About book Learning The World: A Scientific Romance (2006)
Quite a lot of the books I choose to read come from either direct or indirect recommendations. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod was one that I decided to read after a recommendation from a very indirect but trustworthy source. When I saw Iain M. Banks at the Edinburgh Book Festival earlier this year, someone asked him to name some of his favourite authors, and Ken MacLeod was a name that was mentioned. I’d seen some of MacLeod’s books around in bookshops before, and so when I was next in the mood to read some SF, I decided to try one of his novels.The subtitle, as you can see from the cover, is ‘a novel of first contact’, which is a nice succinct summary. But to go into a bit more detail: the book follows two groups of characters, with the narrative switching between them in alternating chapters. One group are the human passengers and crew of a generation ship which has been travelling towards a solar system they plan to colonise, when they discover that there are radio signals emanating from one of the planets, and they have found alien life for the first time. The second group are the alien scientists on the planet, which has a technology level of the industrial age. An astronomer notices the ship, which at first is mistaken for a comet, but they soon figure out the truth. The book shows both sides coming to terms with the realization that they are not alone, and the conflicts and uncertainties that throws up, both on the ship and on the planet.I liked it a lot. I thought both the generation ship (which is one of my favourite SF concepts) and the alien culture were well developed and interesting settings. Switching between the two viewpoints was a good way of telling the story, rather than focusing on just one perspective. I’ve read quite a few ‘first contact’ themed novels, and this one was a good take on that, different from some of the more clichéd approaches, with some excellent ideas, but more of a focus on the social and the political than the scientific details. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exactly the kind of book I wanted to read at the time, and I enjoyed it a lot. I will definitely be looking out for more of MacLeod’s books to read in the future.
This book left me with sharply mixed feelings. It's an easy read, a great story that's often fun, but there were just too many things in it that felt wrong to me. Too much strange physics which might be acceptable if it was necessary to drive an otherwise tight plot, but it wasn't. The green mist in interstellar space signalling the coming of intelligent visitors and the spawning of countless new universes really add nothing to the story and and cause readers to scratch their heads.The characters are well-developed and interesting but the web of constantly changing relationships and alliances gets confusing, especially during the critical events at the story's climax. I had to read the last couple of pages several times before I understood what had actually happened.The most likable aspect of "Learning the World" was the alien bat-people, though the author's final evaluation of them made me want to shout "No!" It's great that they're able to overcome their differences and unite in the face of an external threat from the sky, but the case for their nobility doesn't make the grade. The bat people have enslaved, tortured, and maimed a species similar to themselves if somewhat lower on the evolutionary scale throughout their history. As much as we like the bat-people, we tend to cringe whenever their treatment of the trudges enters the story. When they learn that the trudges are in fact their equals, or nearly so, the bat-people change their ways virtually overnight. No more castration, no more crippling, no more whipping and killing. The author puts that forth as the bat-people's honor and basic goodness, who have us believe that that makes them better than humans. But I kept likening the trudges to chimpanzees, from our point of view, and that just didn't wash with me.
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Learning the World is a first contact story told from both sides, that of space-faring humans who pioneer from system to system and had believed they were the long intelligent race in the universe and the inhabitant race of a planet at the approximate Earth equivalent of pre-World War I technology in the latest system the humans plan to settle. The human view point is presented in large part through the 14th millennial equivalent of a teenager's blog, while the terrestrial race (alien space bats, as one chapter title so colorfully names them) is seen largely through a pair of their scientists, an astronomer and a physicist who publish the first sighting of the approaching starcraft. The story is thematically reminiscent of Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, although it resembles it very little in style. The ending was a bit muddled, but all in all, it was a fun read.
—Leslie
This story has a lot in common with Vernor Vinge's 'A Deepness In The Sky', and turning the color of stars green is in Alastair Reynolds' 'Galactic North'. At 300 pages it's short for modern SF novel. It's a little disappointing to get to the last 25 pages and realize a lot of interesting background material was not foreshadowing after all (so what was the 'big tube' referenced a couple of times?). The ending is weak- also I didn't completely understand it.(spoiler)None of the characters mentioned the immorality of placing surveillance systems inside the brains of intelligent aliens, despite other genuine concerns for their rights and well-being.
—Lucas
Overall, Learning the World is a magnificently crafted book. It is well structured and beautifully written. However, this is not a book that will please all readers.The opening is somewhat like feeling around in a dark room looking for the light switch: It's not quite clear what's going on. This is complicated by the fact that you end this first chapter believing you know the rules of the world only to have to undergo the same process with the second chapter and the other world. It also takes some time for the novel to really get going. Patience is required to get the best from this novel.Fortunately, once events do start to rumble on at a merry old pace, it becomes a much easier read. There is still enough that remains unrevealed or hinted at to make it a stimulating endeavour without making it confusing or unclear and I personally found the conclusion highly satisfying.However, it is said that readers are satisfied when they get what the require from a story, but in order to get something out of it, this novel also requires something from the reader. If you are not into society or politics, Learning the World is not for you and if you want something fast, light and easy going, I suspect you will give up on this one before you reach the 'good bit'.
—Kat
