. Indeed some of the tech is already in the development pipeline (the Google Glass project = Spex?).

I am also intrigued by some of the concepts introduced. For the example the effects on the culture and society of the individual planets of the "Second Sphere" by the arrival of the very occasional starships are very interesting. It is also a space opera that does not involve everybody being able to travel in space. In fact, only 2 ancient species are able to travel in space, one having been given the technology to do so by the other. Humans have no control over their destinations - they simply go with the ship as guests, trading what they can at each stop off. The fact that they travel instantaneously but time moves on in relation to the number of light years traversed also makes an interesting point, as the star traders live only normal human lifespans but witness history over centuries or millenia and MacLeod uses this as a way to show cause-and-effects of politics and cultural revolutions.

In summary, this book is a political, cultural and technological maze that will either hold your attention or have you running for the exit. I loved every second of it and was unable to put it down. If I could I would give it a solid 7 out of 5...and I assure you, I am not easily kept happy by a book, especially a non-realism based one.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first attempt at a Ken MacLeod novel. I know he was a close personal friend of one of my sci-fi idols, Iain M. Banks, so I had perhaps set the bar pretty high. The premise is interesting with two parallel stories taking place over a gulf of time in alternating chapters. I am interested enough in the ideas to press on and read the other two volumes of this trilogy. The shortcoming here was the predictable and awkward love stories included here. I think Iain did a more realistic job at describing relationships than Ken, but maybe that's just me.

The concept of aliens capturing humans and star systems is a recurring theme that you can also enjoy in James S.A. Corey’s The Mercy of Gods from late 2024!

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book by this author. It's first in the "Engines of Light saga," but, I was pleased to discover, works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel... at the end, of course, there is room to wonder "what happens next" but the characters, and their relationships, all come to a nice stopping-point.

"Cosmonaut Keep" is really 2 novels in one. There are two completely separate plotlines, and the connection between them is not made explicitly clear until chapter 18 (of 21).
In the first one, we meet Gregor and Elizabeth, two young marine biologists living on the planet of Mingulay. Here, humanity co-exists peacefully with the alien saurs (and several other spacegoing races.) Visited by spacegoing traders, the colony does not feel totally cut off... but Gregor's family is involved in a generations-long Great Work - the goal of rediscovering the secrets of interstellar navigation on their own, so that humanity will not have to depend on others for space travel. Drama erupts when Gregor develops a passionate infatuation with the beautiful daughter of a space trader, unaware that his parter Elizabeth has far more than mere friendly feelings for him...

The second plot is far closer to our own time - in a near-future, Russian-dominated EU, computer programmer/hacker Matt is given a disk of information by his dissident girlfriend, Jadey, right before she gets arrested. Matt flees to the still-capitalist U.S. The disk seems to contain specs for building a flying saucer. Right after he discovers this, the government announces that it has made first contact with intelligent aliens. Soon, Matt finds himself at the center of subversive political and scientific plots, and in an affair with the rah-rah-America test-pilot Camila...

The first plotline reminded me a lot of Anne McCaffrey - the second, more of Bruce Sterling. However, both were enjoyable, with a good mix of ideas and old-fashioned soap-opera.

[Lorelei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conceptually an interesting book. I won't repeat the plot summary, but, to read, a very frustrating book. The author chops between the two stories in an abrupt manner that does not serve either character development or exposition. And there is an overuse of organisational acronyms that is truly baffling. I gave up trying to sort through which faction or organisation was which. First and last names are also confusingly used. In such a short story with such an array of ensemble characters it was too much.

Peter F Hamilton does this kind of thing so much better. A great space opera lives on the detail, both technical and human, and it's just lacking here. I rarely say this, but the book needed another 250-500 pages to flesh out the story.

It was also quite strange that the only two powers in this alternate universe where the European Union and the USA - what happened to everyone else? China, Japan and Sydney get mentioned once as asides. Is this a case of white western English speaking writer showing his limited world-view? I hope not.

And as a personal aside, maybe it was my edition but it is beyond irritating to read made up American words like 'debarked' - what the hell is that, like declawing a cat? It's bad enough reading supposedly European internal dialogue with spelling like meter for metre and liter for litre, my brain can't read the right pronunciation.

grumble grumble.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm almost out of Iain M. Banks SF to read, so I thought I'd move on to his friend Ken MacLeod. MacLeod isn't the genius Banks was, but this is entertaining and interesting enough. I would have liked a lot more development and explanation of a lot of aspects of the plot and setting and I honestly could have done without most of the "romance" (or at least it could have been done much better), but there's enough cool stuff to keep me interested: a far future Epicurean quasi-religion (which I find interesting because I've always thought that if Epicureanism has survived to modern times we'd call it a religion), dinosaur hunting, aliens, microorganism "gods" that control the universe, political/economic intrigue, and let's not forget: Area 51.

I enjoyed the alternating plot strands more than I thought I would (I was in the mood for far future space opera, but the near future storyline was interesting, too). I suppose that a lot of things feel under-explained is purposive, since this is the first book in a series. I might pick up the next one to see where it all goes.

(See also my blog review: https://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/2...)

[prcardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 2/5

Never judge a book by its cover. I know the adage, but still, I let the cover set the expectations. The danger in putting such an awesome cover illustration on a book is that it will prove better than the text. Illustrator Stephan Martiniere, whom I'm now a fan of outshone Ken MacLeod, whom I'm coming to expect less and less from.

Superficially the book presented so many of the features I look for in science fiction. It was enigmatic, promising revelations. It was inventive, dazzling with believable technology. It was flashy, taking us someplace where imagination can run wild. It was political, offering a future different not only from ours but from what is generally even considered. There was a shallowness to the book, however, that tainted every one of those aspects. I never felt excited or in suspense about the mysteries or revelations; I never came to hope that the main characters succeed. When it came time for the parallel storylines to intersect, I was left cold, thinking, "That's all this was leading up to?" For all its cyberpunk flair, society was left remarkably under-described and under-envisioned. The world to which we were invited left so many basic questions unanswered. Most grating were MacLeod's politics. This is my fifth MacLeod book, and its my fifth time exploring Trotskyism in science fiction. MacLeod's challenge, as both a writer and an activist, is to make his politics real and appealing. I have sympathized with and understood all kinds of religious, scientific, historical, social, and ecological positions that I disagree with or outright reject. A good author helps you relate even to the most unlikable character or objectionable decision. MacLeod, after five tries, has never made me feel that or understand why I should care about Trotskyism. In the detached viewpoint I'm left with, so much of the political discussion and division is nothing more than a squabble. Still, for all my complaints, the book was a breezy, enjoyable read for the bulk of it; it is only as one nears the end that you realize that none of what you were hoping for is going to be worked out, developed, answered, or fulfilled.

I've held out hope for MacLeod because he is working on so many issues and styles that interest me. He was a high school classmate and professional friend of Iain Banks, one of my favorite science fiction writers. They are working on similar themes and in similar directions, Banks, however, on the far future and MacLeod on the near. MacLeod's challenge is more difficult, I think. To take the future not too far away, make predictions in such a way that they seem both feasible but not obvious is more limiting. The bigger difference, however, is how they write politics. Both are leftist offering radical futures, but Banks's politics are shown through the actions of the characters and groups in big picture settings. MacLeod loves the minutiae of committee meetings and sparring quotations from communist forefathers. I prefer the more creative, big picture, far future, action adventures of Banks over the more grounded, detail-laden, near future, bureaucratic thrillers of MacLeod. I've not yet given up on the latter, but I won't greet the next MacLeod novel with much enthusiasm.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

MacLeod's patented political stew of socialists vs capitalists in space, with a Scottish techo-nerd caught in the cross hairs.

Matt Cairns is the resourceful geek, a freelance software manager in Soviet-annexed Scotland around the year 2050. Hnds up with a data disk containing the blueprint for a spectacular piece of machinery.

In a second storyline set light years away, human colonists of another solar system coexist with intelligent extraterrestrial lizard people with a taste for weed, giant squids who pilot spaceships, and inconceivably ancient 'gods' who live in space.

I can't really say too much more about the story because it's too complicated to make short sense of. This is only the first part of a trilogy, so much is left unexplained in any case.

Matt goes to Area 51 and then into space to hookup with cosmonauts and scientists making First Contact while conducting a rebellion. That tells you enough I think.

As the shenanigans in space hot up there was an awful lot going on back down on Earth too. In order to better comprehend the scale of the crisis, the narrative could have done with some eyes and ears on the ground in the second half.

MacLeod is strong on the political determinants, strong on cheeky cultural and scientific speculations, but weak on character depth and development.

The climax was something of a letdown, which was in no way excused by this being the first book in a trilogy because the story arc of this novel was completed.

An interesting first installment nonetheless.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm on a MacLeod kick lately. I have to be in the right mood to enjoy his writing, but I loved this! Two interwoven plots taking place centuries apart, a Stalinist EU, the IWWWW or "Webblies", a Trotskyist faction organizing a coup on a scientific space station, flying saucers, paranoid X-Files-ish black helicopter conspiracy, and his usual in-jokes for lefties, i.e. pretty standard Ken MacLeod.

[Jerico · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is an interesting book that I enjoyed reading quite a bit. It`s a split narrative book, that opens in 3rd person, in a fascinatingly constructed setting that is clearly quite distant from modern day. The 3rd person sequences focus on marine biologists discovering their family`s business and unpeeling some layered local and regional history. The other thread is a 1st person narrative much closer to the current world, where an algorithm wrangler in a communist Scottland exfiltrates some sensitive data into (an even more) capitalist America.

The writing is a little wobbly; at times it is extremely evocative (MacLeod writes revolutions and rebellions really well, capturing the build up and release of tensions well, and manages to get the recursive paranoia cycle that characterizes uprisings across with clarity and precision. Other parts are vague almost to the point of being difficult to follow, with scene transitions and narrative ligaments rushed through.

The world that he builds, both the near future Earth and orbital system with it`s intricate politics and numerous references to Communist history and policy and the distant space opera setting with its distant space gods, tiers of being from Kraken on down to human, and the disruption that the Cosmonauts bring, are well fleshed out. They possess the ancillary details that make them live, and they`re both dynamic and suitably involved in a way that makes them believable despite the various suspensions of disbelief he navigates. He populates this world with some occasionally flat and occasionally vibrant characters, and for the most part his characters act fairly close to how people would. The 1st person sequences are a bit more immersive due the strength of the narrative voice used.

He has a few types of aliens, or well, `aliens` since they`re all Terran evolved organisms snatched out of history and sent through the stars on a light speed drive that pauses time during duration. It`s a nice conceit, and the sequences detailing its construction and design are also interesting and believable. His sole alien species are the gods, asteroid colonies of nanobacteria who are profoundly beyond human ken. The communication sequences are a great example of writing alien aliens, and appreciated by this reader.

He also has an odd subtheme linking all of this to UFO experiences, which I couldn`t believe as I read it. It`s kind of a joke, but also integral to the theme and I enjoy the high weirdness of the concept and execution here and later in the trilogy.

Good, easy to read and a fascinating setting, with occasionally lifeless character dynamics but a satisfying conclusion and fun political angle.

[Kitap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cosmonaut Keep is the first in a new series by Ken MacLeod, who wrote The Stone Canal and The Cassini Division. As in those earlier works, this novel skillfully interweaves the personal and the political in a tapestry of transcendental posthumanity.

MacLeod again uses two narratives spanning an unknown amount of time to tell his story, and this conceit (while a bit confusing at first, at least in this novel) works. The "present" narrative takes place in the near-future, albeit in an alternate world where the EU is part of a larger Communist bloc and where alien technology, specifically a starship and drive, are being discovered. It follows one Matt Cairns as he makes his way from Edinburgh, Scotland to Area 51 in New Mexico to a space station and the future. The "future" narrative takes place on a world called Mingulay, which is inhabited by humans and saurs, intelligent descendents of the terrestrial dinosaurs. (Other forms of intelligent life in the novel include the kraken, superintelligent spacefaring squid, and god-like colonies of microorganisms that inhabit millions of asteroids in the solar system. There we follow one Gregor Cairns in his quest to solve the Great Game---to discover the secrets of interplanetary navigation believed to be possessed by his ancestor, Matt.

If the rest of the series is as fascinating as this volume, then reading it will be a real joy. Once again, MacLeod shows himself as one of the smarter writers in contemporary SF and speculative fiction.

[Priya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well really--we all know how I think about not very thinly disguised cheerleading for socialism and Mr Macleod is one of the best at it. Add shiny spaceships, sarcastic sailors-in-said-spaceships and a general tendency to not treat readers like dimwits and you have a fantastic read that makes you think after you've read it. Oh and it has kraken, something that automatically leads to five stars for me. For those foreign policy/Cold War nuts amongst us (what do you mean there aren't any left?)
I should, however, add that this is *not* one of his best works and that it's Book 1 of a trilogy

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was brilliant - a unique and mystery filled blend of genres, with a great structure that adds a great deal to the unfolding of the story and pays off in a fantastic way.
I am very glad I finally got around to reading MacLeod.

Full review to come.

[Adam Mikolajczyk · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a rare day that I don't finish a book. This is one of those days. I have a lot of tolerance for some really bad books, but after I was one third of the way through this, absolutely nothing happened. As others have mentioned, it's two stories in one, alternating every other chapter with different narratives. No problem with that, you can't take me a third of the way through a book, using a lot of in-world jargon and references and not deliver one sliver of narrative drive or payoff. If you keep your plot secret from the reader this far into the book, the reader will not care about it once it's revealed. I can probably count on one hand the number of books I've stopped reading before finishing. I've stuck through some really bad books just to see how it plays out. This was not even worth reading to the half-way point, which is a huge shame for me since I know this is a highly regard novel. Alas, not at all for me.

[Elise Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on a MacLeod kick lately. I have to be in the right mood to enjoy his writing, but I loved this! Two interwoven plots taking place centuries apart, a Stalinist EU, the IWWWW or "Webblies", a Trotskyist faction organizing a coup on a scientific space station, flying saucers, paranoid X-Files-ish black helicopter conspiracy, and his usual in-jokes for lefties, i.e. pretty standard Ken MacLeod.

[Matthew J. Marlieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this one off and on. Started kind of slow and I was a little lost in the beginning. But I'm glad I finished Cosmonaut Keep. I fell in love with McLeod's world -building, characters and crazy politics.

[Sue Chant · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish - found it dull,confused and implausible.

[Zéro Janvier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cosmonaut Keep est le premier tome de la trilogie de science-fiction Engines of Light de Ken MacLeod, un écrivain écossais que j’avais découvert avec The Fall Revolution. J’avais beaucoup aimé ce cycle en quatre romans dans lesquels il mêlait habilement prospective technologique et politique. J’ai retrouvé avec grand plaisir cet aspect dans Cosmonaut Keep.

La structure narrative du roman, relativement originale, a contribué à l’enthousiasme qui a accompagné ma lecture.

D’une part, dans un futur proche où l’Europe a fusionné avec une URSS ressuscitée, Matt Cairns, un programmeur britannique, se retrouve mêlé à une sombre histoire d’espionnage scientifique au moment où une station orbitale russo-européenne annonce au monde entier un Premier Contact avec une race extraterrestre.

D’autre part, dans un futur lointain et dans un système solaire à des milliers d’années-lumières du nôtre, Gregor Cairns, lointain descendant de Matt Cairns, est étudiant-chercheur en biologie marine sur une planète où cohabitent des humains ayant débarqué quelques siècles plus tôt et des « saurs », des extraterrestres à la morphologie similaire à des dinosaures à taille humaine. Il partage son temps entre le laboratoire avec sa collègue Elizabeth, ses obligations familiales avec son grand-père James qui souhaite l’associer à son Grand Projet, et son idylle avec un marchand spatial en visite sur la planète.

Les deux lignes temporelles suivent d’abord leur cours en parallèle avant, comme souvent dans les romans construits ainsi, de se rejoindre d’une façon ou d’une autre. Dans les deux cas, l’intrigue tourne autour de la découverte ou de la re-découverte du voyage à la vitesse de la lumière. Dans notre futur proche, c’est un horizon qui semble inatteignable avant que le Premier Contact ne rabatte les cartes. Dans le futur lointain, seuls quelques marchands associés à d’étranges extra-terrestres ont accès au voyage interstellaire tandis que les différentes planètes habitées vivent isolées les unes des autres.

J’ai retrouvé dans ce roman des ingrédients qui m’avaient déjà beaucoup plu dans The Fall Revolution, même si le dosage est un peu différent. Là où la politique est très présente, c’est ici la technologie qui joue le premier rôle. Même si l’auteur, qui ne cache pas ses sympathies politiques, mentionne à plusieurs reprises différents courants communistes et notamment le trotskisme, cela reste en arrière-plan de la double intrigue autour du voyage à la vitesse de la lumière. C’est différent, mais tout aussi plaisant que The Fall Revolution.

J’ai en tout cas pris énormément de plaisir à lire ce roman, riche en promesses pour la suite. Je vais directement enchainer avec le deuxième roman de la trilogie : Dark Light. Je vous retrouve bientôt ici pour en reparler !

[Noémie J. Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Cairns est un programmeur de talent, prenant un peu tous les petits boulots pour survivre, même les plus illégaux - et son prochain taf va révéler de nombreuses inconnues.
Gregor Cairns, un étudiant en exobiologie sur Terra Nova, tente avec son amie Elizabeth, folle amoureuse de lui, de dénouer les secrets des familles originelles de la colonie, et réapprendre le voyage interstellaire.

Un livre qui avait de grandes ambitions - malheureusement pas toutes à la hauteur. De très bonnes idées, assez originales (notamment les Saur et les Krakens), mais qui ont tendance à tomber un peu à plat. Trop long par moment, trop adolescent (je me fous de ton triangle amoureux c’est pas Twilight ici), trop évident par moments. Ca aurait pu être très bon - mais j’ai déjà peur pour la suite.

[G · Rating 3 out of 5]

One timeline is about future Earth and first contact, and for me, has resonances of 1984 and Neuromancer. The other timeline is about a future colony world and the hierarchy of alien species that coexist with humans. A common thread is about the human acquisition of space travel.

This sci-fi book is by a Scottish writer who is a fan and friend of Iain Banks. Both settings include Scottish influences, which I appreciated . I enjoyed the wealth of ideas, and the descriptive settings. I also admired the scope of the author's creativity regarding future technology and politics of the cosmos (and interesting to compared with those of Iain Banks).

The previous sci-fi book that I read had sentences like: "It's not an amusement park, it's just a big dull combination of government offices, docks and military headquarters, all jammed into space."

This book has sentences like: "They came sailing in towards the port as the long ship's hull kissed the waves and settled, it's flashing lights turning the water to a rainbow kaleidoscope."

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, but I don't feel invested enough to continue the series.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that makes Cosmonaut Keep interesting is the amount of detail the author put into the universe in which it takes place. Throughout the book, the universe's extensive history and intricate political setting is gradually explored, giving the reader a good overview by the time the time they reach the end.

At times, the universe exposition seems to take priority over the plot. The characters often feel more like historical figures in the universe's history, rather than, well, characters. Although there is a fair amount of personal strife in the story, the focus often seems to be strife on a more macro scale.

The exploration of societal strife in the novel comes mainly from its political themes. The novel features both capitalists and communists, with a plethora of factions and individuals at various points along the political spectrum. Fortunately, the author's political views do not influence the story too extensively, and so the universe feels like a politically diverse playing field, rather than means for the author to promote his particular position.

The complexity of the universe combined with its gradual exposure makes the novel somewhat awkward to read at times. In some places, the author describes parts of the story that do not make much sense to the reader yet unfamiliar with some particular intricacy of the universe, forcing the reader to backtrack in order to gain a better picture of the story. Fortunately, this is only a problem for the beginning chapters of the story.

Overall, the novel is a decent read. Despite some of its failings, it remains fairly engrossing throughout.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, and a worthwhile read, but it didn't knock my socks off. It was well-crafted, with alternating chapters taking place in two different times and locations, only slowly letting the reader see how they are connected. Clues for understanding what was going on in one area were given in the other, which was clever, but I found the corresponding changes between first- and third-person a little jarring. The near future is thoroughly detailed and felt like a believable world, but the politics were so complicated I felt it slowed the story down, and I enjoyed the other world more. It did leave me intrigued about the sequel, and I think overall it's good and engaging sci-fi.

[Keith Beasley-Topliffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was nominated for a Hugo award back in 2000 when it was published. Time has not been kind to it. Part of the book is near future and the last 17 years have diverged significantly from the book's world. The other part of the book is far future and far away. But that points to the second problem: the book contains two story lines centuries apart unfolding in alternate chapters, so it feels mostly like reading two short books at once. Both stories are sort of interesting, but the switching doesn't help. So it ended up as basically "Meh," for me and the others in my syfy book club and no interest in looking at the rest of the series it begins.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the way this starts out, which is in second person POV -- only very briefly, though. After that, the chapters alternate between a world that is not Earth, and a world that is Earth but way in the future. It took me a while to realise how the stories were linked -- Ken MacLeod once again threw me in at the deepend about the socio-political situation, but in this trilogy I picked it up quickly -- and I didn't care for the alternation of first person and third person, which happened every chapter.

I did get to care for the characters, but I definitely felt thrown in at the deep end.

[Farth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Très bon récit de science-fiction où l'on suit l'histoire à deux époques très éloignées. Bien qu'il puisse se lire de manière indépendante, la lecture du reste du cycle s'impose afin de mieux appréhender l'univers en développement.

Malgré tout, il reste moins intéressant que La Division Cassini du même auteur. Si l'on retrouve bien les idées socialistes de Ken MacLeod, il manque un certain souffle au texte. Après réflexions, l'auteur est plus à l'aise dans la partie concernant l'anticipation proche que dans celle se passant dans un avenir plus lointain.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost didn't finish this book. It very nearly didn't pass my 100 page rule. It take place on Earth and in near space and also hundreds of years in the future in a distant part of the galaxy. It kept making vague references to events which seemed important to the story line but weren't explained with any detail. Somewhere around page 85 it started getting to these details and then the story started to make since. After that the story line from both eras became much more interesting and this book turned out to be an enjoyable read. I will be getting the next book in this series to read.

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've read anything by this author, and while I enjoyed what I read in the early 2K's, I'm going to admit that MacLeod didn't entertain me as much as in the past. A lot of this boils down to how his quirky take on left-wing politics doesn't seem to have dated very well. As they say, the future isn't what it used to be! If I didn't have newer and shinier things calling to me I might have been more patient with this novel.

[Matthew Talbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is great science fiction, but I enjoy the political intrigue about as much. It's great speculation on socialism and anarchism and combinations of the two. I waffle between the two myself, so I enjoyed that very much. Also it's very interesting to think what society might be like if there were actually gods watching over us.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mesmerisingly good sci-fi, I was hooked from the beginning, and despite predicting the conclusion rather early on it was still gripping to read. The worldbuilding and characters are generally good, the female characters being the exception as they are written fairly one-dimensionally.

In conclusion, Space communism good, badly written female characters not good.