So, they sent robots to another planetary system, and some humans whose consciousnesses had been uploaded when they died, and the robots started mining an exo-moon and then accidentally developed self-awareness. Meanwhile the uploaded humans were living in a very realistic virtual reality, and fighting while piloting small humanoid robot bodies, called “frames”, against… Which is where it gets a bit complicated…

There were two political factions on Earth, the Reaction (Rax) and the Acceleration (Axe), both of whom were fighting against late-stage capitalism through various acts of terror, the former wanting a return to earlier political systems, the latter trying to power through capitalism to something better. Out of this war arose the Direction, a global government. It’s the Direction which is trying to colonise another planetary system, which features a super-habitable exoplanet. But a legal dispute has come up in the exo-system and two law firms (both subsidiaries of another firm), each controlled by an AI, are now settling their dispute. With war.

Meanwhile, the Axe uploaded humans have settled in a VR based on a popular fantasy MMRPG while they plot to prevent the Rax in the other VR (where much of the first book, Dissidence (2016, UK) was set) from actually physically settling on the exoplanet. Except the Rax are no longer in charge of that other law firm, and some of the Axe have defected to the self-aware robots, who have decided they’re neutral.

Despite the complexity of the background, and the politics which drives the plot, Insurgence (2016, UK) is a fast-paced read. The narrative focuses on a handful of characters, each representing different factions, so giving the reader a pretty good overview of what’s happening. The level of invention is light, but clever, and MacLeod manages to keep the reader guessing as to who are the actual good guys (although pretty much everyone has something really bad in their past). Like most middle books of trilogies, there’s a lot of movement, as characters move around and events are set in motion for the final volume. If you’re going to read one book about self-aware robots and uploaded humans fighting a complicated political war over an exoplanet, make it these three. If that makes sense.