Clarke's SF books

[M Holmes]

Denis Regenbrecht writes:

> Hi,
>
> M Holmes wrote:
>
> >Some scientists do write good SF. Just look at Robert Forward's stuff
> >for example.
>
> That's right, of course. I just wanted to say that _that_ particular
> scientist isn't the best author in the history of SF.
>
> >Best read "The Star Fraction" before that one since some of the
> >characters reappear, and their android replicas really are playing up
> >again.
>
> Thanks for the recommendation.

A quick outline for the others:

Ken writes what you might call political hard speculative fiction. He's
pretty knowledgable on the various strands of international politics of
the left but also very interested in anarchocapitalism. The Star
Fraction is set in the not too distant future when the UK has had a
socialist revolution which was quashed by the UN with the Hanoverian
regime being restored. However, in this settlement, each political
faction has been assigned its own area. Greens rule most of central
England; socialist revolutionaries most of northern Scotland, and
various factions own parts of the south, including the anarchocapitalist
Space and Freedom Party who own North London Town.

The plot involves the meeting of a mercenary from a socialist
collective, and his very smart gun; a hacker refugee from a religious
commune; a woman doing illegal research into smart drugs; and an illegal
AI which is planning the next socialist revolution and is on the run
from the Turing Police and the UN.  The chapter titles, such as The
Fifth Colour Country (I'll explain it if you like), are the sort of
jokes beloved of political hacks and computer geeks.

FoFP