Ken MacLeod
Encyclopedia
Ken MacLeod is a Scottish science fiction
writer.
MacLeod was born in Stornoway
. He graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology
and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics
.
His novel
s often explore socialist
, communist
and anarchist
political ideas, most particularly the variants of Trotskyism
(MacLeod was a Trotskyist activist in the 1970s and early 1980s) 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. The Webblies idea formed a central part of the novel For the Win by Cory Doctorow
and MacLeod is acknowledged as coining the term. 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
.
Macleod is married and has two children. He lives in South Queensferry
near Edinburgh
.
This series is also available in two volumes:
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
.
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
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer.
MacLeod was born in Stornoway
Stornoway
Stornoway is a burgh on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.The town's population is around 9,000, making it the largest settlement in the Western Isles and the third largest town in the Scottish Highlands after Inverness and Fort William...
. He graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
and has worked as a computer programmer and written a masters thesis on biomechanics
Biomechanics
Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. Perhaps one of the best definitions was provided by Herbert Hatze in 1974: "Biomechanics is the study of the structure and function of biological systems by means of...
.
His novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s often explore socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
political ideas, most particularly the variants of Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
(MacLeod was a Trotskyist activist in the 1970s and early 1980s) and anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism is a libertarian and individualist anarchist political philosophy that advocates the elimination of the state in favour of individual sovereignty in a free market...
or extreme economic libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. Technical themes encompass singularities
Technological singularity
Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
, divergent human cultural evolution and post-human
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
-resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
. 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
Strong AI
Strong AI is artificial intelligence that matches or exceeds human intelligence — the intelligence of a machine that can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being can. It is a primary goal of artificial intelligence research and an important topic for science fiction writers and...
.
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
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
, who are nicknamed the Wobblies. The Webblies idea formed a central part of the novel For the Win by Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...
and MacLeod is acknowledged as coining the term. 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
Sea star
Starfish or sea stars are echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. The names "starfish" and "sea star" essentially refer to members of the class Asteroidea...
.
He is part of a new generation of British science fiction writers, who specialise in hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
and space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
. His contemporaries include Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...
, Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
, Adam Roberts, Charles Stross
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
, Richard Morgan and Liz Williams
Liz Williams
Dr Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. The Ghost Sister, her first novel, was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.Williams is the daughter of a stage...
.
Macleod is married and has two children. He lives in South Queensferry
South Queensferry
South Queensferry , also called Queensferry, is a former Royal Burgh in West Lothian now part of the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located some ten miles to the north west of the city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth between the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge, approximately 8...
near Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Fall Revolution series
- The Star FractionThe Star FractionThe Star Fraction is Ken MacLeod's first novel, published in 1995. The major themes are radical political thinking, a functional anarchist microstate, oppression, and revolution. The action takes place in a balkanized UK, about halfway into the 21st century. The novel was nominated for the Arthur C...
(1995; US paperback ISBN 0-7653-0156-3) -- Prometheus AwardPrometheus AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
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
This series is also available in two volumes:
- Fractions: The First Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperback ISBN 0765320681)
- Divisions: The Second Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperback ISBN 076532119X)
Engines of Light Trilogy
A series which begins with a first contactFirst contact (science fiction)
First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient race's first encounter with another one....
story in a speculative mid-21st century where a resurgently socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
USSR (incorporating the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
) is once again in opposition with the capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 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
Speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by c, is a physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant and the international standard for time...
.
- Cosmonaut KeepCosmonaut KeepCosmonaut Keep , a science fiction novel by Ken MacLeod.It is the first novel in the Engines of Light Trilogy, a 2001 nominee for the Arthur C...
(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 OperaNewton's Wake: A Space OperaNewton's Wake: A Space Opera, by Ken MacLeod, is a science fiction novel published in 2004. Set in the 24th century, it follows human life after a partially cataclysmic Singularity, and in particular a conflict on a far-flung planet that upsets the prevailing order...
(2004; US paperback edition ISBN 0-7653-4422-X) -- BSFA nominee, 2004; Campbell Award nominee, 2005 - Learning the WorldLearning the WorldLearning the World is a science fiction novel by Ken MacLeod published in 2005. It won the 2006 Prometheus Award, was nominated for the Hugo, Locus, Clarke, and Campbell Awards that same year, and received a BSFA nomination in 2005...
: A Novel of First Contact (2005; UK hardback edition ISBN 1-84149-343-0) Prometheus AwardPrometheus AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
winner 2006; Hugo, Locus SF, Campbell and Clarke Awards nominee, 2006; BSFA nominee, 2005 - The Highway MenThe Highway MenThe Highway Men, a 2006 science fiction novella by Ken MacLeod, plays out in the Scottish Highlands in a near future dominated by war with China and by climate-change...
(2006; UK edition ISBN 1-905207-06-9) - The Execution ChannelThe Execution ChannelThe Execution Channel, a science fiction novel by Ken MacLeod, focuses on the early decades of the 21st century. The military of the United States of America and some of its allies have conducted a war on terror for some time and terrorist atrocities have continued, including an unspecified one at...
(2007; UK hardback edition ISBN 1841493481 ISBN 978-1841493480) -- BSFA Award nominee, 2007; Campbell, and Clarke Awards nominee, 2008 - The Night SessionsThe Night SessionsThe Night Sessions is a 2008 novel by Ken MacLeod. Set in the year 2037, The novel follows Edinburgh police officers investigating the murder of a priest in a world in which religious believers are a small and marginalized minority. The novel won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel...
(2008; UK hardback edition ISBN 1841496510 ISBN 978-1841496511) -- Winner Best Novel 2008 BSFA - The Restoration GameThe Restoration GameThe Restoration Game is a 2010 science fiction/techno-thriller novel by Ken MacLeod.The novel's main character is Lucy Stone, a computer programmer who was born in the fictional Caucasian Soviet republic of Krassnia but now works for a videogame company in Edinburgh...
(2010)
Short fiction
(incomplete selection)- The Web: Cydonia (1998; UK paperback edition ISBN 1-85881-640-8) Part of the young adult fiction series The WebThe Web (Series)The Web is a series of 12 books for young adults, novellas about the internet of the future, edited by Simon Spanton, written by well-known science fiction and fantasy authors like Stephen Baxter, Stephen Bowkett, Eric Brown, Pat Cadigan, Maggie Furey, Peter F...
. Collected in Giant Lizards from Another Star. - The Human Front (2002) (Winner of Short-form Sidewise Award for Alternate HistorySidewise Award for Alternate HistoryThe Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year.The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with...
2002) collected in Giant Lizards from Another Star - Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?"Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" is a science fiction short story published in 2007 by Ken MacLeod. It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story...
(The New Space OperaThe New Space OperaThe New Space Opera is a science fiction anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. It was published in 2007, and includes all original stories selected to represent the genre of space opera. It includes a five-page introduction, plus a brief introduction to each of the stories, and...
, 2007) – nominated for Hugo Award for Best Short StoryHugo Award for Best Short StoryThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially... - "Ms Found on a Hard Drive" (Glorifying TerrorismGlorifying TerrorismGlorifying Terrorism is a 2007 science fiction anthology edited by Farah Mendlesohn, which was compiled in direct response to the Terrorism Act 2006...
, 2007)
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 FoundationScience Fiction Foundation
The Science Fiction Foundation is a Registered Charity established 1970 in England by George Hay and others. Its purpose is to "promote science fiction and bring together those who read, write, study, teach, research or archive science fiction in Britain and the rest of the world." Science fiction...
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
Andrew M. Butler
Andrew M. Butler is a British academic who teaches film, media and cultural studies at Canterbury Christ Church University. He is a former editor of Vector, the Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association and was membership secretary of the Science Fiction Foundation. He is a former...
and Farah Mendlesohn
Farah Mendlesohn
Farah Mendlesohn is a Hugo Award-winning British academic and writer on science fiction. In 2005 she won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book for The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, which she edited with Edward James....
. As well as critical essays it contains material by MacLeod himself, including his introduction to the German edition of Banks' Consider Phlebas
Consider Phlebas
Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. Written after a 1984 draft, it is the first to feature the Culture.-Overview:...
.
Awards
External links
- Ken MacLeod's Weblog
- Ken MacLeod's page at Macmillan.com
- The Human Genre Project, a collection of works on genetic themes, collated and maintained by MacLeod
Interviews
- Interview with Ken Macleod at SFFWorld.com
- SF Zone interview with MacLeod
- Interview on the SciFiDimensions Podcast
- Science Saturday: Galactic Princesses Edition Bloggingheads dialog with Annalee NewitzAnnalee NewitzAnnalee Newitz is an American journalist who covers the cultural impact of science and technology. She received a PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, and in 1997 published the widely cited book, White Trash: Race and Class in America. From 2004–2005 she was a policy analyst...