Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Night Sessions / Ken Macleod

The Night Sessions

by

Ken Macleod

published by Orbit in 2008
read by Agamedes in June 2009
science fiction

This was a birthday present from Deb. Scottish SF with occasional visits to NZ... Talk about unusual! It could be seen as a detective novel set in the near future -- but the SF aspects are essential to the plot. In fact, even as a detective novel it’s SF... the police follow clues, identify the killer, almost catch him. With no real red herrings at all. I guess it could be classed as religious SF... the main theme is that fundamentalist religious belief – where the only way to be saved is to be one of “us” -- is both stupid and dangerous. A bunch of likable characters (including the self-aware robots), clever extensions of net technology, a post-apocalyptic society which is pleasantly mundane, a satisfactory ending which is surprisingly open. A good read, though non-SF readers may have trouble following the use of net technology...?

Agamedes' rating: 8 out of 10

No comments: