My father-in-law sent me this book with a note attached: It’s like Rebus with IT. Fair enough then.
The IT in question is augmented reality (a layer of data over the real world in a kind of heads-up display on the lenses of spectacles) and strong artificial intelligence (autonomous, self-aware, walking talking, sleeping eating, living dolls).
It’s a homicide police procedural set in a slightly futuristic Edinburgh, there are databases of police ad public information, a splash of social media, a dash of mechanised defences and a space elevator that feels a bit tacked on at first but makes much more sense as the book goes on.
The religious motives for the murder seem a little ham fisted. I would be amazed if Ken MacLeod isn’t an atheist as the religious characters do tend to have some kind of traumatic experience in their past that has driven them towards the supernatural, but it’s most interesting when it comes to the artificial characters.
There’s only one form of self-aware aritificial intelligence in the story and they came about by accident. AI battle drones developed their consciousness through interation with the world, and then that world was stuck with them. They were born in war and are frustrated by their lack of purpose. Most of them retreat into hermitage.
It’s not as blunt as you might think. They’re not marked out by agression or brutality, but there are parts of this book that make up a sensitive study of how conflict can determine experience.
There are also parts of it that are slightly plodding and cliched, but it’s not a bad book for all that. A modern trawl through the reasons why someone might murder for beliefs.
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