Ken MacLeod was born in the small town of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides on the 2nd of August 1954. He moved to the town of Greenock at the age of ten, which is where he discovered science fiction, which he read voraciously for the next ten years.

He attended Glasgow University, where he earned a degree in zoology in 1976, before going on to study biomechanics at Brunel University outside London. In 1981 he married his wife Carol, and they have two children, Sharon and Michael.

Although he read virtually no SF for a ten-year period after getting married, it was around this time that Ken began working on a story that he had been telling his friends about for years, which eventually became the manuscript for The Star Fraction, which was published in 1995 by Legend as part of a two-book contract. It is fair to say that this first novel caused quite a stir, as it won the 1996 Prometheus Award for libertarian science fiction, as well as being a runner-up for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. It was also the first book of what would become a loosely related series of four books, known as Fall Revolution, that explore the themes of communism, socialism and libertarianism. The other books in the series are The Stone Canal (1996), The Cassini Division (1999), and The Sky Road (2000). The Stone Canal went on to win him a second Prometheus Award.

At this point he found himself with a second two-book contract, this time with Orbit, and decided to give up his job as a computer programmer and analyst, and devote himself to writing fulltime. The second two volumes of Fall Revolution came out of this, and more award nominations followed, The Cassini Division being cited for a Nebula Award, and The Sky Road going on to win the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel in 1999, as well as being nominated for a Hugo Award.

Ken MacLeod's other major project is the The Engines of Light trilogy, which he describes as largely space opera. This consists of Cosmonaut Keep (2000), Dark Light (2001), and Engine City (2002). Other books include THE WEB: Cydonia (1998), a children's book for Orion; Cosmonaut Lords (2001) and The Human Front (2001). Forthcoming books include Newton's Wake, which he describes as "A one-volume, stand-alone, wide-screen space opera. That's what it says on the sleeve notes, and that's what it'll be…".

During his student days, Ken was a member of the International Marxist Group in the 1970s, and the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1980s. He remains a committed socialist. In his youth, he went to the same school as Iain Banks, and they remain close friends.

It is with considerable glee and delight that we welcome Ken MacLeod as Guest of Honour to P-CON.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
The Star Fraction (1995)
The Stone Canal (1996)
The Cassini Division (1997)
The Web: Cydonia (1998)
The Sky Road (1999)
Cosmonaut Keep (2000)
Cosmonaut Lords (2001)
Dark Light (2001)
The Human Front (2001)
Engine City (2002)