Learning the World

I really enjoy the perspective MacLeod displays in his writing. I found this novel in particular to be one of his best, and most enjoyable to read. The novel starts slow but for a tale of this scope I'd say it's necessary. One aspect of the novel was especially surprising to me. I kept having a sense of impending doom about the political situation on the Ground and the aliens interaction with their less developed brethren. But in the end I was merely projecting our thoughts and fears onto a people who'd always been free of the yoke, and noble, and not too terrible at all. MacLeod got me on that one. Well done. I read science fiction for the ideas and MacLeod has a few great ones in here.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a novel of first contact--but what I most appreciated was the way that it takes seriously, as very science fiction novels do, the sheer scale that would be involved in human colonization of the stars. The immense effort, distances and times required to travel from one star to another at sublight speeds; the huge populations that a solar system could support, if all its resources could be drawn on; the transforming effects of fast information processing, nanotechnology and genetic engineering, plausibly extrapolated a few millenia into the future. The most out-there piece of technology, the Cosmogonic Drive, also gives the novel a metaphysical flavor which I quite enjoyed. MacLeod's aliens are not quite as imaginative as his humans--similar societies have been postulated by other authors, such as Poul Anderson, and they are in many ways more similar to the humans of today than his future humans are. But they are well-realized and interesting, and the first contact story is quite successful. The novel is not really driven by its plot, however; it is a story of ideas. His construction of a human society is speculative, but it is also very interesting. I enjoyed figuring out how things worked in his world. MacLeod's work is in most ways distinctively his own, but I was still reminded of Iain M. Banks's Culture novels: people who are part of something very much larger than themselves, but who find themselves at the cusp of a hugely important event. I can only suppose that there must be something in the water in Scotland.

_____________________________________________ An exceptionally well-done update to a classic SF theme: First Contact, by an enormous generation-starship full of antsy colonists, with the hitherto-unsuspected sophonts native to Destiny II. Who turn out to be (literally) alien space-bats, at early 20th-century tech-levels. They're interesting folk, more human than the humans, really. Plus, they read "engineering fiction"! Both the ASB's and the high-tech human settlers are given the now-expected MacLeod treatment of a non-cliche'ed and well-thought-out culture. This time, it's a civilization of very long-lived humans, with an economy driven by capitalist speculation, and such wonderful backstory grace-notes as the dreaded AI Fast Burn, and the green-tinted suns of the ever-expanding Civil Worlds. Oh, mustn't forget, young Atomic Discourse Gale's amusing shipnet blog. Presented in the familiar KenMac® two-track narrative, and with all kinds of Christmas goodies for well-read fans. The twist ending seemed abrupt and pat to me, but has pleased other readers. Cool character names: Atomic Discourse Gale; Synchronic Narrative Storm, her caremother -- and the odd overheated one: "But The Sky, My Lady! The Sky!", the name of the starship... It's true that the characters are a bit too much like MacLeod's mates in Edinburgh, but so what? From this distance, this adds a bit more exotic charm {g}. p.262: "Could you take care of the tea, old chap...." This is the astronomer space-bat speaking! A fine winter comfort-read for longtime SF fans, and another winner from MacLeod. Folks, books like _Learning the World_ are the reason I keep reading this stuff. To borrow from Atomic, it absolutely rocking fµcks! Happy reading-- Pete Tillman

Learning the World is another very good novel from Ken MacLeod. It's both a great first contact novel as well as, like most other MacLeod works, an incisive look into how societies work. The novel alternates between two separate threads, which come together over the course of the book. The first thread follows a group of humans, many thousand of years in the future, living in a huge starship as it approaches another star system. The society aboard the ship is quite intricate - far more so than that in most classic SF centered around generational star ships. It really is broken into three interacting groups - the founders, who are the original generation, the ship generations, who were born during the 400 year journey, and the crew, who don't expect to stay around when the others leave to colonize a system but will instead continue on. MacLeod does a great job in laying out both the social interactions and the economic interactions of the three groups. MacLeod has an interest in economic models, and the depictions of how the various groups use markets to speculate on what will happen and to finance ongoing efforts are convincing and something generally ignored in most other novels of this type. The main character in this first thread is a teenage girl of the ship generation, Atomic Discourse Gale. She's a very bright and thoughtful kid, who keeps a biolog (essentially a blog) that is followed by many others aboard the ship. She's a more realistic (and in the end, more likeable, for all her flaws) character than similar ones created by Heinlein. Her reactions with both her own generation and with the other, older groups on the ship are convincing - despite all the differences in the ways characters can interact in her universe compared to ours, the basic motivations and conflicts still underlie it all. The other thread is set on the planet the ship is approaching. This planet contains a winged humanoid species. These are the first aliens that humanity has encountered, and the humans don't know about them until they are quite close since the aliens are just discovering radio and TV. They are basically at a 1920 or so level of technology. Again, MacLeod does a good job of setting up the alien society and their reaction to the ship they detect coming into their system. I was reminded of Poul Anderson as I read, not just because of the use of winged humanoids (something Anderson was very fond of) but because of the great attention to detail - both scientific and sociological - in the creation of this species. MacLeod does a very good job with both sides, not only in terms of making them realistic, both on the character level and on the societal level, but in laying out the various ethical choices the characters are faced with. Is contacting a less developed species (or even letting them find out about you) ethical? How about if you leave them alone and only colonize the asteroids? Do you have a responsibility if your mere detectable presence