n the 2040s, Matt Cairns is a freelance "systems manager" in his native Scotland. Riding herd on a flock of low-level AIs that are able to tweak the digital domain in profitable ways, Matt is not above supplying illegal patches and programs to an assorted sordid clientele--especially those looking to subvert the state socialism that dominates all of Russia and Europe and the former U.K. One of his clients, Jadey Ericson, proves to be an American agitator, and Matt's involvement with her leads him toward a strange destiny.
Before her arrest, Jadey hands off a disc containing advanced technological data of an enigmatic stripe, and a hunted Matt eventually finds himself on the run, first in America, then, with a pilot named Camila Hernandez, en route to an ESA outpost on an asteroid where first contact with odd and superior aliens has been established. The aliens prove to be the source of the disc data: free plans for humanity's first starship. Amid all the political intrigue this news causes, the star drive is eventually fabricated on the asteroid, and Matt becomes an involuntary member of mankind's first expedition to the stars.
Several centuries later, on the distant planet Mingulay, humanity thrives in a hospitable environment full of fellow sapients, their overall technological prowess somewhat decayed from the heights Matt Cairns knew in the 2040s. Gregor Cairns, a descendent of Matt, is a young student whose family has long vowed to retake the stars. On the verge of solving the age-old problem of computer-aided navigation, Gregor finds his whole world upset with the arrival of a trading ship of the Tenebre family, whose goals conflict with those of the Mingulayans. Still, he falls in love with the young Lydia Tenebre, complicating his relations with his fellow student, Elizabeth Harkness, who also secretly loves Gregor.
Despite her heartbreak, Elizabeth and a saur named Salasso accompany Gregor around the globe in his quest, visiting such exotic locales as Saur City One, before they finally stumble on the immortal remnants of the original settlers, including Matt himself. Together, the old generation and the newest just might succeed.
Humanity is spam without end
Despite repeating the basic template of his previous book, MacLeod offers an intriguing departure from the future history he has been building in earlier works. This new future reads as if Macleod has refreshed his basic philosophy and approach without abandoning them.
First off, the savvy yet sometimes dense political wrangling among MacLeod's characters has been trimmed without being overly diluted. The tension between rival systems--capitalism and socialism--plays out in a more subtle and covert fashion. Second, the addition of several kinds of
aliens adds further dimensions to the formerly solely human scenario. From the godlike collective minds found on the ESA asteroid (who, we learn, actually permeate the whole universe and pull evolution's strings, uplifting species in the manner of David Brin's helpful sapients), to the strange-thinking
but friendly saurs, this new variety adds spice to MacLeod's cast.
Along with an uncommon depth of characterization, there's a lot of humor in MacLeod's books, a virtue often missing from other space operas. Certainly the biggest laugh here comes from the revelation of how the godlike aliens view our species. "'As far as they're concerned, we're
great lumbering spambots, corrupted servers, liable at any moment or any megayear to start turning out millions of pointless, slightly varied replicas of ourselves. Most of what we're likely to want to do if we expanded seriously into space is spam. Spam industries ... Moravec uploads ... Von Neumann machines ... space settlements--spam, spam, spam, eggs, and spam.'" A humbling vision, but probably a more realistic one than many another Manifest Destiny-minded Galactic Empire.
