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Arthur C Clarke Award short profiles: Ken MacLeod
10/03/2008 . Source: Jessica Martin 
Ken MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction writer with strong socialist leanings based near Edinburgh - and he is a good friend with fellow SF jock Iain M Banks. Buy The Execution Channel in the USA - or Buy The Execution Channel in the UK  And here's our review of his book that's been selected for the Clarke shortist...
check out website: www.orbitbooks.net and www.tor-forge.com
In the early days of SF, when alternative histories were popular, the term Jonbar Hinge was coined. This is an event, the outcome of which can change the course of history. In many instances, the significant point that changes history is a what if... moment. One of the classics is in Ward Moore's 'Bring The Jubilee' in which the Confederates win the American Civil War. Closer to now, several authors have speculated on what would have happened if Hitler had won the Second World War or his invasion of Britain had succeeded, as for example in Philip K. Dick's 'A Man In A High Castle' or Len Deighton's 'SS GB'. In 'The Sundial In The Grave' by Mary Gentle, one faction wants to cause a deviation from history as we know it, the other allow events to unfold naturally. The idea that a very small event can alter the progress of history is explored by Jon Courtney Grimwood in 'Stamping Butterflies'.
In some novels it is obvious from the first page that this is an alternative history. Ken MacLeod is much more subtle. It isn't until you are a hundred pages into 'The Execution Channel', when one of the character posts a message on the Internet, that you realise that this is an alternative modern history. The key event is the Florida vote in the 2000 presidential election. What would have happened if Gore had won? Would anything have changed? 9/11 would probably still have happened. It means nothing to al-Qaeda who is in charge in the White House. So subsequent events are highly likely to still have happened. The differences in intervening years would probably be small so that this close to the hinge, they are not truly noticeable. Changing history is a major undertaking, whereas small events are very capable of changing the course of individual lives. It is these changes that make for a good plot-line. They also go a long way to explaining the alliance between Russia, China and France as an opposing faction to the warmongering USA and Britain.
The action revolves around the members of one family. Roisin Travis is one of the few members remaining at the peace camp outside Leuchars Airbase in Scotland. She witnesses and photographs the arrival of a strange object on an American transport plane just before the base erupts in an apparent nuclear explosion. The group rapidly decamp, aiming to get the pictures into the public domain as soon as possible. Then Grangemouth oil refinery goes up shortly followed by the M40 near Birmingham as supporting pillars are blown away. Chaos reigns.
Caught in the traffic hold up on the motorway is her father, James Travis. He works for a software company but has been secretly working for the French for the last few years. He falls under suspicion for causing the explosions. His proximity to the motorway explosion does not help his case.
Alex Travis, James' son, is a soldier in the army based in Kazakhstan. When the situation escalates, he is arrested.
The novel takes its title from a TV channel. The technology has developed in subtle ways. Surveillance cameras in many places have had secretly built into them, the ability to detect sudden or high-pitched noises that indicate violence or torture. The Execution Channel broadcasts world-wide, deaths by violence. For Roisin and James, the situation dramatically changes when Alex's death is broadcast on the channel.
This book is very tightly and logically plotted. If it has any problems, it is that too many of the characters deal either with software programming, data manipulation or Internet broadcasting. Since they are frequently using the technology, at times and especially towards the beginning of the book, they are not easy to distinguish. It is, however, a good indictment of modern life and is an edgy novel of how much of what is detailed here and really takes place?
'The Execution Channel' belongs to a growing cadre of near future technological thrillers but is also a development in the alternative history sub-genre of Science Fiction.
Pauline Morgan
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