Саймон Ингс - The Smoke

Simon Ings is the author of eight previous novels (some science fiction, some not) and two works of non-fiction, including the Baillie Gifford longlisted Stalin And The Scientists . His debut novel Hot Head was widely acclaimed. He is the arts editor of New Scientist magazine and splits his time between a sweltering penthouse in Dubai (not his) and possibly the coldest flat in London.

One of the most original and accomplished science fiction writers working today.

A singular, uncompromising achievement.

A haunting, beautifully written tale of edgelands and edgelives.

Fearsome, tender, witty and weird, The Smoke is a searingly inventive, sumptuously written novel about love and grief in the Yorkshire space age. A masterful vision of another past – or future.

As weird and jittery as a caffeine overdose, and possibly the most heartbreakingly evocative book you will read this year.

Compelling and beautifully realized.

Fulfilling and thought provoking.

An intense meditation on loneliness, capital and cognition.

Simon Ings has created a distinctive world and style that captures the weirdness of what might have been.

The Smoke

Wolves (January 2020)

Humanity has spread across the depths of space but is connected by AfterLife – a vote made by every member of humanity on the worth of a life. Bale, a disillusioned policeman on the planet Bleak, is brutally attacked, leading writer Raisa on to a story spanning centuries of corruption. On Gehenna, the last religious planet, a hyperintelligent boy, Alef, meets psychopath Pellon Hoq, and so begins a rivalry and friendship to last an epoch.

So many Lives, forever interlinked, and one structure at the center of it all: the rig.

“A triumph that is guaranteed to blow your mind.”

“Roger Levy is SF’s best kept secret, and The Rig is a tour de force: a darkly brilliant epic of life, death and huge drilling platforms. Read it and discover what you’ve been missing.”

The sentient warship Trouble Dog was built for violence, yet following a brutal war, she is disgusted by her role in a genocide. Stripped of her weaponry and seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organization dedicated to rescuing ships in distress. When a civilian ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, are sent on a rescue mission.

Trouble Dog , Konstanz and Childe find themselves at the center of a conflict that could engulf the entire galaxy. If she is to save her crew, Trouble Dog is going to have to remember how to fight…

“It’s a smart, funny, tragic, galloping space opera that showcases Powell’s wit, affection for his characters, world-building skills and unpredictable narrative inventions.”

“An emotionally wrenching take on life in a war-torn far future.”

The near future. Following the death of his daughter Martha, Remi flees the north of England for London. Here he tries to rebuild his life as a cycle courier, delivering subversive documents under the nose of an all-seeing state.

But when a driverless car attempts to run him over, Remi soon discovers that his old life will not let him move on so easily. Someone is leaving coded messages for Remi across the city, and they seem to suggest that Martha is not dead at all. Unsure what to believe, and increasingly unable to trust his memory, Remi is slowly drawn into the web of a dangerous radical whose ’70s sci-fi novel is now a manifesto for direct action against automation, technology, and England itself.

The deal? Remi can see Martha again – if he joins the cause.

“One of the most innovative and outspoken new writers of British science fiction.”

“Intense and well observed, Zero Bomb delves into our fears and distrust of technology.”

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The Smoke

Print edition ISBN: 9781785659225

E-book edition ISBN: 9781785659232

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

titanbooks.com

First Titan edition: January 2019

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2018, 2019 Simon Ings. All rights reserved.

First published by Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, London, 2018

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.