The
Cassini Division /kæsini di’vizhen/ n. 1. an
area of Saturn’s rings discovered in 1675 by Jean-Dominique Cassini which
appear empty when viewed from Earth due to a lower density of material.
2. The title of the third novel by British author Ken MacLeod.
3.
An elite security force stationed on the Jovian moon Callisto in the
novel of the same name.
The
Cassini Division is set in a twenty-fourth century socialist society in
which mankind has populated the solar system.
There are pockets of resistance to the idea of the Solar Union, some
of which, such as the non-cooperatives (non-co) outside of London, are
tolerated.
In addition, there are several groups of post-humans, such as the
Jovians or the Outwarders, who have downloaded their brains into mechanical
creations and are viewed by the Solar Union with xenophobia tending toward
genocidal actions.
The
novel, in style and plot, is reminiscent of some of the later writings of
Robert Heinlein or John Varley, although without the gender-swapping motifs.
At the same time, the socialist values espoused on the surface (and
the chapter titles) have a feeling of H.G. Wells to them.
The novel, however, does not feel like anything Wells would have
written.
The
main character, Ellen May Ngwethu, is the effective commander of a team
working in the Cassini Division.
Told from her viewpoint, the novel moves between her experiences on
her current assignment to her memories of a childhood two centuries earlier
to the dreams which plague her sleep.
Although MacLeod is careful to make it clear whether Ngwethu is
remembering, dreaming, or experiencing the events, the constant time shifts
are disjointed and harm the novel’s pacing.
There
is a subtle irony running through the novel.
The even when almost the entire society is socialist, there are fears
of viruses, which, it becomes evident fairly quickly, are really simply
ideas which are anathema to the socialist mentality.
Isambard Malley, a non-co scientist who the Cassini Division needs
for his scientific expertise, also offers a non-socialist look at the
processes and structures of the society.
The
Cassini Division suffers from a lot of info dump.
MacLeod has created a complex society, but in order to make sure the
reader understands the society, MacLeod has let his Ngwethu give the reader
several history lessons, which, added to the time disjunctures, further
damages the pacing of the novel, particularly in the early chapters when
MacLeod is attempting to define his characters, provide background
information, and get his plot into motion.
In a longer novel, this may not have been a problem, but The
Cassini Division is relatively short and the amount of space taken up
with Ngwethu’s lectures stands out.
Ngwethu also makes frequent parenthetical asides which further drop
the reader out of the story since they are clearly for the reader’s
benefit, any person within the actual story knowing, for instance, that
c-mail is “chemical mail.”
MacLeod
has loaded The Cassini Division with a multitude of ideas, many of
which deserve to be explored in a much longer work.
Unfortunately, he seems to be trying to throw everything and the
kitchen sink into this one novel with the result that the reader has a sense
of overfill, trying to determine which ideas are important and which are
just neat ideas.
MacLeod’s methods for presenting these ideas also indicate that he
wanted to share all of his background work with his audience rather than
trust the audience to extrapolate from a few hints he provides.
