Beggar's Sky

A wildly original alien contact novel, set against a vivid backdrop of near-Earth corporate intrigue.

Trillionaire Igbal Renz has constructed a starship capable of making the twenty-year journey to Alpha Centauri. So why is he stopping at barely one-tenth that distance, with a cargo of a hundred frozen scientists and diplomats? Rumors abound that Renz Ventures, Inc., has made contact with . . . something. And yet, as deadly stealth ships prowl the space lanes and as the corporate space race threatens to devolve into outright warfare, the Four Horsemen of space industry are discovering firsthand that even in a limitless and lawless frontier, no one can ever be truly self-sufficient.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).


Praise for Poor Man’s Sky:

“Full bore show-your-work SF and a tense lunar mystery! A thrilling read.” —Max Gladstone, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author

“Wil McCarthy’s skill at crafting a believable, deeply science-grounded future is on full display. He brings us the mother of all locked-room mysteries wrapped in a vision of lunar colonization that rings a bit more true than we might be comfortable with. Small, gritty moments of inspired futurism pepper Poor Man’s Sky and remind us that no matter where we go, our human nature follows.” —Kimberly Unger, author of The Extractionist and Nucleation

Praise for Rich Man’s Sky:

“Action SF built on a hard foundation of cutting-edge science.” —Walter Jon Williams

“An action-crammed story that darts at hyper-speed from Burning Man, Nevada, to Suriname to a convent on the Moon to an orbiting colony that’s clearly up to something. A jam-packed adventure fizzing with mind-blowing concepts, and a great read!” —Connie Willis

“ . . . plenty of verisimilitude . . . superbly intriguing and captivating . . . bravura historical recreations, full of conjectural material. . . . Presenting us with a colorful cast of characters from across the millennia who have thick and rich existences, and affirming that the cosmic stream of life flows forcefully despite all small blockades, McCarthy has written a novel that looks both forwards and backwards, thus making a stellar return to the field.” —Locus

Praise for Wil McCarthy:

“McCarthy is an entertaining, intelligent, amusing writer, with Heinlein’s knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke’s thoughtfulness.” —Booklist

“Imagination really is the only limit.” —The New York Times

The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxyspanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work.” —Connie Willis


Engineer/novelist/journalist/entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon, and Philip K. Dick awards. His short fiction has graced the pages of Analog, Asimov’s, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable Bloom, Amazon.com “Best of Y2K” The Collapsium (a national bestseller), To Crush the Moon, and Antediluvian. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines.

Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics and founder/president/CTO of Raven Brick LLC, McCarthy hold patents of his own in seven countries, including twenty-nine issued U.S. patents in the field of nanostructured optical materials.