So now I’ve read the first, second and fourth novels in Ken MacLeod’s Fall Revolution series. Series is a good name for the books given how loosely connected the stories are, though they do share thematic explorations of post-socialist polities.
The Stone Canal focuses on David Reid and Jonathon Wilde, from Wilde’s perspective, paralleling joint experiences on Earth pre-Singularity and a world named New Mars afterwards. The two meet at Glasgow University in 1975, the first scene set in a bar with politics the topic of discussion. Many of the scenes which have them physically together involve bars or at least alcohol. The Earth-based story skips across the decades, technology developing to lengthen lifespans far beyond what we have today, but the other half is just a few days in Ship City, the only habitation on New Mars. The only inhabitants are humans and human-gestated intelligent machines, some of whom occupy human clone bodies.
Negatives: Macleod poses Wilde as somewhat less discerning than you’d expect a person of his education experience to be and, in a second surprising mistake, clearly overestimates the impact of the revelation of a connection between two of the female supporting characters. I’d also prefer he left out the constant mention of cigarette smoking despite the handwaving cancer immunity.
The book is wildly creative and engaging though, as is the case with many second novels, works too hard to top the screaming success of the first. I can’t imagine not reading Stone Canal, though.
recommended
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