Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing SF About Artificial Intelligences and Politics
Review: The Stone Canal is Ken MacLeod's second novel. It is in the same future history as his first novel (The Star Fraction) and his third novel (The Cassini Division) but it can be read without difficulty on its own, and I found it to stand alone just fine. At a first brush, MacLeod reads like "Iain Banks meets Bruce Sterling". The novel's opening, with a somewhat smart-alecky "human- equivalent" robot briefing a confused newly-awakened man, and its structure, alternating chapters on different timelines, definitely echo some of Banks' work. (Note that Banks acknowledges MacLeod's help with Use of Weapons, in terms which suggest to me that he may have helped with that book's unusual structure.) The deeply political concerns, and central character's habit of talking at length about politics, as well as some of the technology and the attitude towards technology, reminded me of Sterling (and also, in a different way, Kim Stanley Robinson. Which is to say, at times this book is a bit talky.) But in the final analysis, The Stone Canal is a very original, very impressive novel. It's true SF, chock full of sense of wonder concepts, interested in new technology, in future politics, and in how technology affects politics (and human life in general).The novel opens with a man awakening in the desert of a Mars-like planet, accompanied by a "human-equivalent" robot. Soon we meet another robot, Dee Model, this one a "gynoid" (female android), who has escaped her owner (for whom she was a sex toy), and is proclaiming her autonomy. The man is soon revealed to be Jonathan Wilde, a legendary figure of political resistance among the inhabitants of New Mars, and the gynoid is based on a clone of Wilde's long-dead wife. The two encounter each other, and both end up in the hands of the "abolitionist" movement, which favors freeing intelligent robots from human slavery. Soon they are jointly involved in lawsuits brought by Dee Model's owner, who is Wilde's friend, long time rival, and apparent murderer, Dave Reid. This seems like plenty of background for a novel in itself, especially given the interesting environment of New Mars, with its single City, 5/6 of which is given over to "wild machines", and with the pervasive semi-VR technology, the grounds for speculation about the nature of human vs. machine intelligence, and the semi-anarchist political structure of the colony. But in parallel tracks we follow the early life, on roughly present-day Earth, of Jonathan Wilde, Dave Reid, and the two important women in their lives: Myra and Annette. Reid is a diehard Trotskyite socialist, and Wilde an anarchist and "space nut"; and the tension between their political views, as well as the tension resulting from their relationships with the two women, is followed over the decades. Both men become very powerful in the decaying near-future environment; as both in their ways push to open up space travel for people in general. The two timelines inevitably converge, and the real concern of the novel comes clear: understanding of the nature of the "fast folk" (originally human simulations run on very fast computer hardware), and understanding the link between New Mars and Earth. MacLeod speculates fascinatingly on nanotechnology, virtual reality, and astrophysics. Everything is well-tied together in the end, although in a slightly disappointing manner. (The first and last lines of The Stone Canal, by the way, are both stunners, if a bit contrived also (as overtly "stunning" lines often are).) The characters of Wilde and Reid are very well presented, though the female characters are a bit sketchier. The novel's weaknesses are an occasional tendency to talkiness, the rather familiar setup of the relationship of the main characters, along with their realization of enormous political power, and the slight flatness of the ending. But all in all this is an excellent pure SF novel, and one which bodes well for a career to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful and Complex
Review: This is a great book with a complex and intriguing history created by the author. Definitely read this before you read the Casinni Division things will make much more sense.
Rating:
Summary: Read his books in sequence
Review: This is a recommendation for all of the author's books. He has a very different twist to Sci-Fi than most other authors I've read. Much more personal, and grounded in a contemporary Scottish reality that makes his books seem a believable extension of our own times. All the while having elements like Artificial Intelligence, very exotic politics, nano-technology and competing providers (sellers) of nuclear deterrence to the micro-nations that make up the future Earth. I would, however, strongly recommend reading his books in sequence. While The Stone Canal is less dependent on The Star Fraction than the later books are dependent on these two, so that it can be read independently, I would still recommend reading the Star Fraction first.
Rating:
Summary: The Stone Canal
Review: This is fast-paced, political Sci Fi at it's very best. An edge-of-your-seat thriller that makes perfect sense within the confines of logic in it's own universe, and in which the action and ideas (Clones, Androids, and Nanites, oh my!) come at you non-stop and rapid-fire, although not without humor as well. It's like 'Dune' on acid in the way it potrays politics and the social effects of technology (with the regents replaced by an anarchistic state). If you are a fan of radical, cutting-edge Sci Fi (and enjoy books with lines like 'As the humans accept thier hospitality they listen to the robots expound their beliefs, and sing their songs...Ax calls them old android spirituals....') don't miss this one. A great and fascinating read!
Rating:
Summary: The Stone Canal
Review: This is fast-paced, political Sci Fi at it's very best. An edge-of-your-seat thriller that makes perfect sense within the confines of logic in it's own universe, and in which the action and ideas (Clones, Androids, and Nanites, oh my!) come at you non-stop and rapid-fire, although not without humor as well. It's like 'Dune' on acid in the way it potrays politics and the social effects of technology (with the regents replaced by an anarchistic state). If you are a fan of radical, cutting-edge Sci Fi (and enjoy books with lines like 'As the humans accept thier hospitality they listen to the robots expound their beliefs, and sing their songs...Ax calls them old android spirituals....') don't miss this one. A great and fascinating read!
Rating:
Summary: Good Hard Science Fiction
Review: This is one of those uncommon books that immediately caught my interest from page one and kept it, the characters and their relationships and development done on the 'fly' as the pages flowed, superior writing indeed. The plot switches back and forth from the year 1975 and the following years, up to the late 21st century, and later on another planet. Two friends, one a socialist and the other an anarchist (quite opposite world views actually which is thought provoking) later become rivals and later both find themselves on a planet called New Mars many decades later, and the outcome of their rivalry is decided there, the story of how they got to New Mars is quite interesting, involving some speculative science which will someday likely take place, including topics such as biostasis, mind uploading and downloading with computers, cloning, nanotechnology,etc.... I gave this novel four instead of five stars due to the fact that Ken Macleod included here way too much of a dose of English politics for my taste (he lives in Scotland) and as most people know, English politics are nearly incomprehensible to outsiders!!! But overall, this is cutting-edge science fiction well worth reading. Macleod's later novel THE CASSINI DIVISION extends from this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Ideas and Ideology
Review: This is the second MacLeod book I've read, and once again he impresses me with his breadth of concepts, original ideas, depth of political insight, and rigorous plotting. Told as a dual time-line story structure, one based on the immediate continuation of our current world (with a large overlap with the time-frame of The Star Fraction), and the other as a (real time) far future colonization of a new planet, united in the person of the protagonist, Johnathan Wilde, the two story lines slowly merge into one coherent whole that provides a good explication of his entire future universe. And his universe is filled with mind-boggling societies and technologies, from self-aware robots working towards some rights in a human society, to using the resources of Jupiter to build a worm-hole whose other end is literally at the end of time and the universe, to computer entities (the 'fast folk') originally modeled on humans whose thought processes become so fast that waiting for things to happen in the physical universe becomes excruciating ennui, to a society where murder is punished by fines for the 'lost time' of the victim until he can be re-incorporated in a new body-clone. But although this book has all these great ideas, I found I didn't like this one as much as the Star Fraction. I think one of the major reasons for this was his depiction of his far-future colony. While several great details were introduced about this society, like the 'abolitionist' movement, an anarchistic and computer aided court/legal system, a mix of robot and human territorial infrastructures, what was missing was the fact that Wilde does not actually get to 'live' in this society. Instead he spends all his time running away from or fighting his old rival Reid from Earth, and has no chance to do ordinary things on an ordinary day. This made the society too much of an intellectual exercise, and not a vibrant, breathing thing the reader could experience. This same 'distancing' effect occurs with the earlier Wilde's experiences in interacting with the 'fast folk', and the whole rivalry between Wilde and Reid seems to be at the philosophical discussion level, with the effect of their battle on the 'common folk' seen only remotely. The net effect was to leave me somewhat emotionally disconnected from this book, even though Wilde, Reid, and several other secondary characters are well drawn and potentially emotionally engaging. In short, a book of wonderful ideas that will certainly make you scratch your head and excite your sense of wonder, but not one that will grab your heart or make you long for being born into MacLeod's world instead of your poor, mundane earthly one.
Rating:
Summary: Ideas and Ideology
Review: This is the second MacLeod book I've read, and once again he impresses me with his breadth of concepts, original ideas, depth of political insight, and rigorous plotting. Told as a dual time-line story structure, one based on the immediate continuation of our current world (with a large overlap with the time-frame of The Star Fraction), and the other as a (real time) far future colonization of a new planet, united in the person of the protagonist, Johnathan Wilde, the two story lines slowly merge into one coherent whole that provides a good explication of his entire future universe. And his universe is filled with mind-boggling societies and technologies, from self-aware robots working towards some rights in a human society, to using the resources of Jupiter to build a worm-hole whose other end is literally at the end of time and the universe, to computer entities (the 'fast folk') originally modeled on humans whose thought processes become so fast that waiting for things to happen in the physical universe becomes excruciating ennui, to a society where murder is punished by fines for the 'lost time' of the victim until he can be re-incorporated in a new body-clone. But although this book has all these great ideas, I found I didn't like this one as much as the Star Fraction. I think one of the major reasons for this was his depiction of his far-future colony. While several great details were introduced about this society, like the 'abolitionist' movement, an anarchistic and computer aided court/legal system, a mix of robot and human territorial infrastructures, what was missing was the fact that Wilde does not actually get to 'live' in this society. Instead he spends all his time running away from or fighting his old rival Reid from Earth, and has no chance to do ordinary things on an ordinary day. This made the society too much of an intellectual exercise, and not a vibrant, breathing thing the reader could experience. This same 'distancing' effect occurs with the earlier Wilde's experiences in interacting with the 'fast folk', and the whole rivalry between Wilde and Reid seems to be at the philosophical discussion level, with the effect of their battle on the 'common folk' seen only remotely. The net effect was to leave me somewhat emotionally disconnected from this book, even though Wilde, Reid, and several other secondary characters are well drawn and potentially emotionally engaging. In short, a book of wonderful ideas that will certainly make you scratch your head and excite your sense of wonder, but not one that will grab your heart or make you long for being born into MacLeod's world instead of your poor, mundane earthly one.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, action-packed, though-provoking, but...
Review: This was really a very interesting book to read! Lots of interesting ideas, mixing hard sci-fi with political aspects in a way that is very rare to find around. It may get sometimes I little boring with all the discussions about politics and the life of an anarchist, but there are some parts that you really can't leave the book aside without feeling guilty for not knowing what is coming next. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that sometimes the abilities of the characters seem a little too "supernatural". Sometimes when you get a book where characters are portrayed as human being and then suddenly they are just too good to be a human being, it does feel strange. Some people like it, I just didn't feel confortable with it. Personal opinion.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy companion to "The Cassini Division"
Review: Unfortunately, "The Stone Canal" was released after the "Cassini Division" in the States. I say unfortunately because this sets a stage that will make the beginning of "The Cassini Division" much easier to understand. So make sure to read "The Stone Canal" first. That said, by no means skip this book if you haven't read it already. It is in many ways more entertaining than "The Cassini Division", although I found it packed less of a punch intellectualy. Even so, this is a smart book, written by a very smart author. It looks at society in a way that no other SF I am aware of does. As I said about its companion "The Stone Canal" is more of a political/moral tale hidden in SF clothing. It is a truly original, outstanding work that stands both on its own merits, and as a prequel to "The Cassini Division".
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