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The "Engines of Light" series (starting with "Cosmonaut Keep", which I read awhile back and really ought to write up) is an interesting epic of political (as you'd expect from MacLeod, given the Fall Revolution series) SF, very much in the "toss the reader in in the middle and let him figure it out for himself" school.
There is a complex history here, involving planets populated with humans snatched centuries ago from Earth, and humans who eventually figure out star travel for themselves, and a few humans that are mysteriously immortal, and stuff like that.
Some of these mysteries are mysteries to the people involved, and some of them are just things that MacLeod doesn't want to go all expository and tell us about, so we have to extract it slowly from the passing dialogue and action (or, ehem, go out onto Google and find a review that explains it for us). Normally I like some of this in SF (it exercises the brain, and makes me feel smart). I could have done with a bit less of it in this series.
One of the great mysteries of the series is what the superhuman race (races?) that have been moving humans around and stuff are actually up to. We find out some of that in this book, but in a way and with a content that left me somehow unsatisfied. This may be a flaw in my expectations: maybe I was looking for a nice simple single explanation, and MacLeod is too good for that, and has given us a reality that's ambiguous and nuanced, sort of like the real reality.
Essentially they get a piece of the answer to their unknowns, and that piece basically says "the essence of the answer is [this]; that essence implies that the details are unimportant, and that what you need to do is [this]". I actually would have liked to hear some more of the details, and I wasn't entirely convinced that the one [this] really implied the other one. Maybe I just need to read it again.
Down at the human level (and this book has a bunch of levels) is MacLeod's signature picture of political organization and revolution, and how cities and nations and worlds can remake each other through struggle in the streets, and how the fate of civilizations can (or cannot) hinge on who happens to be gathered in what bar on which night, and who has broken bottles handy. Having no experience with this stuff myself I don't know how accurate it is, but it feels right.
Also good is the quasi Native American culture with its interesting distinction between men and women, and its hidden darkness; and the larger question of interplanetary relations and the role of traders who can't travel over lightspeed (I think it is), and therefore have to think in very long (and odd) timescales. MacLeod pulls all of this off quite convincingly, and we can only admire him for it.
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