Ken MacLeod

For other people named Ken MacLeod, see Ken MacLeod (disambiguation).

Ken MacLeod
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
Occupation	Writer
Language	English
Nationality	Scottish
Alma mater	University of Glasgow (BS)
Genre	Science fiction
Notable awards	BSFA Award, Prometheus Award
Children	2
Website
kenmacleod.blogspot.com

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

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

MacLeod was married for 43 years to Carol Ann MacLeod, who passed away in August 2024. ^[6] They have two children. ^[2] MacLeod lived in South Queensferry near Edinburgh, before moving to Gourock (on the Firth of Clyde) in June 2017. ^[7]

Writing

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, 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

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

Series

• Fall Revolution series
  1. The Star Fraction (1995; US paperback ISBN   0-7653-0156-3) – Prometheus Award winner, 1996; Clarke Award nominee, 1996 ^[15]
  2. The Stone Canal (1996; US paperback ISBN   0-8125-6864-8) – Prometheus Award winner, 1998; BSFA nominee, 1996 ^[15]
  3. The Cassini Division (1998; US paperback ISBN   0-312-87044-2) – BSFA nominee, 1998; ^[16] Clarke, and Nebula Awards nominee, 1999 ^[17]
  4. The Sky Road (1999; US paperback ISBN   0-8125-7759-0) 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 ISBN   0-7653-2068-1)
    2. Divisions: The Second Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperback ISBN   0-7653-2119-X)
• Engines of Light Trilogy
  1. Cosmonaut Keep (2000; US paperback ISBN   0-7653-4073-9) – 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 ISBN   0-7653-4496-3) – Campbell Award nominee, 2002 ^[20]
  3. Engine City (2002; US paperback ISBN   0-7653-4421-1)
• The Corporation Wars ^[21]
  1. Dissidence (2016)
  2. Insurgence (2016)
  3. Emergence (2017)
• Lightspeed Trilogy ^[22]
  1. Beyond the Hallowed Sky (2021; Orbit ISBN   9780356514796)
  2. Beyond the Reach of Earth (2023; Orbit ISBN   9780356514819)
  3. Beyond the Light Horizon (2024; Orbit ISBN   9780356514826)

Other work

• Newton's Wake: A Space Opera (2004; US paperback edition ISBN   0-7653-4422-X) – BSFA nominee, 2004; ^[23] Campbell Award nominee, 2005 ^[24]
• Learning the World: A Novel of First Contact (2005; UK hardback edition ISBN   1-84149-343-0) Prometheus Award winner 2006; Hugo, Locus SF, Campbell and Clarke Awards nominee, 2006; ^[25] BSFA nominee, 2005 ^[24]
• "The Highway Men" (2006; UK edition, ISBN   1-905207-06-9)
• The Execution Channel (2007; UK hardback edition ISBN   978-1841493480) – BSFA Award nominee, 2007; ^[26] Campbell, and Clarke Awards nominee, 2008 ^[27]
• The Night Sessions (2008; UK hardback edition ISBN   978-1841496511) – 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

• "The Web: Cydonia" (1998; UK paperback edition, ISBN   1-85881-640-8; part of the young adult fiction series The Web . Collected in Giant Lizards from Another Star )
• "The Light Company" (1998) (quoting Ken MacLeod's blog: "The Light Company doesn't exist - the title was a provisional one, for purposes of a book contract, which I think got onto the publisher's list of forthcoming books and then took on a life of its own in the wild." - Ken, on Thursday, October 14, 2010 7:34:00 am) ^[30]
• "The Human Front" (2002; winner of Short-form Sidewise Award for Alternate History 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)
• "Ms Found on a Hard Drive" (Glorifying Terrorism, 2007)
• "Earth Hour" (2011)
• "'The Entire Immense Superstructure': An Installation" ( Reach for Infinity , 2014) ^[31]

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.
• A Jura for Julia (2024; UK hardcover, ISBN   978-1-914953-83-5) Collected fiction.

References

2. 1 2 Raven, Paul (February 2007). "The New British Catastrophe". The SF Site. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
3. "Ken MacLeod's official page at Orbit Books". Orbitbooks.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 December 2005. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
4. Walker, Jesse (November 2000). "Anarchies, States, and Utopias". Reason Magazine. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
5. MacLeod, Ken (19 December 2012). "Never knowingly understated". The Early Days of A Better Nation. Retrieved 27 February 2014. Of the 27, I counted 15 who would give a definite Yes to independence. Only two of the others – Jenni Calder and myself – give a definite No.
6. "Ken Macleod's Blog". blogspot.com.
7. MacLeod, Ken (4 March 2018). "Other Good News". The Early Days of a Better Nation.
8. "Lifeboat Foundation Bios: Ken MacLeod, M.Phil". lifeboat.com. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
9. "SF Zone interview with MacLeod". Zone-sf.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2005. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
10. Butler, Andrew M.; Mendlesohn, Farah, eds. (2003). The True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod. SF Foundation. ISBN   0-903007-02-9.
11. Cory Doctorow (2010). For the Win. HarperVoyager. ISBN   978-0765322166. MacLeod is thanked in the Acknowledgements section: "Many thanks to Ken MacLeod for letting me use IWWWW and 'Webbly.'"
12. "Communism failed. What about the ideal of global humanity? – Ken MacLeod | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
13. "The True Knowledge of Ken MacLeod | The Science Fiction Foundation". www.sf-foundation.org. Archived from the original on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
14. Butler, Andrew M.; Mendlesohn, Farah, eds. (2003). The true knowledge of Ken MacLeod. Foundation studies in science fiction. Reading: Science Fiction Foundation. ISBN   978-0-903007-02-3.
15. "1996 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
16. "1998 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
17. "1999 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
18. "2001 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
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. "2002 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
21. MacLeod, Ken. "The Shape Of Things To Come". The Early Days of a Better Nation. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
22. MacLeod, Ken. "Beyond the Hallowed Sky". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
23. "2004 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
24. "2005 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
25. "2006 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
26. "2007 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award | WWEnd". Worldswithoutend.com. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
27. "2008 Award Winners & Nominees | Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Award". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
28. Winter, Jerome (24 February 2014). "Turbulent Years Ahead: An Interview with Ken MacLeod". Los Angeles Review of Books .
29. "Ken MacLeod - Descent". Upcoming4.me. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
30. "The Early Days of a Better Nation". kenmacleod.blogspot.com. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
31. Alexander, Niall (12 June 2014). "Step into the Stars: Reach for Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan". Tor.com . Retrieved 13 December 2015.

External links

• Ken MacLeod's Weblog
• Ken MacLeod's page at Macmillan.com
• Ken MacLeod at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The Human Genre Project Archived 31 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine , a collection of works on genetic themes, collated and maintained by MacLeod
• Free MacLeod stories online at Free Speculative Fiction Online

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 Newitz

• The story behind Descent - Online Essay by Ken MacLeod

Preceded by James White

ESFS award for Best Author 2000

Succeeded by Valerio Evangelisti