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Engine City (Engines Of Light Book 3) by Ken MacLeod
01/01/2003 . Source: Katie McGivern 
Orbit. 271 page hardback. Price: £16.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-84149-148-9. 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.orbitbooks.co.uk
'Engine City' is the third book in Ken McLeod's series 'Engines of Light'.
It details the story of three Earth cosmonauts who build the first human light-speed ship and travel to distant worlds and try to stop the gods (who are the consciousness of stars) from destroying civilisations like we would destroy a fly buzzing about our head.
I have tried to write that last sentence about ten times and I still haven't told half of the plot intricacies. It is a huge plot contained within some tightly written, idea-packed prose. And it works.
I think that I enjoyed this book so much because it is like real life (insomuch as a Science Fiction novel populated by alien spider-monkeys and ancient ancestors annoying their descendants can be). The story it tells is both large scale and sweeping and also small and detailed.
You can read this book if you are interested in society and politics and the effects that individuals have on these institutions. Or you can read this book if you like the interplay between well-written and believable characters.
It also has one of enigmatic but also satisfying endings to a book, Ken McLeod did not shy away from a realistic (in the context of this book) ending, not sacrificing any of the characters' personality traits for an easy ending to this book.
I have read the second book in the series but I have not read the first one but the prologue in this book and explanations throughout the text explained a lot about the story and I thought that this book was more able to stand on its own.
Katie McGivern
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