IAN R. MACLEOD

LORS DE SA DOUZIÈME ANNÉE standard, pendant la saison des Pluies Douces habarienne, Jalila quitte les hautes plaines de Tabuthal. Un voyage sans retour — le premier. Elle et ses trois mères s’install

George R. R. Martin es uno de los escritores más personales de la ciencia ficción norteamericana. Autor de novelas de éxito como La muerte de la luz, Sueño del Febre o Refugio de viento (con Lisa Tuttle), el grueso de su obra que le ha dado fama internacional esta formado sin embargo por un buen numero de novelas cortas y relatos, entre los cuales figuran clasicos como Los reyes de la arena, Retrato de sus hijos, Una cancion para Lya y tantos otros (incluso la que en estos momentos se considera su obra magna, aun inconclusa, los seis libros que componen la serie Cancion de hielo y fuego, esta formada por un conjunto de novelas cortas entrelazadas entre si), relatos que le han valido numerosos premios, entre ellos varios Hugos y Nebulas. Entre todas sus novelas cortas, una de las mas personales y preferidas de su autor es sin duda La flor de cristal, un ambicioso fresco mas alla del tiempo y del espacio en donde una serie de personajes emblematicos juegan a un mortifero juego de poder en un entorno fascinante, sin parangon en el universo de la ciencia ficcion mundial. Siguiendo el ejemplo de otras grandes obras suyas George R. R. Martin enjuicia en La flor de cristal la realidad a traves de su mas completa disgregacion. El dilatado cosmos que constituye su telon de fondo; el planeta donde transcurre la accion, Croan''dhenni; el palacio de obsidiana sobre zancos en medio de los pantanos; la protagonista, Cyrain de Ash, y sus Apostoles; Kleronomas el ciborg; y sobre todo el juego de la mente, forman un apasionante escenario de desbocada imaginacion dentro del cual se mueve la mas real de las irrealidades. Pocas veces un texto ha creado un nudo tan grande en la garganta del lector, pocas veces le ha dejado tan en suspenso hasta las ultimas palabras. MUSGO DE VIDA Musgo de vida, contiene apreciables dosis de fantasia, aunque nadie podra discutir nunca que su trasfondo es estrictamente de ciencia ficcion. Envuelta en una atmosfera casi onirica, la apasionante historia de Jalila, la muchacha que baja de las heladas montañ

Robert Borrows nació en West Yorkshire, el agosto del año sesenta y seis del tercer gran ciclo de la Era de la Industria. Pero no se trata de un pueblo más. En sus minas se obtiene un extraño material: el eter, sustancia de la que se compone la magia feerica. Mientras los maestros gremiales controlan la riqueza que producen las minas, los trabajadores tienen que ganarse duramente el pan y vivir en una terrible pobreza. Para Borrows surge una chispa de esperanza cuando conoce en la metropoli a un ladron que le iniciara en una lucha politica por cambiar el orden de un mundo lleno de fantasia y de miseria.

"MacLeod is a brilliant writer." Tim Powers"Ian MacLeod writes like an angel. He strings together ideally chosen words into sentences that are variously lush, sparse, subtle, bold, joyous, mournful, comic and tragic." Paul Di FilippoWelcome to the second half of the collected worlds of one of fictions great myth-makers. Blending naturalistic settings with realand unrealhistories, dark presents, strange pasts and star-flung futures, Ian R. MacLeods multi award-winning stories defy easy classification, but are always vividly elegant, compelling, and filled with wonder.In The Chop Girl, a young working at a World War Two RAF bomber airbase discovers the true meaning of luck, whilst The Discovered Country projects a world in which the dead enjoy an endless afterlife whilst the merely living struggle to survive, and The Visitor from Taured twists a modern urban myth into a tale of one mans search for a Theory Of Everything, and Snodgrass tells a very different version of the Beatles rise to fame.Nothing in MacLeods visions is ever quite what it seems, yet they remain deeply real and involving. If you havent read MacLeod before, you can expect to be moved and surprised. If you have, then you need no further introduction other than to say that Nowhereand its companion volume Everywhere, which features many of his best longer storiesrepresent a generous and wide-ranging summary of his work, along with many insights into the creative process which are provided by the fresh introductions and afterwords.Praise for Ian R. MacLeod"Ian R. MacLeod is rapidly becoming one of the contemporary stars of the genre." Brian Aldiss"MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens and Tolkien." G. P. Taylor"I have no idea what he looks like, but I picture an angle with polychrome wings, dirty hands and a well-chewed pencil." Gene Wolfe"...in many ways the mature culmination of the New Waves aggressive appropriation of literary tropes and techniques and the skillful integration of them into subtle, penetrating fiction that, like all true and dangerous art, can pierce and transform the reader." Jack Dann"Stands beside the achievements of China Mieville." Jeff VanderMeer"There are moments when you see a life entire... in a moment. And you smile, because you recognise that smell of the world, that capsule of living." John Clute"Ian R. MacLeod is one hell of a writerliterary, inventive, always surprising. Pay attention: this guy is important." Michael Swanwick

"MacLeod is a brilliant writer." Tim Powers"Ian MacLeod writes like an angel. He strings together ideally chosen words into sentences that are variously lush, sparse, subtle, bold, joyous, mournful, comic and tragic." Paul Di FilippoWelcome to the first half of the collected worlds of one of fictions great myth-makers. Blending naturalistic settings with realand unrealhistories, dark presents, strange pasts and star-flung futures, Ian R. MacLeods multi award-winning stories defy easy classification, but are always vividly elegant, compelling, and filled with wonder.In Grownups, a young boy discovers the strange facts of life in a very differentyet also alarmingly recognizableworld, whilst New Light on the Drake Equation focusses on one mans quest to prove there is still a chance of intelligent life existing beyond Earth, and in Ephemera a very strange librarian has final charge of all the worlds knowledge and culture, and The Master Millers Tale tells of obsessive love as a bucolic past dissolves into the magics of industry, iron and steam.Nothing in MacLeods visions is ever quite what it seems, yet they remain deeply real and involving. If you havent read MacLeod before, you can expect to be moved and surprised. If you have, then you need no further introduction other than to say that Everywhereand its companion volume Nowhere, which features many of his best shorter storiesrepresent a generous and wide-ranging summary of his work, along with many insights into the creative process which are provided by the fresh introductions and afterwords.Praise for Ian R. MacLeod"Ian R. MacLeod is rapidly becoming one of the contemporary stars of the genre." Brian Aldiss"MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens and Tolkien." G. P. Taylor"I have no idea what he looks like, but I picture an angle with polychrome wings, dirty hands and a well-chewed pencil." Gene Wolfe"...in many ways the mature culmination of the New Waves aggressive appropriation of literary tropes and techniques and the skillful integration of them into subtle, penetrating fiction that, like all true and dangerous art, can pierce and transform the reader." Jack Dann"Stands beside the achievements of China Mieville." Jeff VanderMeer"There are moments when you see a life entire... in a moment. And you smile, because you recognize that smell of the world, that capsule of living." John Clute"Ian R. MacLeod is one hell of a writerliterary, inventive, always surprising. Pay attention: this guy is important." Michael Swanwick

Winner of the Locus Award for Best First NovelThis prescient and ground-breaking novel is set in a near-future where the privileged citizens of Europe shelter behind immense physical and biotechnical barriers from a world ravaged by climate change and disease. Beyond this safe existence of harvest fairs, uncomplicated religion and high tech crops lie the overcrowded souks, teeming streets and exotic religions of the vast sprawl of the Endless City which now encompasses most of North Africa.Father John, a doubting missionary from the futuristic yet bucolic shires of the Welsh Marches, finds he must leave his ministry and the clamour of the Endless City to search across the dangerous wastelands beyond for the source of a lethal radioactive pollutant. There, in the company of a witchwoman and a young Borderer, he confronts not only his faith but also his own past, and the near-death of Hal, his comatose brother.Lyrical and evocative, The Great Wheel tells the story of a half-wrecked Eden, and all too possible tomorrow.Praise for The Great Wheel:"A voyage into the midnight garden of the human soul, and a dangerous extrapolation of the days to come." Michael Swanwick"A smooth, sinuous trip in the hands of a writer who knows just about everything there is to know about giving joy, and telling the truth, too." John Clute"A beautiful book. It breathes, as a true novel of experience should. Its expansive and layered and real... It transcends the genre." Jack Dann"A richly portrayed future world quite unlike any other, and yet, somehow, with the feeling of exotic familiarity." Norman Spinrad

"MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens or Tolkien." The GuardianAether is industry, industry is magic and the Great Guilds rule the known world.Raised amid the smokestakes, terraced houses and endless subterranean pounding of the aether engines of the Yorkshire town of Bracebridge, Robert Borrows is nevertheless convinced that life holds a greater destiny than merely working endless shifts for one of the Lesser Guilds. Then, on a day out with his mother to the strange gardens and weirdly encrusted towers of a remote mansion, he encounters a wizened changeling, and the young girl in her charge called Anna, and glimpses a world of wonder, mystery and surprise.From then on, as he flees to London in the hope of escape and advancement, and explores its wide streets and dark alleys, and all the tiers of society from the lowest to the highest, he comes to realize that he holds the keys to secrets far bigger than even he imagined.A dazzling melange of Dickens and Peake, flavored with steampunk and magical realism, yet seen through a kaleidoscopically individual gaze, in The Light Ages, double World Fantasy Award winner Ian R MacLeod has created a novel for this and every age.Praise for The Light Ages:"MacLeods descriptive powers are so effective that you can visualize every detail [He] skillfully incorporates literary influences ranging from William Blake to Dickens to 1984 and the working class novels of the 1950sand arrives at something original. Magical, visionary and enthralling, The Light Ages is award-winning stuff." SFX"Totally convincing and vividly written, this book invests the dark streets of London with a magic the reader will never forget a brilliant writer." Tim Powers"A haunting fantasy version of Victorian England brought to life with compassionate characters and lyrical writing." The Denver Post"The novels industrial alternative London echoes Dickens in its rich bleakness and M. John Harrisons Viriconium in its inventive Gothic complexity. A gripping page-turner. A hearty read. Rising star Ian R MacLeod offers an original political fable rivaling in ambition and execution the very best of todays new science fantasies." Michael Moorcock

Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke and the John W. Campbell Memorial awards for Best Science-Fiction NovelSong of Time begins with an old woman discovering a half-drowned man on a Cornish beach in the furthest days of this strange century. She, once a famous concert violinist, is close to death herself or a new kind of life she can barely contemplate. Does death still exist at all, or has finally been extinguished? And who is this strange man shes found? Is he a figure returned from her own past, a new messiah, or an empty vessel?Filled with love, music, death and life, and spanning the world from the prim English suburbs of Birmingham to the wild inventions of a new-Renaissance Paris to a post-apocalyptic India, Song of Time tells the story of this century, and confronts the ultimate leap into a new kind of existence, and whatever lies beyond...Praise for Song of Time:"MacLeods quiet, meditative novels and stories have been winning critical acclaim for years, and Song of Time sees him at the height of his powers. At the end of a long and eventful life, celebrated violinist Roushana Maitland orders her memories before she passes from the world of the flesh to a virtual afterlife. When she finds a mysterious stranger washed up on the beach of her Cornish retreat, he facilitates the process of remembrance. In flashback chapters we follow Roushanas turbulent life through the cataclysmic events of the 21st century, taking in the deaths of loved ones, marriage to a conductor-entrepreneur, and a final heartbreaking revelation, Song of Time is a slow, sensitive first-person account of what it means to be human and vulnerable, and confirms MacLeod as one of the countrys very best literary SF writers." The Guardian

Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate HistoryAll failed actor and unlicensed private eye Clark Gable has to do is impersonate a wealthy scriptwriter for a few hours, and sign a contract for the biopic of the inventor of a device which has transformed the world of entertainment. What could go wrong? True, hes seeing ghosts, but sos everyone else these days, at least when they go to the Feelies. And Europe is devastated by war, and America in sleep-walking toward Fascism. But whats that got to do with him? A great deal, it turns out, as he stumbles into a world of glamour, danger, preternatural forces and political intrigue.A dazzling blend of mystery, fantasy and history, and by turns witty, eerie and romantic, Wake Up and Dream is film noir with Technicolor wraiths.Praise for Wake Up and Dream:"Its 1940 and Hollywood is dominated by the feelies, movies that use the mysterious Bechmeir Field to transmit emotions into the minds of viewers. Clark Gable, a movie star turned private detective, is hired by April Lamotte to briefly impersonate her reclusive screenwriter husband, whos about to sell a biopic based on the inventor of the Bechmeir Field. After everything is signed, someone tries to kill Gable and pass it off as suicide. Gables investigation into the incident draws him into a sordid conspiracy involving Hollywoods elite, far too many of whom are turning up dead. It all leads back to something called Thrasis, and a secret worth killing for. MacLeod (Journeys) expertly hits all the hard-boiled beats, delivering the creepy, fascinating, strange, and wholly enjoyable story with a noir melancholy, a keen eye for detail, and plenty of snappy dialogue." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)"Set in an antisemitic US drifting towards collusion with Nazi Germany, Wake Up and Dream slowly picks at the artifice of Hollywood to reveal its morally rotten core. MacLeod won the Arthur C Clarke award in 2009, and on the strength of this novel should do so again." The Guardian

Winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate HistoryWhat would have happened if Britain and its allies had lost the Great War? From this premise, and through the compelling story of an outsider forever struggling to make sense of, or even change, the world, The Summer Isles takes a journey into the darker side of British nationalism.Geoffrey Brook, seemingly a successful and respected history don at a venerable Oxford college, feels his whole life is a fraud. Not only did he not go to the right schools, or attend university, but he cannot even understand Latin. That, and, in a country where intolerance and bigotry has become a national rallying cry, theres the issue of his supposedly deviant sexuality. Which, if it was discovered, would probably see him sent to a labour camp or worse still, to the Summer Isles. It all goes back to a boy he remembers from his youth, who has now become the countrys charismatic leader. But what can he do now, in a country that seems to be on the brink of cataclysm?Praise for The Summer Isles:"The Summer Isles is one of the most powerful, compelling and compassionate novels ever written in any genre." Gardner Dozois"The Summer Isles combines the profound melancholy of Orwell with the precise observance of Graham Green." Lucius Shepard"A poetic and fascinating alternate history that tells us much about how human beings think and act. At times, The Summer Isles reads like a political thriller, but, in the end, it is a story about the human heart told by a master of the form." Pat LoBrutto"Projecting Nazi Germany onto the England of the 30s is a most effective counterfactual device: and in the opposition of the narrator, historian Geoffrey Brook, and Britains Fuehrer, John Arthur, MacLeod sums up very neatly the division in the British psyche of the time, between Churchillian grit and abject appeasement." Locus

"A major work by a master writing at the top of his form." Publishers WeeklyIn the ninety-ninth year of the Age of Light, Alice Meynell has fought her way up to Greatgrandmistress of the Guild of Telegraphers, and is determined not to let even the consumption which is ravaging her son stand in the way. What follows, through a long, hot summer in the great house of Invercombe overlooking the Bristol Channel, changes not only their lives but those of everyone in England, and perhaps the whole known world.The House of Storms follows on from double World Fantasy Award-winner Ian R MacLeods The Light Ages in creating a vividly three-dimensional vision of a landscape and a society both very like, but also wonderfully different from, our own. Part fantasy and part history, and filled with compelling characters and a deep sense of place, the story he tells is uniquely powerful and strange.Praise for The House of Storms:"MacLeod is set to become a writer of the magnitude of Dickens or Tolkien." The Guardian"MacLeods ability to tell a tale that blends history-in-the-making with the stories of men and women who make that history renders this chronicle of love, war, and human aspiration a strong addition to any fantasy collection." Library Journal"In the end, as compelling as the plot may be, readers will find themselves slowing down, holding back, turning the pages with deliberate care. For the world MacLeod creates, the characters who live there, the schemes and terrors they find themselves involved in are so real, so beautifully rendered, that readers will not want to leave them behind." Interzone