The Stone Canal
by Ken MacLeod · first published 1996
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Politically literate hard science fiction set in the Fall Revolution series, grounded in technical detail and built around its ideas. It is fun, underrated, and one of the strongest entries in the sequence.
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 from drastically opposed…
on “List of spacecraft in the Culture series” ↗…felt like reading "The Pilgrim's Progress", but with Chomsky as Jesus -- a little bit too heavy handed in political propaganda. For that kind of stuff done in a fascinating way, check Ken MacLeod's "The Stone Canal" and following. (Asher got a little too much of Space Opera for me, in the end.) For sf, I'd add Greg Egan (Stross has been mentioned multiple times). I'd also like to recommend the worst author I…
on “Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?” ↗…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” ↗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 character hacking…
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗…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 the personal…
on “Has sci-fi run out of steam?” ↗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…
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗…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” by Jacek…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗…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 majority of SF.…
on “Ghost in the Shell remains our most challenging film about technology” ↗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 Game, at the least.…
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗…enemy. And when your little farm commune got visited by a thousand soldiers with tanks and artillery, you got wiped out, no matter how pure the ideology. "War is the state’s killer app." Ken MacLeod, The Stone Canal.
on “Why You Should Care About Holacracy” ↗