Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Orbit (London, 2000). 1st edition, 1st printing. 308 pages. £16.99.
Description
After the Ural Caspian Oil War, nobody really trusted the EU government. So why should their extraordinary announcement of first contact with alien intelligence be believed? Matt Cairns thinks he can discover the truth. It is out there, but much, much further away than he could have imagined. Thousands of light-years from Earth, a human colony is struggling for survival. The world on which they have settled, however, has already been inhabited by humans - and other intelligent species from Earth - for millennia. In that ancient division of labour, humans do have a place. But where is it? Twenty-first-century political intrigue becomes space opera on an epic scale in Ken MacLeod's first book in a dazzling new series. His most ambitious novel to date, it will take one of Britain's most exciting new science fiction authors to even greater heights of success and critical acclaim. More information on this book and others can be found on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
Cosmonaut Keep has a peculiar structure that alternates chapters between a first-person account set in the mid-21st century on and near Earth, and a third-person narrative an unknown number of centuries later on the planet Mingualay within a remote interstellar polity called the "Second Sphere."
There are many parallels between the two plot lines. Both stories concern themselves with the human achievement of interstellar travel in the context of encounters with extraterrestrial intelligences. The nature of the aliens is informed by actual 20th- and 21st-century ufological lore, and the 21st-century characters have varying degrees of knowledge about and regard for that body of knowledge. In both threads, there is a lot of attention to politics: Earth politics framed by a conflict between a Soviet-style consolidated socialist EU and the capitalist technocracy of the US, and Mingualayan politics involving different intelligent species of the Second Sphere. There is also a fair amount of love story, or at least "sex story," as the two lead characters each proceed through major amorous relationships.
Cosmonaut Keep is the first volume of a trilogy titled "Engines of Light," and it has impressively satisfying dramatic closure for the opening book of a defined series of this sort. At the same time, the novel opens up a variety of intriguing enigmas that certainly create room for its sequels.
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The protagonist of the later thread is evidently the great-grandson of the hero in the earlier one. Both lines of narrative read quickly, although there is more "action" in the terrestrial one, and the alternating structure allows for the routine creation of cliffhangers and unresolved suspense. The bouncing between first- and third-person narrative voices is awkward at first, but I got used to it, and it was justified in the end.There are many parallels between the two plot lines. Both stories concern themselves with the human achievement of interstellar travel in the context of encounters with extraterrestrial intelligences. The nature of the aliens is informed by actual 20th- and 21st-century ufological lore, and the 21st-century characters have varying degrees of knowledge about and regard for that body of knowledge. In both threads, there is a lot of attention to politics: Earth politics framed by a conflict between a Soviet-style consolidated socialist EU and the capitalist technocracy of the US, and Mingualayan politics involving different intelligent species of the Second Sphere. There is also a fair amount of love story, or at least "sex story," as the two lead characters each proceed through major amorous relationships.
Cosmonaut Keep is the first volume of a trilogy titled "Engines of Light," and it has impressively satisfying dramatic closure for the opening book of a defined series of this sort. At the same time, the novel opens up a variety of intriguing enigmas that certainly create room for its sequels.
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LibraryThing member djfoobarmatt
The reason I enjoy Ken Macleod is that he puts lots of politics, religion and humour in his books. He plays a little bit of romance usually involving a dark haired girl with green eyes and a glasgow accent and his characters are very human while still being heroic and doing amazing things. This
If you're into hackers subverting governments as part of an international spy thing, making contact with aliens, squids flying spaceships, lost human civilisations on other planets with strange combinations of earth history mixed together (politics, religions, dinosaurs, castles, UFOs...), then you'll like this book! And at least half of Dark Light which I'm still reading.
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series differs from the star fraction series in that it has less parallel plots running (making it easier to follow) and it is partly set in another solar system of unknown distance from earth.If you're into hackers subverting governments as part of an international spy thing, making contact with aliens, squids flying spaceships, lost human civilisations on other planets with strange combinations of earth history mixed together (politics, religions, dinosaurs, castles, UFOs...), then you'll like this book! And at least half of Dark Light which I'm still reading.
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LibraryThing member kevinashley
My catalogue record for this book came from the British Library. Somebody there was having a bad day; or perhaps someone at the publisher supplied bad data. So let's correct some misconceptions at the outset: this is not a "toy or movable book", nor is it about house-cleaning. Still interested
Good. Because this is a book about intelligence, technology (its rise and fall and reinvention), alienness, cultural difference and politics. With two love stories, each of a man pursued by two women in two different centuries, intertwined.
Some of these themes - the politics and the musings on human and machine intelligence - are familiar territory for Macleod, and if you've read any of his other work, particularly the "Fall Revolution" series, you'll find much to recognise here. What's also familiar from those books is the device of telling a story that's split in two, with one part taking place in a near future and the other some hundreds of years later. But Macleod takes some of his themes further, and the future part of the story involves humans interacting both with other human groups whose development has taken very different paths, and with aliens who are markedly different in mysterious ways from the humans they mix with.
Some of these themes are explored in more depth than others, and I found some of this frustrating. But this is the first book of a series and it's possible that they are picked up in later books. Macleod retains his ability to tell a political adventure story in which programmers play a central role, and his humour still features and makes the book an even more enjoyable read.
I didn't get the sense of sheer joy I got when I first read "The Star Fraction", but that's probably because the themes, and Macleod's ability to portray political cliques with sharp, observational wit, aren't so new to me any more. He still does it well.
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?Good. Because this is a book about intelligence, technology (its rise and fall and reinvention), alienness, cultural difference and politics. With two love stories, each of a man pursued by two women in two different centuries, intertwined.
Some of these themes - the politics and the musings on human and machine intelligence - are familiar territory for Macleod, and if you've read any of his other work, particularly the "Fall Revolution" series, you'll find much to recognise here. What's also familiar from those books is the device of telling a story that's split in two, with one part taking place in a near future and the other some hundreds of years later. But Macleod takes some of his themes further, and the future part of the story involves humans interacting both with other human groups whose development has taken very different paths, and with aliens who are markedly different in mysterious ways from the humans they mix with.
Some of these themes are explored in more depth than others, and I found some of this frustrating. But this is the first book of a series and it's possible that they are picked up in later books. Macleod retains his ability to tell a political adventure story in which programmers play a central role, and his humour still features and makes the book an even more enjoyable read.
I didn't get the sense of sheer joy I got when I first read "The Star Fraction", but that's probably because the themes, and Macleod's ability to portray political cliques with sharp, observational wit, aren't so new to me any more. He still does it well.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
Another Ken Macleod novel with alternating plotlines and an assumption that the reader will be fairly up to speed with Leftist politics, though not the same factions of the Left explored in the Fall Revolution novels. The near-future plotline in this novel starts out with a Soviet-dominated EU in
By the way, the aliens are microbial super-colonies; and they provide one link to the other plotline in the novel.
That plotline takes place in the future, on a distant world colonised from Earth. Humans live in close relations with saurs, reptilian aliens we would identify as Greys, but who have personalities that are both alien and relatable to our sensibilities. They also have a sense of humour that we definitely relate to. Other human-settled worlds also have working relationships with the saurs and the krakens, who navigate starships between the inhabited worlds of this part of the galaxy. The colony world, Mingulay, is well-drawn (though it's fairly clear that it's a thinly-disguised Hebridean island); there are hidden Ancestors, and First Families, and a castle, and pubs, and fishermen who go out in trawlers in oilskins; it all feels very Scottish. One of the First Families has a Great Work, and that will take the humans back to the stars, if they get to collect certain techie plot tokens...
This is very much the first book in a trilogy, although it doesn't end on a cliff-hanger as such and you can read it quite happily on its own. But it's as much about world-building as advancing the plot. And there's fun to be had sorting out how the two plot strands join up. So what starts out looking like another Ian Macleod novel with Scottish socialists plotting and swapping Leftie in-jokes with each other ends as something rather different.
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the aftermath of World War Three (or is it Four? People have lost count) pitched against a fairly Republican and politically active USA, and the way things get confused when the Soviets suddenly announce First Contact with an alien species. It soon becomes clear that this First Contact isn't a new event; the near-future politics get rather thrown into disarray. In the middle of this, the protagonists, an Edinburgh-based hacker, an American freedom fighter (depending on whose viewpoint you adopt) working for West Coast tech money in Europe, and an American flying saucer pilot (no, this one's all our own work) get involved with the race to exploit the new technology the aliens are bringing us.By the way, the aliens are microbial super-colonies; and they provide one link to the other plotline in the novel.
That plotline takes place in the future, on a distant world colonised from Earth. Humans live in close relations with saurs, reptilian aliens we would identify as Greys, but who have personalities that are both alien and relatable to our sensibilities. They also have a sense of humour that we definitely relate to. Other human-settled worlds also have working relationships with the saurs and the krakens, who navigate starships between the inhabited worlds of this part of the galaxy. The colony world, Mingulay, is well-drawn (though it's fairly clear that it's a thinly-disguised Hebridean island); there are hidden Ancestors, and First Families, and a castle, and pubs, and fishermen who go out in trawlers in oilskins; it all feels very Scottish. One of the First Families has a Great Work, and that will take the humans back to the stars, if they get to collect certain techie plot tokens...
This is very much the first book in a trilogy, although it doesn't end on a cliff-hanger as such and you can read it quite happily on its own. But it's as much about world-building as advancing the plot. And there's fun to be had sorting out how the two plot strands join up. So what starts out looking like another Ian Macleod novel with Scottish socialists plotting and swapping Leftie in-jokes with each other ends as something rather different.
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LibraryThing member jaygheiser
Good read--much more engrossing than Execution Channel
LibraryThing member MEMGTaylor
Not quite sure where to start with this book, this is the first title I’ve read from this author and I must say I found it intriguing. The story takes place in 2 different time lines, one on Earth a few decades from now and the other on another Planet several centuries later which, I have to
I thoroughly enjoyed this book although I would have liked more emphasis on the ‘First Contact’ in the first timeline. The second timeline was excellent fulfilling my desire to read about the interaction of Human and Aliens, I will certainly be reading the second book in the Trilogy Engines of Light.
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admit, I found very confusing for the first couple of chapters as I wasn’t quite sure where I was or when. However, after continuing to read pieces of the puzzle start to slot into place, it was interesting to read the authors ideas about the possible political structure and the technology in use on earth post 2040s and the interaction of the humans living with several different species (including Krakens, ‘a God in the Sky’ and Saurs (greys)) in the second timeline. The characters are well described and you soon start to see the similarities of life events between the two main characters as they both struggle to achieve the secrets of Interstellar travel. A political and scientific story that is well written and compelling, but, there is very little ‘action’ in it and if you like the ‘bug hunt’ type alien stories then I’m afraid you won’t find it in this book!I thoroughly enjoyed this book although I would have liked more emphasis on the ‘First Contact’ in the first timeline. The second timeline was excellent fulfilling my desire to read about the interaction of Human and Aliens, I will certainly be reading the second book in the Trilogy Engines of Light.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
A god stood in the sky high above the summer horizon, his long white hair streaming in the solar wind. Later, when the sky's colour had shifted from green to black, the white glow would reach almost to the zenith, its light outshining the Foamy Wake, the broad band of the Galaxy.
Two linked stories
I'm looking forward to the other books in the trilogy.
Two linked stories
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are told in alternate chapters. One is a first contact story about the meeting between between humans and aliens, while the later story involves the descendants of some of the characters now living on another planet in the Second Sphere, thousands of light years from Earth.I'm looking forward to the other books in the trilogy.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
My first book by this author. It's first in the "Engines of Light saga," but, I was pleased to discover, works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel... at the end, of course, there is room to wonder "what happens next" but the characters, and their relationships, all come to a nice stopping-point.
"Cosmonaut Keep" is really 2 novels in one. There are two completely separate plotlines, and the connection between them is not made explicitly clear until chapter 18 (of 21).
In the first one, we meet Gregor and Elizabeth, two young marine biologists living on the planet of Mingulay. Here, humanity co-exists peacefully with the alien saurs (and several other spacegoing races.) Visited by spacegoing traders, the colony does not feel totally cut off... but Gregor's family is involved in a generations-long Great Work - the goal of rediscovering the secrets of interstellar navigation on their own, so that humanity will not have to depend on others for space travel. Drama erupts when Gregor develops a passionate infatuation with the beautiful daughter of a space trader, unaware that his parter Elizabeth has far more than mere friendly feelings for him...
The second plot is far closer to our own time - in a near-future, Russian-dominated EU, computer programmer/hacker Matt is given a disk of information by his dissident girlfriend, Jadey, right before she gets arrested. Matt flees to the still-capitalist U.S. The disk seems to contain specs for building a flying saucer. Right after he discovers this, the government announces that it has made first contact with intelligent aliens. Soon, Matt finds himself at the center of subversive political and scientific plots, and in an affair with the rah-rah-America test-pilot Camila...
The first plotline reminded me a lot of Anne McCaffrey - the second, more of Bruce Sterling. However, both were enjoyable, with a good mix of ideas and old-fashioned soap-opera.
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"Cosmonaut Keep" is really 2 novels in one. There are two completely separate plotlines, and the connection between them is not made explicitly clear until chapter 18 (of 21).
In the first one, we meet Gregor and Elizabeth, two young marine biologists living on the planet of Mingulay. Here, humanity co-exists peacefully with the alien saurs (and several other spacegoing races.) Visited by spacegoing traders, the colony does not feel totally cut off... but Gregor's family is involved in a generations-long Great Work - the goal of rediscovering the secrets of interstellar navigation on their own, so that humanity will not have to depend on others for space travel. Drama erupts when Gregor develops a passionate infatuation with the beautiful daughter of a space trader, unaware that his parter Elizabeth has far more than mere friendly feelings for him...
The second plot is far closer to our own time - in a near-future, Russian-dominated EU, computer programmer/hacker Matt is given a disk of information by his dissident girlfriend, Jadey, right before she gets arrested. Matt flees to the still-capitalist U.S. The disk seems to contain specs for building a flying saucer. Right after he discovers this, the government announces that it has made first contact with intelligent aliens. Soon, Matt finds himself at the center of subversive political and scientific plots, and in an affair with the rah-rah-America test-pilot Camila...
The first plotline reminded me a lot of Anne McCaffrey - the second, more of Bruce Sterling. However, both were enjoyable, with a good mix of ideas and old-fashioned soap-opera.
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LibraryThing member jkdavies
This took forever to read, for a relatively slim book. Too much real world stuff going on, not sure I've given it a fair crack of the whip. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of his others.
LibraryThing member nwhyte
Combines MacLeod's socialist future Europe with a quite different human universe in a way that becomes clear only towards the end of the novel.
LibraryThing member Shrike58
It's been a long time since I've read anything by this author and while I enjoyed what I read in the early 2K's I'm going to admit that MacLeod didn't entertain me as much as in the past. A lot of this boils down to how his quirky take on left-wing politics doesn't seem to have dated very well. As
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they say, the future isn't what it used to be! If I didn't have newer and shinier things calling to me I might have been more patient with this novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member elahrairah
Sometimes when you read a book you can really tell that it is designed to be part of a trilogy. Even three quarters of the way through there wasn't really a major plot, it was all build up. But good build up, I really enjoyed it, the main character is an idiot everyman, the social environment
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involves a sensible critique of the successes and failures of communism and capitalism, and the science is believeable. Looking forward to reading the next part. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 2002)
SF Site Editor's Choice (2001)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2001)
Italia Award (Finalist — 2009)
Prometheus Award (Nominee — Novel — 2002)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2000-04
Physical description
308 p.; 6.25 inches
ISBN
1857239865 / 9781857239867