McAuley, Paul J.

(British, 1955– )

McAuley is a research biologist by profession; his science fiction began appearing in 1984. Begin with Four Hundred Billion Stars (1988), in which a telepathic astronomer investigating an uninhabited planet becomes aware of the presence of a powerful intelligence. Eternal Light (1991) finds Earth ruled by a religious cult called the Witnesses in the aftermath of an interstellar war. Resources are exhausted and further attacks loom. Elysium is an unspoiled planet colonized by humanity in Secret Harmonies (1989) until conflict breaks out between the inhabitants and an oppressive administration. An alternative version of sixteenth-century Florence is the setting for the entertaining Pasquale's Angel (1994). Warfare, transport, and industry have all been transformed by developing Leonardo da Vinci's inventions, while Machiavelli is an unscrupulous journalist investigating a murder conspiracy.

Ian Watson, Larry Niven, Bob Shaw  DH