Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Downloads

I've made my first novel, Ventus, available as a free download, as well as excerpts from two of the Virga books.  I am looking forward to putting up a number of short stories in the near future.

Complete novel:  Ventus

 

To celebrate the August, 2007 publication of Queen of Candesce, I decided to re-release my first novel as an eBook. You can download it from this page. Ventus was first published by Tor Books in 2000, and and you can still buy it; to everyone who would just like to sample my work, I hope you enjoy this version.

I've released this book under a Creative Commons license, which means you can read it and distribute it freely, but not make derivative works or sell it.

Book Excerpts:  Sun of Suns and Pirate Sun

I've made large tracts of these two Virga books available.  If you want to find out what the Virga universe is all about, you can check it out here:

Major Foresight Project:  Crisis in Zefra

In spring 2005, the Directorate of Land Strategic Concepts of National Defense Canada (that is to say, the army) hired me to write a dramatized future military scenario.  The book-length work, Crisis in Zefra, was set in a mythical African city-state, about 20 years in the future, and concerned a group of Canadian peacekeepers who are trying to ready the city for its first democratic vote while fighting an insurgency.  The project ran to 27,000 words and was published by the army as a bound paperback book.

If you'd like to read Crisis in Zefra, you can download it in PDF form.

Personal tools

My Boskone 58 Schedule

Filed Under:

I'll be attending Boskone virtually this year, and you can too

I've got some really cool programming lined up for this year's Boskone, which will be happening February 12-14, 2021. To become part of it, head on over to https://boskone.org/.

The con has managed to pander to most of my obsessions this time around, so I'm looking forward to these panels. It's going to be great to be on these with old friends like Charlie Stross, Vandana Singh, Cory Doctorow, Toby Buckell, Allen Steele, Mark Olson and Walter Jon Williams. Check out the schedule, and I hope you can drop by!

 

Radical Economics in Speculative Fiction Format: Panel

12 Feb 2021, Friday 15:30 - 16:30, Burroughs (Webinar) (Virtual Westin)

Currently scholars from around the world are calling out the inherent injustice and destructive nature of endless economic growth. New economic theories are coming up, from degrowth and agrowth to eco-anarchism and eco-socialism. How does science fiction reflect these ongoing paradigm shifts in our world? How may we take these real world ideas and play with them in fiction?

S.B. Divya, Karl Schroeder, Vandana Singh, Charles Stross

Into the Great Unknown: Migration as Plot Format: Panel

12 Feb 2021, Friday 17:00 - 18:00, Griffin (Mtg Room) (Virtual Westin)

Floods. War. Famine. The 10 plagues of Egypt. Any number of calamities can cause peoples to move en masse from their home and travel into the great unknown in search of survival, safety, and security. Migration is depicted in various ways from caravans to generation starships. What do we need to consider when telling these stories? What can and / or should be left behind? How do we handle exploration into the unknown? What part might a people's history, or that of a character, play in the story?

Vandana Singh, Tobias Buckell, Carlos Hernandez (M) , Aliette de Bodard , Karl Schroeder

Reading: Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder Format: Reading

12 Feb 2021, Friday 20:00 - 21:00, Indy D (Mtg Room) (Virtual Westin)

Karl Schroeder, Cory Doctorow

 

Kaffeeklatsch: Karl Schroeder Format: Kaffeeklatsch

13 Feb 2021, Saturday 10:00 - 11:00, Indy B - Kaffee (Mtg Room) (Virtual Westin)

You must signup to participate in this session by clicking on the blue button to the right to "Sign up and add it to your schedule." Space is limited to 25 people.

Karl Schroeder

Are We Ever Getting Off this Rock? Format: Panel

13 Feb 2021, Saturday 19:00 - 20:00, Harbor Ballroom (Webinar) (Virtual Westin)

Could there be permanent settlement anywhere but Earth? What would it take to create a colony elsewhere in our solar system? The three most important factors in determining the desirability of a property are "location, location, location." What are the hot properties in our neck of the woods?

 

Allen M. Steele, Karl Schroeder, Kenneth Schneyer (Johnson & Wales University), Mark Olson

Imagining the World of the Future Today Format: Panel

14 Feb 2021, Sunday 13:00 - 14:00, Marina Ballroom (Webinar) (Virtual Westin)

It's typical in the science fictional future, for the human population to not be jobless or homeless while robots take over work of all kinds or the Earth (dystopic or post-apocalyptic futures excepted). How do we perceive the evolution of human work? How do we avoid the parenthetical exceptions above? Everything is on the table and the future is ours. 

Walter Jon Williams (Word Domination), Alastair Reynolds , Linda D. Addison , Allen M. Steele (M), Karl Schroeder

Document Actions
Log in


Forgot your password?
New user?
About Me

I'm a member of the Association of Professional Futurists with my own consultancy, and am also currently Chair of the Canadian node of the Millennium Project, a private/public foresight consultancy active in 50 nations. As well, I am an award-winning author with ten published novels translated into as many languages. I write, give talks, and conduct workshops on numerous topics related to the future, including:

  • Future of government
  • Bitcoin and digital currencies
  • The workplace in 2030
  • The Internet of Things
  • Augmented cognition

For a complete bio, go here. To contact me, email karl at kschroeder dot com

Example: The Future of Governance

I use Science Fiction to communicate the results of actual futures studies. Some of my recent research relates to how we'll govern ourselves in the future. I've worked with a few clients on this and published some results.

Here are two examples--and you can read the first for free:

The Canadian army commissioned me to write Crisis in Urlia, a fictionalized study of the future of military command-and-control. You can download a PDF of the book here:


Crisis in Urlia

For the "optimistic Science Fiction" anthology Hieroglyph, I wrote "Degrees of Freedom," set in Haida Gwaii. "Degrees of Freedom" is about an attempt to develop new governing systems by Canadian First Nations people.


I'm continuing to research this exciting area and would be happy to share my findings.

Quills
Atom
RDF
RSS 2.0
Powered by Quills
 
Twitter

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter
    Mailing List

    Stay informed about new book and story releases, public appearances, readings etc.

    * indicates required
    Coming on June 18, 2019

    "Science fiction at its best."

    --Kim Stanley Robinson

    A Young Adult Scifi Saga

    "Lean and hugely engaging ... and highly recommended."

    --Open Letters Monthly, an Arts and Literature Review

    Sheer Fun: The Virga Series

    (Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce are combined in Cities of the Air)


     “An adventure-filled tale of sword fights and naval battles... the real fun of this coming-of-age tale includes a pirate treasure hunt and grand scale naval invasions set in the cold, far reaches of space. ”
    —Kirkus Reviews (listed in top 10 SF novels for 2006)

    "With Queen of Candesce, [Schroeder] has achieved a clockwork balance of deftly paced adventure and humour, set against an intriguing and unique vision of humanity's far future.
    --The Globe and Mail

    "[Pirate Sun] is fun in the same league as the best SF ever has had to offer, fully as exciting and full of cool science as work from the golden age of SF, but with characterization and plot layering equal to the scrutiny of critical appraisers."
    --SFRevu.com


    "...A rollicking good read... fun, bookish, and full of insane air battles"
    --io9.com


    "A grand flying-pirate-ship-chases-and-escapes-and-meetings-with-monsters adventure, and it ends not with a debate or a seminar but with a gigantic zero-gee battle around Candesce, a climactic unmasking and showdown, just desserts, and other satisfying stuff."
    --Locus