Intrusion (novel)

Last updated

Intrusion
Intrusion (novel).jpg
First edition
Author Ken MacLeod
Cover artistNico Taylor
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Orbit Books
Publication date
March 2012
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages387
ISBN 1-84149-939-0

Intrusion is a 2012 science fiction novel by British writer Ken MacLeod.

Contents

Plot summary

The protagonists are Hugh and Hope Morrison, a couple with a young son in a near-future, post-climate change London during the "Warm War". The United Kingdom is governed by the Labour Party in a technocratic government that pursues a policy of a "free and social market" by, in the words of one of its MPs, intervening to allow people to make the choices they would have made if only they had had all the information. In practice, this amounts to an attempt to create a conformist dystopia, "strongly encouraging" its citizens to make "the right choice". This brings the pregnant Hope into conflict with the state when she decides that she does not want to take "the Fix", a single-dose pill that would correct genetic errors in her unborn child. This draws her, Hugh and the state into a moral dilemma as she struggles against the pressure to conform.

Reception

Cory Doctorow reviewed Intrusion as "a new kind of dystopian novel: a vision of a near future "benevolent dictatorship" run by Tony Blair-style technocrats who believe freedom isn't the right to choose, it's the right to have the government decide what you would choose, if only you knew what they knew." [1]

The SFX review concluded "Intrusion is a finely-tuned, in-your-face argument of a novel that will annoy just about every reader (including this reviewer!) at some point. Whichever end of the political spectrum you fall, on MacLeod will push your buttons – and make you think." [2]

The novel made it onto the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2012 [3] and is one of five novels nominated for the 2013 BSFA Award for Best Novel. [4] It has also been shortlisted for the 2013 Arthur C. Clarke Award. [5]

Related Research Articles

Iain Banks Scottish writer (1954–2013)

Iain Banks was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. After the success of The Wasp Factory (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, appeared in 1987, marking the start of the Culture series. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In April 2013, Banks announced he had inoperable cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year. He died on 9 June 2013.

K. W. Jeter American novelist

Kevin Wayne Jeter, is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, and has written three sequels to Blade Runner. Jeter also gained recognition for coining the term "steampunks."

Ken MacLeod Scottish science fiction writer

Kenneth Macrae MacLeod 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. A techno-utopianist, MacLeod's work makes frequent use of libertarian socialist themes; he is a three-time winner of the libertarian Prometheus Award. 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.

Alistair MacLeod Canadian writer and academic (1936-2014)

Alistair MacLeod, was a Canadian novelist, short story writer and academic. His powerful and moving stories vividly evoke the beauty of Cape Breton Island's rugged landscape and the resilient character of many of its inhabitants, the descendants of Scottish immigrants, who are haunted by ancestral memories and who struggle to reconcile the past and the present. MacLeod has been praised for his verbal precision, his lyric intensity and his use of simple, direct language that seems rooted in an oral tradition.

Cory Doctorow Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author

Cory Efram Doctorow 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 the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.

Arthur C. Clarke Award Award for best SF novel published in the UK in the previous year

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. It is named after British author Arthur C. Clarke, who gave a grant to establish the award in 1987. The book is chosen by a panel of judges from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation, and a third organisation, which as of 2019 is the Sci-Fi-London film festival. The award has been described as "the UK's most prestigious science fiction prize".

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, members of the Eastercon convention have also been eligible to vote.

David Langford British writer, editor and critic

David Rowland Langford is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter Ansible, and holds the all-time record for most Hugo Awards, with a total of 29 wins.

<i>The Star Fraction</i> Science fiction novel by Ken MacLeod

The Star Fraction is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod, his first one, 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. Clarke Award in 1996.

<i>Learning the World</i> 2005 novel by Ken MacLeod

Learning the World is a science fiction novel by British writer 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. Since the book's publication MacLeod has written two short stories set in the same universe, "Lighting Out" and "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?".

Mundane science fiction Science fiction subgenre limited to near-future tech

Mundane science fiction (MSF) is a niche literary movement within science fiction that developed in the early 2000s, with principles codified by the "Mundane Manifesto" in 2004, signed by author Geoff Ryman and "The Clarion West 2004 Class". The movement proposes "mundane science fiction" as its own subgenre of science fiction, typically characterized by its setting on Earth or within the Solar System; a lack of interstellar travel, intergalactic travel or human contact with extraterrestrials; and a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or a plausible extension of existing technology. There is debate over the boundaries of MSF and over which works can be considered canonical. Rudy Rucker has noted MSF's similarities to hard science fiction and Ritch Calvin has pointed out MSF's similarities to cyberpunk. Some commentators have identified science fiction films and television series which embody the MSF ethos of near-future realism.

Sarah Monette American novelist and short story author

Sarah Elizabeth Monette is an American novelist and short story author, writing mostly in the genres of fantasy and horror. Under the name Katherine Addison, she published the fantasy novel The Goblin Emperor, which received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

<i>The Restoration Game</i> 2010 novel by Ken MacLeod

The Restoration Game is a 2010 science fiction/techno-thriller novel by Ken MacLeod.

N. K. Jemisin American science fiction and fantasy writer

Nora Keita Jemisin is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, better known as N. K. Jemisin. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and the subsequent books in her Inheritance Trilogy received critical acclaim. She has won several awards for her work, including the Locus Award. The three books of her Broken Earth series made her the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in three consecutive years, as well as the first to win for all three novels in a trilogy. Jemisin was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program Genius Grant in 2020. Jemisin won a fourth Hugo Award, for Best Novelette, in 2020 for Emergency Skin.

Rachel Swirsky is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast and served as editor from 2008 to 2010. She served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.

Ken Liu Chinese-American writer

Ken Liu is a multiple Hugo Award-winning American author of science fiction and fantasy. His epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, the first work in the "silkpunk" genre, is published by Simon & Schuster. His short stories have appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies.

Gregory Norman Bossert is an American writer and filmmaker. He has won the World Fantasy Award and is a finalist for the Sturgeon Award. He lives in Marin County, California and works at Industrial Light & Magic.

"The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" is a science fiction/magical realism novella by the American writer Elizabeth Hand. It was first published in the Neil Gaiman/Al Sarrantonio-edited anthology Stories: All-New Tales, in 2010, and subsequently republished in Hand's 2012 anthology Errantry: Strange Stories from Small Beer Press.

Dave Hutchinson English author

Dave Hutchinson is a science fiction writer who was born in Sheffield in England in 1960 and read American Studies at the University of Nottingham. He subsequently moved into journalism, writing for The Weekly News and the Dundee Courier for almost 25 years. He is best known for his Fractured Europe series, which has received multiple award nominations, with the third novel, Europe in Winter, winning the BSFA Award for Best Novel.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2002</i>

Nebula Awards Showcase 2002 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in April 2002.

References

  1. "Ken MacLeod's Intrusion: a surveillance and bioscience dystopia with the best of intentions". BoingBoing. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  2. "Intrusion by Ken MacLeod". SFX . Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  3. "2012 Recommended Reading List". Locus . Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  4. "2012 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  5. "Arthur C Clark Award 2013 Shortlist Announced". SFX. Retrieved 9 April 2013.