Earth Hour

by Ken MacLeod, Robh Ruppel (Illustrator)

There are ever so many ways to conduct a war. Only a few of them look like war.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook

22 pages, ebook

First published June 22, 2011

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

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting short story from Tor.com. Although a recent story it does remind me of the cyber punk days mixed with Richard Morgans hard hitting science fiction. It is intriguing if a little confusing it feels like there should be more to it but I personally feel this was intentional as if the ambiguity is meant to make you think. So rather than the story being a means to an end it is rather a tool to make you finish the story yourself. So I am torn between it being frustrating and it being incredibly subtle

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lushly imagined Sf thriller, very evocative and grandly conceptualized. I would have loved this in novel length, still, it suits me just fine as is. A fun, fast paced space opera. High tech gadgetry, exotic locale, cyber-mystery, political machinations. A Tor.com digital only story well worth reading,

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Tor.com's freebie fiction series, Earth Hour is a wonderfully conceived scifi, cyberpunky story set in Australia. Very neat.

[R.K. Nickel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool little futuristic assassin story with a satisfying ending. Well worth the short time investment!

[chvang · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a pretty good techno-thriller that would've been truly good if the characters weren't just placeholders to move the plot and show off some cool cyberpunk technobabble.

It really is good, though. And for the time investment, worth a read; I have no hesitation recommending it.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice, twisty short about an attempted assassination, future politics and dirty deeds. Just as good as I recalled, recommended reading. Don't miss!

Direct story link: https://reactormag.com/earth-hour/

[Bnz · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this little morsel of his wit, Ken combines his signature technological optimism with political pessimism into a perfect blend. Can a master market manipulator prevent a global war and rake in another pile of money in the process?

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a sci-fi story with an assassin in futuristic Australia, this was surprisingly boring.

[Kimikimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Tor.com short story

To be honest, I didn't get it. I think I would have to read it again. The tecnology seemed interesting (and wasteful) but I wasn't sure where to find the plot.

[Alex Sarll]

If geoengineering and technical fixes for global warming work out half so well as in the future envisioned here, I'll be a very happy man.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

It ended so abruptly, I thought a page was missing. Not a good one, at least it was short.

[Dustin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting read.

[Boulder Boulderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read pile an outline for a much longer novel. I would like to read that novel. This was just cramming too much into too short a space.

So good but very much not McLeod's best.