The Execution Channel

Arthur C Clarke Awards, 2008

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781841493497

Price: £12.99

ON SALE: 6th March 2008

Genre: Fiction & Related Items / Thriller / Suspense

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‘Distinctive, politically challenging, both tantalizing and satisfying.’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘This man’s going to be a major writer.’ – Iain Banks

Fighting has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia to the borders of China. In the US, refugees from climate-change disaster subsist in FEMA camps. Images of official executions circulate on the Internet like al Qaeda videos. State agencies sponsor conspiracy theories as cover-ups.

As the troops of the last superpower stand astride the last of the oil, China and Russia aren’t the only states considering their options: certain nations of Old Europe are quietly preparing for the worst.

James Travis is a middle-aged middle manager in a software company.

He has a son in the army, a daughter in a peace-protest camp outside a USAF base, and a compromising relationship with a foreign intelligence service. When his cover is blown hours before a nuclear explosion destroys the base, Travis, his son, and his daughter are all in serious trouble. And as the spooks and disinformation specialists focus their efforts on his capture, Travis knows that all it will take is one mistake and his only memorial will be another grainy video on . . . The Execution Channel.

Ken MacLeod’s most relevant and accessible novel to date.

Books by Ken MacLeod:

Fall Revolution
The Star Fraction
The Stone Canal
The Cassini Division
The Sky Road

Engines of Light
Cosmonaut Keep
Dark Light
Engine City

Corporation Wars Trilogy
Dissidence
Insurgence
Emergence

Novels
The Human Front
Newton’s Wake
Learning the World
The Execution Channel
The Restoration Game
Intrusion
Descent

Reviews

Ken MacLeod's The Execution Channel starts like a techno-thriller "ripped from tomorrow's headlines", a thrilling, fast-moving tale of suspense rife with paranoia and multiple conspiracy theories. However, it's deeper and more thoughtful than most thrillers. MacLeod vividly and economically portrays an all-too-plausible world in which war has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia; millions of Americans live in FEMA concentration camps due to climate change; the British Government is considering deporting all Muslims, and what's really happening is hidden in a blizzard of disinformation and propaganda. This is politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that's absolutely mind-blowing.
THE TIMES
A very good book, perhaps the best Ken MacLeod has written to date . . . The Execution Channel is an extraordinary novel
STRANGE HORIZONS
Science fiction's freshest new writer...MacLeod is a fiercely intelligent, prodigously well-read author who manages to fill his books with big issues without weighing them down.
SALON
Ken MacLeod's novels are fast, funny and sophisticated. There can never be enough books like these.
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
A master of politically charged sf, MacLeod channels our contemporary preoccupation with terrorism into an engulfing stream of espionage and international intrigue.
BOOKLIST
Politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that's absolutely mind-blowing
The Times
Jaw-droppingly audacious
SFX