#kenmacleod — Public Fediverse posts

@Pixels_Perspective
"The darker the night, the brighter the star".
Russian proverb I'm told.
#SciFi : appears in #KenMacleod 's novel #CosmonautsKeep (first of a #trilogy Recommended, for people who like SF

@Pixels_Perspective
"The darker the night, the brighter the star".
Russian proverb I'm told.
#SciFi : appears in #KenMacleod 's novel #CosmonautsKeep (first of a #trilogy Recommended, for people who like SF

@Ambulocetus
#SciFi #KenMacleod in a recent trilogy #Lightspeed introduced a national #AI the nature of which was empathic anticipation.

He doesn't write that as you pulled up to the drive-through the order you were about to ask for would be ready - or at 5 seconds readiness ahead of you.

Possibly with some fragment of green fibrous veg. added free at the point of use in accordance with national health service guidance.

Have a nice day.

Yes you could say no, order and wait, waste green.

@Ambulocetus
#SciFi #KenMacleod in a recent trilogy #Lightspeed introduced a national #AI the nature of which was empathic anticipation.

He doesn't write that as you pulled up to the drive-through the order you were about to ask for would be ready - or at 5 seconds readiness ahead of you.

Possibly with some fragment of green fibrous veg. added free at the point of use in accordance with national health service guidance.

Have a nice day.

Yes you could say no, order and wait, waste green.

@glynmoody
#SciFi Clarke suggested we need 3 communication satellites. #GEO
#MurrayLeinster wrote "Space station" suggesting one would be launched in #LEO
#StanleyKubrick showed us one big wheel in #2001

#Computronium is a #trope A solar system becoming concentric shells and rejecting waste heat as infrared.

#KenMacleod posited a green tinge spreading from a point as stars were surrounded by orbiting habitats, bubbles with airtrees.

I think Bezos may be premature and excessive.

@glynmoody
#SciFi Clarke suggested we need 3 communication satellites. #GEO
#MurrayLeinster wrote "Space station" suggesting one would be launched in #LEO
#StanleyKubrick showed us one big wheel in #2001

#Computronium is a #trope A solar system becoming concentric shells and rejecting waste heat as infrared.

#KenMacleod posited a green tinge spreading from a point as stars were surrounded by orbiting habitats, bubbles with airtrees.

I think Bezos may be premature and excessive.

@SecondUniverse
Not my area, but logically, dont you need to disclaim _all_ biological components, to deprived the phrase you don't like of any meaning?
Which implies you've removed biological from "human thing" as well.

#SciFi writers have been exploring the edge cases of humanness and biological elements for several generations, and Hollywood and Tech bros have caught a distorted idea of that recently.
eg #KenMacleod in The Stone Canal inter alia remarking that Gynoids will precede Androids.

@SecondUniverse
Not my area, but logically, dont you need to disclaim _all_ biological components, to deprived the phrase you don't like of any meaning?
Which implies you've removed biological from "human thing" as well.

#SciFi writers have been exploring the edge cases of humanness and biological elements for several generations, and Hollywood and Tech bros have caught a distorted idea of that recently.
eg #KenMacleod in The Stone Canal inter alia remarking that Gynoids will precede Androids.

@jwildeboer
And a touch of Ken Macleod's Fall Revolution. The Cassini Division, is not the earliest, but might be a good place to start for the shock of the strange.

#SciFi #KenMacleod #FallRevolution #CassiniDivision

@jwildeboer
And a touch of Ken Macleod's Fall Revolution. The Cassini Division, is not the earliest, but might be a good place to start for the shock of the strange.

#SciFi #KenMacleod #FallRevolution #CassiniDivision

Beyond the Reach of Earth

https://library.hrmtc.com/2025/09/29/beyond-the-reach-of-earth/

#AlienInvasionScienceFiction #book #colonizationScienceFiction #ExtraterrestresRomansNouvellesEtc #ExtraterrestrialBeingsFiction #fiction #HardScienceFiction #HumanAlienEncountersFiction #KenMacLeod #LightSpeedFiction #Lightspeed #LumieReVitesseRomansNouvellesEtc #Novels #RencontresAvecLesExtraterrestresRomansNouvellesEtc #review #romans #ScienceFiction #ScienceFictionHardScienceFiction #ScienceFictionSpaceOpera #SpaceOperas #SpaceShipsFiction #TPolyphilus #VaisseauxSpatiauxRomansNouvellesEtc

Beyond the Hallowed Sky

https://library.hrmtc.com/2025/09/15/beyond-the-hallowed-sky/

#book #DeCouvertesScientifiquesRomansNouvellesEtc #DiscoveriesInScience #DiscoveriesInScienceFiction #ExplorationScienceFiction #fiction #HardScienceFiction #KenMacLeod #LightSpeed #LightSpeedFiction #LightspeedTrilogy #LumieReVitesseRomansNouvellesEtc #review #ScienceFiction #ScienceFictionSpaceOpera #secrecy #SecrecyFiction #SecretRomanNouvellesEtc #spaceOpera #SpaceOperas #SpaceShips #SpaceShipsFiction #TPolyphilus #VaisseauxSpatiauxRomansNouvellesEtc #VenusPlanet_ #VenusPlanetFiction #VeNusPlaneTeRomansNouvellesEtc #WomenScientists #WomenScientistsFiction

Newton’s Wake

https://library.hrmtc.com/2025/05/30/newtons-wake/

#book #fiction #KenMacLeod #LifeOnOtherPlanets #LifeOnOtherPlanetsFiction #review #ScienceFiction #SpaceFlight #SpaceFlightFiction #SpaceOperas #TPolyphilus #VieExtraterrestreRomansNouvellesEtc #VolSpatialRomansNouvellesEtc

Fantastic Fiction: Fascism: We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and acti… (#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon)

Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

Fantastic Fiction: Fascism: We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and acti… (#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon)

Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

Fantastic Fiction: Fascism: We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and acti… (#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon)

Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

Fantastic Fiction: Fascism: We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and acti… (#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon)

Full post: https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Science fiction in the 1930s had its fair share of authoritarian dictators. Upton Sinclair’s It Can’t Happen Here is a famous warning novel that feels all too relevant. In Sinclair’s vision, a populist demagogue takes power on the promise to halt immigration and make America great once more. But there is a lesser-known standout work that tried to warn the world of what was to come. Published under the alias Murray Constantine, Swastika Night (1937) projects a future in which the Nazis and Japanese won and have divided the world. Jews have been eradicated, Christians live in reservations, women are reduced to a voiceless and a near-invisible drudge caste, and the world is ruled by Teutonic knights. One aspect of the book that jumps out is the degree to which women have collaborated in their own oppression—a scenario that looked ridiculous to me on first read, but isn’t as funny in a world of “trad wives.”

Immediately after the Second World War, in the UK, people were trying to envisage a better future. Others were pushing back. In Marghanita Laski’s Tory Heaven; or, Thunder on the Right (1948), the ultra-right wing launch a coup and re-create their “natural order.” On a desert island, five people have constructed a meritocracy. When they are rescued, protagonist James Leigh-Smith (think Jacob Rees-Mogg) prays, “God, let it be as it might have been. Alter the clock, fix the election, do it any way you please, but let me see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams.” He finds himself in a country in which everyone is assigned to their correct social class, with the aristocracy and gentry given fixed incomes and told what to think, what to enjoy, who to marry, etc. It doesn’t end well. James discovers that while he has been given a place, it is conditional on his absolute support. He isn’t, as he thought, one of the rulers.

After the war, there were a slew of alternative history novels warning that “it could have happened here,” of which my favorites are Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (1953) about a Confederate America, or Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (1962), one of the works from the 1961-1962 era being celebrated in Seattle. However, these books are consolatory in that it didn’t happen here. I’m more interested in texts that say, “If this goes on, this is where we are heading.”

Recent examples of warning novels include Octavia Butler’s Parable (or Earthseed) series, where the second book tracks the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Christians. In the television series Babylon 5, the space station becomes one of the holdouts against a fascist earth, but the series neatly ignores that the station is not a democracy. It is at best a benevolent military meritocracy. Lucy Ferris’s The Misconceiver (1997) is told through the voice of an underground abortionist in a world in which the right has rolled back all freedoms for women, gay people, and non-whites. Most recent warning books are focused on race and sexual freedoms, but some take up fundamental and systemic issues that warn of rising facism. Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series (2016-17) envisages bitter war around the fundamental ideological differences between fascism and humanism, a future divided between those who see only themselves as truly human and those who still feel humanity is (or should be) structured around collectivity and the acknowledgement of others’ realities.

Since the 2016 U.S. election, and the extreme behaviour of the (many) British prime ministers in the past decade, fascism has felt ever more threatening in the Anglosphere. Lorraine Wilson’s This Is Our Undoing (2021) is set in a fractured and fascist Europe and explores the interrelationship between the personal and the political. In Marisa Crane’s I Keep My Exoskeleton To Myself (2023) and Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the carceral state has found new ways to abuse and exploit the underclass. In The Disinformation War (2023), SJ Groenwegen takes on the disinformation that has infected the landscape of social media. Claire North’s Notes from the Burning Age (2021) explores the rise of authoritarian nationalism in a post-collapse future after a time of rebuilding and prosperity.

We have been warned. This time round we know what’s coming.

With thanks to Facebook friends for suggestions.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Science fiction in the 1930s had its fair share of authoritarian dictators. Upton Sinclair’s It Can’t Happen Here is a famous warning novel that feels all too relevant. In Sinclair’s vision, a populist demagogue takes power on the promise to halt immigration and make America great once more. But there is a lesser-known standout work that tried to warn the world of what was to come. Published under the alias Murray Constantine, Swastika Night (1937) projects a future in which the Nazis and Japanese won and have divided the world. Jews have been eradicated, Christians live in reservations, women are reduced to a voiceless and a near-invisible drudge caste, and the world is ruled by Teutonic knights. One aspect of the book that jumps out is the degree to which women have collaborated in their own oppression—a scenario that looked ridiculous to me on first read, but isn’t as funny in a world of “trad wives.”

Immediately after the Second World War, in the UK, people were trying to envisage a better future. Others were pushing back. In Marghanita Laski’s Tory Heaven; or, Thunder on the Right (1948), the ultra-right wing launch a coup and re-create their “natural order.” On a desert island, five people have constructed a meritocracy. When they are rescued, protagonist James Leigh-Smith (think Jacob Rees-Mogg) prays, “God, let it be as it might have been. Alter the clock, fix the election, do it any way you please, but let me see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams.” He finds himself in a country in which everyone is assigned to their correct social class, with the aristocracy and gentry given fixed incomes and told what to think, what to enjoy, who to marry, etc. It doesn’t end well. James discovers that while he has been given a place, it is conditional on his absolute support. He isn’t, as he thought, one of the rulers.

After the war, there were a slew of alternative history novels warning that “it could have happened here,” of which my favorites are Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (1953) about a Confederate America, or Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (1962), one of the works from the 1961-1962 era being celebrated in Seattle. However, these books are consolatory in that it didn’t happen here. I’m more interested in texts that say, “If this goes on, this is where we are heading.”

Recent examples of warning novels include Octavia Butler’s Parable (or Earthseed) series, where the second book tracks the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Christians. In the television series Babylon 5, the space station becomes one of the holdouts against a fascist earth, but the series neatly ignores that the station is not a democracy. It is at best a benevolent military meritocracy. Lucy Ferris’s The Misconceiver (1997) is told through the voice of an underground abortionist in a world in which the right has rolled back all freedoms for women, gay people, and non-whites. Most recent warning books are focused on race and sexual freedoms, but some take up fundamental and systemic issues that warn of rising facism. Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series (2016-17) envisages bitter war around the fundamental ideological differences between fascism and humanism, a future divided between those who see only themselves as truly human and those who still feel humanity is (or should be) structured around collectivity and the acknowledgement of others’ realities.

Since the 2016 U.S. election, and the extreme behaviour of the (many) British prime ministers in the past decade, fascism has felt ever more threatening in the Anglosphere. Lorraine Wilson’s This Is Our Undoing (2021) is set in a fractured and fascist Europe and explores the interrelationship between the personal and the political. In Marisa Crane’s I Keep My Exoskeleton To Myself (2023) and Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the carceral state has found new ways to abuse and exploit the underclass. In The Disinformation War (2023), SJ Groenwegen takes on the disinformation that has infected the landscape of social media. Claire North’s Notes from the Burning Age (2021) explores the rise of authoritarian nationalism in a post-collapse future after a time of rebuilding and prosperity.

We have been warned. This time round we know what’s coming.

With thanks to Facebook friends for suggestions.

Farah Mendlesohn is a con-runner, a retired history professor, a charity manager, co-editor of the Hugo Award-Winning Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, author of the Hugo-nominated The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, and is currently working on a short book about Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (preorder Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore). Farah has chaired three Eastercons, has served in various capacities in Worldcons and Eastercons, and is part of the World Fantasy 2025 team. (Farah/they/she)

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Science fiction in the 1930s had its fair share of authoritarian dictators. Upton Sinclair’s It Can’t Happen Here is a famous warning novel that feels all too relevant. In Sinclair’s vision, a populist demagogue takes power on the promise to halt immigration and make America great once more. But there is a lesser-known standout work that tried to warn the world of what was to come. Published under the alias Murray Constantine, Swastika Night (1937) projects a future in which the Nazis and Japanese won and have divided the world. Jews have been eradicated, Christians live in reservations, women are reduced to a voiceless and a near-invisible drudge caste, and the world is ruled by Teutonic knights. One aspect of the book that jumps out is the degree to which women have collaborated in their own oppression—a scenario that looked ridiculous to me on first read, but isn’t as funny in a world of “trad wives.”

Immediately after the Second World War, in the UK, people were trying to envisage a better future. Others were pushing back. In Marghanita Laski’s Tory Heaven; or, Thunder on the Right (1948), the ultra-right wing launch a coup and re-create their “natural order.” On a desert island, five people have constructed a meritocracy. When they are rescued, protagonist James Leigh-Smith (think Jacob Rees-Mogg) prays, “God, let it be as it might have been. Alter the clock, fix the election, do it any way you please, but let me see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams.” He finds himself in a country in which everyone is assigned to their correct social class, with the aristocracy and gentry given fixed incomes and told what to think, what to enjoy, who to marry, etc. It doesn’t end well. James discovers that while he has been given a place, it is conditional on his absolute support. He isn’t, as he thought, one of the rulers.

After the war, there were a slew of alternative history novels warning that “it could have happened here,” of which my favorites are Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (1953) about a Confederate America, or Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (1962), one of the works from the 1961-1962 era being celebrated in Seattle. However, these books are consolatory in that it didn’t happen here. I’m more interested in texts that say, “If this goes on, this is where we are heading.”

Recent examples of warning novels include Octavia Butler’s Parable (or Earthseed) series, where the second book tracks the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Christians. In the television series Babylon 5, the space station becomes one of the holdouts against a fascist earth, but the series neatly ignores that the station is not a democracy. It is at best a benevolent military meritocracy. Lucy Ferris’s The Misconceiver (1997) is told through the voice of an underground abortionist in a world in which the right has rolled back all freedoms for women, gay people, and non-whites. Most recent warning books are focused on race and sexual freedoms, but some take up fundamental and systemic issues that warn of rising facism. Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series (2016-17) envisages bitter war around the fundamental ideological differences between fascism and humanism, a future divided between those who see only themselves as truly human and those who still feel humanity is (or should be) structured around collectivity and the acknowledgement of others’ realities.

Since the 2016 U.S. election, and the extreme behaviour of the (many) British prime ministers in the past decade, fascism has felt ever more threatening in the Anglosphere. Lorraine Wilson’s This Is Our Undoing (2021) is set in a fractured and fascist Europe and explores the interrelationship between the personal and the political. In Marisa Crane’s I Keep My Exoskeleton To Myself (2023) and Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the carceral state has found new ways to abuse and exploit the underclass. In The Disinformation War (2023), SJ Groenwegen takes on the disinformation that has infected the landscape of social media. Claire North’s Notes from the Burning Age (2021) explores the rise of authoritarian nationalism in a post-collapse future after a time of rebuilding and prosperity.

We have been warned. This time round we know what’s coming.

With thanks to Facebook friends for suggestions.

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Science fiction in the 1930s had its fair share of authoritarian dictators. Upton Sinclair’s It Can’t Happen Here is a famous warning novel that feels all too relevant. In Sinclair’s vision, a populist demagogue takes power on the promise to halt immigration and make America great once more. But there is a lesser-known standout work that tried to warn the world of what was to come. Published under the alias Murray Constantine, Swastika Night (1937) projects a future in which the Nazis and Japanese won and have divided the world. Jews have been eradicated, Christians live in reservations, women are reduced to a voiceless and a near-invisible drudge caste, and the world is ruled by Teutonic knights. One aspect of the book that jumps out is the degree to which women have collaborated in their own oppression—a scenario that looked ridiculous to me on first read, but isn’t as funny in a world of “trad wives.”

Immediately after the Second World War, in the UK, people were trying to envisage a better future. Others were pushing back. In Marghanita Laski’s Tory Heaven; or, Thunder on the Right (1948), the ultra-right wing launch a coup and re-create their “natural order.” On a desert island, five people have constructed a meritocracy. When they are rescued, protagonist James Leigh-Smith (think Jacob Rees-Mogg) prays, “God, let it be as it might have been. Alter the clock, fix the election, do it any way you please, but let me see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams.” He finds himself in a country in which everyone is assigned to their correct social class, with the aristocracy and gentry given fixed incomes and told what to think, what to enjoy, who to marry, etc. It doesn’t end well. James discovers that while he has been given a place, it is conditional on his absolute support. He isn’t, as he thought, one of the rulers.

After the war, there were a slew of alternative history novels warning that “it could have happened here,” of which my favorites are Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (1953) about a Confederate America, or Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle (1962), one of the works from the 1961-1962 era being celebrated in Seattle. However, these books are consolatory in that it didn’t happen here. I’m more interested in texts that say, “If this goes on, this is where we are heading.”

Recent examples of warning novels include Octavia Butler’s Parable (or Earthseed) series, where the second book tracks the rise of right-wing fundamentalist Christians. In the television series Babylon 5, the space station becomes one of the holdouts against a fascist earth, but the series neatly ignores that the station is not a democracy. It is at best a benevolent military meritocracy. Lucy Ferris’s The Misconceiver (1997) is told through the voice of an underground abortionist in a world in which the right has rolled back all freedoms for women, gay people, and non-whites. Most recent warning books are focused on race and sexual freedoms, but some take up fundamental and systemic issues that warn of rising facism. Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series (2016-17) envisages bitter war around the fundamental ideological differences between fascism and humanism, a future divided between those who see only themselves as truly human and those who still feel humanity is (or should be) structured around collectivity and the acknowledgement of others’ realities.

Since the 2016 U.S. election, and the extreme behaviour of the (many) British prime ministers in the past decade, fascism has felt ever more threatening in the Anglosphere. Lorraine Wilson’s This Is Our Undoing (2021) is set in a fractured and fascist Europe and explores the interrelationship between the personal and the political. In Marisa Crane’s I Keep My Exoskeleton To Myself (2023) and Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, the carceral state has found new ways to abuse and exploit the underclass. In The Disinformation War (2023), SJ Groenwegen takes on the disinformation that has infected the landscape of social media. Claire North’s Notes from the Burning Age (2021) explores the rise of authoritarian nationalism in a post-collapse future after a time of rebuilding and prosperity.

We have been warned. This time round we know what’s coming.

With thanks to Facebook friends for suggestions.

Farah Mendlesohn is a con-runner, a retired history professor, a charity manager, co-editor of the Hugo Award-Winning Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, author of the Hugo-nominated The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, and is currently working on a short book about Joanna Russ’s The Female Man. Farah has chaired three Eastercons, has served in various capacities in Worldcons and Eastercons, and is part of the World Fantasy 2025 team. (Farah/they/she)

https://seattlein2025.org/2025/04/18/fantastic-fiction-fascism/

#Babylon5 #ClaireNorth #KenMacLeod #LorraineWilson #LucyFerris #MarghanitaLaski #MarisaCrane #MurrayConstantine #NanaKwameAdjeiBrendan #OctaviaButler #PhilipKDick #SJGroenwegen #UptonSinclair #WardMoon

Beyond the Light Horizon

https://library.hrmtc.com/2025/02/24/beyond-the-light-horizon/

#book #colonizationScienceFiction #fiction #HardScienceFiction #InterpersonalRelationsFiction #InterplanetaryVoyagesFiction #KenMacLeod #Novels #review #romans #ScienceFiction #SpaceOperas #SpaceOperasFiction_ #TPolyphilus #VoyagesInterplaneTairesRomansNouvellesEtc

Latest in my series of blogposts on Ken MacLeod's fiction. Here, I look in detail at the Engines of Light trilogy, a key work. Also some notes on the Dialectic, Historical Materialism, and the Scottish Programme.
#sf #sff #scottishsff #kenmacleod #RoadtoGlasgow2024 #Glasgow2024 #worldcon #enginesoflight

https://prospectiveculture.wordpress.com/2024/10/31/road-from-glasgow-2024-ken-macleod-engines-of-light-cosmonaut-keep-orbit-2000-dark-light-orbit-2001-and-engine-city-orbit-2002/

I've started reading the Ken MacLeod anthology A Jura For Julia. Already liking Nineteen Eighty Nine, in which Winston Smith finds himself caught up in the overthrow of Big Brother. A good story to read in the 75th anniversary year of 1984's publication.

#KenMacLeod #AJuraForJulia

I've started reading the Ken MacLeod anthology A Jura For Julia. Already liking Nineteen Eighty Nine, in which Winston Smith finds himself caught up in the overthrow of Big Brother. A good story to read in the 75th anniversary year of 1984's publication.

#KenMacLeod #AJuraForJulia

Ken MacLeod is one of the Guests of Honour for the Glasgow Worldcon so I'm rereading and blogging on his novels. Here are my thoughts on Intrusion (2012) which I think is his best novel and one of the best British novels of the 21C.
#sf #sff #sciencefiction #RoadtoGlasgow2024 #Glasgow2024 #worldcon #scottishsff #kenmacleod #intrusion #bookstodon

https://prospectiveculture.wordpress.com/2024/07/14/road-to-glasgow-2024-intrusion-by-ken-macleod-orbit-2012/

Next in my #RoadtoGlasgow2024 blog series: Ken MacLeod's The Night Sessions (2008).
#sf #sff #sciencefiction #kenmacleod #worldcon #Glasgow2024 #bookstodon

https://prospectiveculture.wordpress.com/2024/07/11/road-to-glasgow-2024-the-night-sessions-by-ken-macleod-orbit-2008/

Continuing my series of blogposts on Scottish SFF and the novels of Ken MacLeod in particular, here are my thoughts on The Corporation Wars.
#sf #sff #scottishsff #worldcon #Glasgow2024 #RoadtoGlasgow2024 #kenmacleod #thecorporationwars #bookstodon #bookreviews

https://prospectiveculture.wordpress.com/2024/06/21/road-to-glasgow-2024-ken-macleod-the-corporation-wars-dissidenceorbit-2016-insurgence-orbit-2016-and-emergence-orbit-2017/

From the 2024 Cymera Festival - @amendlocke on stage in the Pleasance Theatre https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/53771053282/in/photostream/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Cymera2024 #photography #photographie #books #livres #KenMacLeod #author #auteur #portrait #Pleasance

From the 2024 Cymera Festival - @amendlocke on stage in the Pleasance Theatre https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/53771053282/in/photostream/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Cymera2024 #photography #photographie #books #livres #KenMacLeod #author #auteur #portrait #Pleasance

From the weekend's Cymera Festival : @starkholborn in conversation with Oliver Langmead , @aptshadow & @amendlocke in the Pleasance Theatre https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/53772171528/in/dateposted/

#books #livres #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #Cymera2024 #OliverLangmead #StarkHolborn #KenMacLeod #AdrianTchaikovsky #author #auteur #bookstodon

From the weekend's Cymera Festival : @starkholborn in conversation with Oliver Langmead , @aptshadow & @amendlocke in the Pleasance Theatre https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/53772171528/in/dateposted/

#books #livres #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #photographie #Cymera2024 #OliverLangmead #StarkHolborn #KenMacLeod #AdrianTchaikovsky #author #auteur #bookstodon

Rereading the novels of Ken MacLeod in the run-up to the Worldcon in Glasgow, where he is GOH. Starting with Newton's Wake (2004).
#sciencefiction #sf #sff #worldcon #Glasgow2024 #RoadtoGlasgow2024 #kenmacleod #book #bookreview #newtonswake

https://prospectiveculture.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/road-to-glasgow-2024-newtons-wake-by-ken-macleod-orbit-2004/

Taken this day, 2022, @amendlocke reading at Shoreline of Infinity's Event Horizon evening https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/52555361184/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #ScienceFiction #photography #KenMacLeod #author #auteur #ShorelineOfInfinity

Taken this day, 2022, @amendlocke reading at Shoreline of Infinity's Event Horizon evening https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/52555361184/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #ScienceFiction #photography #KenMacLeod #author #auteur #ShorelineOfInfinity

Taken this day, 2021, @amendlocke book launch with @cymerafestival https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/51714286634/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #books #livres #KenMacLeod #Author #auteur #ScienceFiction #Cymera

Taken this day, 2021, @amendlocke book launch with @cymerafestival https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/51714286634/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #books #livres #KenMacLeod #Author #auteur #ScienceFiction #Cymera

Taken this day, 2017, Farrah Mendelsohn, @arrroberts Jo Walton & @amendlocke forming a science fiction barbershop quartet at the Edinburgh Book Festival
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/36608310966/in/photostream/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #photography #FarrahMendelsohn #JoWaton #KenMacLeod #AdamRoberts #author #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #bookfestival #ScienceFiction

Taken this day, 2017, Farrah Mendelsohn, @arrroberts Jo Walton & @amendlocke forming a science fiction barbershop quartet at the Edinburgh Book Festival
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/36608310966/in/photostream/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #photography #FarrahMendelsohn #JoWaton #KenMacLeod #AdamRoberts #author #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #bookfestival #ScienceFiction

Taken this day, 2017, @cstross , Jo Walton & @amendlocke
at @edbookfest
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/35780953804/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #photography #JoWalton #CharlieStross #KenMacLeod #ScienceFiction #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #EIBF #author

Taken this day, 2017, @cstross , Jo Walton & @amendlocke
at @edbookfest
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/35780953804/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #photography #JoWalton #CharlieStross #KenMacLeod #ScienceFiction #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #EIBF #author

Taken this day, 2016, @amendlocke signing books for one of my chums at @edbookfest https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/28387056794/in/photostream

#books #livres #EIBF #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #KenMacLeod #ScienceFiction #author #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #EIBF

Taken this day, 2016, @amendlocke signing books for one of my chums at @edbookfest https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/28387056794/in/photostream

#books #livres #EIBF #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #photography #KenMacLeod #ScienceFiction #author #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #EIBF

Taken this day, 2014, @nnedi & Ken MacLeod in conversation with Stuart Kelly for @ScottishPEN at Summerhall https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/14422508405/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #photography #NnediOkorafor #KenMacLeod #ScottishPEN #ScienceFiction #Summerhall

Taken this day, 2014, @nnedi & Ken MacLeod in conversation with Stuart Kelly for @ScottishPEN at Summerhall https://www.flickr.com/photos/woolamaloo_gazette/14422508405/

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres #photography #NnediOkorafor #KenMacLeod #ScottishPEN #ScienceFiction #Summerhall

Irgend­wie kam Ostern dazwi­schen (s.o.) – jeden­falls folgt hier nun Teil II zu mei­ner Vor­früh­lings­le­se­lis­te. Teil I mit den Fan­ta­sy-Roma­nen, die ich gele­sen habe, ist am 6. April erschienen.

In medi­as res: Rich­tig gut gefal­len hat mir Ken MacLeods Bey­ond the Reach of Earth (2023), der zwei­te Teil sei­ner Lightspeed-Tri­lo­gie. Kurz zum Hin­ter­grund: die bei­den gro­ßen Blö­cke, die kapi­ta­lis­ti­sche Alli­an­ce rund um die USA und die Coor­di­na­ted Sta­tes (Russ­land, Chi­na) haben schon vor eini­gen Jahr­zehn­ten eine Metho­de ent­deckt, um U‑Boote in der Raum­zeit zu bewe­gen und damit fer­ne Ster­ne zu erkun­den. Auf dem erd­ähn­li­chen Stern Apis gibt es gehei­me Basen bei­der Blö­cke. Im ers­ten Teil geht es vor allem dar­um, dass nun auch Wissenschaftler*innen der mehr oder weni­ger kom­mu­nis­ti­schen euro­päi­schen Uni­on (inkl. Schott­land) – MacLeod macht aus sei­nen poli­ti­schen Sym­pa­thien kein Geheim­nis – die­se Tech­no­lo­gie ent­de­cken. Am Schluss stürzt die euro­päi­sche Venus-Kolo­nie ab – und v.a. wer­den intel­li­gen­te Außer­ir­di­sche ent­deckt. Was es mit die­sen auf sich hat, war­um das mit der über­licht­schnel­len Raum­fahrt nicht ganz so ein­fach ist, wie es am Anfang aus­sah, und was euro­päi­sche Siedler*innen so auf Apis erle­ben, davon han­delt Teil II. Beson­ders aktu­ell die Rol­le ver­schie­de­ner Robo­ter und all­ge­gen­wär­ti­ger AI-Sys­tem-Assis­ten­zen. Erfri­schend anders als der Space-Ope­ra-Main­stream, sehr plau­si­bel beschrie­ben und trotz­dem kom­plett abge­dreht – und gera­de des­we­gen lesenswert.

Zum Teil tref­fen die­se Beschrei­bun­gen auch auf Anna­lee Newitz lang erwar­te­tes Buch The Ter­ra­for­mers (2023) zu. In meh­re­ren Zeit­ebe­nen (10.000 Jah­re und ähn­lich gro­ße Zeit­span­nen vom heu­te ent­fernt) erle­ben wir die Besied­lung eines im Auf­trag eines gro­ßen, gala­xien­weit agie­ren­den Kon­zerns ter­ra­form­ten Pla­ne­ten, Wirt­schafts­spio­na­ge, Intri­gen, Auf­stän­de der mehr oder weni­ger Skla­ven-Klo­ne, sehr viel Gen- und Bio­tech­nik und irgend­wie auch eine Uto­pie des ver­netz­ten Zusam­men­le­bens ganz unter­schied­li­cher Lebens­for­men. Das ist alles wun­der­bar aus­ge­dacht – trotz­dem hat mich eini­ges immer wie­der aus dem Lese­fluss gewor­fen; etwa die schon ange­spro­che­nen rie­si­gen Zeit­räu­me, qua­si-unsterb­li­che Per­so­nen, aber auch das das Buch durch­zie­hen­de tie­fen­öko­lo­gi­sche Kon­zept, das alle Lebe­we­sen am gro­ßen Gan­zen teil­ha­ben (und durch eine Art Uplif­ting Intel­li­genz bekom­men). Bei Kühen ist das noch irgend­wie glaub­wür­dig, bei Insek­ten­ko­lo­nien … nicht so? Auf jeden Fall inter­es­sant und beein­dru­ckend, aber kein Buch zum Verlieben. 

Mal­ka Olders The Mimi­cking of Known Suc­ces­ses (2023) hat eben­falls ein inter­es­san­tes Set­ting, kommt aber nicht an ihre Info­mo­cra­cy-Rei­he her­an. Die Erde ist ver­wüs­tet, die Über­le­ben­den haben rund um Jupi­ter ein Eisen­bahn- und Platt­form-Ring­sys­tem auf­ge­baut, auf dem die­ses Buch – zunächst ein Kri­mi­nal­ro­man – spielt. Die Haupt­fi­gu­ren waren mal zusam­men, es gibt poli­ti­sche Bewe­gun­gen, die sich zwi­schen nost­al­gi­scher Bewah­rung der ver­lo­re­nen Erde und Blick nach vor­ne bewe­gen, und ins­ge­samt mag „cozy“ durch­aus eine zutref­fen­de Beschrei­bung sein. Ein recht kur­zes, freund­li­ches Buch (trotz meh­re­rer Todes­fäl­le), eine inno­va­ti­ve Sze­na­rie, aber irgend­wie fehl­te mir etwas.

Anders­her­um ging’s mir mit Greg Egans Sca­le (2022). Hier war ich zwar auf das Set­ting neu­gie­rig – neben­ein­an­der her leben­de und z.T. mit­ein­an­der inter­agie­ren­de Gesell­schaf­ten von Men­schen ganz unter­schied­li­cher Grö­ße, unter The Sci­ence of Sca­le gibt es auf Egans Web­site auch eine Her­lei­tung davon, wie das wis­sen­schaft­lich plau­si­bel gemacht wird; letzt­lich geht es um unter­schied­li­che inner-ato­ma­re Zusam­men­set­zung – neben Elek­tro­nen und Muo­nen gibt es hier gleich acht unter­schied­li­che Lep­to­nen, die jeweils bestimm­te Eigen­schaf­ten haben und v.a. Maßen, die von 1 bis 128 rei­chen. Die Men­schen unter­schied­li­cher Grö­ße bestehen jeweils aus Ato­men, die eine Art von Lep­to­nen bevor­zu­gen, und kom­men ent­spre­chend z.B. auch nur mit Was­ser oder Nah­rungs­mit­teln aus die­ser Zusam­men­set­zung klar. Ent­spre­chend ver­hal­ten sich die Grö­ßen (mir ist nicht ganz klar­ge­wor­den, ob die Kleins­ten zu den Größ­ten hier 1:8, 1:64 oder 1:128 aus­ma­chen, es sind aber beacht­li­che Unter­schie­de). Zugleich ist die Dich­te sehr unter­schied­lich – kleins­te und größ­te Men­schen bestehen aus der glei­chen Zahl von Ato­men, wie­gen also auch „das sel­be“. Zeit läuft für klei­ne­re Men­schen viel schnel­ler ab als für grö­ße­re Men­schen usw. Jeden­falls: das klingt alles erst ein­mal furcht­bar kom­pli­ziert und her­bei­ge­dacht, aber Egan gelingt es, vor die­sem Hin­ter­grund nicht nur einen Kri­mi, son­dern letzt­lich einen Thril­ler und einen Revo­lu­ti­ons­ro­man zu schrei­ben. Das hat mich sehr posi­tiv über­rascht. Wer selbst rein­le­sen möch­te, fin­det den – harm­lo­sen – Anfang auf der oben ver­link­ten Website.

Weni­ger über­zeugt haben mich zwei „klas­si­sche“ SF-Roma­ne. Arkas’d World von James L. Cam­bi­as (2019) spielt auf einem Pla­ne­ten, der ein Geheim­nis birgt, auf dem Wesen aus sehr unter­schied­li­chen – aber doch irgend­wie ste­reo­ty­pen – Ali­en-Kul­tu­ren zusam­men­le­ben; die Mensch­heit ist von einer die­ser Kul­tu­ren unter­wor­fen wor­den, der titel­ge­ben­de Arkad als auf dem Pla­ne­ten gebo­re­ner Mensch auf der Flucht auf die­sem Pla­ne­ten hat etwas von toll­pat­schi­gem Aus­er­wähl­ten. Bis er stirbt und das Gan­ze einen meta­phy­si­schen Drall bekommt. 

Und auch Count to a Tril­li­on von John C. Wright (2011) war dann nicht so ganz meins. Ich glau­be, ich habe irgend­wo Wal­ter Jon Wil­liams und John C. Wright zusam­men­ge­wor­fen und zu einer Per­son gemacht – der­je­ni­ge mit den wirk­lich schlimm reak­tio­nä­ren Ideen ist John C. Wright (sor­ry, W.J. Wil­liams!). Jeden­falls gelingt es ihm, eine weit in der Zukunft lie­gen­de Erde vor­zu­stel­len, in der fast nur Män­ner wich­ti­ge Rol­len spie­len, in der kul­tu­rel­le und eth­ni­sche Unter­schei­dun­gen hoch­ge­hal­ten wer­den, und in der his­to­ri­sche Moden von der Anti­ke über die Kreuz­fah­rer bis zum Cow­boy-Wes­tern wie­der­auf­le­ben, wäh­rend gleich­zei­tig hoch­in­tel­li­gen­te Com­pu­ter­sys­te­me, inter­stel­la­re Raum­schif­fe und die Ver­ar­bei­tung von Anti­ma­te­rie (sowie extrem über­le­ge­ne Außer­ir­di­sche) vor­kom­men. Das mag mal amü­sant sein, aber warm gewor­den bin ich damit nicht, und die Agen­da dahin­ter, ein Zurück zur guten alten Zeit, als Män­ner noch Män­ner und Unter­ta­nen noch Unter­ta­nen waren, gefällt mir über­haupt nicht. 

#annalee-newitz #fantasy #greg-egan #james-l-cambias #john-c-wright #ken-macleod #malka-older #science-fiction #sf #walter-jon-williams

https://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2023/04/27/science-fiction-und-fantasy-im-vorfruehling-2023-teil-ii/

Terrific evening at final Event Horizon of the year, organised by #Edinburgh based Scottish science fiction journal Shoreline of Infinity, including Ken MacLeod among others. Not cent catch up with chums and be among my peeps.

#ScienceFiction #books #Pleasance #Edimbourg #ShorelineIfInfinity #author #writer #livres #KenMacLeod #Scotland #Ecosse

Terrific evening at final Event Horizon of the year, organised by #Edinburgh based Scottish science fiction journal Shoreline of Infinity, including Ken MacLeod among others. Not cent catch up with chums and be among my peeps.

#ScienceFiction #books #Pleasance #Edimbourg #ShorelineIfInfinity #author #writer #livres #KenMacLeod #Scotland #Ecosse