Learning the World

by Ken MacLeod

Humanity has spread to every star within 500 light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. Societies rise and fall. Incautious experiments burn fast and fade. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with the job of settling a universe that has, so far, been empty of intelligent life.The ancient starship But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering orbit around a promising new system after a four hundred year journey. For its long-lived inhabitants, the centuries have been busy. Now a younger generation is eager to settle the system. The ship is a seed-pod ready to burst.Then they detect curious electromagnetic emissions from the system's Earth-like world. As the nature of the signals becomes clear, the choices facing the humans become stark.On Ground, second world from the sun, a young astronomer searches for his system's outermost planet. A moving point of light thrills, then disappoints him. It's only a comet. His physicist colleague Orro takes time off from trying to invent a flying-machine to calculate the comet's trajectory. Something is very odd about that comet's path.They are not the only ones for whom the world has changed."We are not living in the universe we thought we lived in yesterday. We have to start learning the world all over again."At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Aliens, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space

338 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Ken MacLeod is an award-winning Scottish science fiction writer.

His novels have won the Prometheus Award and the BSFA award, and been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives near Edinburgh, Scotland.

MacLeod graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics.

His novels often explore socialist, communist and anarchist political ideas, most particularly the variants of Trotskyism and anarcho-capitalism or extreme economic libertarianism.

Technical themes encompass singularities, divergent human cultural evolution and post-human cyborg-resurrection.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptionally well-done comfort-read for longtime SF fans

A nice remake of a classic SF theme: First Contact, by an enormous, ancient generation-starship full of antsy colonists, with the hitherto-unsuspected aliens living on their destination planet. Who turn out to be (literally) Alien Space-Bats, at early 20th-century tech-levels. They're interesting folk, more human than the far-future humans, really. Plus, they read "engineering fiction"! Both the ASB's and the high-tech human settlers are given the now-expected MacLeod treatment of a non-clichéed and well-thought-out culture. This time, it's a civilization of very long-lived humans, with a complex and fractious onboard culture, a shipboard economy driven by capitalist speculation, and such wonderful backstory grace-notes as the dreaded AI Fast Burn, and the green-tinted suns of the ever-expanding Civil Worlds. Plus young Atomic Discourse Gale's amusing shipnet blog. And her caremother's remarkable matchmaking efforts. Presented in the familiar KenMac® two-track narrative, with all kinds of Christmas goodies for well-read fans.

The humans' reaction to discovering the aliens was, well, not exemplary. In sharp contrast to how the aliens reacted to the humans! I can’t go into further detail without spoiling the book, but I will say that I was better able to live with the ending on this reread. Even if there’s stuff that doesn’t make sense, after a bit of thought. For sure it doesn’t drag!

A fine comfort-read for longtime SF fans, and another winner from MacLeod. Folks, books like “Learning the World” are the reason I keep reading this stuff. This is my third re-read (9/25/20) so I’m clearly happy with the book, flaws and all. Strong 4 stars.

Here’s the best review I saw online, a detailed one by Niall Harrison from 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/200805170...
".... a novel characterised by unpretentious sophistication, subtlety and wit—a novel that is a joy to read, and that may be Macleod’s most satisfying work to date."

[Megan Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty darn good. Not exceptional, not rocking my socks off, but solid, and interesting, and trying new ideas I'd never quite seen before. And the new ideas are subtle. The writing style is serviceable, but won't set the world on fire any time soon. It was never quite a page-turner, but wasn't hard to pick up either.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up reading Ken MacLeod after three books in a row banging on in strident fashion about revolutionary left wing politics.

I was given this one after a 5 or so year gap and was a little trepiditious about it. It turns out, however that this book has no such theme. It's a first contact novel, where-in a generation ship arrives in a solar-system that has the first multi-cellular life humans have found outside Earth - but not only that - it has a civilisation just developing radio and powered flight.

Cue the usual political contentions between and within both species. We get points of view from both species. I found the aliens more interesting than the humans, despite an intriguing social order prevailing in order to make a generation ship work. This was mainly because the alien characters were much more likeable than the humans. So far, so good. There are enough interesting ideas to make an SF cliche work for the umpteenth time - just like time-travel stories, it's always possible to find something new in first contact if you apply enough imagination - and imagination is something MacLeod has never been short of.

So why only two stars? Because lots of the ideas are under-explored. Quite how the human generation ships work, both physically and socially is under explored and the lack of sympathetic characters makes things worse. The story quietly builds to a tense and complex situation only for the denouement to be terribly anti-climactic and the aftermath gets rushed through, with explanations for it that seem either unconvincing or hasty.

I've never payed for a MacLeod book and I'm not planning to start, even though this proved a considerable improvement on my previous experiences.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe many of the other reviewers are missing the point. This is not an adventure, nor does it have a clear story arc. It's not a page-turner. It's mostly world-building, and big ideas, both sociological and scientific. Reasonably interesting characters of both genders. And the author expects the reader to share in the task of building (and Learning!) the world. By the end most ideas and themes are clarified, but none are actually answered, none are actually fully developed.

I'd love to see MacLeod's notes. Glossary, maps, timelines, sketches, outline... it's all there, but even though it took me three days (long time for me!) of careful reading I still feel a need to reread to appreciate everything... and I know I'd never understand everything.

All that complexity, all those ideas, make this a fairly dense read. I really had trouble at the beginning and almost did a DNF. I'm glad I didn't and now hope that I can find something else by the author.

I love the little bits of attention to detail, like the importance of a developed economy, the fashions, the fact that the non-humans have SF but call it 'engineering tales.' I love the proffered philosophical bits.

The title has at least two meanings. One refers to the biolog (biographical blog, not biology log) of one of the main characters. The other refers to the idea that finding out that there are aliens does not mean simply finding out that there are aliens in the universe; it means finding out that the universe is a kind of place that we didn't know it is, the kind of place where aliens exist... it's a bigger deal than most SF makes it out to be.

"Falling in love meant that your genes were complementary to those of your loved one. It told you nothing about whether your personalities and sexualities were compatible."

It'd make a terrific BotM.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generation ships are nothing new in science fiction, but this does manage to do some new things with the concept. Unfortunately, while it starts off very strong, it kind of peters out by the end.

The chapters alternate between the ship, as they gradually realize that one of the planets in their destination system is occupied by the first life more advanced than algae that's ever been found, and the planet, as they gradually realize that the weird comet is artificial in origin. In both cases, the societies have to completely reevaluate their understanding of the universe, which outlines a lot of the issues with their own societies in the process. There are some interesting developments of the concept, and some great characters among both races.

But the ending feels forced. I'm not going to go into spoilers, but the author goes to great lengths to convince you that certain conflicts are going to be inevitable, only to hand-wave them away in the process of declaring a theme that he hasn't actually supported until the last thirty pages of the book. (It's never a good sign when you're approaching the end of a book and worrying that there just are not enough pages left to wrap things up satisfactorily. There weren't.) Also, apparently a technology that he spent exactly half a page discussing halfway through and never mentioned again until the last couple pages is majorly significant, again to this theme that just blew up out of nowhere.

It's a pity, because it's an interesting theme. But it requires the aliens to have characteristics that they just show no evidence of until the last couple pages. I feel like the author wasn't sure where he was going until the last couple chapters, and then didn't go back and rewrite to lay the appropriate groundwork after he discovered what his book was about. Which is a pity, because there was a lot of potential.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/592810.html[return][return]I really liked it. I thought that it does indeed add something new to the old sf theme of first contact between humans and aliens. It takes the premise of Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, a book I really didn't like at all, and does it a whole lot better - basically, the aliens on their planet have a society which feels much more like ours than do the humans in the approaching spaceship. I thought the various cultures and subcultures, both human and alien, were convincingly fleshed out. (Planets in sf novels are too often portrayed as having just one culture and one language - in extreme cases, appearing to possess a single time zone.) MacLeod is on top form in both depth and humour in his portrayal of the intellectual shock of the encounter for both humans and aliens.[return][return]I did feel the novel had one glaring weakness, shared with most of the classics of the hard sf genre to which it clearly belongs. We find out very little about the characters' inner lives. Much of the human side of the story is conveyed through the blog of a teenage girl, which is frankly much more reminiscent of the author's own blog than of the real thing at the younger end of livejournal; I guess I must be reading more teenage blogs than Ken does (and I don't read them much at all). The human characters jump in and out of bed with each other and suffer little emotional embarrassment; as for the aliens, this is the one respect in which we really don't get inside their heads.

[prcardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storyline: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 4/5
World: 4/5

Oh let me sing the praises of Ken MacLeod’s Learning the World. As is my wont, those praises will be accompanied by some criticisms, but permit me to state early on that I thought this a standout book.

Learning the World gives us a solid, far future, science fiction tale, one wielding technology and developments to sate the veteran science fiction reader’s craving yet just accessible enough to not completely overwhelm readers encountering such ideas for the first time. There is very little, if any, new in here by way of gadgets or alterations to natural laws. MacLeod takes a time-honored tale from science fiction, then splices and weaves it with other pieces and possibilities, creating a pattern that has yet to be witnessed on this Earth. What readers get, then, is a good, albeit a little uneven, story bringing about those feelings that science fiction is so primed to deliver: speculation, awe, and wonder. As a science fiction writer doing the science fiction thing, MacLeod delivers a perfectly acceptable tale, one offering a little more technological flair than perhaps is average yet also one without any great twist, creation, or character that would make it universally acclaimed.

It is remarkable, nonetheless, and for an attribute not to be expected. It was—of all things—subtle. I know! Subtlety! Since when is the author known for that, and when is that valued in science fiction? But there it is. Imprinted on page after page. MacLeod forgoes the omniscient narrator who might otherwise dispose a reader to a particular desired outcome. He leaves out the narrative foreshadowing that would leave you no doubt as to what is to soon develop. There are no monologues, diatribes, expositions, or even info dumps. The text shuffles us around limited third person views from characters with vastly different world experiences and philosophical outlooks. Anticipation is here a worry, a concern instilled in the reader who just cannot see how things can be reconciled in the end. Tension comes from knowing the disparate parties’ abilities, limitations, and intentions and foreseeing the possible calamitous interactions that are bound to follow. Readers are trusted to bring in their own knowledge, without the proddings from MacLeod, and apply them to anticipate possibilities and developments. A rich political and economic world is presented without ever using a label. No proper nouns ending in ism. No tedious explanation of rules or founders of political thought. For those having read MacLeod’s The Fall Revolution or Engines of Light series, you will be able to appreciate what a radical change this is for MacLeod. Here the author simply shows us a radical polity living together, the characters indifferent to the intellectual history of that body. On top of the political is an overlay of the economic, this too shown rather than defined. It would be an exaggeration to say that it is gentle – the future is too far, too distant for that – but the reader is left to meander the created world rather than told to sit and study it. It must have been immensely effortful to pen a story that had the superficial appearance of being unguided. That guiding is definitely there, but it is done craftily behind the scenes, allowing the reader to think that they are the ones figuring everything out. Not only did MacLeod trust the reader, he played to our vanity. Well done, sir.

I am always on the lookout for the next “great book” to add to my collection. Something to consider a new favorite. And Learning the World was frustrating because it came so far only to fall so short. I do have a small collection of books whose merits make me want to shout out and proudly recommend them to all who will listen, but whose demerits are significant enough to make me worry that another reader will disregard what I found so meritorious. The demerits are significant enough that I could understand another becoming distracted from the wonder to focus on what I was able to overlook, thereby decreasing the enjoyment of the story. Learning the World makes it to that second tier, not quite in their with my favorites, but close enough that if I come across the likeminded, I will heartily recommend it.

Regarding those demerits: There are some real gems scattered throughout this novel, but they are genuinely scattered. Much of the tale rolls forward somewhat placidly. Coming across those gems is enriching and every bit worth the effort, but more and bigger gems would have been appreciated. Everything about the story needed just a little bit more. A little bit more worldbuilding. A little more character depth. A little bit more excitement, wonder, and surprise. The plot climax was abrupt. My heart was beating and my breathing was rapid—the most I’ve been affected in some time— but it did not last long enough. And the resolution was perhaps the most disappointing of all. It was an afterthought, it was penciled in at the end and without much care. But this could have been the most important part of the book. It was here that MacLeod had the chance to bring together the political, economic, ethical, and philosophical. After so much time in disparate viewpoints, we needed more time at the intersection. Instead, MacLeod went for the powerful jolt at the end, and it was, unfortunately, a dud. There just hadn’t been enough in the story for it to end on that note and with those implications. In fact, there were a few things started that needed a little extra attention before the book was brought to a close – the piece bearing the namesake of the novel, for instance. Ultimately it did not read like an author’s completed masterpiece but more like a work finally given up on.

So was it great? No, but it was really good.

[Alan Zendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book left me with sharply mixed feelings. It's an easy read, a great story that's often fun, but there were just too many things in it that felt wrong to me. Too much strange physics which might be acceptable if it was necessary to drive an otherwise tight plot, but it wasn't. The green mist in interstellar space signalling the coming of intelligent visitors and the spawning of countless new universes really add nothing to the story and and cause readers to scratch their heads.

The characters are well-developed and interesting but the web of constantly changing relationships and alliances gets confusing, especially during the critical events at the story's climax. I had to read the last couple of pages several times before I understood what had actually happened.

The most likable aspect of "Learning the World" was the alien bat-people, though the author's final evaluation of them made me want to shout "No!" It's great that they're able to overcome their differences and unite in the face of an external threat from the sky, but the case for their nobility doesn't make the grade. The bat people have enslaved, tortured, and maimed a species similar to themselves if somewhat lower on the evolutionary scale throughout their history. As much as we like the bat-people, we tend to cringe whenever their treatment of the trudges enters the story. When they learn that the trudges are in fact their equals, or nearly so, the bat-people change their ways virtually overnight. No more castration, no more crippling, no more whipping and killing. The author puts that forth as the bat-people's honor and basic goodness, who have us believe that that makes them better than humans. But I kept likening the trudges to chimpanzees, from our point of view, and that just didn't wash with me.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and subtle story of first contact in which many of the tropes traditional assumptions are twisted in interesting ways.

Employs a two stranded narrative to tell the story from both viewpoints at once; a structure that works really well.

I was left with the impression that KM had done a lot of thinking around the Fermi paradox, the principal of mediocrity, the anthropic principal and other topics that he (mostly) resisted the urge to force into the narrative.

[Mark Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new author for me.
First contact story.
A colony generation ship of immortal humans encounters batlike aliens at an early 20th century level of technology.
Liked this more than I thought I would.
Good characters both human and alien, nice world building as well.
Will definitely keep this author in mind for future reference.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost abandoned this book in the early stages; it was not, initially a comfortable read. There was something quite disfunctional about it. Then, suddenly, it clicked and the pattern became obvious.
An Earth ship is approaching a distant sun and its planets as part of the expanding Human colonisation of space, when it is realised that one of the planets is inhabited. On this planet, though less advanced than the Earth colonists, scientists have also begun to suspect that there is something unusual about the star/comet approaching them. From there onwards we become embroiled in the dance between the two, the political machinations, the disruption to normal life and, finally, first contact.
I have to be honest, I found it to be a mixed read. At times I enjoyed it (especially the ending) and at other times I found it a bit so-so.
A sort of Space Opera, but not one I would revisit.

[CV Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

My friend Tim told me that Ken MacLeod is an annoying Socialist writer and I thought he was probably being overly sensitive. I'm predisposed to like Socialist writers so I thought I'd give him a shot.

Tim was right.

I don't even know if the story was good because MacLeod kept pulling me out of the story with Marxist lectures and recruiting tirades. Seriously. It was a whole lot of telling and not showing. Show me your economic system improves lives and is a great alternative to the existing paradigm, don't just complain out loud in a work of fiction about how bad things are. You can whine about present day on Twitter, you don't have to do it in a novel where you control the outcome.

Sheesh.

[Ulmer Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Ken MacLeod book, I picked it up in a bookstore and started reading and knew this was a book for me. I love first contact stories and enjoy the premise of having the Homo sapiens in the book be more alien than the aliens (like the green soldiers of Old Man's War).

It was an engaging read throughout. It was an interesting organization for the far-future civilization.

And thank goodness my local used bookstore had a British copy. What is up with the ugly Tor edition? With it's silly subtitle? It looks like a bad self-published book. Anyways if you come across the Tor edition, don't be put off by the cover!

[Sebastian Kloss · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first 100 pages of this novel must be the worst storytelling I've ever encountered in published form.
Apart from spelling and grammar nothing in this part of the book works the way it should: it's utterly unfocused, clichéed, unengaging, and shallow. An absolute mess of a text.
Those who make it through this section, will encounter a half-pleasant, half-interesting, but really badly structured first contact story.
But it's not really worth it.
I'm going to avoid this author from now on.

[Marti · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried but just could not enjoy this book. Four chapters in, I gave up. The story is written from two completely different perspectives - that of a young bat like alien and that of a young girl living on a generation space ship where the colonists live hundreds of years.
Just not my cup of tea.

[Dave Morris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I liked generation starship novels, but I couldn't connect with it and gave up after a couple of chapters.

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ken Macleod - a First Contact story from the author of political SF:

"Learning the World: a Scientific Romance"
that's Romance with a big R - the philosophical and literary movement, not with the small r - love romance ;)

no spoilers

About the author
Ken Macleod is a Scottish author who made his breakthrough in the SF genre with the four-volume Fall Revolution series: The Star Fraction (1995), The Stone Canal (1996), The Cassini Division (1998) and The Sky Road (1999).

Together, these books and many of his other novellas form one of the most comprehensive and thoughtful stagings of political debates in SF. Although MacLeod is an avowed socialist, he also clearly sympathizes with other viewpoints such as libertarian thinking, and his novels are more the setting for real debates about political beliefs than sermons like Heinlein's, for example. This is exemplified in the novel presented here.

What is it about?
"Learning the World" (2005) is a standalone novel with the first contact theme. In this case, on the one hand, from the perspective of the inhabitants of an alien planet and on the other hand, the human crew of a gigantic generation spaceship called "But the Sky, Mylady, the Sky!" - which is equipped with natural habitats for the centuries-long journey to the target star.

Macleod designs an interesting way of how the colonization of parts of the galaxy can be carried out (whereby he correctly assumes that the speed of light cannot be exceeded). Settlement has been taking place for around 10,000 years by "world ships" (which are comparable to those of Clarke in his novel "Rendezvous with RAMA") according to the same principle: Potential star systems in the area are explored for colonizable worlds using fast probes sent ahead. If successful, the ships then travel there at 0.01 c (which takes many centuries), explore, settle and build the next generation ship using the resources found on site and start an exploration for further settlement in the wider area from there.

Of the three factions living in the ship, it is the Founders who decide as investors whether the world should be settled and together with the crew they then travel on and only the born ship generation (which was trained for settlement) lands and takes possession of the planet. Genetically induced longevity guarantees that there are only these two generations on board over the journey lasting many hundreds of years.

So far, however, no other intelligent life has been discovered despite thousands of years of exploration. With the arrival at "Ground" (as the natives call their planet) this changes - which leads to a conflict between the Founders, who do not want to interfere with the civilization and want to fly on (a kind of Prime Directive), and the younger generation, whose goal in life is solely to take over the land and make contact for the first time in human history. The young see this as an advantage for the inhabitants of the new world. The ship's crew, who are pushing for an agreement between the generations, only want to fly on quickly and are initially caught between the two factions.

The civilization on "Ground" corresponds roughly to the time of the Industrial Revolution - with physicists who have already been able to decipher some scientific principles and with whom they discover the arrival of the world ship. Initial contact from both sides is difficult because there are also conflicts between the two largest nations on "Ground" and they are on the verge of a major war.

My impression
Both the ship's crew and the native inhabitants on Ground must now review their existing worldviews regarding the existence of other intelligences. Who can learn from whom in order to overcome the respective conflicts? What does the discovery of intelligent life in the immediate cosmic environment mean for the previously assumed uniqueness of humans? That there may be an abundance of it? Can the arrival of the ship pacify the enemy nations on "Ground" since a presumably stronger opponent has appeared? But what peaceful conflict resolution can there be for both sides and between them?

Macleod comes up with surprising answers.
The super-cool so-called cosmogonic drive of the world ship also plays a certain role - the energy is used by artificially generated micro-big bangs, which, analogous to Everett's many-worlds theory, probably - according to theorists of the world ship - create new pocket universes with their own development.

Learning the World is one of MacLeod's finest works and added an important political facet to the first contact trope.

Learning the World (2005)
The novel reached fourth place in the Hugo Awards in 2006 in the category of best novella.

Other novels cited:
The Fall Revolution
• 1 The Star Fraction (1995)
• 2 The Stone Canal (1996)
• 3 The Cassini Division (1998)
• 4 The Sky Road (1999)

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2 Stars)

In a far future, a human ship spins off colonies as it travels but conflict ensues when it encounters an alien race.

I don't think I got this book. The humans on the ship seem to have the goal of making money from investments, but why they want money or what they do with it is unclear. Normally, I wouldn't note something like this - it's money, you use it on resources - but since the organization of the society involved is fairly important, that stuck out to me. I was also not able to relate to the characters in the human ship; their goals were opaque to me, and the actions they took were mostly incomprehensible. There didn't seem to be a protagonist to root for, nor a clear conflict for them to resolve. It was strange that the ship didn't have any security on its dangerous tools, nor a protocol for how to handle many situations.

The alien culture was worse. They refer to themselves, specifically, as humans, which made me think they were, you know, humans. Their 1940's-era culture was turned upside down when one of the humans (via [quantum]) gave their cows the ability to speak. Again, this was not a perspective I could easily appreciate.

I enjoyed the other books I've read by MacLeod more than this one. I think this book was just too clever for me.

[Khalid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps 2 stars is a bit harsh and the rating should be 3/5, but I am still reeling from that lackluster ending, the book was hard to get into during the first chapters, but the aliens salvage it, and then a chapter after the briefly described first physical contact, the book ends!

What a shit story. The humans are boring, to make them interesting, there is conflict between 'the founders' and their progeny who they bred to be colonizers, this does not make sense, the main human PoV is a child who writes about how soon most of the progeny will reach the age of majority and can outvote their elders, but the journey took 400 years! and they are all immortal! how come it took so long for them to have become a majority? did the elders only start to procreate 379 years into their trip?

And while we talk about humans, how come the furry aliens for some weird reason call themselves that?! despite all the different invented terms and expressions the author uses for their POV.

I thought this was a waste of time, if you are looking for a first contact story, stay away! difficult to start, ok middle, terrible finish.

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A generation starship approaches a system. Its intent is to have the younger generation colonize the system. They discover the second planet is inhabited by a sentient bat like race. Scientists on the planet discover the ship through astronomical observation. The bats are at the same level as Earth was during the 1940s. The knowledge of each other existence will change each race forever. We get the human story from Atomic Discourse Gale. A member of the generation to colonize the system and a blogger. The delay caused by the aliens existence will cause friction on the ship. How will the conflict be resolved? This is the first MacLeod novel which I got into. The only weakness was that the aliens were not alien enough for me. The were interesting but the did not have that mysterious quality which makes them feel really alien.

[Rod · Rating 4 out of 5]

This as an absolutely fantastic book of First Contact science fiction... which lost an extra star due to a not-very-satisfying ending. It's not a spoiler to tell you that the final chapter is a quick philosophical wrap-up that (to me at least) felt overly abrupt. I really think this book cried out for a sequel to further explore the cultural ramifications of humans meeting up with the bat-people aliens (what, you thought they wouldn't meet??). Unfortunately, the book was published in 2005 -- and no sign of a sequel since then. One thing for certain though: If you are a fan of chiropterae, you have GOT to read this book!

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always with Ken MacLeod, this book was very well written, gripping, and thought provoking in many ways. It does seem odd on reflection how many of his books or series feature a kind of constrained capitalism - constrained by contracts and technology - that ends up being in many ways much more benign than the real thing. At first I thought it was just an interesting and provocative plot and world-building device, but I'm becoming less sure. Anyway, still a top notch book.

[Jrubino · Rating 3 out of 5]

The opening chapters are built exactly to form — no surprises, no suspense.

Once again, giving an alien society a different shape — this time it’s birdlike — doesn’t make them truly alien if everything else is so human. The scenes come across as formulaic. The writing is basic. No reason to continue past page 60.

[David Llewellyn Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

Such a great book about the possibility of a future for two distinct species. Hopeful and somewhat fanciful, it retains an air of reality while also asking the question "If we discovered a primitive race in the far future, who would be the 'barbarian'". It has some awesome scientific backing abd and creates enough of a world to truly wrap yourself up in. Read it!

[Claus M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly creative rethinking of interstellar colonization using mostly contemporary physics. So sublight travel but a new "engine" that enables speeds close enough to the speed of light that travel is within lifespans increased to centuries. With a novel twist on a first contact story.

The politics, both human and alien is fascinating and well imagined.

[Ezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It turns out I've read this book already and forgot about it. I didn't figure it out until I got to a section that seemed familiar and then it came crashing back. It must have been before I started tracking my reading but this means that this book didn't make much of an impact on me. The book was fine but I think A Deepness in the Sky was a better first contact story.

[Gustaf Erikson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A generation starship approaches a system after a 400 year voyage, intent on colonising the asteroid belt and pushing off again. They are shocked to discover the first alien intelligent life encountered during humanity’s 15,000-year expansion.

A nicely done novel, especially the fact that the aliens are more “human” (closer to us) than our putative descendants. Also a good treatment of the generation ship problem: how do you ensure a stable population over a voyage spanning centuries? The answer: genetic engineering and late-stage capitalism, with the “founders” investing in the ventures of the colonising “ship generation”.

[Eric Lawton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to read more SciFi but dropped several recently after only a few pages, but I finished this one. Raises issues of colonialism and slavery which threaten to split a human society and unify an alien one.
But not all that deep, mostly an entertaining read.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not overly ground breaking but interesting enough concepts to keep you interested. The character development is limited and the details are lacking in some aspects. Overall a good read if you want something light.

[Sooz]

I never really got into this book but, as the saying goes, it's not you, it's me. I read it over a few days when I was very distracted with other things and should have been reading something less cerebral than this sci-fi.