Star Fraction
by Ken MacLeod · first published 1995
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Politically charged hard science fiction with a romping plot. It offers rich technical detail and a European-shaped take on political conflict, and it opens the Fall Revolution series.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A re-release of the first half of a series set in a world of intelligent weapons, theologically correct software, and the colonization of other planets finds the human race struggling to recover from past betrayals that are threatening civilization, an effort that is challenged by new understanding about death.
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…rereading Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution [0] series. Great stuff, and I totally agree with Kim Stanley Robinson's assessment: "He is writing revolutionary SF. A nova has appeared in our sky." [0] The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal, The Cassini Division, and The Sky Road.
on “The Best Books I Read in 2015” ↗…classic. Has a funny throwaway bit about DRM, too: "For some reason the ancients encrypted all their records and threw away all the keys, that's why we don't know anything about them..." Ken MacLeod, _The Star Fraction_/_The Cassini Division_/_The Stone Canal_/_The Sky Road_ (Fall Revolution Series). Yes, there sure are a lot of Trotskyists! in! Spaaaaaace! but there's also serious exploration of how technological change…
on “Has sci-fi run out of steam?” ↗A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge. Because 'unix epoch' is why. Also: it feels like a future where the details are right, but largely hidden unless needed. Star Fraction, Ken MacLeod. A romping good read, is why.
on “Ask HN: What's your favorite Science Fiction book?” ↗Macleod’s Star Fraction is still unsurpassed for me in political scifi. It’s the kind of novel that can only be written by someone born in Europe, with the lived experience of wars being reflections of reflections of reflections…
on “We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus” ↗I read and enjoyed these quite a bit, so let me add a few more to the list. - “The Fall Revolution” tetralogy by Ken MacLeod: “The Star Fraction”, “The Stone Canal”, “The Cassini Division”, and “The Sky Road” - “Void Star” by Zachary Mason - “Singularity Sky” by Charles Stross - “The Freeze-Frame Revolution” by Peter Watts - “Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość”…
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗…Oecumene” trilogy by John C. Wright: “The Golden Age”, “The Phoenix Exultant”, and “The Golden Transcendence”. Also, these are not to be missed: - “The Fall Revolution” tetralogy by Ken MacLeod: “The Star Fraction”, “The Stone Canal”, “The Cassini Division”, and “The Sky Road” - “Void Star” by Zachary Mason - “Singularity Sky” by Charles Stross - “The Freeze-Frame Revolution” by Peter Watts - “Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość”…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗There is a lot of CS hidden in the Fall Revolution series, too: The Star Fraction, The Cassini Division, The Stone Canal, and The Sky Road. All of them worth reading and reading again! I am also quite surprised that MacLeod does not get much more attention! Such a brilliant author!…
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗Ken MacLeod. I read most of his hard SF, and I am just about to finish re-reading Fractions: The First Half of the Fall Revolution (The Star Fraction + The Stone Canal). It’s a great series, often underrated because it’s more political and technical. The Stone Canal is probably the best of the series. I plan to re-read Descent and The Restoration…
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗Has to be The Star Fraction - which is the first book in two series!
on “A Few Questions About the Culture: An Interview with Iain Banks” ↗I won't go as far as the author but I think camel cased names are going to look pretty dated in the future. As Ken MacLeod put it in "The Star Fraction", written in 1995 and set in the mid-twenty first century: "The name [FreeSpace] had once seemed trendy, but now dated us painfully - 'very TwenCen', as I'd overheard someone say..."
on “Against Camel Case” ↗Remind anyone else of the smart rifle in Ken MacLeod's The Star Fraction? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Fraction
on “Hack Rifle” ↗Anyone in this thread read The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod, the beginning of his The Fall Revolution series? Am I the only one who thought it was like a British, anarcho-syndicalist (in some parts of the setting) version of Snow Crash? Right down…
on “Snow Crash Related Items Auction” ↗Thanks! I just bought The Star Fraction purely on your recommendation... I find gambling like that pays off big, sometimes. To return the favor, I recommend you try Blindsight and its sequel Echopraxia, by Peter Watts. Those were two of my…
on “The Best Books I Read in 2015” ↗Funnily enough, I’m currently reading the 1995 Sci-fi novel "The Star Fraction", where exactly this scenario exists. On the ground, it’s Stasis, a paramilitary force that intercedes when certain forbidden technologies (including AI) are developed. In space, there’s the Space Faction…
on “OpenAI and Elon Musk” ↗