The Cassini Division

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 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.

Idea-packed science fiction driven by the ramifications of a group of humans who have passed through the evolutionary "singularity" and become something beyond our knowledge, and who now live in Jupiter, emitting radio viruses forcing Earth to radically change its technology. If that weren't enough, McLeod also presents an anarcho-socialist society and contrasts it with an anarcho-capitalist society and does so in a much more plausible manner than (say) Robert Heinlein ever did. Protagonist Ellen is a key member of the Cassini Division, tasked to deal with the post-humans if necessary, and on a mission to secure a manner in which to do so. Her point of view is decidedly prejudiced, which is a big part of what makes this book enjoyable: It's got characterization, world-building, AND a plot. One of the best novels I've read in several years, it's hard to believe it's under 300 pages.

All the comparisons are accurate. "The Cassini Division" has a little bit of everything -- fast action, snappy dialogue, evocative descriptions, speculation on the nature of consciousness, and enough trippy political-economic speculation to entertain (or annoy) Vernor Vinge and Iain Banks fans. MacLeod's ruthless but amiable characters are as fun and crazy as Bruce Sterling's, but they're deeper thinkers; I'm not sure I buy into their "true knowledge" ideology any more than I buy into Vinge's anarcho-capitalism, but MacLeod makes it at least as plausible -- sure, it's socialism, but as Ellen May Ngwethu points out, it's socialism based on a very pessimistic view of human nature. (This is not your grandmother's Marxism.) But "The Cassini Divison" isn't really about politics, it's about people, technology, and cool stuff -- what hard SF is all about. I'm glad I've just moved to England so I don't have to wait for the rest of his books to be published in the States (which they will be -- count on it).

I don't usually go for political SF, but wow, Ken MacLeod has really got something going here... It's enthralling. I find it a bit odd that his _third_ book is the one being first published in the US... Go to the trouble of getting his UK-only books, The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal. They're well worth the read. Cassini Division picks up right after The Stone Canal, and might not make as much sense without it...Either way, it's a great read. And it's Banksie's Mate Ken, the guy who convinced him to rewrite Use of Weapons. 8)

The Cassini Division is easily one of the best books I read last year. Ken MacLeod's work represents an all too rare element of science fiction, the thoughtful, left-leaning, political novel set somewhere other than the United States. His work is informed by an impressive understanding of left-wing fringe politics and the political theories of anarchism.In The Cassini Division an on-line version of the protagonist Jon Wilde has travelled back through the Malley Mile wormhole to Earth with his computer companion, Meg to discover an earth transformed through the consequences of longevity and whose technology has been transformed out of all recognition as a consequence of computer viruses spawned by the "fast folk"-computer nerds who uploaded themselves and now live at an accelerated rate of evolution within the envelope of the planet Jupiter. Jon Wilde and Meg are themselves downloaded into flesh on reaching Earth and spend much of the novel looking for ways to get back through the Malley Mile to the human colony they have left behind in the hope that they can integrate the two cultures of Earth and New Mars. The snag is that the technology to remake the connection lies with the fast folk, whose last major project was to bombard earth with computer viruses and trigger the collapse of computered society. Earth now runs its computations through Babbage engines and avoids the use of radio waves. Orbiting around Jupiter, the last residence of the fast folk, is the Cassini Division, a space force with the self-appointed mission to protect earth. If the above sounds like the ingredients of a cheap thriller, that is because they are, but Ken MacLeod, as the masterful writer he is, manages to avoid most of the pitfalls and the novel is both exciting and politically thought provoking. In The Cassini Division we get to see an anarcho-socialist society in action complete with conscientious objectors who live in small, capitalist enclaves. The socialism which earth has adopted assumes and in fact relies on the expectation that every citizen will apoint him or herself to the role which in their personal view most assists society at a particular moment: this can involve simply serving refreshments in an airport canteen as one is passing through, or choosing to take part in one of the political forum which attempt to run the planet.The issue at stake in The Cassini Division is whether or not the representatives of earth will attempt communication with the fast folk of Jupiter in order to find the route through the Malley Mile, or whether the Cassini Division, the self-appointed guardians of earth will go ahead with their secret plot to destroy the fast folk. Much of the novel is taken up by the attempts of most of the protagonists to convince Ellen May Ngwethu of the Cassini Division that she is paranoid and about to commit genocide. Ellen knows she is about to commit genocide, as like the protagonists in Xenocide she believ