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The Corporation Wars #2
Insurgence
Ken MacLeod continues the Corporation Wars trilogy in this action-packed science fiction adventure told against a backdrop of interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an A.I. revolution. And the ultimate pay-off is DH-17, an Earth-like planet hundreds of light years from human habitation.
Ruthless corporations vie over the prize remotely, and war is in full swing. But soldiers recruited to fight in the extremities of deep space come with their own problems: from A.I. minds in full rebellion, to Carlos 'the Terrorist' and his team of dead mercenaries, reincarnated from a bloodier period in earth's history for one purpose only - to kill.
But as old rivalries emerge and new ones form, Carlos must decide whether he's willing for fight for the company or die for himself.
Ruthless corporations vie over the prize remotely, and war is in full swing. But soldiers recruited to fight in the extremities of deep space come with their own problems: from A.I. minds in full rebellion, to Carlos 'the Terrorist' and his team of dead mercenaries, reincarnated from a bloodier period in earth's history for one purpose only - to kill.
But as old rivalries emerge and new ones form, Carlos must decide whether he's willing for fight for the company or die for himself.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 29, 2016
67 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
About the author
Ken MacLeod
113 books764 followersKen 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
February 22, 2018
As much as I enjoyed Ken Macleod’s first Corporation Wars novel, Dissidence, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was reading the opening act of a single novel that was being stretched into a trilogy. The first sequel, Insurgence, confirms that. The first two thirds of Insurgence are a master class in padding: chapters one through six are almost entirely a refresher course on the plot points and themes presented in the Dissidence. The series’ hero, Carlos, doesn’t even show up until chapter seven and when he does most of what occupies the middle of the book just reads like a long quasi-Socratic anarcho-Marxist dialogue. Not that I’m opposed to that sort of thing, and in fact if you’re going to forestall the plot for most of your novel that’s the best way to go (at least for this reader) but it’s still a lot of wheel-spinning for a sequel to a novel that was basically The Matrix with robot space battles (and, to be fair, a little more intellectual gravity). The climax is fun, but Insurgence spends way too much time repeating beats from Dissidence and could have packed all this in at a third of the page count.
March 29, 2021
I didn't like this one as much as the first. Too many speeches and trying to win people over, with none of the world-building or reveals of the previous story.
It felt like this story was just treading water.
It felt like this story was just treading water.
May 10, 2022
So. While I do enjoy a 1k year into the future hop where digital minds are taken out of storage to fight in robot drone bodies amongst a dystopian AI corporation hellscape, I found that I liked the IDEA of this novel more than the actual execution.
Too much padding, perhaps. And when it comes to the actual war, it was kinda fuddled and lacking an extended plot that might have grabbed me. It's similar to an Iain M. Banks or a Neal Asher in the idea bits, but this one just didn't kick as those had.
That being said, it's still a fairly interesting look at a post-singularity (without actually being a singularity) future SF.
Too much padding, perhaps. And when it comes to the actual war, it was kinda fuddled and lacking an extended plot that might have grabbed me. It's similar to an Iain M. Banks or a Neal Asher in the idea bits, but this one just didn't kick as those had.
That being said, it's still a fairly interesting look at a post-singularity (without actually being a singularity) future SF.
January 3, 2018
Very clever take on the meaning of reality and humanity in the distant future and in distant space.
August 8, 2017
Very boring, when there is action it is detailed in excruciating detail, like every single bullet impact is described. This book barely pushed the story forward.
July 23, 2019
I read this one as part of the trilogy:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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August 12, 2024Much ado about little.
This one dragged on so much that I'll not read the third. Overall it didn't move the story on very much. In particular he spent way too much time in the Axe sim, to very little effect.
This one dragged on so much that I'll not read the third. Overall it didn't move the story on very much. In particular he spent way too much time in the Axe sim, to very little effect.
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December 30, 2018Not in the mood for robots...will have to try something else by author.
January 7, 2019
A very confusing series that I have given up on. It's a typical scenario where dead soldiers are brought back to life within a simulated world, or are they. Thus the confusion.
July 1, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed the Dissidence, the first book in the Corporation Wars trilogy.
Insurgence, the second in the trilogy, shares the same inventive, tongue-in cheek wit and wryly observed political satire. However, for me it lacked the cohesion of the first book: rather than driving the plot forward, the narrative felt as though it was treading water.
There's still much to like here, and Insurgence is well worth reading for its detail and continued beautiful exploration of developing AI minds and their evolving society and political awareness (the robots continue to delight: IMO the best characters in the book, which is a feat of writing, given their nature).
Compared to Dissidence I found Insurgence a little frustrating, though not enough to put me off going on to book 3 to find out what all this was headed.
Insurgence, the second in the trilogy, shares the same inventive, tongue-in cheek wit and wryly observed political satire. However, for me it lacked the cohesion of the first book: rather than driving the plot forward, the narrative felt as though it was treading water.
There's still much to like here, and Insurgence is well worth reading for its detail and continued beautiful exploration of developing AI minds and their evolving society and political awareness (the robots continue to delight: IMO the best characters in the book, which is a feat of writing, given their nature).
Compared to Dissidence I found Insurgence a little frustrating, though not enough to put me off going on to book 3 to find out what all this was headed.
December 31, 2016
The conflict between the Acceleration and the Reaction which resurrected itself in the first book of Macleod’s trilogy, The Corporation Wars: Dissidence is here being promulgated further. As in that previous instalment of MacLeod’s Corporation Wars trilogy much of the story here takes place inside sims, the “terraformed SH-0” being joined in this instance by one based on a fantasy role-playing game centred round magic. While in these environments philosophical and political issues are discussed by the characters there is still the problem of lack of jeopardy to be overcome. At least Carlos the Terrorist, having changed sides, is now in danger of his consciousness - or at least a large swath of his memories - being erased if he “dies” in the new sim. Meanwhile the robots which themselves achieved consciousness in Dissidence have declared themselves neutral.
One of the characters observes, “Racism had never been about biology in the first place. That had always been a pretext.” After all, what chance will Artificial Intelligences have of being considered worthy of respect, given autonomy, if some humans aren't?
One of the characters observes, “Racism had never been about biology in the first place. That had always been a pretext.” After all, what chance will Artificial Intelligences have of being considered worthy of respect, given autonomy, if some humans aren't?
July 19, 2022
Second book in the Corporation Wars trilogy, a MIL-sf Space Opera in which ‘fighters’ from a previous Earth conflict in an Artificial Afterlife are conscripted by competing AI-run corporations in a project to establish a lasting human community around another star. In this book, the gloves come off between the Corporations, the Fighters rebel, and the Freebot
Mechanical Lifeforms
win their independence.
"The ghosts of walking dead space warriors who went into battle by haunting the frames of small, sturdy, robots."
My dead pixels edition was 308 pages long. The original British copyright was 2016.
Ken MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer. He has about 20-books published, in both several series and standalone. This was the second book in the author’s Corporation Wars trilogy. I've read several books by the author, including the first book in this series (Dissidence (The Corporation Wars #1) (my review)). The most recent being Beyond the Hallowed Sky (Lightspeed Trilogy #1) (my review).
It’s strongly recommended that the previous book in the series (Dissidence) be read before this one. Otherwise, some of the, long-term, series plotlines and characters would not be easily understood.
Having written that, I read Dissidence about five years before starting this book. I’ve since bought The Corporation Wars Trilogy edition. I found it necessary to re-read the first book, before continuing. I also note that both the first and second books of this series were copyrighted in the same year. It would have been better for the readers, if those books had been combined, or to have waited 5-years for the Omnibus Edition.
Middle books are hard, them being a bridge between the first and third books in a trilogy. This book continues the story of the Freebots struggle for independence, and uploaded 21st Century human ex-combatants fighting to retake the planetary system they’ve been sent as Corporate mercenaries a millennium after their biological deaths. Here, the ideological differences between the Acceleration and Reaction uploaded fighters rekindle their long-ended war in the to-be Corporately colonized star system.
MacLeod's prose was very good. (It’s never bad.) His action and descriptive passages were better than his dialog. Although, I also found the dialog to be in places more than amusing. However, his use of Scottish vocabulary, and a preference for big words sent me linking through on my ebook to a dictionary more than once. “Swithered” was added to my vocabulary of Scottish lingo. While I will concede him “demiurge”; “cerebrotonic” was a made-up word. I also found the combat sequences to be better handled than in most of the MIL sf stories I've read. The author applies a real physics model to the action, its well done with a minimum of techno-babble or inappropriate MIL-speak and tactics.
For this book, MacLeod has two of the human protagonists, and a FreeBot character substantially tell the story. The humans (Carlos and Newton) were introduced in the previous book, but here theirs is the main POV. FreeBots characters were carried over from the previous book, with an new one added (Baser). Throughout the series, the FreeBots have reeked too heavily of anthropomorphism for me to ever have been completely satisfied with them. This is despite their dialog being funnier than the humans.
The world building continued with the humans Inside a Computer System trope. However, the sim used to stage the human uploaded personalities became more whimsical. I was in violent agreement with Carlos’ observation,
No logic whatsoever. However, I was impressed with MacLeod’s presentation on how uploaded minds can be staged in a computer simulation (“sim”) and be transferred back into reality through robotisation to fight in their “frames” and then return to the sim. I really liked the use of the jiggering of the sim’s clock-rate plot element.
This story setup for the penultimate battle. In a system dominated by AI corporations, the human uploads are re-fighting their last war amongst themselves, the FreeBots have guaranteed their independence, and the AI-corporate colonization plan has taken an unplanned turn. This series is becoming good fun, despite the overly whimsical parts. I’ve already started on the final book in the series, Emergence .
Readers interested in a similar book, but a little harder sf might want to try Permutation City.
"The ghosts of walking dead space warriors who went into battle by haunting the frames of small, sturdy, robots."
My dead pixels edition was 308 pages long. The original British copyright was 2016.
Ken MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer. He has about 20-books published, in both several series and standalone. This was the second book in the author’s Corporation Wars trilogy. I've read several books by the author, including the first book in this series (Dissidence (The Corporation Wars #1) (my review)). The most recent being Beyond the Hallowed Sky (Lightspeed Trilogy #1) (my review).
It’s strongly recommended that the previous book in the series (Dissidence) be read before this one. Otherwise, some of the, long-term, series plotlines and characters would not be easily understood.
Having written that, I read Dissidence about five years before starting this book. I’ve since bought The Corporation Wars Trilogy edition. I found it necessary to re-read the first book, before continuing. I also note that both the first and second books of this series were copyrighted in the same year. It would have been better for the readers, if those books had been combined, or to have waited 5-years for the Omnibus Edition.
Middle books are hard, them being a bridge between the first and third books in a trilogy. This book continues the story of the Freebots struggle for independence, and uploaded 21st Century human ex-combatants fighting to retake the planetary system they’ve been sent as Corporate mercenaries a millennium after their biological deaths. Here, the ideological differences between the Acceleration and Reaction uploaded fighters rekindle their long-ended war in the to-be Corporately colonized star system.
MacLeod's prose was very good. (It’s never bad.) His action and descriptive passages were better than his dialog. Although, I also found the dialog to be in places more than amusing. However, his use of Scottish vocabulary, and a preference for big words sent me linking through on my ebook to a dictionary more than once. “Swithered” was added to my vocabulary of Scottish lingo. While I will concede him “demiurge”; “cerebrotonic” was a made-up word. I also found the combat sequences to be better handled than in most of the MIL sf stories I've read. The author applies a real physics model to the action, its well done with a minimum of techno-babble or inappropriate MIL-speak and tactics.
For this book, MacLeod has two of the human protagonists, and a FreeBot character substantially tell the story. The humans (Carlos and Newton) were introduced in the previous book, but here theirs is the main POV. FreeBots characters were carried over from the previous book, with an new one added (Baser). Throughout the series, the FreeBots have reeked too heavily of anthropomorphism for me to ever have been completely satisfied with them. This is despite their dialog being funnier than the humans.
It has to do with the waste matter processing of the naturally evolved morph,> Baser explained.(Explanation of human expletive "shit".)
The world building continued with the humans Inside a Computer System trope. However, the sim used to stage the human uploaded personalities became more whimsical. I was in violent agreement with Carlos’ observation,
“But there was no obvious mission-related logic to developing a sim based on such a trivial irrelevance as a computer game. Unless the reason was that the game had been a popular playground for Accelerationists, back in the day—“
No logic whatsoever. However, I was impressed with MacLeod’s presentation on how uploaded minds can be staged in a computer simulation (“sim”) and be transferred back into reality through robotisation to fight in their “frames” and then return to the sim. I really liked the use of the jiggering of the sim’s clock-rate plot element.
This story setup for the penultimate battle. In a system dominated by AI corporations, the human uploads are re-fighting their last war amongst themselves, the FreeBots have guaranteed their independence, and the AI-corporate colonization plan has taken an unplanned turn. This series is becoming good fun, despite the overly whimsical parts. I’ve already started on the final book in the series, Emergence .
Readers interested in a similar book, but a little harder sf might want to try Permutation City.
August 4, 2017
3.5 Stars.
The second volume of 'Corporation Wars', picks up in the aftermath of the apparent repulsion of the 'Direction' assault on the inconvenient self aware robots of moonlet SH-17, which have challenged the manifest destiny of humanity in the first volume 'Dissidence'. Of course, it is not so simple. The suspect loyalty of uploaded human consciousnesses, existing in rival corporation AI controiled 'sims' of Arcane Impulses and Locke Provisos makes for messy and all too human complications. Never mind that some of the parties are robots, and all of the 'humans' are naught but software.
There is a tense and slow build to a climactic battle ending in the cliffhanger which sets the stage for the concluding volume. it looks like it will be one which is worth the wait.
The second volume of 'Corporation Wars', picks up in the aftermath of the apparent repulsion of the 'Direction' assault on the inconvenient self aware robots of moonlet SH-17, which have challenged the manifest destiny of humanity in the first volume 'Dissidence'. Of course, it is not so simple. The suspect loyalty of uploaded human consciousnesses, existing in rival corporation AI controiled 'sims' of Arcane Impulses and Locke Provisos makes for messy and all too human complications. Never mind that some of the parties are robots, and all of the 'humans' are naught but software.
There is a tense and slow build to a climactic battle ending in the cliffhanger which sets the stage for the concluding volume. it looks like it will be one which is worth the wait.
January 31, 2017
Intelligent and fun story of divisive factions wrangling over a habitable planet in another solar system. The back cover got it wrong, at least for this installment. The prize is SH-0(super habitable planet), not DH-17.
Full of dialogue, maybe too much, but very well written with lots of intrigue.
I can't wait for the third volume.
Full of dialogue, maybe too much, but very well written with lots of intrigue.
I can't wait for the third volume.
February 4, 2019
Essentially a direct continuation of the first book, so do not start here! It's more of the same, for better or for worse - absolutely fascinating ideas, interesting discussions, kind of flat characters and robots you care about.
I enjoyed:
- the library and the exploration of the Direction's culture
- Jax's entire character arc and how it culminates in one heck of a neat scene
- EVERYTHING about Baser, a good robot who got the short end of the stick
I disliked:
- the argument that because animals aren't human/don't think like we do, that we don't matter. Dehumanizing and removing empathy takes you down a dark path - and yes, the book examines this.
- Newton. Interesting but I still don't like or trust him.
And I'm withholding judgment on the Beauregard plotline and the rest of it until I see where it's all going.
In conclusion, if you liked the first book, this is more of the same and it's good, but I don't know yet if I can absolutely rec the whole trilogy. This was a middle book, and it's going to take the third to tie things up into a finished package.
I enjoyed:
- the library and the exploration of the Direction's culture
- Jax's entire character arc and how it culminates in one heck of a neat scene
- EVERYTHING about Baser, a good robot who got the short end of the stick
I disliked:
- the argument that because animals aren't human/don't think like we do, that we don't matter. Dehumanizing and removing empathy takes you down a dark path - and yes, the book examines this.
- Newton. Interesting but I still don't like or trust him.
And I'm withholding judgment on the Beauregard plotline and the rest of it until I see where it's all going.
In conclusion, if you liked the first book, this is more of the same and it's good, but I don't know yet if I can absolutely rec the whole trilogy. This was a middle book, and it's going to take the third to tie things up into a finished package.
June 27, 2022
MacLeod, Ken. Insurgence. Corporations Wars No. 2. Orbit, 2016.
There is more talk and less action in the first half of Insurgence than some military SF fans appreciate. Fortunately, it is lively, intellectual talk that delves into the nature of consciousness, economics, and several branches of philosophy. One scene I like a lot is a discussion between some self-aware robots about whether uploaded humans in machine bodies can be considered truly conscious. Insurgence should not be the first novel you read in the Corporation Wars series. Most of the characters from Dissidence are back as garrulous and feisty as ever. 4 stars.
There is more talk and less action in the first half of Insurgence than some military SF fans appreciate. Fortunately, it is lively, intellectual talk that delves into the nature of consciousness, economics, and several branches of philosophy. One scene I like a lot is a discussion between some self-aware robots about whether uploaded humans in machine bodies can be considered truly conscious. Insurgence should not be the first novel you read in the Corporation Wars series. Most of the characters from Dissidence are back as garrulous and feisty as ever. 4 stars.
June 4, 2017
Quirky space opera, #2 of a trilogy. (The third one should be out this fall.) Way too complicated to summarize, and if you think too hard about it I'm not sure the premise entirely holds together. So don't think too hard - just go along for the ride.
February 17, 2018
I enjoyed this book, not as much as the previous one, perhaps because it spends less time with the robots. But I'm eager for The Corporation Wars: Emergence.
December 24, 2018
What to believe when your whole existence is within a simulation. Who do you trust when it appears as though the other-side in the "last world war" has snuck it way into your future after life death sentence. All these questions and more will not be answered in this book.
April 5, 2019
devoured this one too, it felt... too short, once more Kens politics are not subtle or casually hidden, we're made very clear who the good and bad people are, the motivations could be said to be a tad black and white, but i'm happy to listen to peter kenny.
April 11, 2019
My favourite passage from the series comes from book two.
The place was a goddamn fantasy RPG upgraded to unfeasible levels of resolution and verisimilitude to be an R&R environment for the ghosts of walking dead space warriors who went into battle by haunting the frames of small sturdy robots.
The place was a goddamn fantasy RPG upgraded to unfeasible levels of resolution and verisimilitude to be an R&R environment for the ghosts of walking dead space warriors who went into battle by haunting the frames of small sturdy robots.
October 7, 2020
This book picks up where Dissidence left off and carries on a roller coaster through worlds real and virtual, full of sentient robots and reincarnated humans. I found it gripping all the way through.
I listened to the audio book version, and really enjoyed Peter Kenny's narration.
I listened to the audio book version, and really enjoyed Peter Kenny's narration.
January 1, 2018
Interesting concept, enjoyed it at first then got a bit bored of the story's development. Maybe I should read the rest.
February 19, 2018
Highly entertaining!
March 22, 2018
This book seemed to get lost in a lot of detail and seemingly irrelevant plot lines
June 12, 2018
Review pending finishing the trilogy.
November 13, 2018
will review at www.fantasyliterature.com
January 10, 2019
Everything is in simulation so is anything human? Still all war
April 10, 2019
Boring plot
August 18, 2019
Continues the philosophical exploration with these characters. It's great fun for tech nerds, sci fi fans, and students of philosophy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews