Best Selling Books by Keith Brooke

The aliens are here, all around us. They always have been. And now, one by one, they''re destroying our cities. Dodge Mercer deals in identities, which is fine until the day he deals the wrong identity and clan war breaks out. Hope Burren has no identity, and no past, struggling with a relentless choir of voices filling her head. In a world where nothing is as it seems, where humans are segregated and aliens can sing realities and tear worlds apart, Dodge and Hope lead a ragged band of survivors in a search for the rumoured sanctuary of Harmony, and what may be the only hope for humankind.

Strange Divisions and Alien Territories explores the sub-genres of science fiction from the perspectives of a range of top SF authors. Combining a critical viewpoint with the exploration of the challenges and opportunities facing authors working in the field, contributors include Michael Swanwick, Catherine Asaro and Paul di Filippo.

A brash entrepreneur buys a small company as a platform for his big ideas, and the General Genetics Corporation is born. GenGen has a vision for the future of humankind, and the company will stop at nothing to get its own way. Nine stories of sex, drugs and manipulation from an author described by Locus as "in the recognized front ranks of SF writers". Includes new story "Faking It". ''Faking It is the supersoundbite version of Brooke''s growth as a writer... very inventive and clever... five stars for entertainment value'' – André Jute ''I recommend anyone interested in inventive near-future SF to give this cost-effective e-book collection a try, before moving on to Brooke''s excellent and more recently written novels'' – D Douglas Fratz, SF Site ''if you''re looking for great, well-written new science fiction novels by writers you have a reason to trust, then Brooke is now your man'' – Trashotron ''a progressive and skilful writer'' – Peter F Hamilton

Jed Brindle is an alien. At least, that''s what they call him on Earth. He''s really a colony-bred soldier - augmented with cyborg implants - with the Extraterran Peacekeeping Force, fighting for control of what used to be the United States. When he and his squad are sent behind enemy lines on a kidnap operation, it isn''t long before things start to go wrong. Marooned in the desert with two wounded comrades and his quarry, Jed''s mission becomes not just a struggle for survival but also a journey to rediscover the quiet, reliable farm boy he was before he became a machine for killing. "...should be required reading for anyone who still subscribes to the popular, dangerous fantasy of the nobility of war." (Lisa Tuttle, Time Out) "It has been several years since a first novel has grabbed me the way Keith Brooke''s Keepers of the Peace did. It''s a well-crafted, very personal look at the way war changes (and doesn''t change) a kid from the sticks ... It is smooth, clean and elegant; a very straightforward book whose writing recalls the 1950s Heinlein, telling the tale without getting in the way." (Tom Whitmore, Locus) "This is a very fine debut novel ... Recommended both for the vision of the future and the excellent characterisation." (Paul Brazier, Nexus) "Brooke balances action with introspection, the lyrical with a gritty documentary ''realism'' in stark contrast to the usual shoot-''em-up adventure. Anyone who has thrilled to the exploits of lunar rebels or others among sf''s doughty warriors should read Keepers of the Peace - as an antidote. It''s a gripping story of challenge and skin-of-the-teeth survival, but it''s also much more: an anti-war testament with a direct power that requires no preaching." (Faren Miller, Locus)

Multiple personalities fighting for control of a single body; a single personality constantly splitting and reinventing itself and its past; a Mars that never was; an interstellar war that has always been. Nine science-fiction stories, each with a new afterword, from an author described by Locus as "in the recognized front ranks of SF writers". ''"Jurassic and the Great Tree", with its brilliant and remorseless anthropological logic, resembles Michael Bishop at his best. But that''s because it''s well-argued anthropology, rather than well-copied Bishop.'' –Simon Ings, Foundation ''a dazzling work of the imagination.'' –SF Site, of Brooke''s The Accord "I am so here! Genetopia is a meditation on identity - what it means to be human and what it means to be you - and the necessity of change. It''s also one heck of an adventure story. Snatch it up!" –Michael Swanwick

Eleven stories from the darkest reaches of Keith Brooke''s imagination, each with a new afterword. Revisit the haunts of your youth, retell the story of your life, embrace your inner demons. Listen to the voices, go on... ''Keith Brooke is a wonderful writer. His great gift is taking us into worlds we never imagined...'' –Kit Reed ''Keith Brooke''s prose achieves a rare honesty and clarity, his characters always real people, his situations intriguing and often moving.'' –Jeff VanderMeer ''in the recognized front ranks of SF writers.'' –Locus

An eighty year old cold case murder investigation that stretches across light years and risks the future of mankind’s new home. A hard SF/crime crossover from two respected and well-likednames in SF. --- 2110. Earth is suffering major resource shortages, and the impact of climate change is peaking, with much of the planet’s equatorial regions turned to lifeless desert and populations displaced. Colonies have been established on Mars and the Moon, but these cannot hope to sustain any more than a scant population of hundreds of citizens. Attention has turned to the need to discover an extra-solar colony world. European scientists, using discoveries made at CERN, have identified the means of creating a wormhole in the space-time continuum, which would allow interstellar travel. However, to do so they must first physically transport one end of the wormhole to where they want it to be, so settingup a wormhole will always rely on physical travel first of all. A ship is sent to Mu Arae, earth-like planet discovered 10 years before. It is a journey that will take 80 years, the crew, who will eventually set up the wormhole on the planet, kept in suspended animation. But only a few years into the trip, catastrophe strikes and the ship blows up en route, killing all aboard. 2190, eighty years after the starship set out. Gordon Kemp is a detective working in the cold case department in London. Usually he works on cases closed ten, twenty-five years earlier. Now, however, he has been assigned a murder investigation closed, unsolved, over eighty years ago. What he unearths will change history and threatens everything we know about what the powers that be have planned for Earth. The tragedy that befell the ship 80 years before is not what it seems and the past and the present are radically different to what everyone on Earth believes. We made the journey. Why has it been kept a secret? File Under: Science Fiction [ Who wants to live forever? | Old caps | New Worlds | Believe no one ]

"One of the finest novels of virtual reality yet written" (SF Site) The Accord, a virtual utopia where the soul lives on after death and your perceptions are bound only by your imagination. This is the setting for a tale of love, murder and revenge that crosses the boundaries between the real world and this virtual reality. When Noah and Priscilla escape into the Accord to flee Priscilla''s murderous husband, he plots to destroy the whole Accord and them with it. How can they hope to escape their stalker when he can become anything or anyone he desires and where does the pursuit of revenge stop for immortals in an eternal world? "The emotion-driven love triangle neatly complements the tech- and philosophy-heavy nature of the Accord, making this rumination on posthumous, posthuman love a rare treat." Publishers Weekly 5* review "Brooke''s fifth science-fiction novel is an intelligent examination of the technological possibilities of VR and a brilliant dissection of how individuals and society will change when freed from material bounds. The Accord is not only Brooke''s best novel to date, but one of the finest to broach the subject of virtual reality." The Guardian "A truly major sf work that should be considered for all eligible awards." SFF World "Keith Brooke''s take on posthumanism is one of the best approaches of the subject I''ve ever seen." SF Signal "As well as being a masterful story, The Accord is a feat of daring and accomplished composition... Romantic, edgy, moving, tight and fast, The Accord is Keith Brooke on incandescent form and in an angry, sweary mood. The Accord offers a sense of obscene wonder the likes of which this reviewer might not have felt since Geoff Ryman''s The Child Garden. This is Keith Brooke at his absolute best." Interzone "One of my favourite headfuck metaphysical sci-fi novels." James Everington, author of Falling Over

Trace: a country where magic is dying out. A country at war with itself. A country where the prophecies of the Book of the World have started to come true. Bligh: a young foreigner, drawn irresistibly to the war in Trace. A man who has rejected religion, yet appears to be possessed by one of the six Lords Elemental. Bligh thinks he''s going mad, but if he is then it''s a madness shared by others... Gritty and passionate, Lord of Stone is a fantasy for the new millennium by the acclaimed author of The Accord and Genetopia. ''Satisfying prose ... well realised and visualised characters ... powerful and vivid portrayal of the conditions of war.'' –Eric Brown ''Keith Brooke''s prose achieves a rare honesty and clarity, his characters always real people, his situations intriguing and often moving.'' –Jeff VanderMeer "I am so here! Genetopia is a meditation on identity - what it means to be human and what it means to be you - and the necessity of change. It''s also one heck of an adventure story. Snatch it up!'' –Michael Swanwick ''Genetopia is quite remarkably fascinating.'' –John Clute

"Keith Brooke''s prose achieves a rare honesty and clarity, his characters always real people, his situations intriguing and often moving." World Fantasy Award-winner Jeff VanderMeer With his health failing, the great mage Donn has chosen to pass on his Talents to a new generation: an old era is drawing to a close, a new era about to begin. But with change comes instability. War looms and a rogue church leader threatens to set loose the wild powers of the First City. Donn''s children must oppose this man but, also, they must contend with Donn himself: the old mage has not finished with his children yet. On the run from the religious repression of the mainland, Leeth Hamera joins a group of outcasts on the Serpent''s Back, a continually changing island continent in the middle of a lava sea. Leeth has never lived up to the expectations of his wealthy merchant family and his only magical skill is the lowly Talent of bonding with animals. But, as he learns, the greatest Talents can sometimes be the slowest to emerge. The leader of the outcasts is Chi, son of Donn and the greatest healer of his generation. Chi is in exile for breaking the Embodied Church''s edict against intervening in the natural order: many years ago Chi used his skills to revive his son from the dead. That son, Lachlan Pas, is now a church leader tortured by the guilty knowledge of what his father had to do to return him to life. When he learns Chi is still alive, he orders his execution, determined that his secret should never be exposed. Until now, Chi has been content to live in exile but now he knows that his son''s insane and cruel rule must be stopped. Chi summons his half-siblings from throughout the inhabited lands of the Rift valley. The need for action is confirmed when one of them reveals that Lachlan and his mage, Oriole, are rebuilding the ancient city of Samhab - an act which will release the powers of the earth with unforeseeable consequences. Welcome to the magical island city of Zigané, endlessly adrift in the southern lava sea; the searing soda plains home of the Morani warriors; the impenetrable Zochi jungle, full of illusion and hidden hazard; the charmed fortress-like City of the Divine Wall; and Samhab, the fantastic First City of the True, built at the geographical centre of the Rift, where the magical powers of the earth rise up to be set free by the earth-charmers and mages. The novel''s cast of shape-changers, earth-charmers, healers and illusionists must battle to save civilization from the evil rule of Lachlan Pas and his followers. For whoever controls the power of Samhab controls the future of the world. "A progressive and skilful writer." Peter F Hamilton, author of the Night''s Dawn trilogy "In the recognized front ranks of SF writers." Locus

"A minor masterpiece that should usher Brooke at last into the recognized front ranks of SF writers" (Locus) The village: a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else. Here, houses can be grown out of the dirt; livestock and the sub-human mutts can be changed into something else, something other; and fleshy, drastically mutated Oracles guide humankind on the delicate path of survival. The wildlands: the land between human settlements where animals that are not animals live among plants that are not plants, and people who might not be people live in fear of human intervention. Out here organic AIs grow in the wildlands, either worshiped or feared; trees sing to each other; and tempting, dark fruit hang from the branches. Out here nothing can be trusted, nothing is necessarily as it seems, and no sane human would ever want to set foot. Out here is Flint''s missing sister. Genetopia is the story of a young man in search of his possibly abducted sister in a far future where nano- and biotechnology have transformed and accelerated the evolution of humans and their strangely altered surroundings. In this world, you can never take anything - or anyone - at face value. Illness and contact with the unknown are always to be feared, as viruses re-engineer genes and germ cells, migrating traits from species to species through plague and fever. Humankind lives in isolated communities, connected by trade routes, and always fighting to keep the unclean at arm''s length. But if Flint is to find his sister he must brave the fevers, the legendary beasts, the unknown. He must enter strange communities and seek help in the most unlikely places. He must confront both his own dark past and the future of his kind. He must go into the wildlands. Flint''s story is the story of the last true humans, and of the struggles between those who want to defend their heritage and those who choose to embrace the new. But Flint doesn''t see it like that: he just wants to find his sister.

Until he found the mermaid it had been a normal day for Joseph Wheatley: on leaving his house he had found something vile smeared across the door, and later some children in the street had called names and thrown a few stones. No one had threatened to kill him, at least. Wheatley was a Riding Officer, employed by the local Collector of Customs to patrol the shore between Beaumont and Harwich, a part of the on-going struggle against the smuggling gangs who used this coast for their illegal activities. As almost every family in these parts either worked for, or bought goods from, the so-called "Free Traders" his role was not a popular one. A story of duty and adventure, in an eighteenth century England where worlds collide and mermaids might just wash up on the beach. An alternate history SF novelette from the writer of the Philp K Dick Award-shortlisted Harmony, an author "in the recognized front ranks of SF writers" (Locus).

Both authors shortlisted for the 2013 Philip K Dick Award "The stories in this collection are among the best science fiction. These are stories imbued with a rich intelligence and a deep sense of humanity. These are mature stories, tales of love and loss, of pleasure and pain. Cherish them." - from the foreword by Stephen Baxter Parallax View showcases ''In Transit'', written specially for this collection, a novella set in a future war-torn universe in which human expansion has come up against the implacable Kryte. Xeno-psychologist Abbott finds himself the guardian of a deadly Kryte on a mission to study it on his return to Earth. When they crash-land on the fortress planet of St Jerome, the Kryte prisoner turns the tables and takes Abbott into terrible custody. What follows is a terrifying journey across a hellish landscape towards a finale that might change the destiny of the Kryte and humanity, forever... Plus six other stories that examine the interface between human and alien - a parallax view from two of Britain''s top science fiction writers, both shortlisted for the 2012 Philip K Dick Award.

This anthology draws together some of the best new stories of mystery and murder—compiled by the Anthony Award–winning crime fiction editor. This anthology collects the most original stories of murder by some of mystery fiction''s most inventive talents from the United States and United Kingdom. With innovative new takes on locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes, these short stories are full of vexing conundrums and reality-defying puzzles. A murder has been committed—but how could it have happened? Curated by Maxim Jakubowski, one of the crime genre’s most renowned editors, this volume features never-before-seen stories by acclaimed authors—including British Science Fiction Award–winner Eric Brown, Derringer Award–winner O''Neil de Noux, and multiple CWA Dagger Award–winners and nominees.

After a brief hiatus, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine is back with a new issue and a new editor. Here are tales in mystery and detection in the classic manner, with a fine selection of new stories, features, and a classic Holmes reprint. Here are: BEAUTY AND THE BEYOTCH, by Barb Goffman THE CASE OF THE COLONEL’S SUICIDE, by Rafe McGregor THE HOLMES IMPERSONATOR AND THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS, by Janice Law THE BODY IN THE BACKYARD, by Peter DiChellis THE ADVENTURE OF THE GEEK INTERPRETER, by Hal Charles CEREAL KILLING, by J.P. Seewald LAST WISH AND TESTAMENT, by V.P. Kava FROM GREEN TO RED, by Mike McHone FAILURE TO OBEY, by Rebecca K. Jones TRACE EVIDENCE, by Keith Brooke THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Features by Darrell Schweitzer, Kim Newman, and Martha Hudson. Edited by Carla Kaessinger Coupe.

MURDER? THAT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING... The descendants of Expatria''s first colonists from Earth have rejected technology. When Mathias Hanrahan, heir to the primacy of Newest Delhi, wants to reintroduce the old ways he is framed for his father''s murder and forced to flee. Recruited by a research team which is trying to relearn the ancient technologies, he goes to work for them, and against a background of impending war, Mathias discovers that strange messages are coming from space. "Book of the Month ... The mix of semi-pastoral life and scientific research is convincingly handled ... The underlying conflict between religion and science is finely wrought ... an absorbing piece of fiction. Highly recommended." (Gamesmaster International) "Books like this are proving that the British can write SF as good as any American... This is a marvellous book that, despite the sequel ... is a complete novel in itself. Treat yourself: buy both, and read them over and over." (Nexus) "Brooke lies somewhere between Peter Dickinson and Barrington J Bayley in his novels: he tells one story, concentrating on one set of characters, while great events go on around them that are almost peripheral to their lives, but he does it with intense concentration and understanding ... Brooke is an author well worth reading ... I hope some publisher over here makes him available to American audiences." (Locus) ..".brought beautifully to life ... I enjoyed this book a great deal and will definitely buy the sequel." (Critical Wave)

...AND THE LORD COMMANDED HER TO UNPLUG. For Katya Tatin, a passionate believer in and employee of the Holy Corporation of GenGen, the opportunity to join the mission to the recently rediscovered colony of Expatria is much more than a chance to spread the gospel. For her, it represents a break with the past on Earth, with the Consumer Wars and the subversives who seek to undermine the standing of the Holy Corporation itself. It offers a chance to reconfirm her faith. On Expatria itself, and on the ancient arkships that orbit the planet, the news of the impending arrival of a mission from Earth further complicates an already murderously complex web of religious and political intrigue. For some, it looks like salvation from a backward-looking, superstition-ridden society; for others, it looks suspiciously like an invasion. "For Katya, a devout apparatchik of the Holy Corporation of GenGen, her voyage to newly colonised Expatria is a chance to confirm a faith that has been undermined by her rebellious brother. That subversion, though, has only just begun in a story that brilliantly shows a world in which religious belief is used to secular advantage--where creeds are implanted along with genes."(The Times) "I have to admit to being truly astonished that this book, which is a direct sequel to Expatria, is neither simply the second half of one long story nor is it a lazy reworking of the first in a slightly different form. What we have here is a first-class novel of character that just happens to be set on the same world and use some of the same characters as the first novel. Keith Brooke has achieved something quite rare, in that the characters who we first met and saw grow and change in the first novel we now encounter and, knowing where they are coming from, can watch and enjoy and see them grow and change anew when their society changes due to new and different pressures. The first novel was of pressures from within, this one is of pressure from without, and both explore the effects superbly."(Nexus)

Temptation, indulgence, exploration and shortcuts. Love and compulsion. An ocean in Kansas, the Magic Lino, the real story behind the one told by Robert Louis Stevenson, a chef dying of ennui, gathering bluebirds, paying with candywrap. And the greatest story ever told--by Asher E. Treat, of course. The glorious chaos of singing, prancing, perfumed and stinking, the dead and the busy, tragic and achingly otherwise--life itself.

A spaceship hurtles into the unknown carrying humanity''s last hope, but does it also carry the seeds of its own doom? The galaxy''s ultimate facilitator finds himself pursued by relentless enemies, while, of greater importance, there''s a puzzle to be solved. A trivial disagreement between two off-duty super soldiers out for some R&R escalates and escalates, eventually endangering an entire world... Thirteen tales of human striving, of ingenuity, brilliance, desperate action, violence, and resolution. Thirteen tales of Conflict, of Science Fiction at its absolute best. Includes stories by Neal Asher, Eric Brown, Andy Remic, Keith Brooke, Michael Cobley, Chris Beckett, Martin Sketchley, and many more.

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our July 2015 issue (#105) contains: Original Fiction by Sam J. Miller ("When Your Child Strays From God"), Kay Chronister ("Further North"), Natalia Theodoridou ("Android Whores Can''t Cry"), Pan Haitian ("Hunger Tower"), and Yoon Ha Lee ("Snakes"). Reprints by Keith Brooke ("The Accord") and Adam Roberts ("Hair"). Non-fiction by Tomas Petrasek (Eternal Wanderers Between Fire and Ice), interviews with Kim Stanley Robinson and Pan Haitian, an Another Word column by Genevieve Valentine, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

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