Paul McAuley – författare

Twenty-third century Earth has been ravaged by climate change, and is now dominated by a few powerful families, with millions of people in prison and millions more labouring to rebuild ruined ecosystems.Meanwhile on Jupiter and Saturn, live the Outers. They have built a wild variety of scientific utopias crammed with exuberant creations of the genetic arts. Now they want to colonise Earth and drive human evolution in a new direction.On Earth, some want to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Outers while others wish to exploit the talents of the gene wizards.It is clear that the fragile detente between the two branches of humanity is breaking down and they may be heading towards war . . .

Dorothy Yoshida is a telepath, and a really rather good one at that. She's also a scientist, and when a small planet begins to manifest some unusual signs she is sent to investigate. The planet is more than it seems, and on further investigation the scientists begin to suspect it has been artificially altered.But despite their suspicions the only life they can detect is on the surface, none of which has advanced far above the level of animals. And despite the hopes of mankind to find something which will help them in a burgeoning war against other species, there seems to be nothing there to aid them.With Dorothy's arrival, however, they are in for some surprising discoveries.

A novel of a savage future war, perfect for fans of Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton.Humanity's future rests on the shoulders of a Child from the past, and she must never know of the battles being fought for her ...In the system of Fomalhaut, a war is being fought. The Quicks came long ago, refugees from the Solar System. The True arrived later, to find a declining civilisation and a system ripe for the taking. Then the Ghosts appeared, no longer human, unknowable, powerful and determined to drive out the Quick and the True. The battle continues, but the outcome is uncertain.Three lives will intersect, because there is something at the centre of their universe, something dangerous and growing and powerful. Something that is worth fighting for. And it will change everybody's life.

In the far future, a young man stands on a barren asteroid. His ship has been stolen, his family kidnapped or worse, and all he has on his side is a semi-intelligent spacesuit. The only member of the crew to escape, Hari has barely been off his ship before. It was his birthplace, his home and his future.He's going to get it back.McAuley's latest novel is set in the same far-flung future as his last few novels, but this time he takes on a much more personal story. This is a tale of revenge, of murder and morality, of growing up and discovering the world around you. Throughout the novel we follow Hari's viewpoint, and as he unravels the mysteries that led to his stranding, we discover them alongside him. But throughout his journeys, Hari must always bear one thing in mind.Nobody is to be trusted.

Confluence - a long, narrow, artificial world, half fertile river valley, half crater-strewn desert. A world beyond the end of human history, served by countless machines, inhabited by 10,000 bloodlines who worship their absent creators, riven by a vast war against heretics. This is the home of Yama, found as an infant in a white boat on the world's Great River, raised by an obscure bureaucrat in an obscure town in the middle of a ruined necropolis, destined to become a clerk - until the discovery of his singular ancestry. For Yama appears to be the last remaining scion of the Builders, closest of all races to the revered architects of Confluence, able to awaken and control the secret machineries of the world.Pursued by enemies who want to make use of his powers, Yama voyages down the length of the world to search for answers to the mysteries of his origin, and to discover if he is to be the saviour of his world, or its nemesis.

One of the world's most celebrated Science Fiction authors, Paul McAuley, is back with a new standalone, exploring posthuman Earth and its secret histories

WHAT WILL BECOME OF US?In the deep future beyond the burn line of the Anthropocene and the extinction of humanity, the city states of an intelligent species of bear have fallen to a mind-wrecking plague. The bears' former slaves, a peaceable, industrious and endlessly curious people, believe that they have inherited the bounty and beauty of their beloved Mother Earth. But are they alone?After the death of his master, a famous scholar, Pilgrim Saltmire vows to complete their research into sightings of so-called visitors and their sky craft. To discover if they are a mass delusion created by the stresses of an industrial revolution, or if they are real - a remnant population of bears which survived the plague, or another, unknown intelligent species.Risking his reputation and his life, Pilgrim's search for the truth takes him from his comfortable home in the shadow of a great library to his tribe's former home on the chilly coast of the far south, and the gathering of a dangerous cult in the high desert. Whether or not the visitors are real, one thing is certain. Pilgrim's world and everything he thought he knew about his people's history will be utterly changed.McAuley's fabulous far future, impacted by the consequences of global warming, colonisation and historical injustices, explores and reflects our own challenges while telling a fast paced story of discovery and adventure.

2026: Something is growing in the Pacific Ocean."The Slick" appears to be a strange, fungus-like organism, but its DNA is unlike anything else on the planet. Rumours start to fly. Was life discovered deep beneath the Martian icecaps on a recent Chinese space mission? If it was, no-one is confirming it, but could that same life now be spreading through the ocean and threatening Earth's entire food chain?Brilliant scientist Dr. Mariella Anders is recruited to join an urgent NASA mission to Mars to see if she can uncover the truth of this organism, but this is no straightforward investigation. Corporate powers are committed to exploiting the secrets of the Slick for profit; radical eco-terrorists strike out against rampant genetic engineering; and a second Chinese mission to Mars at the same time has its goals shrouded in mystery.The secret of life on Earth and Mars might be found on the red planet, but who can Mariella trust with the truth once it's found? And what price will she have to pay for it?

'A beautiful story of intrigue and mystery' PETER F. HAMILTON'Loss Protocol is Paul McAuley on top form' KIM NEWMAN'An eco-thriller like no other from one of Britain's best SF writers' THE GUARDIAN'Which one feels realer, truer. The world we lived in most of our lives, or the world we dreamed up?'Eight years after the catastrophic downfall of the cult his sister Izzy had joined, Marc Winters has at last found a refuge from unwanted attention. The wildlife ranger of a small, unremarkable island, he's quietly helping to preserve what survives of nature in a world wracked by climate change and chaotic weather, and trying his best to put his past behind him.But then his narrowboat is burgled, the counterterrorism police come calling, and everything he thought he knew about the cult and his sister's fate is turned upside down. A cabal of so-called deep dreamers has revived the cult's crazy belief that the world could be healed by collective dreams fuelled by psychotropic mushrooms. They appear to think that Winters possesses information crucial to their success, and when he tries to discover more about them, he becomes inextricably entangled in plans that challenge his very existence.Blending noir-inflected conspiracies and double-crosses, fantasies of dream science, and elegiac evocations of a depleted world, Loss Protocol's chimerical story keeps its secrets until the last page.

The aliens are here. And they want to help. The extraordinary new project from one of the country's most acclaimed and consistently brilliant SF novelists of the last 30 years.The Jackaroo have given humanity fifteen worlds and the means to reach them. They're a chance to start over, but they're also littered with ruins and artifacts left by the Jackaroo's previous clients.Miracles that could reverse the damage caused by war, climate change, and rising sea levels. Nightmares that could forever alter humanity - or even destroy it.Chloe Millar works in London, mapping changes caused by imported scraps of alien technology. When she stumbles across a pair of orphaned kids possessed by an ancient ghost, she must decide whether to help them or to hand them over to the authorities. Authorities who believe that their visions point towards a new kind of danger.And on one of the Jackaroo's gift-worlds, the murder of a man who has just arrived from Earth leads policeman Vic Gayle to a war between rival gangs over possession of a remote excavation site.Something is coming through. Something linked to the visions of Chloe's orphans, and Vic Gayle's murder investigation. Something that will challenge the limits of the Jackaroo's benevolence ...

The Jackaroo, those enigmatic aliens who claim to have come to help, gave humanity access to worlds littered with ruins and scraps of technology left by long-dead client races. But although people have found new uses for alien technology, that technology may have found its own uses for people.The dissolute scion of a powerful merchant family, and a woman living in seclusion with only her dog and her demons for company, have become infected by a copies of a powerful chunk of alien code. Driven to discover what it wants from them, they become caught up in a conflict between a policeman allied to the Jackaroo and the laminated brain of a scientific wizard, and a mystery that spans light years and centuries. Humanity is about to discover why the Jackaroo came to help us, and how that help is shaping the end of human history.

"McAuley gives us a vision ..." - Matthew Cheney"...one of Paul J. McAuley's greatest works in fantasy and science fiction, demonstrating his great gifts in storytelling and writing" - Goodreads ReviewerAlex Sharkey is trying to make his mark as a biohacker - a designer of rare psychoactive viruses - and stay one step ahead of the law. After meeting a scary, super-smart little girl called Milena his troubles really start. Together they quicken the intelligence in a Doll - a being genetically-engineered for slave labour - accidentally creating a new species and turning it into the first of the fairies. Milena isn't sure if she's mad or if she's the only sane person left in the world; she only knows that she wants to escape to her own private Fairyland and live forever. But some of the Folk, as dangerous as any in legend, have other ideas about her destiny...

A prescient and chilling climate change thriller set on the harsh landscape of Antarctica from one of the best science fiction writers of the present dayThe great geoengineering projects have failed.The world is still warming, sea levels are still rising, and the Antarctic Peninsula is home to Earth's newest nation, with life quickened by ecopoets spreading across valleys and fjords exposed by the retreat of the ice.Austral Morales Ferrado, a child of the last generation of ecopoets, is a husky: an edited person adapted to the unforgiving climate of the far south, feared and despised by most of its population. She's been a convict, a corrections officer in a labour camp, and consort to a criminal, and now, out of desperation, she has committed the kidnapping of the century. But before she can collect the ransom and make a new life elsewhere, she must find a place of safety amongst the peninsula's forests and icy plateaus, and evade a criminal gang that has its own plans for the teenage girl she's taken hostage.Blending the story of Austral's flight with the fractured history of her family and its role in the colonisation of Antarctica, Austral is a vivid portrayal of a treacherous new world created by climate change, and shaped by the betrayals and mistakes of the past. Austral has been optioned for television by Circle of Confusion, the company who brought The Walking Dead and Locke and Key to the small screen. They've recruited award-winning screenwriter Elise McCredie (Stateless) and director Erik Skjoldbjærg (An Enemy of the People, Insomnia) to work on this exciting project.'Paul McAuley's balanced grasp of science and literature, always a rare attribute in the writer of prose fiction, is combined with the equally rare ability to look at today's problems and know which are really problems, and what can be done about them.' William GibsonReaders are captivated by Austral:'Austral feels very timely, as it confronts questions about borders, climate change, geoengineering, biodiversity, racism, and xenophobia . . . An excellent climate change novel' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Devastating, humane, extraordinarily harsh and beautiful' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'The world building is very nicely done, with a strong sense of place and landscape. And the tale is infused with thoughtful reflection on climate change, wilding and genetic modifications' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'A gorgeous, haunting novel-brimming with fractal stories-within-stories-about a fugitive on the run through the backcountry of the new nation established on a greening Antarctica' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Genius . . . I love the intersection of gene editing and anarchy. Imagining a world drastically changed by global warming but still crumpling under the dire weight of capitalism' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'The underrated McAuley is in top form in this hard science fiction novel with heart.' Washington Post Book WorldOn a giant artificial world surrounding an artificial sun, one man - a lucidor, a keeper of the peace, a policeman - is on the hunt. His target was responsible for an atrocity, but is too valuable to the government to be truly punished. Instead he has been sent to the frontlines of the war, to use his unique talents on the enemy. So the lucidor has ignored orders, deserted from his job, left his home and thrown his life away, in order to finally claim justice.Separated by massive seas, the various maps dotted on the surface of this world rarely contact each other. But something has begun to infiltrate the edges of the lucidor's map, something that genetically alters animals and plants and turns them into killers. Only the lucidor knows the depths to which his quarry will sink in order to survive, only the lucidor can capture him. The way is long and dangerous. The lucidor's government has set hunters after him. He has no friends, no resources, no plan.But he does have a mission.

Secret cults, forbidden knowledge, and cryptic prophecies await in this companion collection to Shadows Over Innsmouth, containing 12 more short stories inspired by the legendary horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.Featuring stories from some of the biggest names in horror fiction, including H. P. Lovecraft, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and many more.This newly redesigned edition also includes a revised and updated Introduction and Contributor Notes, along with additional artwork exclusive to this printing.In this companion to the acclaimed anthology Shadows Over Innsmouth, World Fantasy Award-winning editor Stephen Jones assembles some of today's most talented horror authors-the finest of the modern Lovecraftian acolytes.Return to Innsmouth with these 12 haunting horror stories and encounter a scientist who stumbles upon a secret cult, a thief whose heist goes horrifically awry, and a magician who usurps a prophecy only to bring about something much, much worse-plus H. P. Lovecraft's previously discarded draft of 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth'! This newly redesigned edition also includes a revised and updated Introduction and Contributor Notes, along with additional artwork exclusive to this printing.Featuring stories from:H. P. LovecraftRamsey CampbellHugh B. CaveBasil CopperJohn GlasbyCaitlin R. KiernanBrian LumleyRichard A. LupoffPaul McAuleyKim NewmanMichael Marshall SmithSteve Rasnic Tem

Widely believed to be Terry Gilliam's best film, Brazil's brilliantly imaginative vision of a retro-futuristic bureaucracy has had a lasting influence on genre cinema. Exploring its complex history and relationship with other dystopias, Paul McAuley explains why this satire on the unchecked power of the state is more relevant than ever.