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Newton's Wake
 
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Newton's Wake (Hardcover)

by Ken MacLeod (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit; First Edition edition (4 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841491756
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841491752
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 541,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

SFX on NEWTON'S WAKE
'Read the book. Then read it again. It's even better the second time'

Iain M Banks on Ken Macleod
'Stunningly assured, inventive and intelligent'

See all Product Description

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good Threads, Poor Cloth, 11 Mar 2004
Although crammed with fascinating ideas and livened by moments of humour and irony, Newton's Wake disappointed me. It is by far the weakest of his stories so far. Why? It's hard to put a finger on it. Perhaps it's because the events are episodic and disconnected in time and place. Scenes of conflict and war bubble up with little preparation or justification, seemingly just to provide some action. Perhaps it is because few characters are developed beyond charicature (Winters and Calder, the folk singers, and Higgens being notable exceptions). Perhaps it is because the societies and systems of the future are quite 'cartoon'-like. The story is also strangely lacking in visual texture and description - my overriding impression is of drab and barren moorland.

Probably, it is a combination of all of these elements, meaning that Newton's Wake is an interesting essay, and very entertaining in episodes, but fails as a story. Still, that being said, it's better than 90% of the junk of the science fiction shelves at the moment, which fail in every way.

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25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A Bad Scottish Joke, 7 Feb 2005
By A Customer
This review is from: Newton's Wake (Paperback)
I bought this book because Iain M Banks gave it a rave blurb. I'm sorry to say I won't be doing that again. MacLeod's future feels forced into conformity with his late 20th-century sense of humor. He's designed whole future cultures as the punchlines to 20th century jokes. Glasgow thugs in space! Ha ha ha! Wait until you hear about the multiplanetary culture that originated in the USA: they're called America Offline! Stop it, MacLeod, you're killing me!

Lacking respect for his own story, this author constantly uses his characters like hand puppets to make conspiratorial gestures at the reader: nudge nudge, wink wink, they have musicals in the future about Bush and bin Laden! Maybe some people find this kind of thing amusing; I find it boring and silly. I'm giving the book two stars instead of one because its imbecilic vision is tolerably well executed.

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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Law of diminishing returns, 3 Jun 2005
By Famousdog (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Newton's Wake (Paperback)
Oh Ken, Ken, Ken... Your early work promised so much. You created a uniquely British, nay Scottish, politically-informed cyberpunk. I learnt more about anarchist history and ideals from reading The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal and The Cassini Division than I have before or since... You created a beautiful, diverse, realistic, Balkanised future as an antidote for the monolithic uniform utopias of Star Trek. And then you wrote The Sky Road, which was... okay. And then you wrote Cosmonaut Keep, which was actually (and i whisper it almost inaudibly) not very good. So not very good that i didn't bother getting either of the follow ups. Then you wrote Newton's Wake and i thought, Aha, a New Start (snigger). Lets give this one a go... Gah. What happened? In the early days your puns were endearing, your chapter titles revolutionary (snigger) your programming in-jokes laugh-out-loud funny. No more. Newton's Wake simply annoyed me. The characters were annoying. The obscure plot was annoying. The sodding gags were annoying. I thought you couldn't get more daft than pot-smoking aliens. You did. Bad show.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Flimsy
I brought this after being pleasantly surprised by 'Learning the World' from the same author. I wish I'd read these reviews first! Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2007 by drifter

2.0 out of 5 stars Irritating at times
I found this book started well, but became more and more confusing and disjointed. The end was just not worth reading, and I was thoroughly irritated at the way Ken kept using... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2007 by R. J. Beed

2.0 out of 5 stars Wake Up Ken!
.
There are some good ideas, like the interplanetary business culture and rivalries, the communist planets with their production brigades, the ultra-Christian invaders, etc... Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2006 by Steve

3.0 out of 5 stars Light entertainment
This is a lighter, more humorous take on the future from Ken Macleod. While humour has always been part of his work, this seems to be his funniest, most sardonic work. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2006 by Brian Reilly

4.0 out of 5 stars Now I've skein it all
My SF reading has been pretty sketchy in the past but I was interested in getting back into it again. Read more
Published on 20 Jul 2005 by wallybrane

5.0 out of 5 stars Silly, but clever and funny
Sounds like the humour in this one isn't for everyone, but I found it extremely funny; kind of Christopher Brookmyre in space.
Published on 21 Feb 2005 by A reader

3.0 out of 5 stars Reasonably entertaining but ulitimately disappointing
This is a book with a number of good ideas and is reasonably entertaining. Unfortunately the author's sense of humour tends to the juvenile and the plot development is rather... Read more
Published on 6 Jul 2004 by S. Murphy

1.0 out of 5 stars By far his weakest
I've enjoyed his earlier work but this is bar far his weakest so far.

Whilst maintaining his humour the plot is weak and contrived, I couuldn't identify withthe characters and... Read more

Published on 21 May 2004 by P. Fulford

4.0 out of 5 stars Ken needs a new idea
That Ken MacLeod is one of the most talented SF writers currently around is beyond doubt, but one does wish he would get a new paradym to explore. Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2004 by Cruachan

5.0 out of 5 stars An enthralling return to form.
A genuinely inventive and enjoyable read; for me, a return to form after the ever-so-slightly disappointing "Engines of Light" trilogy. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2004 by S. SKIPSEY

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