| I've read "400 Billion Stars", which is about an empath who tries to
uncover the secret of an alien ecosystem. The same character also
appears in his latest novel "Eternal Light" (which I have not read).
PJM also has a short story collection "The King of the Hill". A fair
number of the stories in this originally appeared in "Interzone".
I haven't read the collection, but I have read all the IZ stories.
McAuley is one of the more accessible of the IZ writers - his stories
are mostly "space fiction" of the same kind as his novels, with
interesting plots you can follow (you don't have to hack your way
through "technique" to find out what's going on). Most are set in the
same universe: "Little Ilya, Spider and Box" and "A Dragon for Seyour
Chen" for example (although I'm not sure if it's the same universe as
the novels). Exceptions are "The King of the Hill", which is about a
near-future Britain occupied by the US army and "Crossroads", an
alternative-universe story in which rock music changes the world!
McAuley was really the first in a new wave of British writers who have
turned to space and technology for inspiration. Others of this ilk are
Stephen Baxter ("Raft"), Ian McDonald ("Desolation Road", "In on Blue
Six) and a born-again Colin Greenland, whose "Take Back Plenty" has
swept up both the BSFA and Arthur C Clarke awards and is supposed to be
the best space opera to come out of the UK since....?
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