The fall revolution
by Ken MacLeod · first published 2001
86% recommend14% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Political science fiction series set in a future shaped by revolutionary and Trotskyist ideas; readers praise its wit, hard-SF detail and its portrayal of one society from opposing viewpoints
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Speaking of science fiction, I've just been 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…
on “The Best Books I Read in 2015” ↗…possible AI struggles in the future: True names, the Peace War books, as well as the short story "Bookworm, Run!" by Vernor Vinge. Old man's war by John Scalzi. The Heechee Saga by Frederick Pohl. The Fall Revolution series by Ken MacLeod. The Virga series by Karl Schroeder. Musk is playing an active role in the Sci-Non-Fi that we'll all be a part of if we live long enough...
on “Elon Musk's Neuralink looks to begin outfitting human brains with faster I/O” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest_(novella) The rougher "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" by Roger 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…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗…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 the personal and political level. Overview…
on “Has sci-fi run out of steam?” ↗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…
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗…work. The Revelation Space books are great in their gothic way, and House of Suns has a lot of the galactic wonder aspects of the Culture books. Ken MacLeod as a friend of Bank's and a good writer. His Fall Revolution books are probably the best known and explore various radical leftish ideas for organizing society across the nearish future. And this last is a bit of an oddball but Leonard Richardson's Constellation…
on “Consider Phlebas Published by the Folio Society” ↗Reading Macleod's Fall Revolution books as a teen 20-ish years ago blew my fucking mind. I had barely half a clue about the historical and political references he was building on (and making what I assume were very clever wry jokes about)…
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…
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗…completely different takes, I think of “The Golden 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…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗Ken MacLeod has some really good work in this vein. I haven't read the Engines of Light trilogy (which wouldn't pass your near-future filter, anyway), but the Fall Revolution series, and most of his stand-alone novels, do some really interesting things in just the neighborhood it sounds like you might enjoy. (Learning the World, while not near-future, is one of my favorite…
on “Ghost in the Shell remains our most challenging film about technology” ↗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!…
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗Engines of Light I thought 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…
on “Ghost in the Shell remains our most challenging film about technology” ↗…from it I don't agree with this assessment at all. The best SF I've read has believable characters with real motivations. Off the top of my head: * Paul McAuley's Quiet War series * Ken McLeod's Fall Revolution series, "The Execution Channel" * Bester's "The Stars My Destination" - a recent read, and the character arc is cribbed from The Count of Monte Cristo, but the SF parafernalia is a backdrop for the character.
on “Asimov’s Empire, Asimov’s Wall” ↗That sounds like the "Fast Folk" from Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution books: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/FallRevolu...
on “The 100 Year Starship” ↗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 to the computer program MacGuffin?
on “Snow Crash Related Items Auction” ↗