MacLeod is known for frequent in-jokes and puns on the intersection between socialist ideologies and computer programming, as well as other fields. For example, his chapter titles such as "Trusted Third Parties" or "Revolutionary Platform" usually have double (or multiple) meanings. A fictional future programmers union is called "Information Workers of the World Wide Web", or theWebblies, a reference to the realIndustrial Workers of the World union, who are nicknamed theWobblies. The Webblies concept formed a central part of the novelFor the Win byCory Doctorow, and MacLeod is acknowledged as coining the term.[11] Doctorow andCharles Stross also used one of MacLeod's references to the singularity—as "the rapture for nerds"—as the title for their collaborative novelRapture of the Nerds (although MacLeod denies coining the phrase[12]). There are also many references to or puns on zoology and palaeontology. For example, in the novelThe Stone Canal, the title of the book and many of its described places are named after anatomical features of marine invertebrates such asstarfish.
TheScience Fiction Foundation have published an analysis of MacLeod's work titledThe True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod, edited byAndrew M. Butler andFarah Mendlesohn.[13][14] In addition to critical essays, it contains material by MacLeod himself, including his introduction to the German edition of Iain M. Banks' novelConsider Phlebas.
The Sky Road (1999; US paperbackISBN0-8125-7759-0) BSFA Award winner, 1999;[17] Hugo Award nominee, 2001[18] – represents an 'alternate future' to the second two books, as its events diverge sharply due to a choice made differently by one of the protagonists in the middle ofThe Stone Canal[19]
This series is also available in two volumes:
Fractions: The First Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperbackISBN0-7653-2068-1)
Divisions: The Second Half of the Fall Revolution (2009; US paperbackISBN0-7653-2119-X)
Engines of Light Trilogy
Cosmonaut Keep (2000; US paperbackISBN0-7653-4073-9) – Clarke Award nominee, 2001;[18] Hugo Award nominee, 2002[20] Begins the series with afirst contact story in a speculative mid-21st century where a resurgentlysocialistUSSR (incorporating theEuropean Union) is once again in opposition with thecapitalist United States, then diverges into a story told on the other side of the galaxy of Earth-descended colonists trying to establish trade and relations within an interstellar empire of several species who travel from world to world at thespeed of light.
The Restoration Game (2010). According to the author, "InThe Restoration Game I revisited the fall of the Soviet Union, with a narrator who is at first a piece in a game played by others, and works her way up to becoming to some extent a player, but – as we see when we pull back at the end – is still part of a larger game."[28]
Intrusion (2012): "an Orwellian surveillance society installs sensors on pregnant women to prevent smoking or drinking; and these women also have to take a eugenic 'fix' to eliminate genetic anomalies."[28]
Descent (2014):[29] "My genre model for Descent was bloke-lit – that's basically first-person, self-serving, rueful confessional by a youngish man looking back on youthful stupidities... ... Descent is about flying saucers, hidden races, andAntonio Gramsci's concept ofpassive revolution, all set in a tale of Scottish middle class family life in and after the Great Depression of the 21st Century. Almost mainstream fiction, really."[28]
"The Light Company" (1998) (quoting Ken MacLeod's blog:"The Light Company doesn't exist - the title was a provisional one, for purposes of a book contract, which I think got onto the publisher's list of forthcoming books and then took on a life of its own in the wild." - Ken, on Thursday, October 14, 2010 7:34:00 am)[30]
^MacLeod, Ken (19 December 2012)."Never knowingly understated".The Early Days of A Better Nation. Retrieved27 February 2014.Of the 27, I counted 15 who would give a definite Yes to independence. Only two of the others –Jenni Calder and myself – give a definite No.
^MacLeod, Ken (4 March 2018)."Other Good News".The Early Days of a Better Nation.
^Butler, Andrew M.; Mendlesohn, Farah, eds. (2003).The True Knowledge Of Ken MacLeod. SF Foundation.ISBN0-903007-02-9.
^Cory Doctorow (2010).For the Win. HarperVoyager.ISBN978-0765322166. MacLeod is thanked in the Acknowledgements section: "Many thanks to Ken MacLeod for letting me use IWWWW and 'Webbly.'"
^Butler, Andrew M.; Mendlesohn, Farah, eds. (2003).The true knowledge of Ken MacLeod. Foundation studies in science fiction. Reading: Science Fiction Foundation.ISBN978-0-903007-02-3.
^"The Falling Rate of Profit, Red Hordes and Green Slime: What the Fall Revolution Books Are About" –Nova Express, Volume 6, Spring/Summer 2001, pp 19–21
