Customer Reviews

The Cassini Division

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

The Cassini Division reads like an abridgment of a longer, better, more gripping novel. MacLeod almost seems in a rush to communicate his ideas, not realizing that he is instead shortchanging them. For example, he dedicates much of this short novel to the interactions among the socialist, anarchic Solar Union, the capitalist New Mars, and the posthuman Jupiter. He confronts his protagonist with valid ethical questions regarding her own motivations and her mission to destroy the Jovians. However, then MacLeod decides suddenly to resolve the tangible conflict, forgetting completely all concerns of moral ambiguity.

Overall, the plotting suffers from unsupported developments and twists, such as the physicist Malley's sudden decision to cast his lot in with the elite military of the Utopian society he abhors and from which he has exiled himself for decades. The best reason to read the Cassini Division is the political theory, which begs further development. In MacLeod's universe, is it really possible for the Jovians' radio and video transmissions to infect passive observers so easily with mental viruses, or is it a cover story to explain censorship on the part of the Solar Union, as Malley seems to hint once in the beginning? MacLeod leaves such possibilities completely unexplored.

For a much more developed treatment of the collision between a successful socialist anarchy and a capitalist state, do yourself a favor and read LeGuin's The Dispossessed.

If you never read "Stone Canal", this tightly coupled sequel will make almost no sense to you.

Ken MacLeod is a skillful writer, one worth watching in the future. However, his literary execution falls far short of all the hoopla about him that I've read on the paperback cover. Unfortunately, there are many passages where it reads almost like your typical run-of-the-mill Star Trek novel. Somehow his deft prose and witty dialogue saves this from being a generic SF novel, yet I certainly was expecting more insight akin to the works of Arthur C. Clarke or Ursula K. LeGuin than Star Trek. Instead, MacLeod tries to blend space opera with nanotechnology and cyberpunk, and the result isn't a satisfactory mix. Yet if you're interested in some light SF reading, then do buy this book.

This was a fast read; I rated it above average not because of MacLeod's somewhat fractured and mediocre writing style, but because of the interesting ideas in the story. The author does manage to introduce some very subtle twists.

This book is not a "shoot-'em-up". There is a lot of talking, a lot of arguments, introducing different idiological points of view.

It was a refreshing twist to have the heroine as a defender of the Solar Union's social anarchy, which somehow achieves the ideal of everyone just getting along and contributing to society. As the book unfolds, your assumptions about the heroine and her beliefs are gradually challenged and altered. At some points you pause to wonder who is the bad guy. By the end you have been exposed to the merits of three dramatically different points of view; the darwinist social anarchists, the materialistic capitalist, and the inexplicable post-human Jovians.

Even weeks after reading it I still am thinking about some of the arguements in the book, which is probably the best anyone could say about a novel.

I've been meaning to get this off my chest for about a month now. What can I say, I just didn't like this novel. I thought it was boring, and that the story never really took off. Things happen in the novel that should be exciting or gripping, but just aren't. Given the backdrop and plot of the novel (tremendous social and political upheaval, threats from beyond Jupiter, etc.) one would expect a more lively novel. Instead, the Cassini Division just kind of plods along in a kind of literary monotone. There is not a single exciting moment in the book. This is a boring novel filled with, as one other put it, "lazy ideas". The author pushes socialist-anarchy as an ideology without really making it sound very appealing or even workable in the practical sense. Furthermore, the future utopia is an unlikeable place filled with unlikeable people doing unlikeable things. In the end, one finds the Texas-inspired New Mars a much more appealing place than the hivelike utopia the main character tries hard to defend. Finally, I found all the various nano-this and techno-that references and plot devices annoying. I threw this book away without reading the last 40 pages.

Oh yes, and I'm never going to trust a Salon.com book review ever again.

Compared to Ken MacLeod's later work, "Cassini Division" (1998) is a little underwhelming. The main ideas involve the clash of civilizations: the anarchic-socialists (from whose perspective the book is narrated), the uploaded post-Singularity consciousnesses of Jupiter, a capitalist anarchy on the far-flung planet New Mars (accessible only via tricky wormhole travel) and the non-cooperators left on Earth, who haven't joined in any of the parties.

That's most of the problem, really. The plot seems like more of an excuse to examine all these societies than an interesting story in its own right. The author doesn't quite seem to pay enough attention to the main plot threads. Generally speaking, I found it a bit hard to read and a bit too easy to put down.

There are some interesting narrative tricks here: the entire story is told from a first person POV, and only one person's, to boot. However, the "present tense" parts of the story are told in past-tense voice, and the flashbacks (sometimes inserted in such a ways as to kill narrative momentum instead of helping it) are told in present-tense voice. An odd choice that doesn't seem to make much difference.

The parts where he's actually examining the societies are admirable: fairly balanced, showing the upsides and downsides of all of them. However, it sometimes seems unsubtle, more like a sledgehammer than you'd like. Also, the narrator is not the most sympathetic person you've ever met. So if you're interested in Ken MacLeod, I might recommend skipping this one and heading for his later works: the Engine of Light series or (the much more enjoyable) "Newton's Wake."

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Rating: "A" -- a fresh look at future politics, married to solid hard-sf
extrapolation. Short & sweet, fast & funny, but with an appalling
protagonist and a weak, pat ending. Even so, highly recommended.

This isn't a preview-type review. *SPOILER ALERT*
You really shouldn't read past here if you
haven't read the book. And much of what follows won't make sense
if you do.

S
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"A brilliant novel of ideas" -- front-cover blurb by Vernor Vinge.

The central anarcho-socialist idea -- the "True Knowledge" -- is,
well.... "Might Makes Right". Ugh. I've always thought the best way
to judge a person's character is to watch how they treat someone
who has no power over them -- think back to good & bad bosses
you've had. Fortunately, the "comrades" don't seem to apply this
principle in their everyday lives. But the protagonist, Ellen May
Ngewthu, is an appalling individual, a close analog to Gen. Curtis
"Bomb 'em back to the Stone Age" LeMay. Unlike LeMay, she has
the freedom to act, and completely destroys the "post-human"
Jovian civilization for the offense of hijacking a third-party
spaceship. Even the crudest SF carnography trots out a stronger casus
belli to trigger mass genocide (at least for human aggressors).

Ellen has a remarkable ability to dehumanize her opponents --
bluntly, she's a violently paranoid racist. Even after personal contact
with legally-human "robots" on New Mars has, kind of sort of, made
her accept them as "part of *us*, whereas the Jovians --
'You mean you would contemplate a union -- with *them*?'...."

".... Time for Plan B," Ellen decides, disregarding a direct order from
the Solar Council delegate -- Plan B being genocide by comet
bombardment. Worked, too. And the Jovies *were* baddies, through
& through, in the pat, weak & rather disappointing ending. Feh.

Post-socialism (or anarcho-socialism) in MacLeod's Solar Union
adopts the form, but little content, from present-day socialism and
communism -- irony? (At least, I hope the character who says that
Lenin was "just misunderstood" is intended as irony.) The Union
economy isn't described in enough detail to judge whether it might
actually work (though with enough to succeed as a fictional device).
Perhaps there's more detail elsewhere -- this is the first MacLeod
book I've read (but it won't be the last).

MacLeod has clearly read his Vinge -- though, curiously, the Union's
policy is to avoid a Vingean singularity at almost any cost, and to
destroy any culture that reaches it. For a more convincing (IMO)
snapshot of a successful democratic anarchy, read Vinge's "The
Ungoverned." Another sfnal predecessor that likely influenced
MacLeod is Ursula K. LeGuin's wonderful "The Dispossessed" and
related works. And read Hans Moravec's recent "Robots" for another
view of the coming post-human era.

Humans as aliens: the MacLeod future history has encountered no
aliens, so they've made their own -- the "fast folk" or post-humans
are the most dramatic example, but all three societies here -- the
post-socialists, the anarcho-capitalists and the fast folk -- are quite
different from today's cultures, and quite strange to each other, a
welcome relief from the more usual "futures" that are today with
tailfins stuck on. And it's a pleasure to read a lean, non-bloated
novel.

Not that there aren't some future-anachronisms here: helicopters,
elevator attendants(!), brass-&-steel(!) mechanical computers....
Memo to MacLeod: brush up on your Drexlerian molecular rod-logic
nanocomputers. Or if those won't work -- DNA-based
biocomputation. Or if you *have* to go macro-mechanical, you'd
use lightweight composites & light metals -- inertia in the gear
trains, y'know? And anyway -- how likely is it that non-networked
electronic computers would be crippled -- or taken over -- by "radio
viruses" from Jupiter?

Tin Ear Dept: ".... I weren't that worried. Had you lot figured.... Just
gosh-darn lucky...." (p. 168, US hc ed). Umm. Mebbe this rancher
emigrated to Texas from the lil ol' UK?

Enough of this grumbling & nit-picking -- I had a great time reading
"Cassini Division", which you might not have guessed, I just
realized, from reading this far. I found myself deliberately slowing
down to savor the book, something I last did for Phyllis Gotlieb's
lapidary "Flesh & Gold". And it makes you think. A definite keeper,
highly recommended despite the appalling genocidal "heroine."

Hey, it could be worse. Consider, for example, Barnes'
"Kaleidoscope Century", or Barton's "When Heaven Fell." At least
Ellen has self-doubts...

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
(review written 10-99)