The Cassini Division
by Ken MacLeod · first published 1998
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Post-singularity science fiction featuring interesting technology ideas and sharp political and social commentary. It is a strong entry in the Fall Revolution series and suits fans of hard-edged SF.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Newton's Wake is kind of variable. Some bits I like, some bits are meh. If you feel like giving Macleod another try, I think his best books are The Cassini Division and The Stone Canal; they're part of a quartet, but these two books are the best and are very much a thematic pair, and if you read one you should read them both. (In part they show us the same setting…
on “List of spacecraft in the Culture series” ↗…away. The universe is limited and our desires are not. If you want a treatment of what a world based on this very cynical truth would look like I recommend beginning here. http://bactra.org/reviews/cassini-division/true-knowledge.ht... http://crookedtimber.org/2015/05/19/ken-macleod-seminar-2/ http://crookedtimber.org/2015/05/15/rationalism-and-the-true...
on “A Non-Conformist's Guide to Success in a Conformist World (2014)” ↗…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” ↗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! Want to read about a…
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗…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 affects social structures…
on “Has sci-fi run out of steam?” ↗For a glimpse at a future humanity driven to (understandable) paranoia by this scenario, see Ken MacLeod's _The Cassini Division_.
on “Interstellar communication. IX. Message decontamination is impossible” ↗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” by Jacek Dukaj - “A Fire Upon…
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗…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” by Jacek Dukaj - “A Fire Upon…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗Sounds like Ken Macleod's babbages. See The Cassini Division, etc.
on “Additively manufacturable micro-mechanical logic gates” ↗…good ship names. One example is how the BBC says "so called Islamic state" - if I ever own a boat (or a sentient AI) I might call it that. For those who miss Iain Banks, Ken McLeod is a good read. The Cassini Division is a great post-singularity novel with interesting tech ideas and ideological musings. Iain and Ken also wrote a book of poetry together which is worth a read.
on “List of spacecraft in the Culture series” ↗…was a bit overblown, although it's got some really nice bits in it. The Fall Revolution series is amazing --- hugely fun despite being politically literate, and I find it particularly impressive how The Cassini Division and The Stone Canal portray the same society from diametrically opposed perspectives, and convincingly both ways. Plus all his books are a refreshing change from the overwhelming libertarianism-uber-alles…
on “Ghost in the Shell remains our most challenging film about technology” ↗…"Dissidence" which is part one of the corporation wars series, part two "Insurgence" will be out at the start of December. I thought it was a great return to his harder post-singularity SF styles like "Cassini Division", but still plenty of political and social commentary. Another good author is Michael Cobley with his humanity's fire series: "Seeds of Earth", "Orphaned Worlds" and "Ancestral Machines" - if you like…
on “List of spacecraft in the Culture series” ↗So you agree with Ellen May Ngwethu (Cassini Division) that uploads are flatlines even if they exhibit free will and have all the memories of their original? I recommend anyone interested in this subject to read The Cassini Division by Ken McLeod and Accelerando…
on “A Son’s Race to Give His Dying Father Artificial Immortality (2017)” ↗…Williams is also worth trying: http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/ Also A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, and Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution series. The latter can be read out of order; I read The Cassini Division before any of the others. Excession by Iain M. Banks is also one of my favorites, though it has a significant learning curve if you haven't read any of his Culture series before. All of these have things…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗The backstory of Ken MacLeod's "The Cassini Division" involves an Earth with a practical socialist utopia, but the main action involves the unceasing war against the uploaded capitalist class who have taken over Jupiter...
on “In 'Cyberpunk 2077,' the Only Truly Punk Move Is Not to Play” ↗