Emergence by Ken MacLeod
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like the first two novels in this trilogy, I wanted to like it more than I did.

I tend to give books like these the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because as long as the idea stage is strong, then at least there's something to hold onto when either the characters or the plot derails a bit.

In this case, it's really a novel about fascists dressed up in capitalist clothing. The corporation wars themselves are really just uploaded minds in robot waldos and AIs fighting over caches of resources. And since the old humans, making it so far into the future, tend to carry a lot of their old, old baggage, it's all kinda messed up.

War ensues, some characters held up okay, others were just nasty to behold, and by the time the action gets going, I didn't really care for anyone in particular except, maybe, the colonized folk-AI. I mean, seriously. Damn capitalistic colonizers are always damn jerks, right?

That being said, the novel is fine. Not brilliant, but okay.

View all my reviews