Simon Ings Books

Exploring the evolution of sight and our understanding of perception, the book examines intriguing questions about vision, such as our limited focus and the absence of fossil evidence for eye development. Through engaging prose, it combines natural science—covering light physics and biological perspectives—with historical insights, including Leonardo's perception theories and Homer's color limitations. The narrative spans from ancient beliefs about vision to contemporary advancements in robotic vision, providing a comprehensive look at how sight has shaped both life and art.

A visionary lunar apocalypse from a renowned literary SF author.

An eye-opening history of science in the Soviet Union, following the scientists who survived Stalin's rule and helped to reshape the world

A thriller brimming with incident rendered in mesmerizing prose by of one of our sharpest, most original contemporary British writers.

Set in a post-cyberpunk, post-modern landscape, the story follows Malise, a former space combatant whose body and mind have been damaged by her experiences. As she grapples with her past and the addictive military technology embedded in her, an immense AI mining probe returns to Earth, posing a dire threat. Unbeknownst to her, Malise holds the key to humanity's survival within her brain. The novel intricately weaves hard science, tarot, and late 20th-century European imagery, introducing a compelling new heroine to the science fiction genre.

The new novel from Simon Ings is a story that balances on the knife blade of a new technology. Augmented Reality uses computing power to overlay a digital imagined reality over the real world. Whether it be adverts or imagined buildings and imagined people, with Augmented Reality the world is no longer as it appears to you, it is as it is imagined by someone else. Two friends are working at the cutting edge of this technology and when they are offered backing to take the idea and make it into the next global entertainment they realise that wolves hunt in this imagined world. And the wolves might be them. A story about technology becomes a personal quest into a changed world and the pursuit of a secret from the past. A secret about a missing mother, a secret that could hide a murder. This is no dry analysis of how a technology might change us, it is a terrifying thriller, a picture of a dark tomorrow that is just around the corner. Ings takes the satire and mordant satirical view of J.G. Ballard and propels it into the 21st century.

A mysterious box that he cannot open is all that might save Adam's autistic son as they are plunged into a world of old corruptions and new terrors. In PAINKILLERS, Simon Ings deftly teases out his knotted story that, with its many conventional elements, could have run a risk of overfamiliarity: sinister Oriental Triad gangsters, their even more sinister wives, a speedy Hong Kong with its ruthless Brit yuppies and its nightlife ridden with drugs, strange sex and violence. Shooting back and forth between a glamorous Hong Kong, in 1990, and a straitened London, in 1998, Ings sustains suspense by dropping hints but never telling enough. Adam Wyatt and his wife Eva run a small café near Southwark Market. They bicker a lot, Adam drinks and visits to their autistic son Justin tend to go awry. But underneath Adam's drinking are secrets from their previous life in Hong Kong, when he worked for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and got in with some very dubious local society types; one of whom includes 'Call me Jimmy' Yao Sau-Lan, 'a big nasty man, in a big nasty suit', whose father just happened to kill Eva's grandfather. When Jimmy's widow and sons come calling, Adam knows he's in trouble.

Simon Ings' The Smoke is about love, loss and loneliness in an incomprehensible world.

A riveting gothic SF adventure set in a bizarre desert city from one of our most acclaimed authors.