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The Execution Channel
Apr. 15th, 2007 11:34 amI just finished Ken Macleod's "The Execution Channel". It is flawed in places, but it is also well-written, frighteningly convincing in places, and at the same time is near-future realistic, conspiracy theory, somewhat alternate history, and it riffs on the old Space Opera genre. Somehow I don't see an American writer pulling this off (but I live in hope).
There's many little details that I liked. The alternate history of 9/11, assuming Gore was elected and chose to decapitate Al Qeada in August 2001, which led to AQ seeing Bin Laden as a martyr: 9/11 still happens (just differently) and the sad follow-up of Afghanistan and Iraq ends up being very similar. The conspiracy theorists who claim that alternate 9/11 was done by planes crashing in the building, not car bombs.
I liked the disinformation department that fakes some blogs and takes over others after the principals have been disappeared. If some of the latter isn't already happening, it sure will in the near future.
What I found less believable is how well the various IT systems work in combining facial recognition, pattern matching, CCTV images, etc - despite being farmed out to low bidders and being pervasively hacked. I'm more of a pessimistic when it comes to large IT systems, but then Mr Macleod has actually worked on such systems (albeit in the past) and I'm seeing such projects after they've already failed - we've seen a different set of examples.
All in all, an excellent book and highly recommended. Since some of it depends on near-future history, some of the book will seem dated soon; but that makes the bold guesses and extrapolations all the more brave.
There's many little details that I liked. The alternate history of 9/11, assuming Gore was elected and chose to decapitate Al Qeada in August 2001, which led to AQ seeing Bin Laden as a martyr: 9/11 still happens (just differently) and the sad follow-up of Afghanistan and Iraq ends up being very similar. The conspiracy theorists who claim that alternate 9/11 was done by planes crashing in the building, not car bombs.
I liked the disinformation department that fakes some blogs and takes over others after the principals have been disappeared. If some of the latter isn't already happening, it sure will in the near future.
What I found less believable is how well the various IT systems work in combining facial recognition, pattern matching, CCTV images, etc - despite being farmed out to low bidders and being pervasively hacked. I'm more of a pessimistic when it comes to large IT systems, but then Mr Macleod has actually worked on such systems (albeit in the past) and I'm seeing such projects after they've already failed - we've seen a different set of examples.
All in all, an excellent book and highly recommended. Since some of it depends on near-future history, some of the book will seem dated soon; but that makes the bold guesses and extrapolations all the more brave.
