The first part of this review does not contain spoilers. The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod is a science fiction fantasy novel about love, loss, socialism, anarcho-capitalism, American-style "black helicopter" libertarianism, and the looming threat of a Fascist World Order The setting of Star Fraction is in the United Kingdom after World War III, where the republican government has been overthrown by the monarchy and a new kingdom has been established after numerous violent and failed revolutions. to overthrow the monarch, the United States took over from the UN to form a new world order, all in the name of peace, called United States/UN In "The Peace Process", the United States-. The United States and the UN created mini-states throughout Europe to allow political dissidents to have their own private communities. A way to contain any who would threaten the stability of the region in harmless sub-regions. The context of the book becomes much more interesting when we add the introduction to the latest American edition. MacLeod describes himself as a socialist and believes that the story of any science fiction novel must be derived from the author's beliefs about the nature of history and the future. MacLeod's socialist background gives him a materialist view of history. The materialist view believes that constant upheavals of leaders and laws occur as technology evolves faster than the former can adapt. Technology is seen as the primary cause of societal change and order, not the ruling class, and when technology allows people to bypass the ruling class, they are overthrown. This theory was popularized primarily by Lewis Henry Morgan, working within the framework of Karl Marx. MacLeod then throws a complete curveball and tells the reader about his knowledge of Ludwig von Mises' famous Calculatio...... middle of paper. .....starts to fall at the end, which is arguably the most important part, after MacLeod decides to kill Moh. It's never really explained how the virus is able to kill Moh, his mind being human and not at all what the program was looking for or what they could interact with. Because of this, it feels like his death was predetermined from the beginning of the book in order to elicit an emotional response from readers. Also for some strange reason, Janis decides to fight as a soldier in the ANR army for no apparent reason. We're supposed to believe that her previous fights with US and UN agents transformed her from a peaceful scientist to a gun-toting soldier in the span of a week? Really? And the gun that transforms into Moh's simulacrum is also extremely cheesy and is visible from a mile away. Overall, a great book that has a bad aftertaste..