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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.
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.
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:
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.
Here's the semi-final version. One thing's for sure: you'd be crazy not to visit Montreal in the summer
Well, I'm going to be very busy at Worldcon, but feel free to approach me at any time. Here's my schedule, so you'll know at least some of the places and times you can find me:
When: Fri 12:00
Location: Other
Title: Karl Schroeder Signing
Duration: 0:30 hrs:minLanguage: English
When: Fri 15:30
Location: P-511A
Title: Oh Canada!
All Participants: Karl Schroeder, Bob Boyczuk, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula Pflug
“America's aggressive attitude toward nature and the unknown…, translates readily into the mythology of conquering and domesticating the unknown that finds expression in much SF. The Canadian attitude seems to be that nature is simply too vast, too threatening, too powerful: man is nature's victim rather than the reverse. Survival, not conquest, is the issue.” (David Ketterer) Is this true, or is this consolatory rhetoric?
When: Fri 21:00
Location: P-511A
Title: Cecil Street Irregulars; A Canadian Writers' Group
All Participants: Cory Doctorow, Douglas Smith, Karl Schroeder, Madeline Ashby, Michael Skeet, David Nickle, Jill Snider Lum, Sara Simmons
Moderator: Madeline Ashby
Description: The Cecil Street Irregulars writers’ workshop is not its official name; it does not meet irregularly, nor does it meet on or anywhere near Cecil Street. It is, however, one of the longest-lived of current writers groups. Collectively the current and former members have published numerous novels, short stories, plays and poems; all continue to insist (at least publicly) that they look forward to the regular experience of having their work sand-blasted by their fellows.
When: Sat 12:30
Location: P-522B
Title: Building Realistic Worlds
All Participants: Amy Thomson, Karin Lowachee, Karl Johanson, Karl Schroeder, Robert J. Sawyer
When: Sat 18:30
Location: P-511BE
Title: David Hartwell and Karl Schroeder: The Editor and the Writer, Long Form
All Participants: David Hartwell, Karl Schroeder
Description: Hartwell and Schroeder have worked together on several novels. They talk about the process, how an editor edits, how the writer works with the editor’s feedback.
When: Sun 9:00
Location: P-518BC
Title: The Uncanny Valley - AIs! They're Just Like Us!
All Participants: Karl Schroeder, Tom Galloway, Kim Binsted, Rhodri James
Moderator: Rhodri James
Description: Are AI labs across the planet just making elaborate cartoons of ourselves rather than making something truly new? And what about AIs in science fiction?
When: Sun 11:00
Location: P-521A
Title: Karl Schroeder Kaffeeklatsch
All Participants: Karl Schroeder
Description: A chance to ask those burning questions.
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
When: Sun 15:30
Location: P-513B
Title: SF and Economics
All Participants: Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin, Hayden Trenholm, Karl Schroeder, S.C. Butler, Charles Stross
Description: How does a writer incorporate events like the past 12 months into their future society? How does a writer extrapolate economic theory into far future societies?
When: Mon 10:00
Location: P-513A
Title: A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing
All Participants: Amy Thomson, Carl Fink, Christopher Davis, Karl Schroeder
Description: What happens when physicists try to write biological SF; or when a writer’s research goes badly wrong?
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:
For a complete bio, go here. To contact me, email karl at kschroeder dot com
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:
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.
"Science fiction at its best."
--Kim Stanley Robinson
"Lean and hugely engaging ... and highly recommended."
--Open Letters Monthly, an Arts and Literature Review
(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