Rating: 
Summary: Heady, turbulent science fiction
Review: "The Stone Canal" is a heady, turbulent prequel that jumps backward and forward through history to chart humanity's move off-planet. MacLeod's often dense and obtuse near-future political wrangling is intriguingly juxtaposed with some of the best technological extrapolation in the genre; MacLeod uses genre conventions (i.e. robots, androids, superhumans, extraplanetary colonies) to deconstruct the machinations of allegiance and the role of personal volition in society. "The Stone Canal" is arguably a better novel than the excellent "The Cassini Division," if a bit more difficult. Uniquely cerebral and unparalleled in its futuristic vision, "The Stone Canal" succeeds on many levels and epitomizes its author's rare and wonderful vantage.
Rating: 
Summary: Creative if Uneven
Review: I originally found out about Ken MacLeod through some interviews with Iain Banks, one of my favorite authors of both sci-fi and non-genre fiction. And my first foray into his universe was The Stone Canal.While The Stone Canal is a relatively short book, it's absolutely packed with ideas and is not a light read by any stretch of the imagination. The plot follows two distinct time-lines giving readers a history of the events that happen in the more distant future portion of the book. While the basis of all conflict in the novel (and the others in this `universe') is the practice of communism, the arguments and diatribes by the characters and some of the events themselves seem tedious. It is idea-driven science fiction but the over-explanation of these ideas slows the action of the book down making it tedious in places. I have the rest of the books in this series and I'm eager to read them. However I do hope that MacLeod allows the overriding political concepts behind his novels to remain in the background and let his other very creative and brilliant ideas shine in future works. So I give The Stone Canal five stars for creativity, some great characters and wonderful world-building but three for the uneven pacing of the book. Hence the four stars.
Rating:
Summary: Creative if Uneven
Review: I originally found out about Ken MacLeod through some interviews with Iain Banks, one of my favorite authors of both sci-fi and non-genre fiction. And my first foray into his universe was The Stone Canal. While The Stone Canal is a relatively short book, it's absolutely packed with ideas and is not a light read by any stretch of the imagination. The plot follows two distinct time-lines giving readers a history of the events that happen in the more distant future portion of the book. While the basis of all conflict in the novel (and the others in this 'universe') is the practice of communism, the arguments and diatribes by the characters and some of the events themselves seem tedious. It is idea-driven science fiction but the over-explanation of these ideas slows the action of the book down making it tedious in places. I have the rest of the books in this series and I'm eager to read them. However I do hope that MacLeod allows the overriding political concepts behind his novels to remain in the background and let his other very creative and brilliant ideas shine in future works. So I give The Stone Canal five stars for creativity, some great characters and wonderful world-building but three for the uneven pacing of the book. Hence the four stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: I thought this was a very interesting book, but felt that it was a little weak at the end. I do think that I would read more of his work. One of the most interesting concepts that is covered is how, in a world where you can be reincarnated, you would go about helping yourself to meet your goal. The question is: is your goal the same as your other self's goal?
Rating:
Summary: Worthy read for hard sci-fi fans
Review: I'm a big fan of Ian Banks, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, and hard Sci-Fi in general, but I have to admit that I stumbled onto "The Cassini Division" in a supermarket book rack because the cover art looked cool. I'm very glad that I did, that was an excellent book, and so was "The Stone Canal". At the very end it seems a little rushed, and even though "The Stone Canal" happens first, I think they read better in the order they were written. If you like hard SciFi, this author is a "must add" to your list, I plan on getting the rest of his books too.
Rating:
Summary: Yesterday's Radical Politics and Tomorrow's Technology
Review: Imagine you wake up perfectly healthy, but naked in a strange place with your most recent memory being shot and killed in a snowstorm. This is the predicament of Jonathan Wilde, who discovers not only that he is a resuscitation of himself on a strange planet in a distant future, but a few other things as well: * A robotic copy of his wife has been existing as a sex slave for a man he once thought a friend;
* This man is also the one who killed him;
* Someone with his name has been building quite a legend around the world he has woken up in;
* The machine that apparently brought him to life might just be yet another copy of himself; MacLeod is a very talented storyteller: not only is this mystery compelling, but he approaches the central puzzle not only from this distant future but also from the past. Two timelines interweave as we see the fascinating and complicated relationship between Wilde and a college buddy at once more involved in actual radical politics and also more worldly. The uncomfortable friendship between these two very believable characters takes on different dimensions over time as they compete for the love of one woman, and as their respective politics move in different directions. The comparison with Kim Stanley Robinson is unavoidable, for both good and ill. Prior to discovering Ken MacLeod, the only science fiction writer since Ursula LeGuin who really tackled social, political, and economic issues that I have stumbled across has been Robinson. But where Robinson strongly imagines a realistic future evolution of political ideas and the clash between corporation, state, and individual, MacLeod is using science fiction to explore philosophical ideas of socialism, marxism, corporate responsibility, and anarchy. In this sense, The Stone Canal is more like The Dispossessed than the Mars series. In writing style, as others have commented, MacLeod seems to draw more on the work of Robinson, and not always for the best. Perhaps the Mars series' greatest failing was the time spent charting out history, and similarly some of the later portions of The Stone Canal read more like blocking or choreography than like an integral portion of the story itself. That said, the evolution of the characters is beautiful and brilliant and you won't want to put the book down. It is delightful to encounter these flavors of politics in science fiction -- the genre is so heavily weighted with military buffs, rabid anti-government individualists, and social darwinists of every unpalatable variety. I found myself reinvigorated by finding the memes of my youth returning in a technology friendly medium.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly confusing, but a great read
Review: My only problem with this book is that it was a little confusing. It's the kind of book that demands that you pay close attention to detail. If you don't mind the extra effort that you need to invest in the reading, than the book is well worth it. It's a lot of fun and well written. Kind of like a Vinge book, but instead of 900 pages, it is a convenient 300 page novel.
Rating:
Summary: intelligent, deep, imaginative, well written
Review: Out of the first five books Ken Macleoud has had published only the last one 'Cosmonauts Keep' I will never reread. All of the first four are well worth rereading, the mark of a good book.
'The Stone Canal' has the great structure Macleoud does so well, of alternating chapters telling the story from centuries past of the character's. While the next chapter carrys on in the present and so on.
It was KM who advised Bank's of this for his great 'Use of Weapons' novel. Back to the Stone Canal. It's packed with ideas, intensity and thriller like page turning. It could easily fall back into a revenge and killing book. Let's face it the main character has many good reasons to kill Reid. It's about myths, love and reality. It's fun and smart. Macleoud doesn't have the same strength and depth in description as say Banks or Dan Simmon's at their best but he writes very good books, compressed, full of twists, ideas and smart characters.
Rating:
Summary: Love never dies
Review: Picking up this book mainly as a fluke, I was not expecting the story that awaited me. The most fascinating thing is the reality of thought and dialogue, mixed together in a intricate web of fiction, both of the historical brand (a large chunk is set in 1970's Scotland) and the all too alarmingly realistic future brand. The story revolves around two men, David Reid and Jon Wilde whose political views and ideals have set the course of the world, and have built a centuries long rivaly between them.
The text reads remarkably well, and even when lost in the mire of politcal thought (it is recommended that the reader have at least a basic knowledge of communism, socialism and capitalism) the text is rich enough and REAL enough to carry through. Switching from one point of view to the next is not just jumping from character to character, but shooting from first person to third to the camera man if this were a movie.
The only drawback about this book is the breakneck speed at which it ends. But the ending is not diminished by it.
I recommend this story to anyone looking for Science Fiction that is believable, no matter how unbelievable it really is.
Rating:
Summary: Love never dies
Review: Picking up this book mainly as a fluke, I was not expecting the story that awaited me. The most fascinating thing is the reality of thought and dialogue, mixed together in a intricate web of fiction, both of the historical brand (a large chunk is set in 1970's Scotland) and the all too alarmingly realistic future brand. The story revolves around two men, David Reid and Jon Wilde whose political views and ideals have set the course of the world, and have built a centuries long rivaly between them.
The text reads remarkably well, and even when lost in the mire of politcal thought (it is recommended that the reader have at least a basic knowledge of communism, socialism and capitalism) the text is rich enough and REAL enough to carry through. Switching from one point of view to the next is not just jumping from character to character, but shooting from first person to third to the camera man if this were a movie.
The only drawback about this book is the breakneck speed at which it ends. But the ending is not diminished by it.
I recommend this story to anyone looking for Science Fiction that is believable, no matter how unbelievable it really is.
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