Between travel (Worldcon in Chicago, followed a week after getting back by a trip to the UK for a conference) and then getting seriously ill (major colitis attack) I’ve gotten well behind on my book reviewing, though I’ve been reading a lot as I convalesce. However, I felt moved to review this latest read ahead of trying to do a catch up on earlier reads.

This should have been Ken MacLeod’s masterpiece. His 1984 (he’s described on a cover quote as a modern Orwell). Unfortunately he had a wonderful idea and failed in the execution. This is mundane SF and includes the one allowed magical idea. Unfortunately it’s this magical idea that makes this merely a reasonable read instead of 1984 for 2012. The magical mcguffin element turns what should be a clear clarion call against the direction of travel of the UK particularly (but also much else of Western civilisation) in the risk versus freedom debate (going way too far in reducing risk and denying people’s freedoms, and actually causing greater harm in fighting the risks in many ways) into something of a damp squib. Instead of a clear example of how far a society with supposedly its own citizens’ safety and security at heart could become the threat itself, the characters are saved by a desu ex machina from the consequences of minor infractions and over-reaction by the authorities. Worth reading if you’re a MacLeod fan, but he’s written better in recent years (Learning the World being his last, so far, space opera, and The Restoration Game is a wonderful paranoid political SF novel which reminds me of Halting State/Rule 34 and Declare simultaneously).

Sigh.