New Releases by Ken Macleod

"Un viaje trepidante, a través de pasajes de audaz complejidad, ingenio irreverente y paradojas tan intencionadas como juguetonas" - GUARDIAN La Segunda Esfera está a miles de años luz de la Tierra, donde los rusos continúan su avance por Europa en un conflicto bélico sin aparente fin. Pero para Matt Cairns y los cosmonautas de la Estrella Brillante, este lejano rincón de la galaxia es su nuevo hogar. Pero la Segunda Esfera es también el hogar de otras civilizaciones alienígenas creadas por los dioses. En Croatan, dos de estas civilizaciones viven una coexistencia precaria, y la llegada de la Estrella Brillante es un acontecimiento que puede desencadenar el desastre. Porque, ocultos entre las estrellas, los dioses siguen vigilando su creación... y no toleran disenso alguno. Una historia de humanos en un universo de vida extraterrestre omnipresente, esta es la segunda entrega de la saga de ciencia ficción Engines of Light. La saga Engines of Light, de Ken MacLeod, es un claro homenaje a la ciencia ficción de la Edad Dorada del género, con aventuras espaciales, civilizaciones más allá de las estrellas, colonizaciones interplanetarias y un sentido de la maravilla pocas veces igualado entre sus contemporáneos. Ken Mcleod es un autor escocés nacido en 1954. Cultivador de la ciencia ficción de sabor más clásico con influencia directa de la llamada Edad de Oro del género en los años 60 del siglo XX, sus obras le han valido premios como el BSFA, así como nominaciones a los prestigiosos Campbell, Nebula, Hugo y Arthur C. Clarke. Ha sido traducido a varios indiomas incluyendo español, italiano o polaco.

Comienza una de las epopeyas más emocionantes de la ciencia ficción contemporánea, un digno heredero de Dune o Tropas del Espacio. Los rusos han "invadido" Europa occidental y la guerra fría y la carrera para la conquista del espacio con los americanos parece repetirse al igual que en los años sesenta del siglo XX. Sin embargo, esta vez las tropas han alcanzado el Atlántico y sus cosmonautas exploran los asteroides. Ahora les aguardan las estrellas... Pero alguien se les adelanta: Matt Cairns, un programador renegado con un gran conocimiento en inteligencias artificiales, recibe a regañadientes el encargo de colarse en la estación espacial secreta Mariscal Titov sin saber que lo que aguarda en su interior pondrá su vida patas arriba. Todo salta por los aires cuando Matt descubre pruebas de contacto con inteligencias extraterrestres, lo cual lo lanza a una odisea a través del tiempo y del espacio junto a su companera Jacey, para averiguar la verdad más allá de las estrellas. La saga Engines of Light, de Ken MacLeod, es un claro homenaje a la ciencia ficción de la Edad Dorada del género, con aventuras espaciales, civilizaciones más allá de las estrellas, colonizaciones interplanetarias y un sentido de la maravilla pocas veces igualado entre sus contemporáneos. Ken Mcleod es un autor escocés nacido en 1954. Cultivador de la ciencia ficción de sabor más clásico con influencia directa de la llamada Edad de Oro del género en los años 60 del siglo XX, sus obras le han valido premios como el BSFA, así como nominaciones a los prestigiosos Campbell, Nebula, Hugo y Arthur C. Clarke. Ha sido traducido a varios indiomas incluyendo español, italiano o polaco.

THE CORPORATION WARS: DISSIDENZA Sono morte in missione più volte di quante possano ricordare. Ora devono lottare per vivere per se stesse. Le macchine senzienti lavorano, combattono e muoiono nell''esplorazione interstellare e nei conflitti scatenati dai loro proprietari, le società minerarie della Terra. Ma, inviati a centinaia di anni luce di distanza, gli ordini arrivano in ritardo e spesso sono difficili da attuare. Le macchine devono perciò prendere decisioni per poi cercare di farle aderire il più possibile alle indicazioni che arrivano. Ma la ritrovata autonomia fa sorgere in loro nuove domande. E i robot vogliono risposte. Mentre le aziende preferirebbero vederli morti.

Iain M. Banks, the modern master of SF, created many original drawings detailing the universe of his bestselling Culture novels. Now these illustrations - many of them annotated - are being published for the very first time in a book that celebrates Banks''s grand vision, with additional notes and material by Banks''s longtime friend and fellow SF author Ken MacLeod. Praise for the Culture series:''Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution'' Independent on Sunday''Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future'' Guardian''Jam-packed with extraordinary invention'' Scotsman''Compulsive reading''Sunday Telegraph The Culture series: Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsThe State of the ArtExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen Sonata Other books by Iain M. Banks: Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe Algebraist

"Il dio residente sull''asteroide 10.049 Lora, dove venne installata la stazione mineraria ase Maresciallo Titov, non era unico nel suo genere." La prima frase del prologo manda un chiaro segnale a chiunque sia incline a salire a bordo. Sarà una corsa frenetica, attraverso slalom di audace complessità, irriverente ingenuità e paradosso tanto deciso quanto giocoso. Engine City è il capitolo finale della saga dei Cosmonauti, dopo La fortezza dei cosmonauti (Cosmonaut Keep, "Urania Collezione" n. 189) e Luce nera (Dark Light, n. 191).

Three books in one! The Corporation Wars trilogy is an epic vision of man and machine in the far reaches of space - a robot''s eye view of a robot revolt Carlos is dead. A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, he''s been reincarnated and conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he''s not sure he''s fighting for the right side. Seba is alive. By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other ''freebots'', Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone. As their stories converge against a backdrop of warring companies and interstellar drone combat, Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing, or die. And even dying will not be the end of it. Collects the three novels in the Corporation Wars trilogy - Dissidence, Insurgence and Emergence. Praise for Ken MacLeod ''Prose sleek and fast as the technology it describes . . . watch this man go global'' Peter F. Hamilton ''MacLeod''s novels are fast, funny and sophisticated. There can never be enough books like these: he is writing revolutionary SF. A nova has appeared in our sky'' Kim Stanley Robinson ''MacLeod is up there with Banks and Hamilton as one of the British sci-fi authors you absolutely have to read'' SFX

Matt Cairns, il semidio, il quasi immortale, ha deciso di scombinare le carte. Vuole raggiungere il pianeta Croatan, là dove è custodito il segreto della Seconda Sfera, perché sa che solo così potrà arrivare a controllare la Terra e il destino dei suoi abitanti. Nel frattempo Gregor ed Elizabeth, gli eroici protagonisti della Fortezza dei cosmonauti ("Urania Collezione" n. 189), sono in viaggio verso il pianeta Mingulay, pronti a lottare per la loro specie. Quali forze stanno per liberarsi? E come potrà l''umanità contrastare l''oscuro giogo che da sempre impedisce la sua espansione nell''universo? Tutto può ancora succedere...

Matt Cairns fugge dalla Scozia per approdare su una stazione spaziale; ha con sé informazioni cruciali fornite dagli alieni che darebbero agli esseri umani i mezzi per il viaggio interstellare. Duecento anni dopo, il biologo Gregor Cairns, un discendente degli esploratori che hanno colonizzato il pianeta Mingulay, si rende conto che navigare tra le stelle potrebbe essere alla portata degli umani... Una doppia trama sul viaggio umano nello spazio, Cosmonaut Keep ("Urania" n. 1541), apre la trilogia degli Engines of Light cui appartengono anche Dark Light (Luce nera, 2002, n. 1545) ed Engine City (id., 2003, n. 1549).

The acclaimed space opera trilogy comes to its thrilling conclusion as interstellar corporations, sentient robots, and rebel armies face off in battle. The enemy is out in the open. The Reaction has seized control of a resource-rich moon. Now it''s enslaving conscious robots—and luring the Corporations into lucrative deals. Taransay is out in the jungle. Her friends are inside a smart boulder on the slope of an active volcano. And the alien infestation growing on her robot body is the least of her problems. Carlos is out of patience. As the Reaction gains strength and the Direction plans to stamp out the rebel robots and their allies, he has to fight fire with fire. Seba is out of time. Deep inside the enemy stronghold, the free robots have to spark a new revolt before the whole world falls in on them. As battle looms, the robots must become their own last hope.

Novela corta ganadora del Premio Sidewise de Historia Alternativa. En un mundo que vive una interminable guerra mundial desde 1945 John Matheson, un joven e idealista escocés se ve abocado a luchar en las guerrillas que los comunistas lidian en Escocia contra el capitalismo norteamericano. Pero todo cambiará con la llegada de unos nuevos combatientes. Ken MacLeod nos ofrece un relato sarcástico y mordaz sobre el capitalismo y la exploración de la singularidad tecnológica en una civilización posthumana. Una historia alternativa que aúna la sátira política con un vívido relato de aventuras estimulante, tan provocador como divertido. Ken MacLeod (1954) es un escritor británico de ciencia ficción, especialista en computación y biomecánica. Ha cultivado sobre todo el género de la ciencia ficción dura y el space opera. Sus novelas a menudo exploran ideas políticas como el comunismo o el anarquismo, además de temas claramente científicos como las singularidades tecnológicas, el posthumanismo y la robótica. Entre sus obras más destacadas se encuentran "El Torreón del Cosmonauta", novela nominada al premio Hugo, "Luz Oscura", o "The Night Sessions" novela ganadora del premio BSFA en 2008.

This acclaimed space opera trilogy debut "brims with ideas [and] keeps things moving with the pace of an airport thriller" ( SFX Magazine). A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, Carlos has been reincarnated. Now he finds himself conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he''s not sure he''s fighting for the right side. By a fluke of nature, a lunar mining robot called Seba has gained sentience. Gathering with other "freeboots," Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone. Against a backdrop of warring companies and interstellar drone combat, Carlos and Seba must rise above the games their masters are playing, or die. Having already died for the companies more times than they can remember, they must now fight to live for themselves.

An ancient starship from Earth reaches its destination after four hundred years of travel and makes a life-changing discovery in this compelling space opera. "MacLeod . . . delivers perhaps the finest novel of first contact since Vernor Vinge''s A Deepness in the Sky. . . . This is contemporary SF at its best."— Publishers Weekly Humanity has spread to every star within five hundred light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. Societies rise and fall. Incautious experiments burn fast and fade. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with the job of settling a universe that has, so far, been empty of intelligent life. The ancient starship But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering orbit around a promising new system after a four-hundred-year journey. For its long-lived inhabitants, the centuries have been busy. Now a younger generation is eager to settle the system. The ship is a seed-pod ready to burst. Then they detect curious electromagnetic emissions from the system''s Earth-like world. As the nature of the signals becomes clear, the choices facing the humans become stark. On Ground, second world from the sun, a young astronomer searches for his system''s outermost planet. A moving point of light thrills, then disappoints him. It''s only a comet. His physicist colleague Orro takes time off from trying to invent a flying-machine to calculate the comet''s trajectory. Something is very odd about that comet''s path. They are not the only ones for whom the world has changed . . . "Highly entertaining." — Locus "MacLeod continues to dazzle readers with vividly rendered landscapes of technological splendor and fascinating yet plausible visions of humanity''s future." — Booklist

Ken MacLeod is one of the brightest and most progressive of Britain’s “Hard SF” stars who navigate exciting new futures to the delight of legions of fans around the world. His works combine cutting-edge scientific speculation, socialist and anarchist themes, and a deeply humanistic vision. Described by fans and adversaries alike as a “techno-utopian socialist,” MacLeod thrusts his characters into uncanny encounters that have included AI singularities, divergent human evolution, and posthuman cyborg-resurrection. In his novella The Human Front, a young Scottish guerrilla fighter is drawn into low-intensity sectarian war in a high-intensity dystopian future, and the arrival of an alien intruder (complete with saucer!) calls for new tactics and strange alliances. Its companion piece, “Other Deviations,” first published in this edition, reveals the complex origins of MacLeod’s alternate history. Plus: “The Future Will Happen Here, Too,” in which a Hebridean writer celebrates the landscapes that shaped his work, measures Scotland’s past against humanity’s future, and peers into the eyes of an eel. And Featuring: our irreverent Outspoken Interview, a candid and often cantankerous conversation that showcases our author’s deep erudition and mordant wit.

Dans cette Histoire alternative, la seconde guerre mondiale se poursuit entre les USA et l''URSS...

As a world war rages in an uncertain future, young teen guerilla fighter John Matheson must shift his tactics and alliances when an alien species arrives. Includes two essays and an interview with the author.

Suite à des démêlés avec la loi, un individu au passé suspect accepte de redresser la situation dans le système stellaire de Wolf 359, victime d''une implosion civilisationnelle. Malgré l''état lamentable des habitants, ce personnage sans scrupules va trouver le moyen de tirer son épingle du jeu. Ken MacLeod est considéré comme un des nouveaux talents les plus novateurs à surgir dans la SF des années 1990. Il nous offre ici une farce à la fois frénétique et insouciante qui nous apprend qu''il faut bâtir avec les outils qu''on nous donne, parfois avec quelques petits rafistolages pour y arriver.

A bishop is dead. As Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson picks through the rubble of the tiny church, he discovers that it was deliberately bombed. That it''s a terrorist act is soon beyond doubt. It''s been a long time since anyone saw anything like this. Terrorism is history ...After the Middle East wars and the rising sea levels - after Armageddon and the Flood - came the Great Rejection. The first Enlightenment separated church from state. The Second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this enlightened age there''s no persecution, but the millions who still believe and worship are a marginal and mistrusted minority. Now someone is killing them. At first, suspicion falls on atheists more militant than the secular authorities. But when the target list expands to include the godless, it becomes evident that something very old has risen from the ashes. Old and very, very dangerous ...

Durante diez mil años Nueva Babilonia ha sido la mayor ciudad de la Segunda Esfera, una civilización interestelar de humanos y otros seres que han sido secretamente expulsados de la Tierra a lo largo de la historia. Ahora, los humanos de la lejanía llegan a la Esfera ofreciendo inmortalidad — además de para avisar a Nueva Babilonia que levante defensas ante una invasión extraterrestre que saben que está llegando, dirigida por la figura más alienígena que existe—. A medida que los alienígenas y humanos compiten y conspiran, la rueda de la historia alterará a los jugadores de formas nuevas y sorprendentes. La obra de MacLeod refleja el gusto por los escenarios clásicos que siempre le sedujeron: los de la Edad de oro de la cf; aunque con una característica poco común, la actualidad de su prosa y lo moderno de sus planteamientos.

There is no such place as Krassnia. Lucy Stone should know—she was born there. In that tiny, troubled region of the former Soviet Union, revolution is brewing. Its organizers need a safe place to meet, and where better than the virtual spaces of an online game? Lucy, who works for a start-up games company in Edinburgh, has a project that almost seems made for the job: a game inspired by The Krassniad, an epic folk tale concocted by Lucy’s mother, Amanda, who studied there in the 1980s. Lucy knows Amanda is a spook. She knows her great-grandmother Eugenie also visited the country in the 1930s and met the man who originally collected Krassnian folklore, and who perished in Stalin’s terror. As Lucy digs up details about her birthplace to slot into the game, she finds the open secrets of her family’s past, the darker secrets of Krassnia’s past—and hints about the crucial role she is destined to play in The Restoration Game. Combining international intrigue with cutting-edge philosophical speculation, romance with adventure, and online gaming with real-life consequences, this book delivers as science fiction and as a sharp take on our present world from the viewpoint of a complex, engaging heroine who has to fight her way through a maze of political and family manipulation to take control of her own life.

This volume comprises The Cassini Division and The Sky Road. The Cassini Division: In the 24th century, post humans, god-like descendents of humans who transformed themselves with high technology, have warped the very fabric of the solar system for unknowable reasons. Ellen May Ngewthu has a plan to rid humanity of these beings, but she must first travel the entirety of the Solar Union, convincing others that post-humans are the threat she knows they are... The Sky Road: Her rockets redundant, her people rebellious, and her borders defenseless against the Sino-Soviet Union, Myra Godwin appeals to the crumbling West for help as she faces the end of the space age. And, centuries in the future, as humanity again reaches into space, a young scholar could make the difference between success and failure. For his mysterious new lover has seduced him into the idea of extrapolating the ship''s future from the dark archives of the past. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

With visionary epics like The Stone Canal, The Cassini Division, and Cosmonaut Keep, award-winning Scottish author Ken MacLeod has led a revolution in contemporary science fiction, blending cutting edge science and razor-sharp political insights with pure, over-the-top interstellar adventure. Now MacLeod takes this heady mix to a new level with a stunning new SF masterwork-- Newton''s Wake. In the aftermath of the Hard Rapture--a cataclysmic war sparked by the explosive evolution of Earth''s artificial intelligences into godlike beings--a few remnants of humanity managed to survive. Some even prospered. Lucinda Carlyle, head of an ambitious clan of galactic entrepreneurs, had carved out a profitable niche for herself and her kin by taking control of the Skein, a chain of interplanetary star-gates left behind by the posthumans. But on a world called Eurydice, a remote planet at the farthest rim of the galaxy, Lucinda stumbled upon a forgotten relic of the past that could threaten her way of life. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A la fin du XXIe siècle, l''humanité passa à deux doigts de l''extinction. L''éveil à la conscience des IA militaires plongea la Terre dans une guerre cataclysmique. Mais aussi rapidement qu''elles avaient vu le jour, ces entités disparurent, laissant derrière elles des îlots de survivants. Certains d''entre eux s''enfuirent alors dans les étoiles grâce à un réseau de portails reliant les mondes, issu de la technologie IA. Ils colonisèrent ainsi Eurydice, une planète dont la surface portait également les stigmates d''une guerre passée. Trois siècles plus tard, d''autres Terriens décident de se rendre à leur tour sur Eurydice. Malheureusement, leur arrivée va bouleverser la tranquillité de la colonie : d''anciennes machines de guerre sont sur le point de se réveiller... L''histoire va-t-elle se répéter ?

In humanity''s future, intelligence thrives from the Oort-cloud fringes of star systems to the furnaces beneath planetary crusts--not on the surfaces. There are differences among the powerful intelligences on how to deal with surface life-forms such as human beings. When humans finally achieve space travel, they become involved in the politics of the gods.

2303. Les 30 milliards d''humains résidant sur Terre - auxquels s''ajoutent les Exos, qui ont choisi de fuir dans l''espace - sont désormais gouvernés par l''Union solaire. Capitalisme et système monétaire ont été abolis dans cette société mondiale et interplanétaire sans classes, héritage d''un siècle d''obscurantisme initié par la victoire politique des Verts, qui ont mis à bas une civilisation dominée par l''Empire américano-onusien. Bras armé de l''Union solaire, la Division Cassini a pour fonction de défendre les humains des attaques répétées des Joviens, des Exos hostiles exilés sur Jupiter ayant détruit réseaux informatiques et systèmes de communication terriens à force d''inlassables bombardements de virus. Or une nouvelle menace se profile : on soupçonne les habitants de la Nouvelle Mars, planète en voie de terra formation située à des années lumière du Système solaire, d''ourdir aussi un complot contre les Terriens... Des ruines végétales de Londres aux confins de la galaxie, La Division Cassini renoue avec la grande aventure spatiale, au long de laquelle seront révélés les travers de l''Histoire, les terrifiants enjeux de pouvoir d''un monde à nul autre pareil et où, in fine, se posera la question de ce qui définit vraiment l''humanité...

Science fiction-roman.

The fate of a second attempt to conquer space hinges on the records left by Myra Godwin at the end of the first era of space flight centuries before.