Here's a review of The Departure from Rob Fisher over on Samizdata. Nice to read a review from someone who actually gets it!
Note on Samizdata from Wikipedia: In 2005, the Guardian claimed that it was 'by some measures the nation's most successful independent blog', with over 15,000 unique visitors a day, and 'arguably the grandfather of British political blogs'. In 2008, The Observer labelled it as one of the fifty most powerful blogs in the world.
The novel I chose was The Departure, the first of the Owner trilogy. If anything it had too much action for my taste. If Alastair Reynolds writes film noir, Neal Asher writes Bruce Willis and explosions. The science is sensible enough: there are no exotic physics and the technologies discussed are robots, giant space stations and brain-computer interfaces. The politics is very interesting. Asher seems to have perceived a slippery slope and extrapolated in the extreme. Something like the EU has, thanks to a complacent populace, taken over the whole planet. This is the Committee and it has long since stopped pretending to be democratic and gone outwardly Orwellian. Cigarettes are illegal; armed robots are used to control rioting crowds; selfish, individualistic dissidents are taken away for readjustment by pain inducer; and clever scientists are allowed to do research useful to the state but are considered a risk and kept under scrutiny or even lock and key. The protagonist is one such scientist who sets out to get revenge.
Note on Samizdata from Wikipedia: In 2005, the Guardian claimed that it was 'by some measures the nation's most successful independent blog', with over 15,000 unique visitors a day, and 'arguably the grandfather of British political blogs'. In 2008, The Observer labelled it as one of the fifty most powerful blogs in the world.
The novel I chose was The Departure, the first of the Owner trilogy. If anything it had too much action for my taste. If Alastair Reynolds writes film noir, Neal Asher writes Bruce Willis and explosions. The science is sensible enough: there are no exotic physics and the technologies discussed are robots, giant space stations and brain-computer interfaces. The politics is very interesting. Asher seems to have perceived a slippery slope and extrapolated in the extreme. Something like the EU has, thanks to a complacent populace, taken over the whole planet. This is the Committee and it has long since stopped pretending to be democratic and gone outwardly Orwellian. Cigarettes are illegal; armed robots are used to control rioting crowds; selfish, individualistic dissidents are taken away for readjustment by pain inducer; and clever scientists are allowed to do research useful to the state but are considered a risk and kept under scrutiny or even lock and key. The protagonist is one such scientist who sets out to get revenge.
7 comments:
I'm only on page 52 but it doesn't seem hard to get.
Perhaps 'get' was not the best way to put it. Many have been repelled by my extrapolation of the things they believe are good.
Glad you liked my review, Neal. And yes, I *get* it. :)
Well having read your blog for a while your extrapolation comes as no surprise :-)
Have you read Richard Morgan's "Market Forces". He extrapolates in another direction politically, but with similar dystopian results.
Given human nature it wouldn't surprise me should either scenario unfold.
Richard Morgan comes from the left end of the political spectrum with Market Forces (and he dedicates the book to all those killed by capitalism). Still a great book, though. A blunter attack on the Haves/Have-nots, but much more effective than Woken Furies.
Alas, he has stopped writing Scifi, and started doing Fantasy. :(
Sorry, attack on the Have/Have-nots *divide*.
Rob, thanks for the review. I liked the almost shock of 'and he said this on his blog'. Illustration if any were needed of how state sanctioned and lacking in radicalism is much of the thinking in the SF world.
Tony B, yes, I did read it. Much preferred his other SF books.
Jez, I haven't tried his fantasy yet. Is it worth a go, anyone?
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