As is often the case with Ken MacLeod, his novel The Night Sessions is more political science fiction than just science fiction. In this case MacLeod focuses his analysis on religion and fundamentalism. In a world ravaged by the Faith Wars of the early 21st century, a detective in Edinburgh needs to solve the murder of a priest that heralds the resurgence of religious fundamentalist violence.
It struck me as significant that there are no real benign believers in the novel – even so called moderate believers are exposed as relying on the same twisted dogma and illogic as the real fundies. Hard-line fundamentalist positions are often quite accepted doctrine within the religious community (see homosexuality and abortion), explaining why so-called moderates have so much difficulty disassociating themselves from their own related fundamentalists.
In a novel packed with ideas, MacLeod almost in passing mentions the possibility of the Vatican being bankrupted through class-action suits by African AIDS victims. What a brilliant idea. That certainly would be deserved payback for this.