Gourock author gives Inverclyde a starring role in his new book

Ken MacLeod is preparing to launch Beyond the Hallowed Sky - the first chapter in the Lightspeed Trilogy - at the end of November.

The book, which Ken describes as a space opera, is set in Greenock, Gourock and Port Glasgow and the tale begins in the year 2070.

Ken started working on the novel just as the pandemic started and realised that he could develop the themes and the story into a trilogy.

The author says the book deals with interstellar politics and international geopolitics of the near future.

The central character is a physics postgraduate student who receives a letter from herself - from the future - about faster-than-light travel.

Ken goes on to tell a story of building starships in Port Glasgow and vanishing submarines at Toward Point in Dunoon.

The writer says the views from his house in Gourock have inspired some of the tale - as have some of the unexplored ideas he had when he was a student living in Greenock.

Ken, 67, said: "I enjoy writing about things that are fairly fantastical and setting them in real places that I know.

"The future will happen here too.

"I sometimes see the submarines from my window so they definitely informed some of the story.

"Some of the ideas for books that I'm writing now come from my old notebooks in the 1970s but they've very much changed with life experience."

Ken was born in Stornoway in 1954 and moved with his family to Greenock when he was 10.

He said: "Mid-1960s Greenock was a bit of a culture shock and was very different from Stornoway.

"There was massive air pollution and a thick smog and you could hear and feel the hum of industry.

"It was a very lively industrial town at that time as you had IBM, Lee Jeans, Playtex, the sugar sheds and the shipyards."

Former Greenock High School pupil Ken was a friend of Iain Banks and the pair bonded over their love of writing.

Around six years ago, two years after Iain passed away, Ken kept a promise to Iain by publishing a collection of the poetry they wrote together.

The pair were part of a prolific writing circle in Greenock High led by inspirational English teacher Joan Woods.

One area of science fiction which fascinated Ken is the continued development of artificial intelligence.

He said: "Artificial intelligence is no longer about these scary giant intellects trying to take over the world.

"AI has given us things that are incredibly helpful in daily life.

"It's in the background of some of my stories and some of the creations are more sinister and have agendas of their own.

"I had to write one character from the point of view of a robot which looks and sounds and feels like a human being but isn't self aware.

"How do you write a character who has no inner life?

"It's a really interesting idea."

During lockdown, Ken also penned some short stories and one of them - 1989 - will appear in ParSec magazine.

The accomplished writer says he always has ideas 'for a book or two ahead' and is looking forward to developing the rest of the Lightspeed Trilogy.

He said: "When you have an idea for a story, the shape it takes when you start to write it isn't necessarily what you had in mind at the start.

"You have to follow the grain of the wood."

Ken will formally launch the book at the Cymera Festival in Edinbugh on Sunday.

He will also be speaking at the Greenock Philosophical Society on December 3.

Beyond the Hallowed Sky, the first book in the Lightspeed Trilogy, can be pre-ordered from Amazon and from online bookshops.