false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172527985m/185824.jpg 185824 4 Like a British--specifically, Scottish--counterpart of Bruce Sterling, Ken MacLeod is an SF author who has thought hard about politics and delights in making unlikely alternatives plausible, grippingly readable, and often downright funny.<p> <I>Cosmonaut Keep</I> swaps between two timelines whose characters share the ultimate goal of interstellar travel. In an uncertain future on the far world of Mingulay, human colonists live in the title's ancient, alien-built Keep--coexisting with reptilian "saurs," trading with visiting ships piloted by krakens, and hiding their laborious "Great Work" of developing human-guided navigation between the stars.<p> Meanwhile, alternate chapters present a mid-21st-century Earth whose EU is (to America's horror) Russian-dominated with a big red star in the middle of its flag. Rumors of alien contact abound, and computer whiz kid Matt Cairns finds himself carrying a data disk of unknown origin that offers antigravity and a space drive.<p> Clearly, the later storyline's Gregor Cairns is Matt's descendant. There are ingenious connections and surprises, with witty resonances between their wild careers, their travels, and their bumpy love lives. The foreground action adventure points to a bigger picture and a master plan known only to the godlike hive-minds who built the "Second Sphere" of interstellar culture, and who regard traditional SF dreams of unlimited human expansion through space as precisely equivalent to floods of e-mail spam polluting the tranquil galactic net.<p> <I>Cosmonaut Keep</I> opens MacLeod's new SF sequence, Engines of Light. It's highly entertaining and intelligent, promising more good things to come. <I>--David Langford</I> 883739 2000 Cosmonaut Keep (The Engines of Light, Book 1) total:163|5:15|4:55|3:72|2:18|1:3| 163 550 273 11 3 0 false false Sun Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Wed Jul 15 14:54:39 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 14:55:04 -0700 2009
MacLeod again uses two narratives spann...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 13 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 03:03:50 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 23:39:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 19:07:34 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 19:09:57 -0800 2008 2 0 false false Thu Jul 30 01:11:52 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 01:11:52 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 17 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Jun 04 07:52:13 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 04 07:56:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Wed Jan 30 13:02:44 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 14:01:41 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jun 21 15:15:23 -0700 2007 Sun Jan 27 21:10:32 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Mon Mar 31 07:39:21 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 07:40:12 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sat Sep 01 15:19:50 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 01 15:20:14 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 22 11:56:45 -0800 2008 Fri Apr 03 08:45:33 -0700 2009 1 0 0 false false Mon Apr 14 12:24:59 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 14 12:24:59 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Nov 19 12:05:41 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 12:05:41 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Nov 19 01:46:27 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 01:46:27 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Nov 18 08:32:00 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 08:32:00 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Nov 14 23:43:08 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 14 23:43:08 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Nov 14 06:38:46 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 14 06:38:46 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Nov 11 11:46:53 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 11:47:01 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 07:28:07 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 07:28:07 -0800 2009 1 0 false false Thu Nov 05 18:11:04 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 05 18:11:04 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Nov 05 01:15:30 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 05 01:15:30 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=185824