Spindizzy

Ken MacLeod's books have quite a lot of subtle ironic humour in them. Of course, that can be easily confused with the subtle ironic politics. Not to be confused with the big obvious politics. By way of example, look at the alternate history element of The Execution Channel. There is no need to create an alternative recent past for the author to create a near future falling apart because of American economics and terrorism. If anything, it makes the book less credible, yet MacLeod does it anyway - perhaps for a WTF reaction or perhaps for a wry smile. And don't even get me started with the James Blish stuff that he has going on.

This book has MacLeod staying much closer to home than before as the "war on terror" escalates. But in Macleod's world, that war is as much an information war as anything - a disinformation war really. As such, it has all the twists and turns of a cold war spy thriller. Remember in those, the disinformation wasn't just a plot device - it was aimed at the reader so that they didn't quite know who was who and what was going to happen. Same thing in The Execution Channel - with a double helping of extra politics on the side.

Putting all that together, it was highly readable - engrossing even. But at the end, rather unsatisfactory. Perhaps Macleod's sense of humour just got the better of him. As for earlier comments that I have made about his stand-alone books being better than the sequels. Well, this time the sequels have already been written. See above.