Newton's Wake: A Space Opera

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
From Scottish author Ken MacLeod -- renowned for highly politicized science fiction novels like The Stone Canal, The Cassini Division, and The Sky Road -- comes Newton's Wake, a self-proclaimed space opera about humanity's struggle to survive in the aftermath of a war against artificially intelligent post-humans.

After the events of the Hard Rapture, a catastrophic conflict ignited by the sudden evolution of Earth's artificial intelligences into transcendent post-humans, millions of humans were brutally butchered by the post-humans' war machines. Some space-faring humans returned to Earth to heroically fight the war machines while others escaped to distant stars to try and start over again. Then, the ultimately triumphant post-humans inexplicably disappeared and left the remnants of humanity to their own devices.

Now, centuries later, Lucinda Carlyle -- an untested leader in a family of galactic entrepreneurs (a.k.a. crooks) who have taken control of a chain of invaluable wormholes left behind by the post-humans -- stumbles across a gate that leads to a remote planet (Eurydice) inhabited by a colony of isolated humans living in a "closed cornucopian" society. On the planet's surface is a mountainous post-human relic that could mean a fortune for the Carlyles if its secrets can be accessed. But first they must fight off the Eurydician government, competing politically divergent colonies -- and an army of newly manufactured post-human war machines!

Bitingly ironic, thematically complex, and gutsy enough to tackle current highly volatile political issues head-on, this wild and witty space opera will beguile new readers and provide solid enjoyment for fans of MacLeod's earlier works. Paul Goat Allen

Publishers Weekly

Amid the somewhat strident politics there are some outrageously funny patches in this over-packed space opera from Nebula and Hugo finalist MacLeod (Cosmonaut's Keep, etc.). In the 24th century, brash young Lucinda Carlyle takes her first big chance to prove herself to her wheeling-dealing clan who control the skein, a network of "gates" transporting people and equipment instantaneously between planets. In the Hard Rapture war centuries earlier between the United States and united Europe, run-amok American AI took over the brains of humans. Survivors flung into space include the gawkish farmers of America Offline (AO), the straitlaced Oriental Knights of Enlightenment (KE) and the third-world "commies" who strip-mine planets (DK). Lucinda opens a Pandora's box of shifting alliances that turns 20th-century American sensibilities upside down. Keeping the AO, KE and DK straight can be confusing as Lucinda brawls along her barrack-room Glasgow-dialect way. Perhaps MacLeod's most memorably quirky character, Benjamin Ben-Ami, produces epics like Jesus Koresh: Martyred Messiah, with "a mild-mannered and modest but strong-willed hero" and "gloating psychopathic villains, the Emperor Reno and the Empress Hilary." MacLeod slyly entices Americans to see ourselves as others see us-not a flattering picture at all. Agent, Mic Cheetham. (June 22) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

When artificial intelligences (AIs) on Earth suddenly evolved into godlike beings, a war ensued, and the humans who managed to survive were forced to flee to other worlds. Lucinda Carlyle, a galactic entrepreneur, discovers an artifact that could disrupt the way of life that the offworld humans have forged. MacLeod (The Stone Canal) is a master of high-tech sf and political intrigue. Space battles, clever plotting, and an accessible prose style make this space opera a good addition to most sf collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.