Rating: 
Summary: Macleod's best yet... a nice end to the series
Review: The combination of radical politics, space opera and cyber-driven fiction has propelled Ken Macleod's anracho-socialist/capitalist future-world to the top of my list of Preferred Universes to live in. Macleod's intricate construction of a possible future has enthralled and enlightened me... and it is with pleasure that I can say The Sky Road is not only the best book of the four, it seamlessly integrates both a comprehensible and fascinating story/universe of its own with a concluding coda to the series that answers many (not all) of the plotlines from the Dark Period of the saga.Ok, that's all well and good, but PLEASE: do yourself a favor and just read a copy of this or any other Ken Macleod book you can get your hands on. Both The Cassini Division and The Stone Canal are availbale still here on amazon, and the first book can be bought from the UK iteration of the same. After all, does anything beat really well-conceived and written speculative fiction?
Rating: 
Summary: MacLeod loses his way...
Review: Thinly plotted, poor characterisation and utterly self-indulgent. What a disappointment this book was. Quite clearly Ken had a couple of good ideas and attempted to build a novel around them. It didn't work, and the whole enterprise seemed to lack vision and depth. Sorry to be so negative, but that's my honest opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck!
Review: This book was my first exposure to Macleod and I'm sorry I bought it. If this book did not have a cover and I was asked what genre it belonged to, I would have said "romance". It is sappy and slow with very transparent characters and ultimately not believable. The writing is not good. Structurally, instead of developing characters through their actions, stereotypical people whose motives are dictated by their job title are used as walk-ons. And much of what should be told with action and dialogue is told through narrative. The specifics are not stellar, either. Here is an example: "The thought...appeared like a screensaver on the surface of her mind, whenever her mind went blank." And another (that I assume echoes romance novels): "She pulled away the curtain to reveal a large and reassuringly solid-looking bed...We faced each other naked, like the Man and the Woman in the Garden in the story." If you like that kind of thing then maybe you'll like this book. If you like books with crisp plots and lots of ideas, then look for something else.
Rating:
Summary: Yuck!
Review: This book was my first exposure to Macleod and I'm sorry I bought it. If this book did not have a cover and I was asked what genre it belonged to, I would have said "romance". It is sappy and slow with very transparent characters and ultimately not believable. The writing is not good. Structurally, instead of developing characters through their actions, stereotypical people whose motives are dictated by their job title are used as walk-ons. And much of what should be told with action and dialogue is told through narrative. The specifics are not stellar, either. Here is an example: "The thought...appeared like a screensaver on the surface of her mind, whenever her mind went blank." And another (that I assume echoes romance novels): "She pulled away the curtain to reveal a large and reassuringly solid-looking bed...We faced each other naked, like the Man and the Woman in the Garden in the story." If you like that kind of thing then maybe you'll like this book. If you like books with crisp plots and lots of ideas, then look for something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Just OK
Review: This book was ok. It was interesting to read, but there was nothing particularly special about it. I never really felt much concern over what was going to happen with the characters or the story. I wanted to find out what happened, but I didn't have any strong feelings about the characters or what I thought should happen. I've seen other reviews here that seem to indicate that this is part of a series. If that is the case, then perhaps I missed something in an earlier book that would have made this more enjoyable. I will probably investigate this and try to read any earlier books because I do think MacLeod writes well. Hopefully, in one of his other books I will find the spark that I think was lacking in this one.
Rating:
Summary: Just OK
Review: This book was ok. It was interesting to read, but there was nothing particularly special about it. I never really felt much concern over what was going to happen with the characters or the story. I wanted to find out what happened, but I didn't have any strong feelings about the characters or what I thought should happen. I've seen other reviews here that seem to indicate that this is part of a series. If that is the case, then perhaps I missed something in an earlier book that would have made this more enjoyable. I will probably investigate this and try to read any earlier books because I do think MacLeod writes well. Hopefully, in one of his other books I will find the spark that I think was lacking in this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, Engaging Novel of Politics and AI
Review: This is another excellent, engaging, novel from a fairly new Scottish writer, just now making his mark in the United States. This probably does not quite jar my favorite of his novels, The Stone Canal (1996), from its position at the top of my personal MacLeod heap, but it's very fine, with yet another differently organized somewhat anarchic semi-utopia on display, as well as yet another look at the turbulent 21st century, and the menace of Artificial Intelligence. Ken MacLeod's new book is an intriguing offshoot from his previous three novels. (It is not necessary to have read those books to appreciate The Sky Road.) In this future, the world has fractured into numerous smaller states by the early 21st Century, essentially in a continuation of the process begun in the ex-communist states in the 1980s. In addition, Artificial Intelligences begin to emerge, not always planned, and not always benevolent. The three books, in addition to the persistent worry about AI's, portray a variety of political organizations, and forms of organization, most notably perhaps the anarcho-socialist society of the Solar System and the anarcho-capitalist society of New Mars, in the time of The Cassini Division. The Sky Road is kind of an "alternate history" of MacLeod's future. The earlier parts, chronologically, of The Stone Canal, and all of The Star Fraction, are set in a common past to both The Sky Road and to The Cassini Division, but one of the events in The Stone Canal goes a different way in The Sky Road. Like The Stone Canal (and, to a lesser extent, The Cassini Division), this book is told in two threads, one in the past, in 2059, and the other some centuries in the future. The pastward thread follows Myra Godwin-Davidova, a minor character in The Stone Canal. Myra, 105 years old, is the head of the government of a mini-state near Kazakhstan, called the International Scientific and Technical Worker's Republic. At the opening of the action, the Sino-Soviet Alliance, or the Sheenisov, is advancing on Kazakhstan. Both the reformed UN and Dave Reid's Mutual Protection Society are trying to take control of the world, partly from space, and to stop the Sheenisov. Myra goes on a whirlwind tour of Kazakhstan, Turkey, the US and the UK, looking for military assistance. What she has to offer are the world's remaining supply of nuclear weapons. But her problem is, it's not at all clear who the real enemy is, or for that matter how many enemies there are. She also deals with her personal problems: her age, her guilt over such betrayals of her past ideals as the use of slave labour, and the selling of nuclear protection, and her loss of yet another loved one in suspicious circumstances. The other thread features Clovis colha Gree, a young student in an odd, somewhat Utopian, Scotland. He is working on a project building a spaceship: the first spaceship to be built since the mysterious "Deliverance". It seems that since this "Deliverance" the world has reorganized itself on a rather pastoral model. Clovis' field of study is history, particularly the life of the "Deliverer". (The reader figures out right quick that the "Deliverer" is Myra Godwin-Davidova.) Clovis meets a beautiful woman called Merrial, and they fall tumultuously in love. But Merrial is a tinker, and the tinkers are regarded with suspicion by the rest of society, as they are the only people who deal with the somewhat restricted computer technology available in this future. Clovis is drawn by his love for Merrial and his thirst for knowledge about the Deliverer to a questionable search for secret files of the Deliverer's: ostensibly to help protect the spaceship project. But this search leads them not only to some anti-hagiographic knowledge about the Deliverer (her use of nuclear weapons, for example), but also to some potential use of the "black logic", the "path of power". The two threads converge to reveal to the reader some, at least, of what's going on: what the Deliverance really was, and what "black logic" might be, and part of the nature of this future society. It's intriguing, and clever, and by the end quite moving. The only weakness is that I found Merrial and Clovis' affair just a bit convenient: not all that easy to believe. (To explain exactly why would involve spoilers.) I also found the political machinations of Myra's time hard to follow, but that weakness is in me, partly, and partly, I think, its a feature: MacLeod 21st century really is a chaotic time. I also was impressed again by MacLeod's clever way with a phrase. His prose is sound, but only some of the time does it sing. (The first chapter is quite impressive in this way, but he doesn't really maintain that peak level.) However, throughout there are dry asides, and clever plays on words, and mordant observations that hit home. Ken MacLeod continues to be one of the most exciting new SF writers. His books are politically intriguing, and honest, also full of nice SFnal speculation about future technology, nicely written, and fast moving. The characters are well-drawn, and almost always ambiguous. Each of his books is worth reading, and The Sky Road is one of his best.
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