Ken Macleod

[Vertigo]

Some on this thread have liked the ending, but again for me it just wasn't convincing. Hoping it works for you though Conn

 

[Connavar]

Some on this thread have liked the ending, but again for me it just wasn't convincing. Hoping it works for you though Conn

Even if the ending is great it wont change anything because i expected much better from him, i havent enjoyed most of the book and have only the ending left. I wanted to read a good,serious SF and not just some SF with twist ending.

The Star Fraction was near future political SF with cyberpunk element,that was well written,smart and real strong characters. This book is the opposite and the characters are nothing to me. I will focus on his near future books about human situations next time i read him.

 

[Vertigo]

Interesting Conn I was still planning on trying another of his; might give that one a try. From what I've heard he is the kind of author I should like!

And Happy New Year!

 

[Connavar]

Interesting Conn I was still planning on trying another of his; might give that one a try. From what I've heard he is the kind of author I should like!

And Happy New Year!

Give The Star Fraction a try or any other SF of his that sounds like political SF of his. Learning The World doesnt show his real ability. I bought 2 new books by him because i was so impressed by my first read of him.


Happy New Year!

Even if its weird to me because i dont like to celebrate it because it isnt a family holiday like Christmas and its just a new year. I spent time with my family and when it was midnight i had terrible headache that the sounds of the firecrackers made even worse heh.

 

[Vertigo]

Ah well, hope you still get a rest day tomorrow!

 

[williamjm]

The Star Fraction was near future political SF with cyberpunk element,that was well written,smart and real strong characters. This book is the opposite and the characters are nothing to me. I will focus on his near future books about human situations next time i read him.

I think in terms of content they are probably the furthest apart of his work, Learning The World is pure space opera with little in the way of politics whereas The Star Fraction has less SF content but a lot of politics. I liked them both, but I can see why someone would like and not the other.

 

[AE35Unit]

I think in terms of content they are probably the furthest apart of his work, Learning The World is pure space opera with little in the way of politics whereas The Star Fraction has less SF content but a lot of politics. I liked them both, but I can see why someone would like and not the other.

Really? I would thought it would be the other way round! Learning the World sounds kind of introspective. Star Faction sounds like cyber punk/ space opera a la Banks.
Ill have to look for them.

 

[Connavar]

I think in terms of content they are probably the furthest apart of his work, Learning The World is pure space opera with little in the way of politics whereas The Star Fraction has less SF content but a lot of politics. I liked them both, but I can see why someone would like and not the other.

No no im a fan of good space opera and good science driven SF story. I have read many better version of Learning the world. Its not that i only read social science,political near future SF. I dig many Hard SF,space opera writers. I just didnt like the lack of the writing ability,storytelling,characters he showed in his other SF novel. I expected better book simply.

I,Brain said it well the idea behind this novel isnt big enough for a novel but is more fit for short story. Neat idea isnt enough.

 

[Vertigo]

As I said my biggest problem was with the plausibility of the human reaction to finding the aliens. I just don't believe that would the the reaction, especially from a society that MacLeod presents as very enlightened. Maybe that was part of the point he was trying to present but if so it didn't work for me. I know we humans are an arrogant bunch, but I don't believe even the attitudes of our current, far from enlightened, society would have generated such an arrogant reponse to the discovery of the first alien intelligences and such a lack of consideration for those aliens.

 

[Ursa major]

In Learning the World, I wasn't that keen on the humans' side of the story, and not just after they discovered the planet. On the other hand, I really liked the story about the aliens, and had no problem with the ending. So, all in all, I thought the book well worth reading.

 

[Vertigo]

I would agree I found the aliens' story much more believable and, indeed, readable and the ending as it applied to the aliens was fine for me. But it was the human story that I felt didn't hold together and the resolution of their story was, I thought, poor to say the least.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Was there any side to the human story?

Paraphrased: we're on a ship, I've discovered blogging, I've become a blogging sensation. And?

The idea that blogging becomes a "big thing" 10,000 years into our future seemed such a terrible anachronism.

 

[Ursa major]

The whole human side to the story seemed forced (if I recall correctly).

It's silly, really: one would have thought that writing convincingly about strange aliens would have been far more difficult than writing about scheming and naive humans. It isn't as if this author hasn't done the latter many times.

 

[Vertigo]

In fairness, MacLeod doesn't really present blogging as a new thing, just new to the young adolescent Atomic, but it certainly didn't provide a very inspiring opening.

My name is Atomic Discourse Gale and this is the first time I have written something that anyone in the world can read. It is strange and makes me feel a little self-conscious, but I reassure myself that not many people will read it anyway.

And there was a fair bit of other stuff going on, it's just that most of it wasn't much to do with the story but rather about explaining his idea of how a generation ship might work. Which I found quite interesting as I am interested in such beast, but again not completely convincing.

However please don't get me wrong. I didn't hate the book and I will be going on to read more of his. I'm just going to be a bit more choosey next time (I only bought this one as I stumbled on it in a second hand shop).

 

[zaltys13]

Thanks for that, wont bother reading it then. Idiot.

As for Ken Macleod, I haven't read any of his early stuff, but I have enjoyed his newer novels, he seems to like the twist rather alot though.

The Execution Channel was okay, the ending though left me feeling like I'd suddenly started reading another (more ridiculous) book.

Learning the world was much better, loved the characters, loved the plot, there wasn't so much a twist as a brilliant postscript, it added alot to everything that had gone before.

The Restoration Game was one big twist, but signposted so much that I didn't feel to cheated at the end.

The Night Sessions was okay, just okay really.

I feel that his overiding strength lies in his characters, I think, especially in his near future novels that he extrapolates very well, I personally dont mind his socialist ideals, but I can see why others might, he is very similer to Iain M Banks in this respect, his good friend and another left wing Scottish writer!

As an aside I picked up all four of the above mentioned novels in hardback first editions either from charity shops or discount book stores for about £1.00 each. Maybe he's tough going for the cassual reader, and maybe his publishers think he should be more popular than he actually is.

I would recommend him though, thoughtful and political with an eye for action and character. Oh, his short fiction is great to, try "The best Science Fiction of the year 3". For starters, it made me laugh anyway

You will find that in the "New Solaris book of Science fiction" along with some other fantastic shorts, see Mr Ian Whates for further information I would imagine.

I recently read Newton's Wake, and I have to say found it rather disappointing, to much slapstick, to much humour, to many bungling idiots and unpleasent characters, the least of his novels I think. Picked that one up in Hardback as well, got more of his stuff in hardback than some of my favorite authers.

Are the earlier Space Operas worth reading?

 

[Connavar]

The whole human side to the story seemed forced (if I recall correctly).

It's silly, really: one would have thought that writing convincingly about strange aliens would have been far more difficult than writing about scheming and naive humans. It isn't as if this author hasn't done the latter many times.

This is why I didn't enjoy reading this book and was annoyed with the human side because it was really forced. The aliens, their world was much more interesting but they didn't get enough pages compared to arrogant humans blogging their every thought. Atomic was just not good enough narrative technique.

Not a terrible novel but uneven and I needed a good first contact story. I think it's the first I have read of this kind.

 

[williamjm]

Really? I would thought it would be the other way round! Learning the World sounds kind of introspective. Star Faction sounds like cyber punk/ space opera a la Banks.

The Star Fraction is cyberpunk but not space opera (since it takes place entirely on Earth), although there are some space opera elements in some of its sequels (mainly The Cassini Division).

I recently read Newton's Wake, and I have to say found it rather disappointing, to much slapstick, to much humour, to many bungling idiots and unpleasent characters, the least of his novels I think. Picked that one up in Hardback as well, got more of his stuff in hardback than some of my favorite authers.

Are the earlier Space Operas worth reading?

I agree Newton's Wake is one of his weaker books, the characterisation wasn't as good as it normally is and the tone was a bit inconsistent with too much silliness.

Before Newton's Wake he wrote two series, the four volume Fall Revolution and the Engines of Light trilogy. I think the Fall Revolution books (starting with the Star Fraction) might be his best work, although it's a bit uneven (I didn't like the second book, The Stone Canal, as much as the rest of the series). The Engines of Light series is a decent space opera although it sometimes struggles to connect all the plot threads and some of them aren't as interesting as others.