Share <Embed>

Buy Used

£0.39

+ £2.80 UK delivery

Used: Good | Details

Sold by FT Books

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

16 used & new from £0.39

See All Buying Options

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Learning The World: A novel of first contact Hardcover – 4 Aug 2005

by Ken MacLeod (Author)

22 customer reviews

See all 10 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle Edition

"Please retry"

£6.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

£24.51

£6.95

Hardcover, 4 Aug 2005

—

£77.42

£0.39

Paperback

"Please retry"

£9.99

£3.49

£0.01

The great sunliner 'But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!' is nearing the end of a four-hundred-year journey. A ship-born generation is tense with expectation for the new system that is to be their home. Expecting to find nothing more complex than bacteria and algae, the detection of electronic signals from one of the planets comes as a shock. In millennia of slow expansion, humanity has never encountered aliens, and yet these new signals cannot be ignored. They suspect a fast robot probe has overtaken them, and send probes of their own to investigate.

On a world called Ground, whose inhabitants are struggling into the age of radio, petroleum and powered flight, a young astronomer searching for distant planets detects an anomaly that he presumes must be a comet. His friend, a brilliant foreign physicist, calculates the orbit, only to discover an anomaly of his own.

The comet is slowing down ...

Learning The World: A novel of first contact

Available from these sellers.

Special offers and product promotions

Save 10% on selected children’s books, compliments of Amazon Family Promotion exclusive for Prime members .

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Louise Welsh

133

Paperback
£7.99
Michel Faber

397

Paperback
£8.99
Ken MacLeod

46

Paperback
£8.99
Margaret Atwood

250

Paperback
£6.29
Boris Strugatsky

84

Paperback
£8.99
Alastair Reynolds

62

Hardcover
£10.17

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

A Lovely Way to Burn: Plague Times Trilogy 1 Paperback

Louise Welsh

133

£7.99
Under The Skin (Canons) Paperback

Michel Faber

397

£8.99
Intrusion Paperback

Ken MacLeod

46

£8.99
Oryx And Crake Paperback

Margaret Atwood

250

£6.29

Start reading Learning The World: A novel of first contact on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Orbit; First Edition edition (4 Aug. 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1841493430
ISBN-13: 978-1841493435
Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 23.4 cm
Average Customer Review: 22 customer reviews
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,347,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8238 in Books > Fiction > Science Fiction > Space Opera
- #68879 in Books > Fiction > Fantasy
- #116412 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Product description

Review

A charismatic, inventive story of space travel and discovery (SFX)

A beautiful piece of stylish writing. . . Gripping and convincing (STARBURST)

Ken MacLeod outdoes himself with Learning the World. . . don't miss this one (ANALOG)

Mind-expanding science fiction at its best; it is no surprise that it has been shortlisted for all the main science fiction awards. (THE TIMES)

Book Description

Reminding us that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine, LEARNING THE WORLD is a stunning novel of exploration, discovery and Mankind's destiny amongst the stars.

See all Product description

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars

5 star		6
4 star		10
3 star		1
2 star		5
1 star		0

Write a customer review

See all 22 customer reviews

Top customer reviews

Decent First Contact Novel

ByR. A. S. Brownon 14 April 2006

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I like hard sci-fi first contact novels and this is one of them. A human colony ship in the future is approaching its target solar system and discovers and alien civilization already there. The humans then check their laws and rule books to see what they are allowed to do. Much UN style dithering follows. Meanwhile on the alien planet, they work out that a strange object entering their system appears to be powered. Curiousity and mild panic ensues.

It's a strange novel really. The aliens, as another reviewer says, are more human in nature, if not appearance, than the actual future humans. And just because the aliens are far less advanced - early 20th century tech level - doesn't mean that they're stupid and when both sides finally meet, this becomes obvious. It's also interesting to note what the flight enabled aliens think of the flightless humans physical appearance.

To be honest, this wasn't as good a novel as I hoped but it was a good read and not too long.

0Comment 16 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Macleod reinvents the genre!

ByCartimandTOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICEon 16 December 2006

Format: Paperback

**** spoilers ****

We all know that the old alien invasion cliche really has been done to death. Macleod cleverly turns it on its head though, by making humankind of the far-distant future, more alien than the rather endearing bat people, whose homeland the human pioneers are eyeing up greedily.

This is very clever stuff, which reminded me in places of the grandiose space opera of Iain Banks (high praise indeed). You may find, as did I, that you rush through the "human" chapters in anticipation of savouring the generally more fascinating alien chapters. The seeming paradox of an intelligent and compassionate species still relying on the horrors of slave labour, is skillfully explored through Macleod's splendid characters. Orro, Darvin, Kwarive and even the delightful Trudge Kit drive the plot along at a decent pace that will surely maintain any sci-fi fan's interest. The only downside, IMHO, is that the human politicising felt a tad laboured at times, and the long-awaited face to face contact occurs very late in the book and could have been explored to greater depth. Quibbles aside, this is a very worthwhile read that I enjoyed immensely and have no hesitation in recommending to you!

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Disappointed

ByKiranon 9 October 2006

Format: Paperback

Ken Macleod is an exceptionally good writer. Having been lent a copy of his first book, I rushed out and bought all his others. I love his use of politics, near and alternative futures, his characterisation, and the fact that he can tell a good story in a succinct way (unlike some SF writers who feel that a book has to be at least 5 hundred pages long).

That is why I am so disappointed by this volume. If this had been the first book of Ken's that I had read, I would probably never have touched his other works (much to my loss). There is nothing really about this book that is comparable to his other works - the political and social dimensions are under-developed, the thrust of story is rather mundane, and the characterisation is definitely not up to standard. The strengths of the other books (apart from the already mentioned positives), is that Ken is very good at grounding his works in a level of plausibility by using geography and touches of the present to create a continuity to the future).

I'm sorry to be so negative but the writer is capable of so much better than this. I'm going back to re-read is other books (again!!)

22 Comments 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Solid if not too imaginative

Bydrifteron 24 March 2007

Format: Paperback

A rather engaging novel, if not too visionary, this is a interesting exploration of the tensions and troubles brought on by impending first contact. Read it as Sci-fi and you'll be disappointed; it has none of the epic quality of Alastair Reynolds's books, and little of the (black) humour or toys of Iain M. Banks. Read it as any old paperback and it's a good study of the troubles of living together in a multi-cultural world, transposed onto an unexpectedly occupied solar system.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

An alien invasion novel told from both sides

ByJ. D. Ludlowon 5 June 2006

Format: Paperback

You've all read them. Seem the TV shows. Watched the movies. Heck, you've probably played the games too. Alien invasion stories are hardly a new thing in sci-fi - it's one of the oldest and most-used cliches in the genre. But then just when you think it's been done to death, Ken MacLeod does something like this. Learning The World takes a bunch of humans off on a trip across the stars. In this book, this is nothing new - countless groups have made similar trips and turned uninhabited worlds into, well, inhabited ones. Oh, there was life out there, but nothing you could have a conversation with.

But then this particular group - crew of the generation ship But The Sky My Lady! The Sky! (overtones of IM Banks there, perhaps?) - reach their destination to discover radio signals. Not the random static that gets thrown out by any star, but regular, actual radio broadcasts. There's a civilisation already there. Meanwhile, an astronomer on the destination planet looks up to see that the strange comet he's been tracking is doing things that average self-respecting comets should not be doing. It begins to dawn on him that the thing in the sky is artificial.

This story is about how the two societies cope with this first contact. How does a society of humans who've been travelling all their lives come to terms with the fact that their destination planet is already spoken for? How does the primitive society on the planet deal with the concept that there are other worlds out there in the universe, and they're about to come knocking?

To this end, the book largely ignores technical and scientific details and concentrates wholly on the social and political aspects of first contact. And it does that with extraordinary skill, presenting a balanced view of the mistakes that both sides might make. If you're used to the plucky humans fighting off the evil alien invaders and fancy slightly different take on the subject, or you are interested in first contact, or you just want to read an unusual and effective sci-fi novel, then this book is for you.

0Comment 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Would you like to see more reviews about this item?

Go to Amazon.com to see all 21 reviews

Customer images

See all customer images

Most recent customer reviews

Worth reading

I enjoyed it, but I got all the local references

Published 1 year ago by GRB

Four Stars

As with all Macleod's books, full of fascinating ideas at the same time as not being misanthropic.

Published on 18 July 2014 by Lyracat

Perhaps a matter of personal taste ...

Full of detail about how a star-colonising culture might get the job done, what an E.T. culture might be like, but the story itself didn't do much for me.Read more

Published on 20 January 2013 by Beyoncé

Just loved it

This is easily my favourite Ken MacLeod book. His politics are much less to the fore and not shoved down your throat at all which for me has spoiled a few of his previous books.Read more

Published on 18 July 2012 by BRS

Unfocused with weakly linked parallel stories

I've read a load of British sci-fi from the likes of Stross, Asher, Hamilton, Banks and Reynolds. Each and every time I've picked up one of those novels, I was impressed with the...Read more

Published on 11 October 2011 by 2theD

The Yellow Wall is full of angry voices and quiet weeping

I can't pretend to understand the physics let alone the metaphysics that underlie this intriguing and entertaining novel set aeons in the future and therefore with little or no...Read more

Published on 18 July 2010 by Eileen Shaw

A compulsive page-turner

While the setting is really rather implausible, having two species with such similar social structures, this does make it easier for the author to create sympathetic, believable...Read more

Published on 3 July 2010 by D. R. Cantrell

Tedious

Sorry about this, but I found this book boring and gave up about a quarter in. Why? well the story seemed to switch between three story formats, one kind was on the Arc ship and...Read more

Published on 24 July 2009 by Amazon Customer

Brilliant idea, well formed and visualized

A favourite inter-species contact novel.
Well thought out and well told
the end all happens a bit too fast and simpl for such a convoluted tale.Read more

Published on 16 February 2009 by CjW

Good read - for Sci-fi nubies and old hacks alike

MacLeod foregoes the Eureka moment of the short story and does not trouble with the creation of a grand theme.Read more

Published on 27 December 2007 by Alan Urdaibay

Look for similar items by category

Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera

Where's My Stuff?

track your recent orders
view or change your orders in Your Account

Delivery and Returns

see our delivery rates and policies
thinking of returning an item? (See our Returns Policy)

Need Help?

Forgot your password?
Buy Gift Cards.
still have questions? Visit our Help Pages

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	AbeBooks Books, art & collectables	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Amazon BuyVIP The European Shopping Club

Amazon Tickets Music, Theatre & Comedy	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services	Audible Download Audio Books	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide

DPReview Digital Photography	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Junglee.com Shop Online in India

Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital Publishing Made Easy	Prime Now 2-Hour Delivery on Everyday Essentials	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Yoyo.com A Happy Place To Shop For Toys

Souq.com Shop Online in the Middle East	Warehouse Deals Deep Discounts Open-Box Products	LOVEFiLM DVD & Blu-ray To Rent By Post	Amazon Business Service for business customers