Stories, ideas, and
the parts of being human that resist easy explanation.
I write fiction and nonfiction about people, the worlds we make around ourselves, and those stubborn parts of being human that remain difficult to explain, measure or replace.
Latest book
The Gods We Made
We build systems to help us understand the world. Sometimes we begin living as though the systems understand us better than we understand ourselves.
A funny, strange and increasingly impossible story about artificial intelligence, old gods, modern power, prophecy, belief, wish fulfilment, and what happens when the things humanity creates begin behaving like the things humanity used to worship.
Where would you like to start?
I want a story.
Novels, strange worlds and people making questionable decisions.
Browse fiction →
Give me something to think about.
Humanity, meaning, consciousness, change and the increasingly peculiar world we have built for ourselves.
Browse nonfiction →
I would not mind disappearing for a while.
Enter the Bookshop series.
Start the series →The books
A growing body of work.
Fiction, nonfiction, longer projects, short provocations and several things that became considerably larger than originally intended.
See all books →
Responsible Success
Down Here
Ageless
The Aware Universe
From the desk
Writing.
Essays, ideas, behind the books and the questions that keep coming back.
All writing →
Essay
Perhaps efficiency is not the highest human virtue
We have become remarkably good at measuring human life. But what happens when the things that matter most are also the hardest to measure?
Read the essay →Note
What exactly are we trying to optimise ourselves for?
A question that keeps returning.
Read →Behind the books
The stories we tell ourselves about a good life
On meaning, progress and the things that do not fit tidily into a model.
Read →About Martin
I did not particularly intend to become an author.
I did, however, spend nearly four decades working with people, trying to understand why we think, feel, believe and behave as we do. One thing eventually became another.
About Martin →There is another side to my work.
Sanomentology, practitioner training and the Nine Realms Institute live separately from the books.