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Brooke, Keith

Entry updated 5 December 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1966-    ) UK author who began publishing sf with "The Fifth Freedom" for Dream Quarterly (see Dream Magazine) in Winter 1988, and who has remained active as an author of short fiction. He has published two volumes of stories: Parallax View (coll 2000) with Eric Brown, which comprises mostly collaborative efforts, and Head Shots (2001). His short work is variously imaginative, with a habit of avoiding excessive challenge. More aggressively, Brooke's first novel, Keepers of the Peace (1990), depicts in singularly gloomy terms the slow evisceration of a group of soldiers sent down from near space to police a fragmented USA. The Expatria sequence – Expatria (1991) and Expatria Incorporated (1992) – has elements of the Planetary Romance in that its story takes place upon, although it does not materially affect, the eponymous colony planet; in the first volume, the young protagonist must both defend himself against the charge that he has murdered his father and attempt to prevent his fellow colonists from descending into barbarism, while at the same time awaiting a rescue ship (upon whose approach turns the dark plot of the second volume). Also set on what may (or may not) be a long-abandoned colony planet (or possibly Earth aeons after a twenty-first-century collapse), Genetopia (October/November 2001 Future Orbits #1; exp 2006) posits a world where "normal" genetic instability has been hugely intensified (see Biology; Genetic Engineering); the attempts of the surviving human cultures to stem change are seen (as usual in all forms of sf) to be futile.

Brooke launched the online Infinity Plus fiction and reviews site in 1997: this published a wide variety of authors but ceased to be updated in 2006. His two anthologies, Infinity Plus One (anth 2001) and Infinity Plus Two (anth 2003), both with Nick Gevers, were assembled to showcase the site. He has also published three Young Adult novels as by Nick Gifford. Brooke may remain slightly too much at ease with genre conventions to have mastered them as thoroughly as perhaps necessary to fully shape the vividly dark worlds he envisions; but each new story threatens to edge out of cover. [JC]

Keith N Brooke

born Dovercourt, Essex: 23 August 1966

works

series

Expatria

Kon-Tiki

  • Dislocations (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2018) with Eric Brown [Kon-Tiki: hb/Ben Baldwin]
  • Parasites (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2018) with Eric Brown [chap: Kon-Tiki: hb/Ben Baldwin]
  • Insights (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2019) with Eric Brown [Kon-Tiki: hb/Ben Baldwin]
  • Iterations (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2020) with Eric Brown [Kon-Tiki: hb/Ben Baldwin]
  • Kon Tiki Coda (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2022) with Eric Brown [chap: Kon-Tiki: hb/Ben Baldwin]

Enigma Quartet

  • Enigma Season (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2022) with Eric Brown [chap: Enigma Quartet: hb/Ben Baldwin]

individual titles

  • Keepers of the Peace (London: Victor Gollancz, 1990) [hb/Tom Stimpson]
  • Lord of Stone (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2001) [pb/]
  • Piggies (London: Puffin Books, 2003) as by Nick Gifford [pb/]
  • Flesh and Blood (London: Puffin Books, 2004) as by Nick Gifford [pb/]
  • Incubus (London: Puffin Books, 2005) as by Nick Gifford [pb/Dominic Harman]
    • Like Father (Scotts Valley, California: CreateSpace, 2013) as by Nick Gifford [vt of the above: author's preferred title: pb/]
  • Erased (London: Puffin Books, 2006) as by Nick Gifford [pb/]
  • Genetopia (Amherst, New York: Pyr, 2006) [hb/Brian W Dow]
  • The Accord (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: BL Publishing/Solaris, 2009) [pb/Darius Hinks]
  • The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie (Alconbury Weston, Cambridgeshire: NewCon Press, 2010) [hb/Andy Bigwood]
  • Alt.Human (New York: Solaris US, 2012) [pb/Adam Tredowski]
    • Harmony (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: BL Publishing/Solaris, 2012) [vt of the above: pb/Adam Tredowski]
  • Tomorrow (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Infinity Press, 2014) as by Nick Gifford [pb/]
  • The Bone House Gang (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Infinity Press, 2014) as by Nick Gifford [pb/]
  • Riding the Serpent's Back (Scotts Valley, California: CreateSpace, 2014) [pb/]
  • Wormhole (New York: Angry Robot, 2022) with Eric Brown [pb/]

collections

nonfiction

works as editor

series

Infinity Plus

links

previous versions of this entry



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