Subject: Review: The Sky Road, by Ken MacLeod (1999)

From: [email-masked] (Richard Horton)
Date: 15 Sep 1999 14:02:24 -0400

_The Sky Road_, by Ken MacLeod
	Review Copyright 1999 Richard Horton

This is another excellent, engaging, novel from a fairly new Scottish
writer, just now making his mark in the United States.  His third novel,
_The Cassini Division_ (1998), was published here by Tor just this year
(1999).  _The Sky Road_ is his fourth novel, not yet available in the US.
But I am sufficiently a MacLeod addict that I get my fix from Amazon.co.uk
as soon as I can.

This one probably does not quite jar my favorite of his novels, _The Stone
Canal_ (1996), from its position at the top of my personal MacLeod heap,
but it's very fine, with yet another differently organized somewhat
anarchic semi-utopia on display, as well as yet another look at the
turbulent 21st century, and the menace of Artificial Intelligence.

Ken MacLeod's new book is an intriguing offshoot from his previous three
novels.  I'll give a brief summary of "the story so far", if you will bear
with me.  _The Star Fraction_, _The Stone Canal_, and _The Cassini
Division_ all come from the same future history.  In this future, the
world has fractured into numerous smaller states by the early 21st
Century, essentially by a continuation of the process begun in the
ex-commmunist states in the 1980s.

_The Star Fraction_ treats of a small slice of time in the 2040s, dealing
mostly just with the UK, and portraying an interesting fractured society,
with dozens of "micro-states" built around various political ideologies,
from the Greens to gays to fundamentalist Christians to various flavours
of Socialists to anarchists, as well as loyalists of the Republic which
succeeded the monarchy of our time, and loyalists (Hanoverians) to a
version of that monarchy.  All the political viewpoints were a key factor
in the interest of _The Star Fraction_, but the main plot surrounded an
artificial intelligence called the Black Planner; and the fear that AI's
would take over the world.  This turns out to be probably the central
theme in all MacLeod's work, along with possible somewhat anarchist
utopias.

 _The Stone Canal_ is set on two timelines.  One begins in our '70s,
following Jon Wilde and Dave Reid, two friends/enemies who begin as
Socialist-leaning students in Glasgow, and end up with great power, much
of which in different ways ends up promoting space exploration.  The other
timeline is far in the future, on the distant world of New Mars, as
downloaded and revived version of both Wilde and Reid struggle again, this
time over the rights of AI's, and the dangers in particular of the "fast
folk" --  AI's who run so fast that human timescales are enormously long to
them.

 _The Cassini Division_ is set shortly after _The Stone Canal_, and again
concerns the dangers of the "fast folk," many of whom have colonized
Jupiter.  _The Cassini Division_ also features a trip to New Mars.  These
three books, in addition to the persistent worry about AI's, portray a
variety of political organizations, and forms of organization, most
notably perhaps the anarcho-socialist society of the Solar System and the
anarcho-capitalist society of New Mars, in the time of _The Cassini
Division_.

_The Sky Road_ is kind of an "alternate history" of MacLeod's future.  I
can't think of anyone else who has done this sort of thing, except perhaps
within a single book.  The earlier parts, chronologically, of _The Stone
Canal_, and all of _The Star Fraction_, are set in a common past to both
_The Sky Road_ and to _The Cassini Division_, but one of the events in
_The Stone Canal_ goes a different way in _The Sky Road_.  Like _The Stone
Canal_ and, to a lesser extent, _The Cassini Division_, this book is told
in two threads, one in the past, in 2059, and the other some centuries in
the future.

The pastward thread follows Myra Godwin-Davidova, American-born lover of
both Jon Wilde and Dave Reid, and a minor character in _The Stone Canal_.
Myra, 105 years old, is the head of the government of a mini-state near
Kazakhstan, called the International Scientific and Technical Worker's
Republic.  At the opening of the action, the Sino-Soviet Alliance, or the
Sheenisov, is advancing on Kazakhstan.  Both the reformed UN and Dave
Reid's Mutual Protection Society are trying to take control of the world,
partly from space, and to stop the Sheenisov.  Myra goes on a whirlwind
tour of Kazakhstan, Turkey, the US and the UK, looking for military
assistance.  What she has to offer are the world's remaining supply of
nuclear weapons.  But her problem is, it's not at all clear who the real
enemy is, or for that matter how many enemies there are.  She also deals
with her personal problems: her age, her guilt over such betrayals of her
past ideals as the use of slave labour, and the selling of nuclear
protection, and her loss of yet another loved one in suspicious
circumstances.

The other thread features Clovis colha Gree, a young student in an odd,
somewhat Utopian, Scotland.  He is working on a project building a
spaceship: the first spaceship to be built since the mysterious
"Deliverance."  It seems that since this "Deliverance" the world has
reorganized itself on a rather pastoral model.  Clovis' field of study is
history, particulary the life of the "Deliverer."  The reader figures out
right quick that the "Deliverer" is Myra Godwin-Davidova.  Clovis meets a
beautiful woman called Merrial, and they fall tumultuously in love.  But
Merrial is a tinker, and the tinkers are regarded with suspicion by the
rest of society, as they are the only people who deal with the somewhat
restricted computer technology available in this future.  Clovis is drawn
by his love for Merrial and his thirst for knowledge about the Deliverer
to a questionable search for secret files of the Deliverer's: ostensibly
to help protect the spaceship project.  But this search leads them not
only to some anti-hagiographic knowledge about the Deliverer such as her
use of nuclear weapons, but also to some potential use of the "black
logic," the "path of power."

The two threads converge to reveal to the reader some, at least, of what's
going on: what the Deliverance really was, and what "black logic" might
be, and part of the nature of this future society.  It's intriguing, and
clever, and by the end quite moving.  The reader of the other books is
also treated to a few cameos by major characters from them: Dave Reid, of
course, and also Jordan Brown and Cat Duvalier from _The Star Fraction_,
and, a bit too cutesily, I thought, a version of Ellen May from _The
Cassini Division_.  The only weakness is that I found Merrial and Clovis'
affair just a bit convenient: not all that easy to believe.  One of the
main reasons I had trouble with it is a bit of a spoiler, however.

I also found the political machinations of Myra's time hard to follow, but
that weakness is in me, partly, and partly, I think, it's a feature:
MacLeod 21st century really is a chaotic time.  I also was impressed again
by MacLeod's clever way with a phrase.  His prose is sound, but only some
of the time does it sing.  The first chapter is quite impressive in this
way, but he doesn't really maintain that peak level.  However, throughout
there are dry asides, and clever plays on words, and mordant observations
that hit home.

Ken MacLeod continues to be one of the most exciting new SF writers.  His
books are politically intriguing, and honest, also full of nice SFnal
speculation about future technology, nicely written, and fast moving.  The
characters are well-drawn, and almost always ambiguous.  Which is to say,
real people.  Each of his books is worth reading, and _The Sky Road_ is
one of his best.

%A Ken MacLeod
%T The Sky Road
%I Orbit
%C London
%D 1999
%P 291 pp 
%G 1-85723-755-2
%O Hardcover, £16.99

Rich Horton | Stable Email: mailto://[email-masked]
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