Ken Macleod - The Cassini Division

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by Ken MacLeod

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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 Library Journal

As an agent of the elite Cassini Division, Ellen May Ngewthu conceives of a bold plan to stop the

incursions of godlike posthumans, whose arrogance nearly destroyed humankind and whose

existence still threatens the safety of the Solar Union. Set in the 24th century, MacLeod's third

novel features nonstop action and a tough-as-nails protagonist. Large libraries should consider this

title for their old-style sf adventure fans.

edition of this title.

Spotlight Reviews

Slow - Boring - Lacks Creativity, October 17, 2000

Reviewer:

The Cassini Division "doesnt" read like Iain M Banks or Vernor Vinge despite what a few [...]

reviewers have claimed. Banks creates exotic locations/charactes better - while Vinge has no

trouble mapping out scope and a "sense of wonder." This book seemed more like a "bad" novel

from Stephen Baxer or Charles Sheffield - authors who "can" write brilliantly at times.

So why did I bother with this book knowing that it has recieved poor reviews? If you read the

back cover, the premise for the novel is actually quite interesting. A soldier and leader of the

Cassini Division has to stop God-Like beings who disintegrated Ganymede. These beings punched

a wormhole into Jovian space and are bombarding the inner solar system with powerfull data

viruses.

While some of the science and technical parts of the Cassini Division are interesting, the details

were always glossed over. And it takes a good 100 pages before the science is really mentioned

anyway.

Ken Macleod doesnt put much emphasis on the military aspect of the lead character - Ellen May

Ngewthu. All she really does throughout the novel is converse with other characters about how

humanity "must" commit mass genocide against the superior beings. Now I have no problems with

the "morality" issue that some reviewers complained about, but it is here, that the Cassini Division

failed to impress me. The characters act and talk as if they are telling the "reader" about ethics and

the implications of genocide. It makes for some very childish dialog throughout the later pages of

the book.

PRO: The Concepts are interesting. And the political backdrop for the novel has above average

depth - C. J. Cherryh, Jack Vance, and Lois McMaster Bujold are still better at politics and

sociology however.

CON: The Concepts are not given the attention they need. The book starts slow and doest pick

up till after 100 pages into it. The character dialog is horrible. The interaction with the Jovians

lacks imagination. And the Cassini Division has a very predictable ending.

RECOMENDATION: Skip this book and "maybe" look for it at the library. --This text refers to

Terrific hard SF in the Vernor Vinge tradition, July 31, 2000

Reviewer:

Idea-packed science fiction driven by the ramifications of a group of humans who have passed

through the evolutionary "singularity" and become something beyond our knowledge, and who now

live in Jupiter, emitting radio viruses forcing Earth to radically change its technology. If that

weren't enough, McLeod also presents an anarcho-socialist society and contrasts it with an anarcho-

capitalist society and does so in a much more plausible manner than (say) Robert Heinlein ever did.

Protagonist Ellen is a key member of the Cassini Division, tasked to deal with the post-humans if

necessary, and on a mission to secure a manner in which to do so. Her point of view is decidedly

prejudiced, which is a big part of what makes this book enjoyable: It's got characterization, world-

building, AND a plot. One of the best novels I've read in several years, it's hard to believe it's under

300 pages. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

All Customer Reviews

Ideas That Push The Envelope Of Possibilities!, June 9, 2002

Reviewer:

Ellen May Ngwethu is the central character in this sequel to THE STONE CANAL, and this

novel begins many years later. Ellen is a member of the Jupiter system based 'Cassini Division',

their purpose is to destroy any posthuman life they encounter, primarily around the planet Jupiter.

In the beginning of this novel Ellen travels to Earth as the commander of the fusion ship 'Terrible

Beauty' to enlist the help of Dr. I.K. Malley, the physicist who knows more about the wormhole

near Jupiter than anyone else, connecting our solar system to where New Mars is located,

thousands of light years distant. The Cassini Division would like to travel through the wormhole to

New Mars so they would be able to search for and destroy any posthumans found there.

There is debate as to whether or not the posthumans are conscious at all, and Macleod illustrates

a racism here that one day may actually take place to our detriment and shame: is posthuman life

conscious or just a computer program emulation of consciousness? Also discussed is the question

of identity when a mind is uploaded into a computer, is the person the same as the original, or just a

copy, with the original alive or dead giving added debate. This is a very complex topic and

Macleod touches on it briefly as he presents to us a far ranging philosophical view of what it means

to be human in this future he has spun, several hundred years from now, a future after the

'Singularity' in which science and technology has very nearly totally transformed life as we know it

and how we live, great reading indeed. Plot and character development were good, and this novel is

full of many interesting ideas, not necessarily original, including nano-fabrication of food and

almost anything else, mind viruses, wormholes (most unlikely part of the book), anti-aging pills for

eternal youth, mind back-ups in computers (with it's ensuing questions of identity), cloning,

artificial people, smart suits (the book is worth reading just for this).

The book was a page turner for me, and I loved it's no-nonsense forward looking philosophy.

Decent Adventure Novel, March 18, 2002

Reviewer:

This is a reasonably entertaining book. The plot concerns the efforts of humans, assisted by

advanced technology including everyone's fad favorite, nanotechnology, to combat sentient 'post-

human' entities who developed from a melding of human minds with computer technology. This

book contains a lot of entertaining ideas and suffers from MacLeod's tendency to pack a large

volume of material into a relatively short book. Plot and characterization suffer considerably as a

result.

About the Author

Ken MacLeod graduated with a B.Sc. in Zoology from Glasgow University in 1976. Following

research in biomechanics at Brunel University, he worked in a variety of manual and clerical jobs

while completing an M.Phil. thesis. He previously worked as a computer analyst/programmer in

Edinburgh, but is now a full-time writer. He lives in West Lothian, Scotland, with his wife and

children, and is the author of two previous novels, The Star Fraction, runner-up for the Arthur C.

Clarke Award, and The Stone Canal.

Contents

About the Author

1 Looking Backward

2 After London

3 News From Nowhere

4 The State of the Art

5 The Coming Race

6 Valhalla

8 City of the Living Dead

9 A Modern Utopia

10 In the Days of the Comet

11 Looking Forward

1 Looking Backward

THERE ARE, still, still photographs of the woman who gate-crashed the party on the

observation deck of the Casa Azores, one evening in the early summer of 2303. They show her

absurdly young about twenty, less than a tenth of her real age and tall; muscles built-up by

induction isotonics and not dragged down by gravity; hair a black nebula; dark skin, epicanthic

eyelids, a flattish nose, and thin lips whose grin is showing broad white teeth. She carries in her

right hand a litre bottle of carbon-copy Lagrange 2046. Her left hand is at her shoulder, and on its

crooked forefinger is slung a bolero jacket the colour of old gold, matching a gown whose almost

circular skirts hem is swinging about her ankles as she strides in. What looks like a small monkey

is perched on her right, bare, shoulder.

Something flashed. I blinked away annular afterimages, and glared at a young man clad in

cobalt-blue pyjamas who lowered a boxy apparatus of lenses and reflectors with a brief apologetic

smile as he ducked away into the crowd. Apart from him, my arrival had gone unnoticed.

Although the deck was a good hundred metres square, it didn’t have room for everybody who was

invited, let alone everybody who’d turned up. The natural progress of the evening, with people

hitting off and drifting away to more private surroundings, would ease the pressure, but not yet.

There was room enough, however, for a variety of activities: close dancing, huddled eating,

sprawled drinking, intense talking; and for a surprising number of children to scamper among them

all. Cunningly focused sound systems kept each cluster of revellers relatively content with, and

compact in, their particular ambience. The local fashions seemed to fit the party, loose and fluid

but close to the body: women in saris or shifts, men in pyjama-suits or serious-looking togas and

tabards. The predominant colours were the basic sea-silk tones of blue, green, red, and white. My

own outfit, though distinctive, didn’t seem out of place.

The centre of the deck was taken up by the ten-metre-wide pillar of the building’s air shaft.

Somewhere in one of the groups around it, talking above the faint white noise of the falling air,

would be the couple whose presence was the occasion for the party the people I’d come to speak to,

if only for a moment. There was no point in pushing through the crowd like anyone here who

really wanted to, I’d reach them eventually by always making sure I was headed in their direction.

I made my way to a drinks table, put down my bottle and picked up a glass of Mare Imbrium

white. The first sip let me know that it was, aptly enough, very dry. My slight grimace met a

knowing smile. It came from the man in blue, who’d somehow managed to appear in front of me.

“Aren’t you used to it?”

So he knew, or had guessed, whence I came. I made a show of inspecting him, over a second

sip. He was, unlike me, genuinely young. Not bad-looking, in the Angloslav way, with dirty-

blonde tousled hair and pink, shaved face; broad cheekbones, blue eyes. Almost as tall as me taller,

if I took my shoes off. His curious device hung on a strap around his neck.

“Comet vodka’s more to my taste,” I said. I handed the glass into the monkey-thing’s small

black paws and stuck out my hand. “Ellen May Ngwethu. Pleased to meet you, neighbour.”

“Stephan Vrij,” he said, shaking hands. “Likewise.” He watched as the drink was returned.

“Smart monkey,” he said.

“That’s right,” I replied, unhelpfully. Smart spacesuit, was the truth of it, but people down here

tended to get edgy around that sort of stuff.

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摘要：

byKenMacLeodEditorialReviewsAmazon.comWithhisthirdnovel,KenMacLeodelaboratesonthefuturetimelinefromhisfirsttwoworks,TheStarFraction(1995)andTheStoneCanal(1996).Mostrelevantisbooktwo,whichestablishedacolonyontheremoteworldofNewMarsviaaspatialwormholecreatedbysuperhumans--transcendentmachine-hostedint...

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Ken Macleod - The Cassini Division

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