Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 17:08:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Ali Kazmi <thekazmis2001-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Lib-Caps are Dumb.


--- Andrew 'Wes' Weston <ghost-AT-mnsi.net> wrote:

> > (For american sf fans, if you haven't read Ken
> Kcleod,
> > please do, one of the better scottish exports)
> 
> <de-lurk>
> 
> Strange you should mention that. I am currently
> reading the second novel in 
> MacLeod's "Engines of Light" trilogy, a book called
> "Dark Light". Good 
> stuff. MacLeod is quite consciously adding elements
> of socialist politics to 
> his books, and I like that. Makes for a nice change
> from a lot of older 
> scifi which has always seemed to have a serious
> hard-on for capitalism IMO.
> 
Engines of Light is ok, though he gets a bit lost in
the end (sorry), the fall revolution ones are much
better, "Star Fraction", "the Stone Canal" "Cassini
Division" and I have forgotten the forth one's title.

> Have you read any Iain M. Banks? He's another Scot
> and indeed is a good 
> friend of MacLeod's. I think Banks is probably the
> better known of the two, 
> at least in the UK. I had a hard time finding both
> writers and ended up 
> having a British friend mail me some of Banks'
> books, an expensive way to 
> read...

I have read Banks, and even though his Culture is an
anarchy, it is a utopia, (i.e. technology gives
endless supply so no want)and therefore fantasy,
McLeod is more into near future, social revolution,
and makes a much more interesting read from political
point of view. The best Banks book, politicswise,
would be "The Player of Games". 

> Another explicitly socialist writer, that many
> people seem to like right 
> now, is China Mieville. I read his Perdido Street
> Station and found it a 
> little too busy and chaotic for my tastes, but he
> definitely seems to have a 
> lot of fans. He's sort of a cross between horror,
> scifi and fantasy, though 
> usually filed under fantasy.

China has much more socio/political theme in his new
book "The Iron Council", But a bit of a tough read as 
his prose has become more convoluted and flowery, and
at times you wish some editor had taken a savage
blanko to the manuscript. 

Kim Stanley Robinson and something Hendrix are also
writers with an anarchist bent. 


But you are right, different political/social themes
are creeping into sf.

Cheers

Ali

(Of course, you have read "The Dispossessed" by Ursala
Le Guin?)


		
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