Subject: Review: Ken MacLeod's _The Star Fraction_

From: [email-masked] (Paul S. Jenkins)
Date: 06 Mar 2000 11:59:16 -0500

_The Star Fraction_ by Ken MacLeod
	Review Copyright (c) 2000 Paul S. Jenkins

Moh Kohn is a mercenary with an intelligent gun. Janis Taine is a
biologist researching memory drugs. When Kohn goes to Taine's laboratory
after a raid, the drugs have a strange effect on him, triggering deep
memories and setting off a chain of events that takes the pair of them on
a wild adventure through the political landscape of a future Britain.

MacLeod's vision of future politics is drawn in considerable detail, and
populated with a number of engaging characters in addition to Kohn and
Taine. Young Jordan Brown, for instance, fresh out of his computer-
operator job, with a stash of dubious money, meets up with the mercenaries
for an adventure of his own. Or there's Catherin Duvalier, a mercenary
with whom Kohn has worked before, only now she appears to have been paid
by the other side.

MacLeod's debut novel is a confident work. The characters are highly
believable, the setting fully realized. The plot is intricate and
detailed, and probably needs a degree in political science to understand
it fully. I got a bit lost toward the end of the book, possibly because my
reading of it was broken up, so I'd recommend reading it at a stretch. At
the close, MacLeod seems to take an age to tie up the loose ends of his
complicated tale, which is probably unnecessary, as he has written two
sequels. One to re-read, I think.

%A   MacLeod, Ken
%T   The Star Fraction
%I   Orbit (Little, Brown)
%C   London
%D   1998 (copyright 1995)
%G   ISBN 1 85723 833 8
%P   341 pp.
%O   paperback GBP 6.99

Paul S. Jenkins | More reviews at: 
Portsmouth   UK | http://www.cix.co.uk/~willowsoft/revup/