SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this in May 1998.

Three hundred years from now a anarcho-communism has delivered a near Utopia on Earth. However, one enemy from Earth's history still exists and poses a risk to all of civilisation. This enemy are the god-like post-humans some of whom have made their home on Jupiter, and some escaped through a wormhole to "New Mars".

The Cassini Division is the defense organisation mandated by the Earth government to monitor and defend the Earth against this post-humans should they ever emerge from the depths of Jupiter, or from New Mars

Ellen May Ngwethu is one of the leaders of the Cassini Division. She knows full well the immense danger posed by the post-humans, and she has implemented a plan to destroy them once and for by destroying Jupiter itself. But she also has to be sure that New Mars can also be neutralised.

She knows what she's got to do, and she's got to do it secretly and quickly, since the rest of civilisation, if given an informed choice, may have moral qualms against destroying entire civilisations without even an initial attempt to communicate.

Now that gives absolutely no real idea of this very entertaining book. It's an exciting yet humorous thriller in a believable society supported by the most bizarre world-history. The clash of the anarcho-communists against the anarcho-capitalists is particular enjoyable.

What's it got? Mechanical nanotechnology, smart space-suits, transfer of human consciousness to computers, artificial intelligence, and wormholes,