Newton's Wake: A Space Opera - Hardcover

MacLeod, Ken

  • 3.57 out of 5 stars
    2,705 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780765305039: Newton's Wake: A Space Opera
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0765305038 ISBN 13: 9780765305039
Publisher: Tor Books, 2004

Synopsis

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.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Ken MacLeod holds a degree in zoology and has worked in the fields of biomechanics and computer programming. His first two novels, The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal, each won the Prometheus Award; The Cassini Division was a finalist for the Nebula Award; The Sky Road won the British Science Fiction Association Award, and it and Cosmonaut Keep were finalists for the Hugo Award. His novella The Human Front won the Sidewise Award. Ken MacLeod lives near Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and children.

Reviews

Amid the somewhat strident politics there are some outrageously funny patches in this over-packed space opera from Nebula and Hugo finalist MacLeod (Cosmonaut's Keep, etc.). In the 24th century, brash young Lucinda Carlyle takes her first big chance to prove herself to her wheeling-dealing clan who control the skein, a network of "gates" transporting people and equipment instantaneously between planets. In the Hard Rapture war centuries earlier between the United States and united Europe, run-amok American AI took over the brains of humans. Survivors flung into space include the gawkish farmers of America Offline (AO), the straitlaced Oriental Knights of Enlightenment (KE) and the third-world "commies" who strip-mine planets (DK). Lucinda opens a Pandora's box of shifting alliances that turns 20th-century American sensibilities upside down. Keeping the AO, KE and DK straight can be confusing as Lucinda brawls along her barrack-room Glasgow-dialect way. Perhaps MacLeod's most memorably quirky character, Benjamin Ben-Ami, produces epics like Jesus Koresh: Martyred Messiah, with "a mild-mannered and modest but strong-willed hero" and "gloating psychopathic villains, the Emperor Reno and the Empress Hilary." MacLeod slyly entices Americans to see ourselves as others see us—not a flattering picture at all.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Tor Books
Publication date
2004
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0765305038
ISBN 13 
9780765305039
Binding
Hardcover
Edition number
1
Number of pages
320
Rating
  • 3.57 out of 5 stars
    2,705 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781841492247: Newton's Wake: Novel

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1841492248 ISBN 13:  9781841492247
Publisher: Orbit, 2005
Softcover