Kenneth Macrae MacLeod (born 2 August 1954) is a Scottish

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

writer. His novels ''The Sky Road'' and ''The Night Sessions'' won the

BSFA Award The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...

. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke,

Hugo Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on ...

Nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

, and Campbell Memorial awards for best novel on multiple occasions. A techno-utopianist, MacLeod's work makes frequent use of

libertarian socialist Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (201 ...

themes; he is a three-time winner of the libertarian

Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newl ...

. Prior to becoming a novelist, MacLeod studied biology and worked as a computer programmer. He sits on the advisory board of the Edinburgh Science Festival.

Biography

MacLeod was born in

Stornoway Stornoway (; gd, Steòrnabhagh; sco, Stornowa) is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it by far the largest town in the Outer Hebrides, as well a ...

, Scotland on 2 August 1954. He graduated from

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

with a degree in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and has worked as a

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

and written a masters thesis on

biomechanics Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to organs, cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechanics. Biomechanics is a branch of ...

. He was a Trotskyist activist in the 1970s and early 1980s and is married and has two children. He lived in

South Queensferry Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is administered by the City of Edinburgh council area. It lies ten miles to the no ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

before moving to Gourock, on the Firth of Clyde, in June 2017. MacLeod is opposed to

Scottish independence Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about. S ...

Writing

He is part of a group of British science fiction writers who specialise in

hard science fiction Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...

and

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soci ...

. His contemporaries include

Neal Asher Neal Asher (born 4 February 1961) is an English science fiction writer. He lives near Chelmsford. Career Both of Asher's parents are educators and science fiction fans. Although he began writing speculative fiction in secondary school, he did ...

, Stephen Baxter, Iain M. Banks,

Paul J. McAuley Paul J. McAuley (born 23 April 1955) is a British botanist and science fiction author. A biologist by training, McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction. His novels dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternative history/alternative re ...

Alastair Reynolds Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he s ...

, Adam Roberts,

Charles Stross Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born 18 October 1964) is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine '' ...

, Richard Morgan, and

Liz Williams Liz Williams (born 1965) is a British science fiction writer, historian and occultist. ''The Ghost Sister,'' her first novel, was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, ''Empire of Bones'' (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick ...

. His

novels often explore

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, and

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

political ideas, especially

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

and

anarcho-capitalism Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforce ...

(or extreme economic

libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

). Technical themes encompass singularities, divergent human

cultural evolution Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation a ...

, and post-human

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

. 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 "Information Workers of the World Wide Web", or the ''Webblies'', a reference to the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...

, who are nicknamed the ''Wobblies''. The Webblies idea formed a central part of the novel ''

For the Win ''For the Win'' is the second young adult science fiction novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. It was released in May 2010. The novel is available free on the author's website as a Creative Commons download, and is also published in trad ...

'' by

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

and MacLeod is acknowledged as coining the term. Doctorow and

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). 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 Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...

Books about MacLeod

The

Science 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 i ...

have published an analysis of MacLeod's work title
''The True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod''
(2003; ), edited by

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 sec ...

and

Farah Mendlesohn Farah Jane Mendlesohn (born 27 July 1968) is a British academic historian, writer on speculative fiction, and active member of science fiction fandom. Mendlesohn is best-known for their 2008 book '' Rhetorics of Fantasy'', which classifies fanta ...

. As well as critical essays it contains material by MacLeod himself, including his introduction to the German edition of Banks' ''

Consider Phlebas ''Consider Phlebas'', first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the first in a series of novels about an interstellar post-scarcity society called the Culture. The novel revolves around the Idiran� ...

''.

Bibliography

Series

* Fall Revolution series *# ''

The Star Fraction ''The Star Fraction'' is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod, his first, published in 1995. The major themes are radical political thinking, a functional anarchist microstate, oppression, and revolution. The action takes plac ...

'' (1995; US paperback ) –

winner, 1996; Clarke Award nominee, 1996 *# '' The Stone Canal'' (1996; US paperback ) – Prometheus Award winner, 1998; BSFA nominee, 1996 *# ''

The Cassini Division ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (1998; US paperback ) – BSFA nominee, 1998; Clarke, and Nebula Awards nominee, 1999 *# '' The Sky Road'' (1999; US paperback ) 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 ) **# ''Divisions: The Second Half of the Fall Revolution'' (2009; US paperback ) * Engines of Light Trilogy *# ''

Cosmonaut Keep ''Cosmonaut Keep'' is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod, published in 2000. It is the first book in the Engines of Light Trilogy, a 2001 nominee for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a 2002 Hugo Award Nominee for best novel. ...

'' (2000; US paperback ) – Clarke Award nominee, 2001; Hugo Award nominee, 2002 Begins the series with a first contact story in a speculative mid-21st century where a resurgently

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

(incorporating the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

) is once again in opposition with the

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

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 The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit ...

. *# '' Dark Light'' (2001; US paperback ) – Campbell Award nominee, 2002 *# '' Engine City'' (2002; US paperback ) * The Corporation Wars *# ''Dissidence'' (2016) *# ''Insurgence'' (2016) *# ''Emergence'' (2017) * Lightspeed *# ''Beyond the Hallowed Sky'' (2021)

Other work

* '' Newton's Wake: A Space Opera'' (2004; US paperback edition ) – BSFA nominee, 2004; Campbell Award nominee, 2005 * '' Learning the World: A Novel of First Contact'' (2005; UK hardback edition )

winner 2006; Hugo, Locus SF, Campbell and Clarke Awards nominee, 2006; BSFA nominee, 2005 * " The Highway Men" (2006; UK edition ) * ''

The Execution Channel ''The Execution Channel'' is an alternate history science fiction novel by British writer Ken MacLeod, which 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 ...

'' (2007; UK hardback edition ) – BSFA Award nominee, 2007; Campbell, and Clarke Awards nominee, 2008 * ''

The Night Sessions ''The Night Sessions'' is a 2008 novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod. Set in the year 2037,Clarke, Nic (22 September 2008). ''The Night Sessions'' by Ken MacLeod" ''Strange Horizons''. the novel follows Edinburgh police officers investigatin ...

'' (2008; UK hardback edition ) – Winner Best Novel 2008 BSFA * ''

The Restoration Game ''The Restoration Game'' is a 2010 science fiction/techno-thriller novel by Ken MacLeod. The novel's main character and narrator, Lucy Stone, a computer programmer, grew up in the fictional Caucasian Soviet republic of Krassnia and in 2008 works ...

'' (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." * ''

Intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

'' (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. * ''

Descent Descent may refer to: As a noun Genealogy and inheritance * Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology * Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology **Pedigree chart or family tree ** Ancestry ** Lineal descendant **Heritag ...

'' (2014): "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 Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

's concept of

passive revolution Passive revolution is a transformation of the political and institutional structures without strong social processes by ruling classes for their own self-preservation. The phrase was coined by the Marxist politician and philosopher Antonio Grams ...

, 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."

Short fiction

* " The Web: Cydonia" (1998; UK paperback edition ; part of the young adult fiction series ''

The Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

''. Collected in '' Giant Lizards from Another Star'') * "The Light Company" (1998) * " The Human Front" (2002; winner of Short-form

Sidewise Award for Alternate History The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were established in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history stories and novels of the year. Overview The awards take their name from the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster, in wh ...

2002; collected in ''Giant Lizards from Another Star'') * "The Highway Men" (2006) * " Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" ('' The New Space Opera'', 2007; nominated for

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction o ...

) * "Ms Found on a Hard Drive" (

Glorifying Terrorism ''Glorifying Terrorism'' is a 2007 science fiction anthology edited by Farah Mendlesohn, which was compiled in direct response to the Terrorism Act 2006. Every story in the anthology has been specifically designed to be illegal under the Act's p ...

, 2007) * "Earth Hour" (2011) * "The Entire Immense Superstructure': An Installation" (''

Reach for Infinity ''Reach for Infinity'' is a 2014 science fiction anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. In 2015, it was nominated for a Locus Award for Best Anthology, an Aurealis Award for Best Anthology and the Philip K. Dick Award. Contents * "Introduction" ...

'', 2014)

Collections

* ''Poems & Polemics'' (2001; Rune Press: Minneapolis, MN) Chapbook of non-fiction and poetry. * '' Giant Lizards From Another Star'' (2006; US trade hardcover ) Collected fiction and nonfiction.

References

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

at

Free Speculative Fiction Online Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to proc ...

Interviews

Interview with Ken Macleod
a
SFFWorld.com

Interview on the SciFiDimensions Podcast

Science Saturday: Galactic Princesses Edition

Bloggingheads Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast onl ...

dialog with

Annalee Newitz Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals ''Popular Science'' and ''Wired''. From 1999 to 2008 Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column call ...

The story behind Descent - Online Essay by Ken MacLeod
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macleod, Ken 1954 births Alumni of the University of Glasgow Left-libertarians Living people British alternative history writers People from Stornoway Science fiction fans Scottish bloggers Scottish science fiction writers Scottish socialists Sidewise Award winners Scottish Trotskyists Scottish libertarians British transhumanists Scottish male novelists