The Cassini Division [Mass Market Paperback]

Ken MacLeod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2000

Ellen May Ngewthu is a soldier and leader of the Cassini Division, the elite defense force of the utopian Solar Union. Here in the twenty-fourth century, the forts of the Division, in orbit around Jupiter, are the front line in humanity's long standoff with the unknowable post-humans godlike beings descended from the men and women who transformed themselves with high technology centuries ago.

The post-humans' capacities are unknown . . . but we know they disintegrated Ganymede, we know they punched a wormhole into Jovian space, and we know that the very surface of the solar system's largest planet has been altered by them. Worse, we know that they have been bombarding the inner solar system with powerful data viruses for generations.

Now Ellen has a plan to rid humanity of this threat once and for all. But she needs to convince others to mistrust the post-humans as much as she does. In the process, much will be revealed--about history, about power, and about what it is to be human.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With his third novel, Ken MacLeod elaborates on the future timeline from his first two works, The Star Fraction (1995) and The Stone Canal (1996). Most relevant is book two, which established a colony on the remote world of New Mars via a spatial wormhole created by superhumans--transcendent machine-hosted intelligences called the "fast-folk." The original fast-folk crashed from too much contemplation of their metaphorical navels, but their descendants on Jupiter still harass Earth with virus transmissions that have killed off computers and the Internet. Enter heroine Ellen May Ngwethu of the Cassini Division, an elite space-going force created to defend against the fast-folk. Her wild doings in the 24th century's anarcho-socialist utopia make for fun reading--everyone will covet her smart-matter clothing that can become a spacesuit, combat outfit, evening gown, or satellite dish at will. But the Division's political philosophy is brutally tough, with alarming plans to use a planet-wrecking doomsday weapon against "enemies," who may not be hostile at all. In a climax of slam-bang space battle, MacLeod crashes the ongoing ethical debate into a brick wall and leaves you gasping. Witty, skillful, provocative, but just a trifle too glibly resolved. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A rare but successful fusion of hard SF, space opera and serious political speculation, this is the third novel from MacLeod, who's Scottish, but his first to be published in the U.S. The story takes place in a 24th-century Sol system still recovering from a near-catastrophic clash between humanity and post-humanity, the latter a society of godlike, possibly insane former humans who have uploaded themselves into computers and set up their own civilization on Jupiter. At the center of the narrative stands Ellen May Ngwethu, commander of the spaceship Terrible Beauty and an officer in the Cassini Division. This semiautonomous military organization operates as Earth's frontline defense against the dangerous and enigmatic post-humans. Society on Earth, based on a unique combination of socialist and anarchist beliefs, has achieved a high degree of environmentally responsible prosperity in recent years, but the post-humans on Jupiter are an ever-increasing threat. As the forces of the Cassini Division prepare to destroy the post-humans without warning, Ngwethu finds herself on a dangerous mission through a wormhole to reestablish contact with another potential enemy, the long-lost, libertarian-capitalist interstellar colony of New Mars. Despite heavy doses of political theory, MacLeod generally manages to keep the first half of his novel moving at acceptable speed, aided by solid prose, a strong protagonist and some fascinating bits of high tech. The latter half of the tale, which features a battle in space, complete with comets used as superweapons, is more lively. This is an enjoyable and ambitious novel, and hopefully presages the American publication of MacLeod's earlier work. (July) FYI: MacLeod's first two novels, The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal, each received the Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (August 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812568583
• ISBN-13: 978-0812568585
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,736,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ken MacLeod's SF novels have won the Prometheus Award and the BSFA award, and been shortlisted for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives near Edinburgh, Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cyberpunk space-opera novel of ideas, October 7, 1999

By 

David Moles - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cassini Division (Fall Revolution) (Hardcover)

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).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb political sf., April 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cassini Division (Fall Revolution) (Hardcover)

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 believes the human race cannot tolerate any species potentially superior to human beings. McLeod's protagonists truly believe themselves to be morally correct and to be acting in the best interests of their society but his work contains a very simple and powerful moral message, crucial to, but rarely associated with anarchism: you are responsible for your own actions and for their consequences.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Haphazard mismash, August 2, 2000

By 

J. Kominek (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cassini Division (Mass Market Paperback)

On the cover of the novel, Vernor Vinge is quoted as saying that it is a "novel of ideas". It certianly is that. The author tosses in all kinds of moralistic and scientific ideas and then sort of stirs them around until they look mostly consistent. Socialism, libertarianism, artificial intelligence, trans/post-humanism, and just what makes you you are all examined briefly. (Readers of Shirow's "Ghost In The Shell" might find one or two of the concepts familiar.) It is an interesting read, but for the moral discussion and implications... not for the science.