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Learning The World by Ken Macleod
01/02/2006 . Source: Pauline Morgan 
pub: TOR/Forge. 303 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $33.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-31331-6). Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.tor.com
The idea of generation starships has been around for a very long time. It was probably the Russian scientist and writer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who first realised the necessity of space-going Noah's Arks for the colonisation of other worlds. He presented the idea in 'The Future Of Earth And Mankind' which was published in a collection of Russian scientific essays in 1928. Probably the first use of the concept in Science Fiction was a story by Don Wilcox, 'The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years', published in 1940. Since then, it has become a recurring theme.
Within this sub-genre of SF, there are endless variations but usually either the travellers pass the time in cryogenic sleep or the interior of the ship is a vast space where people can breed and their descendants complete the voyage. MacLeod has devised a twist to the latter. The neural systems of his human colonists have been enhanced by nanotechnology. This has been genetically wired into their DNA but only kicks in at puberty. Children get the chance of a relatively normal childhood before their develop their other qualities. One of these is immortality. Mankind has been expanding into space for a very long time. On arriving in a star system, they build various habitats around the primary, mining moons and asteroids for the raw materials. The effect at a distance is to turn the sun green because of the shell of vegetation. Some of the starship's inhabitants stay, some move on to the next system when the ship has been refuelled. Until now, they have met no other sentient species. As the ship enters the system that is its destination, they realise that one of the planets is the home to aliens. The dilemma is whether to go ahead with the colonisation, to abandon the system and move on or to try and reach an agreement with the aliens.
There are two major viewpoints in this novel. Atomic Discourse Gale is a teenager on the starship. She and her peer group are beginning to plan and design the habitats they intend to build once arrival is complete. Most of them want to get on with the task they have come here for. There is also the viewpoint of the aliens. These resemble bats. Among them is Darvin. One of his research projects is the search for the outer planet he believes is out there. By comparing a series of photographic plates he hopes to be the first to spot it. Instead, he finds a comet on a strange trajectory, which then disappears. The starship has been spotted though they do not at first realise what it is. Then it is realised that the star maps which show the colours of the stars have not been recorded erroneously by their ancestors, but they are increasingly turning green. Darvin's female friend, Kwarive, discovers that the shittles, a kind of dung beetle, have developed a form of electrical interference and seem to have developed electrical circuits. The humans are watching them.
For much of the novel, the developing awareness of the two species forms the focus. The dilemmas on both sides are touched upon but not dealt with in great depth. No more probably than they would if a similar situation arose here. The protagonists on both sides are young and intuitive rather than cautious philosophers. One of the problems that concerned me for large part of the novel was resolved correctly without Macleod falling into a trap other authors have. He knows what he is doing. If there is anything about the plot that I would quibble about, it is the time-scale. Everything seems to have been condensed for the sake of keeping the plot flowing and I wonder if we should have been given a greater sense of time so that the developments within the alien technology, in particular, have a chance to coalesce. The other thing that is missing is a sense of size. Although I don't expect the aliens to be using feet or metres, I would have expected a more sophisticated measuring system than a wingspan. With the advanced technology of the humans, some of my questions should have occurred to them. Macleod has kept a secret to near the end of the book, which makes it difficult to discuss the potential shortcomings without betraying it. This kind of thing makes the reviewer's life very difficult.
Pauline Morgan
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