Ken MacLeod (born 2 August
1954), an award-winning Scottish
science fiction writer, lives in South
Queensferry
near
Edinburgh
.
MacLeod
graduated from Glasgow
University
with a degree in zoology and
has worked as a computer
programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics.His
novels often explore
socialist,
communist and
anarchist political ideas, most
particularly the variants of
Trotskyism
and
anarcho-capitalism or extreme
economic
libertarianism. Technical
themes encompass
singularities, divergent human
cultural evolution and
post-human cyborg-
resurrection.
MacLeod's general outlook can be best described as
techno-utopian socialist, though unlike a
majority of techno-utopians, he has expressed great scepticism over
the possibility and especially over the desirability of
Strong AI.
He is known for his constant in-joking and punning on the
intersection between socialist ideologies and computer programming,
as well as other fields. For example, his chapter titles such as
"Trusted Third Parties" or "Revolutionary Platform" usually have
double (or multiple) meanings. A future programmers union is called
"International Workers of the World Wide Web", or the
Webblies, a reference to the
Industrial Workers of the
World, who are nicknamed the
Wobblies. There are also
many references to, or puns on, zoology and palaeontology. For
example in
The Stone Canal the title of the book, and many
places described in it, are named after anatomical features of
marine invertebrates such as
starfish.
He is part of a new generation of British science fiction writers,
who specialise in
hard science
fiction and
space opera. His
contemporaries include
Stephen
Baxter,
Iain M. Banks,
Alastair
Reynolds,
Adam
Roberts,
Charles Stross,
Richard Morgan and
Liz Williams.
Bibliography
Fall Revolution series
- The Star Fraction
(1995; US paperback ISBN 0-7653-0156-3) -- Prometheus Award winner, 1996; Clarke Award
nominee, 1996
- The Stone Canal (1996;
US paperback ISBN 0-8125-6864-8) -- Prometheus Award winner, 1998;
BSFA nominee, 1996
- The Cassini
Division (1998; US paperback ISBN 0-312-87044-2) -- BSFA
nominee, 1998 ; Clarke, and Nebula Awards nominee, 1999
- The Sky Road (1999; US
paperback ISBN 0-8125-7759-0) BSFA Award winner, 1999 ; Hugo Award
nominee, 2001 – represents an 'alternate future' to the second two
books, as its events diverge sharply due to a choice made
differently by one of the protagonists in the middle of The
Stone Canal
Engines of Light Trilogy
A series
which begins with a first contact story in a
speculative mid-21st century where a resurgently socialist USSR
(incorporating the European Union) is
once again in opposition with the capitalist United States
, then diverges into a story told on the other side
of the galaxy of Earth-descended colonists trying to establish
trade and relations within an interstellar empire of several
species who travel from world to world at the speed of light.
- Cosmonaut Keep (2000; US
paperback ISBN 0-7653-4073-9) -- Clarke Award nominee, 2001 ; Hugo
Award nominee, 2002
- Dark Light (2001; US
paperback ISBN 0-7653-4496-3) -- Campbell Award nominee, 2002
- Engine City (2002;
US paperback ISBN 0-7653-4421-1)
Other work
- Newton's Wake: A
Space Opera (2004; US paperback edition ISBN
0-7653-4422-X) -- BSFA nominee, 2004 ; Campbell Award nominee,
2005
- Learning the World: A
Novel of First Contact (2005; UK hardback edition ISBN
1-84149-343-0) Prometheus Award
winner 2006; Hugo, Locus SF, Campbell and Clarke Awards nominee,
2006 ; BSFA nominee, 2005
- The Highway Men (2006;
UK edition ISBN 1-905207-06-9)
- The Execution
Channel (2007; UK hardback edition ISBN 1841493481 ISBN
978-1841493480) -- BSFA Award nominee, 2007 ; Campbell, and Clarke
Awards nominee, 2008
- The Night Sessions
(2008; UK hardback edition ISBN 1841496510 ISBN 978-1841496511) --
Winner Best Novel 2008 BSFA
- The Restoration Game (2009)
Short fiction
(incomplete selection)
Collections
- Poems & Polemics (2001; Rune Press: Minneapolis,
MN) Chapbook of non-fiction and poetry.
- Giant Lizards
From Another Star (2006; US trade hardcover ISBN
1-886778-62-0) Collected fiction and nonfiction.
Analysis
The
Science Fiction
Foundation have published an analysis of MacLeod's work
The True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod
(2003; ISBN 0-903007-02-9) edited by
Andrew M. Butler and
Farah Mendlesohn. As well as critical
essays it contains material by MacLeod himself, including his
introduction to the German edition of Banks'
Consider Phlebas.
Awards
References
External links
Interviews
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search