Book Review The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod Essays

The first part of this review does not contain spoilers. Ken MacLeods The Star Fraction is a fantasic science fiction novel about love, loss, socialism, anarcho-capitalism, American-style ‘black helicopter’ libertarianism, and the looming threat of a fascistic world order. The Star Fractions setting is post World War III UK, where the republican government has been overthrown by the monarchy, and a new kingdom has been established. After many failed violent revolutions to over throw the monarch, the USA has taken over the UN to form a new world order, all in the name of peace, referred to as the US/UN. In The Peace Process, the US/UN created mini states throughout Europe to allow political dissidents to have their own private†¦show more content†¦What if capitalism is unstable, and socialism is impossible?† This fear is the impetus of the whole story, and yet the views of socialism and a belief of the Calculation Problem are still completely contradictory. I will not spoil the solution to this problem, you will just have to read the book. But I will say that libertarians will not be disappointed. The story centers around Moh Kohn, a socialist who works for a anarcho-capitalist style DRO organized into a co-op. The DRO is based in Norlonto, an anarcho-capitalist mini-state in the northern area of London where competing defense agencies give law services to its citizens. Moh, on a job outside of Norlonto, runs into Janis Taine. Janis, a researcher at a local university, buys Mohs protection when her research lands on the wrong side of the US/UNs regulations on scientific studies, which are enforced by the globally present secret police. Moh and Janis escape into Norlonto from the US/UN territories, and set off a drastic chain of events that involves subversive revolutionaries against the crown, Neo-Nazis, Christian totalitarian mini states, and the US/UNs desperate attempt to hold off trans-humanism, and further, the singularity. Yes, this not merely a book about ideologies, it could not reasonably be called science fiction if that were the case. The underlying struggle is stil l the authors claim that the ruling class will do its best to hold back the