Ken MacLeod

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For other people named Ken MacLeod, see Ken MacLeod (disambiguation).
Ken MacLeod
Addressing the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention, Glasgow, August 2005
Addressing the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention, Glasgow, August 2005
Born
Kenneth Macrae MacLeod

(1954-08-02) 2 August 1954 (age 71)
Stornoway, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland
OccupationWriter
LanguageEnglish
NationalityScottish
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow (BS)
GenreScience fiction
Notable awardsBSFA Award, Prometheus Award
Children2
Website
kenmacleod.blogspot.com
File:Ken & Carol MacLeod, Boskone 43, 2006.jpg
Ken and Carol MacLeod at Boskone 43, 2006

Kenneth Macrae MacLeod (born 2 August 1954) is a Scottish science fiction writer. His novels The Sky Road and The Night Sessions won the BSFA Award. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Campbell Memorial awards for best novel on multiple occasions. In 2024 MacLeod was one of the Guests of Honour at the 82nd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow.[1]

A techno-utopianist, MacLeod makes frequent use of libertarian socialist themes in his work; he is a three-time winner of the libertarian Prometheus Award. He sits on the advisory board of the Edinburgh Science Festival.

Biography

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MacLeod was born in Stornoway, Scotland, in 1954.[2] He graduated from University of Glasgow with a degree in zoology in 1976, and he worked as a computer programmer and wrote a master's thesis on biomechanics.[3] He was a Trotskyist activist during the 1970s and early 1980s.[4] MacLeod is opposed to Scottish independence.[5]

Personal life

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Married with two children,[2] MacLeod lived in South Queensferry near Edinburgh, before moving to Gourock (on the Firth of Clyde) in June 2017.[6] His wife died in August 2024.[7]

Writing

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MacLeod belongs to a group of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Neal Asher, Stephen Baxter, Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, Paul J. McAuley, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Charles Stross, Richard K. Morgan, and Liz Williams.

MacLeod's science fiction novels often explore socialist, communist, and anarchist political ideas, especially Trotskyism and anarcho-capitalism (or extreme economic libertarianism).[8] 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 the desirability of strong AI.[9][10]

MacLeod is known for frequent in-jokes and puns 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 fictional future programmers union is called "Information Workers of the World Wide Web", or the Webblies, a reference to the real Industrial Workers of the World union, who are nicknamed the Wobblies. The Webblies concept formed a central part of the novel For the Win by Cory Doctorow, and MacLeod is acknowledged as coining the term.[11] Doctorow and Charles Stross also used one of MacLeod's references to the singularity—as "the rapture for nerds"—as the title for their collaborative novel Rapture of the Nerds (although MacLeod denies coining the phrase[12]). There are also many references to or puns on zoology and palaeontology. For example, in the novel The Stone Canal, the title of the book and many of its described places are named after anatomical features of marine invertebrates such as starfish.

Books about MacLeod

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The Science Fiction Foundation have published an analysis of MacLeod's work titled The True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod, edited by Andrew M. Butler and Farah Mendlesohn.[13][14] In addition to critical essays, it contains material by MacLeod himself, including his introduction to the German edition of Iain M. Banks' novel Consider Phlebas.

Bibliography

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Series

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  • Fall Revolution series
    1. The Star Fraction (1995; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – Prometheus Award winner, 1996; Clarke Award nominee, 1996[15]
    2. The Stone Canal (1996; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – Prometheus Award winner, 1998; BSFA nominee, 1996[15]
    3. The Cassini Division (1998; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – BSFA nominee, 1998;[16] Clarke, and Nebula Awards nominee, 1999[17]
    4. The Sky Road (1999; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) BSFA Award winner, 1999;[17] Hugo Award nominee, 2001[18] – 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[19]
    • This series is also available in two volumes:
      1. Fractions: The First Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)
      2. Divisions: The Second Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)
  • Engines of Light Trilogy
    1. Cosmonaut Keep (2000; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – Clarke Award nominee, 2001;[18] Hugo Award nominee, 2002[20] Begins the series 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.
    2. Dark Light (2001; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – Campbell Award nominee, 2002[20]
    3. Engine City (2002; US paperback Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)
  • The Corporation Wars[21]
    1. Dissidence (2016)
    2. Insurgence (2016)
    3. Emergence (2017)
  • Lightspeed Trilogy[22]
    1. Beyond the Hallowed Sky (2021; Orbit Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)
    2. Beyond the Reach of Earth (2023; Orbit Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)
    3. Beyond the Light Horizon (2024; Orbit Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)

Other work

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  • Newton's Wake: A Space Opera (2004; US paperback edition Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – BSFA nominee, 2004;[23] Campbell Award nominee, 2005[24]
  • Learning the World: A Novel of First Contact (2005; UK hardback edition Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) Prometheus Award winner 2006; Hugo, Locus SF, Campbell and Clarke Awards nominee, 2006;[25] BSFA nominee, 2005[24]
  • "The Highway Men" (2006; UK edition, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).)
  • The Execution Channel (2007; UK hardback edition Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – BSFA Award nominee, 2007;[26] Campbell, and Clarke Awards nominee, 2008[27]
  • The Night Sessions (2008; UK hardback edition Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) – Winner Best Novel 2008 BSFA[27]
  • The Restoration Game (2010). According to the author, "In The Restoration Game I revisited the fall of the Soviet Union, with a narrator who is at first a piece in a game played by others, and works her way up to becoming to some extent a player, but – as we see when we pull back at the end – is still part of a larger game."[28]
  • Intrusion (2012): "an Orwellian surveillance society installs sensors on pregnant women to prevent smoking or drinking; and these women also have to take a eugenic 'fix' to eliminate genetic anomalies."[28]
  • Descent (2014):[29] "My genre model for Descent was bloke-lit – that's basically first-person, self-serving, rueful confessional by a youngish man looking back on youthful stupidities... ... Descent is about flying saucers, hidden races, and Antonio Gramsci's concept of passive revolution, all set in a tale of Scottish middle class family life in and after the Great Depression of the 21st Century. Almost mainstream fiction, really."[28]

Short fiction

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Collections

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  • Poems & Polemics (2001; Rune Press: Minneapolis, MN) Chapbook of non-fiction and poetry.
  • Giant Lizards From Another Star (2006; US trade hardcover Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) Collected fiction and nonfiction.
  • A Jura for Julia (2024; UK hardcover, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) Collected fiction.

References

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  1. ^ [1]
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  11. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). MacLeod is thanked in the Acknowledgements section: "Many thanks to Ken MacLeod for letting me use IWWWW and 'Webbly.'"
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  18. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  19. ^ "The Falling Rate of Profit, Red Hordes and Green Slime: What the Fall Revolution Books Are About" – Nova Express, Volume 6, Spring/Summer 2001, pp 19–21
  20. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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Interviews

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