Synopses & Reviews
A novel of prodigious scope and ambition, ablaze with imaginative energy and rendered in mesmerizing prose—complete with polar bear attacks, tsunamis, modern piracy, airship crashes, Cold War intrigue, and a djinnMay 25, 1928: Over the frozen seas of the Arctic, an airship falls out of the sky. Among the survivors is a young scientist on the verge of a discovery that will redefine physics. October 3, 1996: Through the dusty industrial towns of India's Great Trunk Road, a disgraced and disfigured female detective starts tracking a criminal syndicate whose tentacles spread from forgery to smuggling to piracy. Her life has been ruined, but she will have her revenge. December 26, 2004: On the island of Bali a tsunami washes up a rusting container. Locked within this aluminum tomb are the mummified remains of a shipping magnate missing for 29 years, and a hand-written journal of his last days. December 13, 2011: Off the coast of Sri Lanka, a tramp steamer is seized by pirates. The captain has his wife and son aboard, and their survival depends on following the pirates' every demand. But what can they possibly want with his worn-out ship and its cargo of junk? We know what they want. We know the ship was carrying a Dead Water cargo, and we know Dead Water is the key to everything. We could spin a thousand stories from this toxic Cold War secret but there's only one of them that can really make a difference. And this is it.
Review
"It is unlikely there will be finer fiction written this year." —Guardian
Review
"A virtuoso display of imaginative plotting." —Financial Times
Review
"Deceptively readable, dizzyingly constructed . . . Ings's mad, mad world is held together to the very last page by humor, vivid depictions and a deeply compelling emotional core." —Publishers Weekly on The Weight of Numbers
Review
"A remarkable debut, full of startling imagery and set pieces of bizarrely inventive action." —Roz Kaveney, author, Reading the Vampire Slayer
Synopsis
A riveting gothic SF adventure set in a bizarre desert city, probing the very fabric of existence, to reveal a sometimes horrifying world within Only a fool would question the strange magics that maintain the cool haven of the City of the Iron Fish in the middle of an inferno of scorching heat and splintered rock, for the well-watered streets of the city hide secrets in their shadows. Thomas Kemp is just such a fool—and embarks on a journey that will take him to the limits of reality. It may kill him, worse, that may not be enough. Especially as it is his only friend, Blythe, who may discover the secret of the city's isolation.
Synopsis
At once post-cyberpunk and post-modern, Ing's extraordinary debut novel combines hard science, tarot, and images of late 20th-century Europe, as well as introducing a memorable new heroine to the genre Malise has a problem. She's come downwell to Earth, but years of space combat have ruined her: her muscles have wasted away, her past is a confused torture of events, and her brain is wired to addictive military hardware that's illegal on Earth. But with an AI mining probe returning to Earth, having bred and grown until it is hundreds of miles across, Malise is in the firing line again. The probe is indestructible and it is insatiable for more metals. No one knows how to stop it—and Malise doesn't know she has a blueprint for humanity's survival wired into her head.
Synopsis
A visionary lunar apocalypse from a cutting edge science fiction writer Surgically connected to their swarming robotic workers, architects Christopher and Joanne Yale are turning the moon into a paradise. But now, without warning, the machines have pulled the plug and are building a new, insane future away from the control of human minds.
Headlong is post-cyberpunk sci-fi that recalls the darkness of M. John Harrison and the wild visual imagination of China Mieville.
About the Author
Simon Ings is a science fiction and literary author whose previous books include Dead Water and A Natural History of Seeing. He also edits Arc, a fiction magazine from the makers of New Scientist, and reviews fiction and popular science for the Guardian and the Telegraph.