Since graduating from Glasgow University in 1976, Ken MacLeod has worked as a computer analyst in Edinburgh. He now writes full time.Previous Books: Learning the World , Newton's Wake , Engine City , Dark Light , Cosmonaut Keep , The Sky Road
'Ken MacLeod's The Execution Channel starts like a techno-thriller ripped from tomorrow's headlines , a thrilling, fast-moving tale of suspense rife with paranoia and multiple conspiracy theories. However, it's deeper and more thoughtful than most thrillers. MacLeod vividly and economically portrays an all-too-plausible world in which war has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia; millions of Americans live in FEMA concentration camps due to climate change; the British Government is considering deporting all Muslims, and what's really happening is hidden in a blizzard of disinformation and propaganda. This is politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that's absolutely mind-blowing.' THE TIMES'Politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that's absolutely mind-blowing' The Times'Jaw-droppingly audacious' SFX'A very good book, perhaps the best Ken MacLeod has written to date . . . The Execution Channel is an extraordinary novel' STRANGE HORIZONS'The Execution Channel is a top-notch thriller . . . a darkly entertaining read. Macleod has great fun spinning and unspinning the fears and memes of our age. His perspective on blogging and its effect on the powerful will amuse bloggers and their readers. And his alternate reality version of 9/11, which serves (in my mind at least) as a
'Ken MacLeod's The Execution Channel starts like a techno-thriller ripped from tomorrow's headlines , a thrilling, fast-moving tale of suspense rife with paranoia and multiple conspiracy theories. However, it's deeper and more thoughtful than most thrillers. MacLeod vividly and economically portrays an all-too-plausible world in which war has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia; millions of Americans live in FEMA concentration camps due to climate change; the British Government is considering deporting all Muslims, and what's really happening is hidden in a blizzard of disinformation and propaganda. This is politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that's absolutely mind-blowing.' THE TIMES'Politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that's absolutely mind-blowing' The Times'Jaw-droppingly audacious' SFX'A very good book, perhaps the best Ken MacLeod has written to date . . . The Execution Channel is an extraordinary novel' STRANGE HORIZONS'The Execution Channel is a top-notch thriller . . . a darkly entertaining read. Macleod has great fun spinning and unspinning the fears and memes of our age. His perspective on blogging and its effect on the powerful will amuse bloggers and their readers. And his alternate reality version of 9/11, which serves (in my mind at least) as a
We read sf for the provocative ideas it often presents. MacLeod, whose earlier work twice received the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Award for best libertarian fiction (The Star Faction; Learning the World), takes us to a near future that is post-9/11, post-Iraq war, and post-several other catastrophic events of a fictional future (e.g., the nuclear bombing of Scotland). In this world with a slightly altered past (Gore beats Bush in 2000), the web disseminates information, or rather disinformation, manipulated by government intelligence civil servants and bloggers in a global struggle of destabilized governments. Bombs, executions presented as reality television, and spies are the manifestations of a near apocalyptic world. With references to the Heim theory, MacLeod's narrative culminates in a vision of a quantum leap of human society moving off Earth to other star systems. An intriguing theme is how information is synthesized to create knowledge and how that knowledge changes as it is compromised with incorrect data, enlarged with new truths, or rendered incomprehensible because of the limitations of understanding. Recommended for large public libraries and specialized sf collections.-Sara Rutter, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa Lib., Honolulu Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
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