The first part of this review contains no spoilers. The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod is a fantastic science fiction 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 post-war Britain, where the republican government has been overthrown by the monarchy and a new kingdom has been founded. After many failed violent revolutions to overthrow the monarch, the United States took control of the United Nations to form a new world order, all in the name of peace, called the USA/UN. In the “Peace Process,” the United States and the United Nations created mini states across Europe to allow political dissidents to have their own private communities. A way to contain anyone who could threaten the stability of the region in harmless subregions. The setting of the book becomes much more interesting when the introduction of the later American edition is added. MacLeod describes himself as a socialist and believes that the story of any science fiction novel should be derived from the author's beliefs about the nature of history and the future. MacLeod's socialist background gives him the materialistic view of history. The materialist view believes that constant upheavals of rulers and laws occur because technology changes faster than the former can adapt. Technology is seen as the root cause of social change and order, not the ruling class, and when technology allows people to bypass the ruling class, they are overthrown. This theory was popularized mainly by Lewis Henry Morgan, working from the framework of Karl Marx. MacLeod then throws a full curveball and tells the reader about his knowledge of Ludwig von Mises' famous Calculatio... in the center of the paper. ...starts to fall at the end, which is probably the most important part, after MacLeod decides to kill Moh. It was never really explained how the virus is able to kill Moh, his mind being human and not what the program was looking for or what they were able to interact with. Because of this, it seems that his death was predetermined from the beginning of the book to elicit an emotional response from readers. Also, for some strange reason, Janis decides to fight as a soldier in the NRA army for seemingly no reason. Are we supposed to believe that her previous fights with US/UN agents transformed her from a peaceful scientist to a gun-toting, booted soldier in the space of a week? Truly? And the gun that transforms into Moh's simulacrum is also extremely mundane and is visible from a mile away. All in all, a great book that has a bad aftertaste.