Cosmonaut Keep (The Engines of Light, Book 1) (Hardcover)

~ Ken MacLeod (Author) "A GOD STOOD in the sky high above the sunset horizon, his long white hair streaming in the solar wind..." (more)
Key Phrases: Nova Babylonia, New Lisbon, Blasphemous Geometries (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

Cosmonaut Keep 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.

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.

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.

Cosmonaut Keep opens MacLeod's new SF sequence, Engines of Light. It's highly entertaining and intelligent, promising more good things to come. --David Langford

From Publishers Weekly

Scottish author MacLeod (Cassini Division) crafts an intricate tale, with two thematically linked plots that focus, in different ways, on human travel between the stars and the aliens who help them. Circa 2040 computer guru Matt Cairns flees from Scotland to the United States, then to a space station; he possesses crucial information supplied by aliens that may provide the means for humans to travel the stars. His adventures happen at a critical moment in history: soon after aliens contact a space station, the political situation on Earth rapidly destabilizes. Two hundred years later, biologist Gregor Cairns, a descendant of the cosmonauts who colonized the planet Mingulay, realizes that navigating the stars may be within the grasp of humans, and he sets out to find some of the long-lived crew of the Bright Star, the original starship to reach the planet. Gregor's investigation of the aliens who pilot interplanetary craft the friendly but uncommunicative saurs and the huge kraken eventually leads to a surprising link between past and present. MacLeod handles the strands of the plot deftly, weaving one beautifully realized world with the other and highlighting the parallels between the two. Rarely does a book demand so much of the reader and then deliver. Densely written with a remarkable depth of cultural texture, though occasionally confusing in its politics (which includes socialists, "Webblies" and libertarian capitalists), MacLeod's story is spoiled only by the false notes of two parallel love interests. (May 30)Nebula and the Arthur C. Clarke awards.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (May 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076530032X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765300324
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,626,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another strong effort from Macleod, May 13, 2001

By	J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Once again, Ken Macleod has produced an original, intelligent work of science fiction in "Cosmonaut Keep". As usual, he has created a world that is by turns familiar, in other words it has its basis in a plausible future Earth, and completely bizarre. The bizzare aspects, in this isntance, being an earth-like planet that is home to humanoid (and regular) dinosaurs, native humans, and humans from Earth, and starships piloted by giant squid.

Much like his previous books, Macleod has filled this one with quirky, conlicting (and conflicted) politcal theories. It is in this regard that he shines as one of the smartest authors around today. He writes with the authority of a polical scientist, but never comes across as dogmatic. I suspect that in real life he is left of center, but the politcal philosophies his characters espouse are really just vehicles to drive the plot.

Finally, one positive, one negative. On the positive side, the characters in "Cosmonaut Keep" are Macleod's best yet. They show a level of depth that is just amazing; a level I didn't find in his previous works. On the negative side, "Cosmonaut Keep", like Macleod's other novels is told in alternating time periods. This proves to be a very creative way to intertwine seemingly disparite storylines, but it is handled poorly in the first half of this novel. Macleod should have been more careful in the details he reveals, as I found myself hopelessly confused 50 pages in. In the end all becomes clear, but this is a tough novel to get into as a result.

Ultimately, though, "Cosmonaut Keep" is a smart, entertaining beginning to what promises to be a great series. Enjoy!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Macleod's authorial mid-life crisis?, May 3, 2001

By	flying-monkey (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.) - See all my reviews

What's happening to Ken MacLeod?

It seems to be a kind of authorial mid-lfe crisis for SF authors that they have to write a three-volume space opera or they won't feel complete. Some of these are superb though: for example, Peter Hamiliton's 'Night's Dawn' sequence and Paul J. MacAuley's recent trilogy. Macleod's (at least judging by this first volume), doesn't measure up.

Despite having reservations about his ability to really sustain a story, and his often wooden or stereotyped characters, I've always enjoyed his books, not least because of their determinedly idiosyncratic left-wing politics and situations. This one is also enjoyable enough, and has some great individual scenes (in particular the dinosaur-herding-by-flying-saucer bit), but it is too much of the same: parrallel stories (again), beautiful dark-haired heroines (again) etc. And, some of the devices needed to keep the plot going just make you go "D'oh!". I also found the nearer future story-line featuring a group of very dull computer hackers and their friends, uninvolving.

I was left feeling unsure whether the whole thing wasn't meant as parody, and perhaps that the author wasn't sure either. Oh well...

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting ideas, not enough heart, September 25, 2004

By	Russell Clothier (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cosmonaut Keep (The Engines of Light, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I tried to like this book, really I did. McLeod is clearly an intelligent, inventive writer who can create future worlds that are detailed and believable. (Well, except for Communist "Russkis" taking over Europe; by 2000 that scenario should have been discarded.) And I found many of his ideas fascinating: the evolved, sentient dinosaurs; the "Second Sphere" of humanity to which the lost tribes of man (and saurs) have been transported; the true story of the flying saucers of New Mexico. As I read, I fully expected to get sucked in to the story. . . and it never happened. I kept plodding along, working to understand the politics and technology, assuming this was a long stage-setting for what would be a great story. And you know what? Maybe it is! But by the time I got to about page 160, I decided I didn't care enough about the characters and their plight to keep going. It was fascinating, but it wasn't interesting (if that makes sense). I couldn't help but compare "Cosmonaut Keep" to another book I was reading at the time, "Trading in Danger", by Elizabeth Moon. In comparison, Moon's book is a rather simple, predictable story, but it has characters you come to care about, and you want to keep reading to find out what happens to them. That was simply not the case with "Cosmonaut Keep". Perhaps I gave up too easily, but you know, there are other books on my shelf waiting to be read. The emotional payoff to this book is not worth the intellectual investment.