Ken MacLeod - Cosmonaut Keep

Pros: Wonderful weaving of diverse threads into a compelling story.
Cons: Can't think of any right now.

Ken MacLeod's "Cosmonaut Keep" is the first installment in his new series, The Engines of Light. I liked his earlier work, but here he just gets better and better.

As in his earlier novels, he tells two related stories that are separated by...

Pros: MacLeod's style lends to quick reading.
Cons: The story and characters are underdeveloped.

Upon reading the inside flap I was hooked and after enduring the first 6 chapters I knew I would be engaged in a marathon, only not the kind I had been hoping for when picking the book up from the shelf. Many times before triumphantly turning the final page I felt as though I had to bite down on a leather strap to make it through the ordeal.

The storyline has all of potential to have been an epic on the level of Frank Herbert's Dune, but Ken MacLeod turns away from that challenge by offering trite characters, a shallow plot and an overemphasis (running throughout his work) on marijuana use and an odd fascination with portraying communism as a triumphant ideology. Those who say that MacLeod is the brightest new star in sci-fi are setting their expectations far too low be bestowing that crown upon this author.