Science fiction: space opera

Book Synopsis'"Cosmonaut Keep" is a portal to a deeply imagined future history that parlays X-Files paranoia about Area 51 and alien Greys into a vast interstellar community watched over by microcosmic gods.' - Paul McAuley, INTERZONE'Science fiction's freshest new writer' - SalonAfter the Ural Caspian Oil War, nobody really trusted the EU government. So why should their extraordinary announcement of first contact with alien intelligence be believed? Matt Cairns thinks he can discover the truth. It is out there, but much, much further away than he could have imagined. Thousands of light-years from Earth, a human colony is struggling for survival. The world on which they have settled, however, has already been inhabited by humans - and other intelligent species from Earth - for millennia. In that ancient division of labour, humans do have a place. But where is it? Twenty-first-century political intrigue becomes space opera on an epic scale in Ken MacLeod's first book in a dazzling new series. His most ambitious novel to date, it will take one of Britain's most exciting new science fiction authors to even greater heights of success and critical acclaim.Books by Ken MacLeod:Fall RevolutionThe Star FractionThe Stone CanalThe Cassini DivisionThe Sky RoadEngines of LightCosmonaut KeepDark LightEngine CityCorporation Wars TrilogyDissidenceInsurgenceEmergenceNovelsThe Human FrontNewton's WakeLearning the WorldThe Execution ChannelThe Restoration GameIntrusionDescentTrade ReviewDistinctive, politically challenging, both tantalizing and satisfying. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLYRarely does a book demand so much of the reader-and then deliver. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLYLike a British--specifically, Scots--counterpart of Bruce Sterling, Ken MacLeod is an SF author who has thought hard about politics and delights in making unlikely alternatives plausible, grippingly readable and often downright funny. * Cosmonaut Keep swaps between two timelines whose characters share the ultimate goal of interstellar travel. In an uncertain future on the far world of Mingulay, human colonists live in the title's ancient, alien-built Keep--coexisting with reptilian "saur *Meanwhile alternate chapters present a mid-21st century Earth whose EU is (to America's horror) Russian-dominated with a big red star in the middle of its flag, rumours of alien contact aboun, and computer whizzkid Matt Cairns finds himself carrying a dat * Clearly the later storyline's Gregor Cairns is Matt's descendant. There are ingenious connections and surprises, with witty resonances between their wild careers, their travels and their bumpy love-lives. The foreground action-adventure points to a bigger *Cosmonaut Keep opens MacLeod's new SF sequence Engines of Light. It is highly entertaining and intelligent, promising more good things to come. * David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW *This man is going to be a major writer * IAIN M. BANKS *

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Book SynopsisThe acclaimed Engines of Light series that began with COSMONAUT KEEP and DARK LIGHT reaches its staggering conclusion in ENGINE CITY.For ten thousand years the varied races of the Second Sphere lived in peaceful co-existence, building their civilisations under the gaze of the ever-vigilant cometary minds. But then the cosmonauts of the Bright Star came. And with them they have brought a revolution ... For one of the Bright Star's crew has warned that an invasion of the Second Sphere is imminent and has armed the ancient city of Nova Babylonia against it. Another cosmonaut thinks he's the very man to lead the invasion. The new regime of Nova Babylonia is certain it can withstand the alien onslaught. Whether it can defend itself against Matt Cairns is a question only the gods can answer ...Find out more about this and other titles at www.orbitbooks.co.ukTrade ReviewDistinctive, politically challenging, both tantalizing and satisfying -- KIRKUS REVIEWSFor my money, Ken MacLeod is the current champion of the very smartest kind of New Space Opera... every variation on his themes produces something worth re-reading. -- LOCUSRarely does a book demand so much of the reader-and then deliver. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLYMacLeod's inventiveness, verbal playfulness, and bloody-minded irony never flag for a moment. -- LOCUSKen's books are always a delight to read ...I heartily recommend the entire series to anyone who has not yet begun them. As anyone who has read Ken's earlier work, such as the STAR FRACTION or the CASSINI DIVISION will know he creates excellent novels full of SF for the more demanding reader, venturing into the effects of new technologies and ideological and political ways of thinking, elevating the novels way above the normal 'space opera * level (fun as they are). Absorbing and fascinating, I couldn't stop reading this.’ *THEALIENONLINE * 'The modern-day George Orwell’ *SFX * 'A hectic ride, through slaloms of audacious complexity, irreverent ingenuity and paradox as purposeful as it is playful’ *GUARDIAN * ‘Magnificent … a series you’d be wise to follow from the start’ *

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Book Synopsis'Stylish, witty, and engaging!' - San Diego Union Tribune'Exciting...Accessible to the average reader as well as the hardcore SF fan. This is a work sure to keep the reader on the edge of her seat.' - Romantic Times BookclubThe Hard Rapture took Earth's best minds away. Now the rest are about to find out where they went ... Centuries ago, space settlers and soldiers fled to the stars from the sentient AI war machines that engulfed Earth. They colonised Eurydice, a planet whose rocks contain traces of its own war machines - some of which still guard a vast, enigmatic artifact on a remote tundra.When an expedition raids this strange artifact, the Eurydiceans discover that they weren't the last survivors of humanity after all. Their leisured lifestyle is about to be disrupted by new arrivals for whom Eurydice is a prize worth fighting over. And the long-dormant war machines are awakening ...Newton's Wake is a stunning stand-alone space opera, charting the struggle for human survival in a universe dominated by post-human intelligence.Books by Ken MacLeod:Fall RevolutionThe Star FractionThe Stone CanalThe Cassini DivisionThe Sky RoadEngines of LightCosmonaut KeepDark LightEngine CityCorporation Wars TrilogyDissidenceInsurgenceEmergenceNovelsThe Human FrontNewton's WakeLearning the WorldThe Execution ChannelThe Restoration GameIntrusionDescentTrade ReviewFar more fun than deep space drama has any right to be...Just read the book. Then read it again. It's even better the second time. -- SFXFor my money, Ken MacLeod is the current champion of the very smartest kind of New Space Opera: a relentlessly engaged thinker about nitty-gritty political-economic-social matters who also operates on the Romantic end of the genre by imagining worlds that offer vast (and even godlike) possibilities for humankind...MacLeod returns to his story elements and concerns with a persistence that signals a stubbornly committed intelligence as well as a fertile and mischievous imagination, and every variation on his themes produces something worth re-reading. -- LOCUSIf you haven't yet read MacLeod's work, this is an excellent place to start. -- SCIFI.COMThe kind of book that we wish would come to us more often in science fiction...Above everything, this book is fun. -- VECTORRead the book. Then read it again. It's even better the second time * SFX on NEWTON'S WAKE *Stunningly assured, inventive and intelligent * Iain M Banks on Ken Macleod *A hectic ride, through slaloms of audacious complexity, irreverent ingenuity and paradox as purposeful as it is playful * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis'Thought-provoking and entertaining, this highly original first-contact story should please any science fiction reader.' - School Library Journal'Mind-expanding science fiction at its best; it is no surprise that it has been shortlisted for all the main science fiction awards.' - THE TIMESThe great sunliner 'But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!' is nearing the end of a four-hundred-year journey. A ship-born generation is tense with expectation for the new system that is to be their home. Expecting to find nothing more complex than bacteria and algae, the detection of electronic signals from one of the planets comes as a shock. In millennia of slow expansion, humanity has never encountered aliens, and yet these new signals cannot be ignored. They suspect a fast robot probe has overtaken them, and send probes of their own to investigate.On a world called Ground, whose inhabitants are struggling into the age of radio, petroleum and powered flight, a young astronomer searching for distant planets detects an anomaly that he presumes must be a comet. His friend, a brilliant foreign physicist, calculates the orbit, only to discover an anomaly of his own. The comet is slowing down ...Reminding us that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine, LEARNING THE WORLD is a stunning novel of exploration, discovery and Mankind's destiny amongst the stars.Books by Ken MacLeod:Fall RevolutionThe Star FractionThe Stone CanalThe Cassini DivisionThe Sky RoadEngines of LightCosmonaut KeepDark LightEngine CityCorporation Wars TrilogyDissidenceInsurgenceEmergenceNovelsThe Human FrontNewton's WakeLearning the WorldThe Execution ChannelThe Restoration GameIntrusionDescentTrade ReviewAs always with this deeply political writer, the book is chock-full of well-done extrapolation concerning the political and economic workings of his various societies. This is contemporary SF at its best. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)Thought-provoking and entertaining, this highly original first-contact story should please any science fiction reader. -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNALMacLeod continues to dazzle readers with vividly rendered landscapes of technological splendor and fascinating yet plausible visions of humanity's future. -- BOOKLISTMind-expanding science fiction at its best; it is no surprise that it has been shortlisted for all the main science fiction awards. * THE TIMES *A charismatic, inventive story of space travel and discovery * SFX *A beautiful piece of stylish writing. . . Gripping and convincing * STARBURST *Ken MacLeod outdoes himself with Learning the World. . . don't miss this one * ANALOG *

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Book Synopsis'Science fiction's freshest new writer...MacLeod is a fiercely intelligent, prodigiously well-read author who manages to fill his books with big issues without weighing them down.' - SALON'Engaged, ingenious, and wittily partisan, Ken MacLeod is a one-man revolution, SF's Billy Bragg.' - Asimov's SFEllen May Ngwethu is a young woman with centuries of experience, no morality and the true knowledge. The world she knows is about to end.The Cassini Division, elite defence force of the Solar Union, sends her on a search for the man whose knowledge could save it. A search that takes her from space to the ruins of London, and back; from the margins of her socialist-anarchist world to its most dangerous edge. The Division's orbital forts around Jupiter are the front line in a centuries-long conflict with post-human AIs, whose intentions are unknown but whose powers once extended to shattering Ganymede and building a wormhole bridge to the far future. Their radio-borne viruses blanket the Solar System, keeping most of its resources from humanity's grasp.But are the post-humans less hostile than they seem?The acclaimed third novel from one of the genre's most exciting new talents.Books by Ken MacLeod:Fall RevolutionThe Star FractionThe Stone CanalThe Cassini DivisionThe Sky RoadEngines of LightCosmonaut KeepDark LightEngine CityCorporation Wars TrilogyDissidenceInsurgenceEmergenceNovelsThe Human FrontNewton's WakeLearning the WorldThe Execution ChannelThe Restoration GameIntrusionDescentTrade ReviewA rare but successful fusion of hard SF, space opera and serious political speculation -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLYDeliciously ironic, brilliantly imagined, MacLeod's witty and intelligent yarn packs a tremendous wallop. More, please! -- KIRKUS REVIEWSA brilliant novel of ideas, frequently funny, always ingenious. Ken MacLeod brings dramatic life to some of the core issues of technology and humanity. -- VERNOR VINGEFascinating...The kind of high-spirited and thought-provoking romp through the solar system unseen since the heyday of John Varley. And it reads at lightning speed. -- ROBERT CHARLES WILSONThis man's going to be a major writer. * Iain M. Banks *Prose sleek and fast as the technology it describes...Watch this man go global. * Peter F. Hamilton *Great sci-fi. * FOCUS *MacLeod still writes with charm and wit. * SFX *

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