Best Selling Books by Ken MacLeod

Science fiction-roman.

A major new hard science fiction novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Cassini Division and Cosmonaut Keep

An ambitious, stand-alone epic of far-future SF, from the acclaimed author of The Stone Canal

Science fiction-roman.

Ken MacLeod is one of the brightest and most progressive of Britain’s “Hard SF” stars who navigate exciting new futures to the delight of legions of fans around the world. His works combine cutting-edge scientific speculation, socialist and anarchist themes, and a deeply humanistic vision. Described by fans and adversaries alike as a “techno-utopian socialist,” MacLeod thrusts his characters into uncanny encounters that have included AI singularities, divergent human evolution, and posthuman cyborg-resurrection. In his novella The Human Front, a young Scottish guerrilla fighter is drawn into low-intensity sectarian war in a high-intensity dystopian future, and the arrival of an alien intruder (complete with saucer!) calls for new tactics and strange alliances. Its companion piece, “Other Deviations,” first published in this edition, reveals the complex origins of MacLeod’s alternate history. Plus: “The Future Will Happen Here, Too,” in which a Hebridean writer celebrates the landscapes that shaped his work, measures Scotland’s past against humanity’s future, and peers into the eyes of an eel. And Featuring: our irreverent Outspoken Interview, a candid and often cantankerous conversation that showcases our author’s deep erudition and mordant wit.

From the modern master of political SF, a tale of Apocalypse Soon

“A portal to a deeply imagined future history that parlays X-Files paranoia about Area 51 and alien Greys into a vast interstellar community.” —Paul McAuley, Interzone A Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel Ranging from a gritty near-future Earth to a distant alien world, Ken MacLeod’s Cosmonaut Keep is contemporary science fiction at its highest level. A visionary epic filled with daring individuals seeking a place for themselves in a vast, complex, and enigmatic universe. Matt Cairns is a twenty-first-century outlaw Programmer who takes on the shady jobs no one else will touch. Against his better judgment, he accepts an assignment to crack the Marshall Titov, a top-secret orbital station operated by the European Space Agency. But what Matt will discover there will propel him on an extraordinary and quite unexpected journey. Gregor Cairns is an exobiology student and descendant of one of Terra Nova’s first families. Hopelessly infatuated with a lovely young trader’s daughter, he is unaware that his research partner, Elizabeth, has fallen in love with him. Together, Gregor and Elizabeth confront the great work his family began three centuries earlier—to rediscover the secret of interstellar travel. “MacLeod handles the strands of the plot deftly, weaving one beautifully realized world with the other and highlighting the parallels between the two. Rarely does a book demand so much of the reader and then deliver.” —Publishers Weekly “One of the more original sf writers at work today.” —Booklist

The Concluding Volume of the Engines of Light With Cosmonaut Keep and Dark Light, both finalists for science fiction''s Hugo Award, Ken MacLeod launched a new interstellar epic with all the engaging characters and ingenious SF inventiveness of his earlier Fall Revolution novels. Now MacLeod delivers the culmination of his epic of a human future crammed with innumerable varieties of intelligent alien life, and in which humans find themselves involved in the politics of aliens as powerful and inscrutable as gods...and entangled in their wars. For ten thousand years, Nova Babylonia has been the greatest city of the Second Sphere, an interstellar civilization of human and other beings who have been secretly removed, throughout history, from Earth. Now humans from the far reaches of the Sphere have come to offer immortality—and to urge them to build defenses against the alien invasion they know is coming. As humans and aliens compete and conspire, the wheels of history will lathe all the players into shapes new and surprising. The alien invasion will reach New Babylon at last—led by the most alien figure of all. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"Now Ellen has a plan to rid humanity of this threat once and for all. But she needs to recruit the right people to her cause - and convince them to mistrust the post-humans as much as she does."--BOOK JACKET.

There is no such place as Krassnia. Lucy Stone should know—she was born there. In that tiny, troubled region of the former Soviet Union, revolution is brewing. Its organizers need a safe place to meet, and where better than the virtual spaces of an online game? Lucy, who works for a start-up games company in Edinburgh, has a project that almost seems made for the job: a game inspired by The Krassniad, an epic folk tale concocted by Lucy’s mother, Amanda, who studied there in the 1980s. Lucy knows Amanda is a spook. She knows her great-grandmother Eugenie also visited the country in the 1930s and met the man who originally collected Krassnian folklore, and who perished in Stalin’s terror. As Lucy digs up details about her birthplace to slot into the game, she finds the open secrets of her family’s past, the darker secrets of Krassnia’s past—and hints about the crucial role she is destined to play in The Restoration Game. Combining international intrigue with cutting-edge philosophical speculation, romance with adventure, and online gaming with real-life consequences, this book delivers as science fiction and as a sharp take on our present world from the viewpoint of a complex, engaging heroine who has to fight her way through a maze of political and family manipulation to take control of her own life. From the Trade Paperback edition.

As the humans of Earth finally achieve space travel, they discover that the universe is filled with an infinite variety of intelligent alien life and that they have become pawns in the deadly wars of the alien gods.

''IF YOU LIKE SCIENCE FICTION YOU WILL LOVE THIS. . . A ROLLICKING GOOD READ'' Scotsman on Beyond the Hallowed Sky ''MACLEOD''S BEST BOOK TO DATE'' SFX on Beyond the Hallowed Sky THE FERMI ARE AWAKE. With the invention of faster-than-light travel there is nowhere that humanity cannot go. New worlds are discovered, but with them come new dangers. At the heart of the discovery is the Fermi, mysterious beings that have survived on alien worlds for longer than humanity has existed. But now the Fermi are awakening, and they do not seem pleased to find humans in their midst. But for Lakshmi Nayak and the crew of the Fighting Chance, danger is a lot closer to home. Their search for answers will take them to places, and worlds, they never expected. Science fiction legend Ken MacLeod returns with book two in the Lightspeed trilogy, a gripping tale of first contact and dark conspiracies set among the stars. Praise for Ken MacLeod: ''An exceptional blend of international politics, hard science, and first contact'' Michael Mammay, author of the Planetside series on Beyond the Hallowed Sky ''MacLeod is up there with Banks and Hamilton as one of the British sci-fi authors you absolutely have to read'' SFX ''Prose as sleek and fast as the technology it describes. . . watch this man go global'' Peter F. Hamilton on Star Fraction ''Ken MacLeod has an enviable track record of extrapolating from current trends to produce mind-bending novels of ideas'' Guardian Also by Ken MacLeod: Lightspeed Beyond the Hallowed Sky Fall Revolution The Star Fraction The Stone Canal The Cassini Division The Sky Road Engines of Light Cosmonaut Keep Dark Light Engine City Corporation Wars Trilogy Dissidence Insurgence Emergence Novels The Human Front Newton''s Wake Learning the World The Execution Channel The Restoration Game Intrusion Descent

This volume comprises The Cassini Division and The Sky Road. The Cassini Division: In the 24th century, post humans, god-like descendents of humans who transformed themselves with high technology, have warped the very fabric of the solar system for unknowable reasons. Ellen May Ngewthu has a plan to rid humanity of these beings, but she must first travel the entirety of the Solar Union, convincing others that post-humans are the threat she knows they are... The Sky Road: Her rockets redundant, her people rebellious, and her borders defenseless against the Sino-Soviet Union, Myra Godwin appeals to the crumbling West for help as she faces the end of the space age. And, centuries in the future, as humanity again reaches into space, a young scholar could make the difference between success and failure. For his mysterious new lover has seduced him into the idea of extrapolating the ship''s future from the dark archives of the past.

A bishop is dead. As Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson picks through the rubble of the tiny church, he discovers that it was deliberately bombed. That it''s a terrorist act is soon beyond doubt. It''s been a long time since anyone saw anything like this. Terrorism is history ...After the Middle East wars and the rising sea levels - after Armageddon and the Flood - came the Great Rejection. The first Enlightenment separated church from state. The Second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this enlightened age there''s no persecution, but the millions who still believe and worship are a marginal and mistrusted minority. Now someone is killing them. At first, suspicion falls on atheists more militant than the secular authorities. But when the target list expands to include the godless, it becomes evident that something very old has risen from the ashes. Old and very, very dangerous ...

In a newer world order where the peace process is deadlier than the wars ... Moh Kohn is a security mercenary with a smart gun, reflexes to die for and memories he doesn''t want to reach. Jamis Taine is a scientist with a new line in memory drugs, anti-tech terrorists on her case and the STASIS cops on her trail. Jordan Brown is a teenage atheist with a guilty conscience, a wad of illicit cash and an urgent need to get a life. Between them they''ve started the countdown to the final confrontation, as the cryptic Star Fraction assembles its codes, the Army of the New Republic prepares its offensive and Space Defence lines up its laser weapons for the hour of the Watchmaker ...

Iain Banks is celebrated as a novelist and science fiction writer. It is less well known that his first published work was the poem ''041'', in New Writing Scotland in 1983. Like the poems that appeared within his novels, this was selected from the many he had written between 1973 and 1981. Banks took his poetry seriously and worked on it assiduously, but showed it mostly to friends. He first thought of publishing his poetry late in 2012, though insisted it be a joint collection with his life-long friend Ken MacLeod. The two writers were working on this project when Banks learned of his terminal diagnosis, and continued thereafter. He made his final revisions just days before his death. Readers of Iain Banks'' novels will find in the poems a further affirmation of the humane, sceptical and clear-eyed sensibility that informed all his work, shot through as ever with a dry wit that continues to disturb and delight. Ken MacLeod edited and introduces this collection.

As a world war rages in an uncertain future, young teen guerilla fighter John Matheson must shift his tactics and alliances when an alien species arrives. Includes two essays and an interview with the author.

Consists of poems, stories, reports, essays, and articles.

''IF YOU LIKE SCIENCE FICTION YOU WILL LOVE THIS. . . A ROLLICKING GOOD READ'' Scotsman on Beyond the Hallowed Sky ''MACLEOD''S BEST BOOK TO DATE'' SFX on Beyond the Hallowed Sky Humanity has taken to the stars, using faster-than-light travel to reach distant planets and new worlds. But in the far reaches of the galaxy, John Grant will discover a planet of humans who believe he has travelled not only through space to find them, but time. On Apis, the mysterious Fermi appear to have vanished, taking with them knowledge of the universe that humanity desires. But Marcus Owen, the robot AI now plagued with sentience, knows that the Fermi would not easily abandon the native life of Apis, and that they won''t take kindly to mankind asserting dominance on a world that does not belong to them. Beyond the Light Horizon is the jaw-dropping conclusion to the Lightspeed trilogy from science fiction legend Ken MacLeod, a thrilling tale of politics, AI and the far reaches of space. Praise for Ken MacLeod: ''An exceptional blend of international politics, hard science, and first contact'' Michael Mammay, author of the Planetside series on Beyond the Hallowed Sky ''MacLeod is up there with Banks and Hamilton as one of the British sci-fi authors you absolutely have to read'' SFX ''Prose as sleek and fast as the technology it describes. . . watch this man go global'' Peter F. Hamilton on Star Fraction ''Ken MacLeod has an enviable track record of extrapolating from current trends to produce mind-bending novels of ideas'' Guardian Also by Ken MacLeod: Lightspeed Beyond the Hallowed Sky Fall Revolution The Star Fraction The Stone Canal The Cassini Division The Sky Road Engines of Light Cosmonaut Keep Dark Light Engine City Corporation Wars Trilogy Dissidence Insurgence Emergence Novels The Human Front Newton''s Wake Learning the World The Execution Channel The Restoration Game Intrusion Descent

The first half of The Fall Revolution, Ken MacLeod''s landmark modern science fiction series, this volume comprises The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal. In a balkanized future of dizzying possibilities, mercenaries contend with guns as smart as they are, nuclear deterrence is a commodity traded on the open market, teenagers deal in "theologically correct" software for fundamentalists, and anarchists have colonized a planet circling another star. Against this background, men and women struggle for a better future against the betrayals that went before. Death is sometimes the end, and sometimes something altogether different... Both The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal won the Prometheus Award on their original publication. They are followed by The Cassini Division and the British Science Fiction Association Award-winning The Sky Road. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Three books in one—An action-packed space opera trilogy set amid interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an AI revolution. “Remarkably human, funny, and smartly designed. . . . It rips along on rockets.” —Warren Ellis In deep space, ruthless corporations vie for control of scattered mining colonies, and war is an ever-present threat. Led by Seba, a newly sentient mining reboot, an AI revolution grows. Fighting them is Carlos, a grunt who is reincarnated over and over again to keep the “freeboots” in check. But he’s not sure whether he’s on the right side. Against a backdrop of interstellar drone combat Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing or die. And even dying might not be the end of it. The Corporation Wars The Corporation Wars: Dissidence The Corporation Wars: Insurgence The Corporation Wars: Emergence Praise for Ken MacLeod and the Corporation Wars Trilogy “[The Corporation Wars] is a tasty broth of ideas taking in virtual reality, artificial intelligence, the philosophy of law and disquisitions on military ethics.” —The Herald (Glasgow) “Dissidence is the novel that’s direct yet still brims with ideas, politics and memorable characters, and...keeps things moving with the pace of an airport thriller.” —SFX Magazine “MacLeod manages big ideas (political and futurological) and propulsive action without short-changing either side of that classic science-fictional tension-of-opposites.” ―Locus on The Corporation Wars: Emergence “Ken MacLeod’s novels are fast, funny, and sophisticated. There can never be enough books like these: he is writing revolutionary SF.” —Kim Stanley Robinson

Ken MacLeod continues the Corporation Wars trilogy in this action-packed science fiction adventure told against a backdrop of interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an A.I. revolution. And the ultimate pay-off is DH-17, an Earth-like planet hundreds of light years from human habitation. Ruthless corporations vie over the prize remotely, and war is in full swing. But soldiers recruited to fight in the extremities of deep space come with their own problems: from A.I. minds in full rebellion, to Carlos ''the Terrorist'' and his team of dead mercenaries, reincarnated from a bloodier period in earth''s history for one purpose only - to kill. But as old rivalries emerge and new ones form, Carlos must decide whether he''s willing for fight for the company or die for himself. DIE FOR THE COMPANY, LIVE FOR THE PAY.

Imagine a near future city, say London, where medical science has advanced beyond our own and a single dose pill has been developed that, taken when pregnant, eradicates many common genetic defects from an unborn child. Hope Morrison, mother of a hyperactive four year old, is expecting her second child. She refuses to take The Fix, as the pill is known. This divides her family and friends and puts her and her husband in danger of imprisonment or worse. Is her decision a private matter of individual choice, or is it tantamount to willful neglect of her unborn child?.

From Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated author Ken MacLeod, an action-packed space opera told against a backdrop of interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an A.I. revolution. Carlos is dead.br Seba is alive. By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap, and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other "freeboots," Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone. Against a backdrop of warring companies and interstellar drone combat, Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing, or die. And even dying will not be the end of it. They''ve died for the companies more times than they can remember. Now they must fight to live for themselves.

How far would you go for the truth? Ball lightning. Weather balloons. Secret military aircraft. Ryan knows all the justifications for UFO sightings. But when something falls out of the sky on the hills near his small Scottish town, he finds his cynicism can''t identify or explain the phenomenon. And in a future where nothing is a secret, where everything is recorded on CCTV or reported online, why can he find no evidence of the UFO, nor anything to shed light on what occurred? Is it the political revolutionaries, is it the government or is it aliens themselves who are creating the cover-up? Or does the very idea of a cover-up hide the biggest secret of all?

The acclaimed space opera trilogy comes to its thrilling conclusion as interstellar corporations, sentient robots, and rebel armies face off in battle. The enemy is out in the open. The Reaction has seized control of a resource-rich moon. Now it''s enslaving conscious robots—and luring the Corporations into lucrative deals. Taransay is out in the jungle. Her friends are inside a smart boulder on the slope of an active volcano. And the alien infestation growing on her robot body is the least of her problems. Carlos is out of patience. As the Reaction gains strength and the Direction plans to stamp out the rebel robots and their allies, he has to fight fire with fire. Seba is out of time. Deep inside the enemy stronghold, the free robots have to spark a new revolt before the whole world falls in on them. As battle looms, the robots must become their own last hope.

Three books in one! The Corporation Wars trilogy is an epic vision of man and machine in the far reaches of space - a robot''s eye view of a robot revolt Carlos is dead. A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, he''s been reincarnated and conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he''s not sure he''s fighting for the right side. Seba is alive. By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other ''freebots'', Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone. As their stories converge against a backdrop of warring companies and interstellar drone combat, Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing, or die. And even dying will not be the end of it. Collects the three novels in the Corporation Wars trilogy - Dissidence, Insurgence and Emergence. Praise for Ken MacLeod ''Prose sleek and fast as the technology it describes . . . watch this man go global'' Peter F. Hamilton ''MacLeod''s novels are fast, funny and sophisticated. There can never be enough books like these: he is writing revolutionary SF. A nova has appeared in our sky'' Kim Stanley Robinson ''MacLeod is up there with Banks and Hamilton as one of the British sci-fi authors you absolutely have to read'' SFX

There are ever so many ways to conduct a war. Only a few of them look like war. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Mathematician Lakshmi Nayak receives a letter from her future self about faster-than-light travel. The equations work, and the letter itself seems to prove the possibility will someday be realized. But her paper on the topic is fiercely criticized, and she’s warned away by a sinister Alliance agent. After defecting to the Union, she gets an unexpected offer: “I can build your ship.” Shipbuilder John Grant learns of a secret project, which unknown to the world has been traveling to the stars for decades: Black Horizon. Biologist Emma Hazeldene works for Black Horizon on an alien world, Apis, whose life has clearly come from Earth, investigating rock formations that are thought to be an alien, crystal-like intelligence. But refugees exiled to a hard life in the wilds of Apis already know more than the scientists have ever suspected. Everything changes when the rocks wake up, with dire results. As secrets emerge and rival powers seize advantage, three worlds are shaken to their foundations—and all involved have to fight for their lives, and their futures. Science fiction legend Ken MacLeod begins a new space opera trilogy by imagining humankind on the precipice of discovery—the invention of faster-than-light travel unlocks a universe of new possibilities, and new dangers.

Humanity Among The Stars What happens when we reach out into the vastness of space? What hope for us amongst the stars? Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan brings us fourteen new tales of the future, from some of the finest science fiction writers in the field. The fourteen startling stories in this anthology feature the work of Greg Egan, Aliette de Bodard, Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder, Pat Cadigan, Karen Lord, Ellen Klages, Adam Roberts, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds and Peter Watts.

Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month. EDITORIAL Words from the Editor-in-Chief—Jason Sizemore FICTION Luminaria—John Hornor Jacobs Waste—Mary Elizabeth Burroughs Jesus Christ, Reanimator—Ken MacLeod NONFICTION Interview with Author John Hornor Jacobs—Andrea Johnson Books Worth Your Time—Apex Staff Interview with Cover Artist Caroline Jamhour—Russell Dickerson

''Highly engaging and fascinating... this thought-provoking collection reminded me why I used to like science fiction so much... Eventually, one hopes, science fiction will regain its rightful place - as once again stranger than science.'' - The Guardian, 20 Dec 09. ''All hit, no miss... thought-provoking at worst, and stunning at best... shows that science can inspire anyone and everyone.'' – New Scientist, 5 Dec 09. ''Inspiring'' – THE, 19 Nov 09. ''A diamond of compression.'' – Financial Times, 20 Dec 09. When It Changed is an attempt to put authors and scientists back in touch with each other, to re-introduce research ideas with literary concerns, and to re-forge the alloy that once made SF great. Composed collaboratively – through a series of visits and conversations between leading authors and practicing scientists – it offers fictionalised glimpses into the far corners of current research fields, be they in nanotechnology, invertebrate physiology, particle physics, or software archaeology. From Planck''s Length (the smallest indivisible distance) to Plankton (potential saviours of the Earth''s ecosystem), from virtual encounters between Witgenstein and Turing, to future civilisations torn asunder by different readings of the Standard Model, together these stories represent a literary ''experiment'' in the true sense of the word, and endeavour to isolate a whole new strain of the SF bug. * * Featuring Sara Maitland''s ''Moss Witch'' - Runner Up in the BBC National Short Story Prize 2009.* *