a convenient truth

The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is probably Ken Macleod’s best book to date.



In previous novels, Macleod has tackled Trotskyism ( The Star Fraction), he has created a society that implements Nozick’s brand of Libertarianism outright ( The Stone Canal), and he has explored the war on terror ( The Execution Channel).



In this book he moves his sights to religion. The attacks of September 11th 2001 become the opening salvo in the Faith Wars, wars that the west did not win. The backlash against religion is severe, with the police pursuing a “Boots in Pews” policy throughout the UK as all religion is persecuted.



As usual for Macleod and the other new Scottish hard-SF authors, the novel is primarily set in Scotland. MacLeod’s use of the familiar (to him) always serves to give his work a sense of realism and grounding that provides good counterposition with the strong-SF elements of the story, in this case the development of global warming and AI.



Interestingly, the book also shares a view of the development of the internet with Charles Stross‘ Halting State - in fact the non-singularity near future authors view of the intertubes seems to be converging on convergence, so to speak.



The best fiction, no matter it’s setting, always speaks to the reader about their world as it is now. The very best can do this through millenia, because they deal with the generics of human nature. Science fiction is not like this - it ages rapidly and painfully. However, when it is fresh and appropriate, as this is, it’s relevance can be startling. Nobody can read this book without a sense of foreboding, as so much of it feels painfully possible.






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