Burning paradise / Robert Charles Wilson.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Tor Doherty Associates Book, 2013Edition: First EditionDescription: 317 pages ; 25 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 0765332612
- 9780765332615
- 813/.54 23
- PR9199.3.W4987 B87 2013
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Bedford Public Library Fiction | Fiction | F WIL | Available | 32500005314761 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
From Robert Charles Wilson, the author of the Hugo-winning Spin, comes Burning Paradise, a new tale of humans coming to grips with a universe of implacable strangeness.
Cassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015--but it's not our United States, and it's not our 2015.
Cassie's world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades--back to the dawn of radio communications--human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. That by interfering with our communications, this entity has tweaked history in massive and subtle ways. That humanity is, for purposes unknown, being farmed.
Cassie's parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Since then, the survivors have scattered and gone into hiding. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. Others live nearby. For eight years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked.
Until now. Because the killers are back. And they're not human.
"Cassie Iverson, eighteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2014--but it's not our United States and it's not our 2014. Cassie's world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1914. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades--back to the dawn of radio communications--human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. Cassie's parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. For seven years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked. Until now. Because the killers are back. And they're not human"-- Provided by publisher.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Cassie Klyne lives with her Aunt Nerissa and her brother Thomas in an alternate Buffalo, NY, circa 2015. Neither the Great Depression nor World War II has occurred, and the world is slowly but steadily gaining in overall prosperity. Cassie, however, knows that her world is not as it seems; her parents were murdered for their discovery that that human history has been manipulated by an extraterrestrial presence for sinister reasons. When a mysterious man dies suddenly outside her apartment, Cassie knows that the alien killers are back, and she and her brother must flee for their lives. VERDICT The Hugo Award-winning author of Spin has written a story of gradual suspense and quiet terror, with believable characters and a compelling plot. Fans of conspiracy theories, alien encounters, and supernatural suspense should enjoy this work. [See Prepub Alert, 5/13/13.] (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Hugo-winner Wilson (The Chronoliths) casts a cold eye at SF cliches in this powerful novel designed to shake up lazy readers. In an alternate 2014, contented citizens are celebrating a century of "approximate peace" since the Armistice ended the war in Europe. Only members of the Correspondence Society realize that an alien entity encompassing the planet has been manipulating and pacifying humanity by controlling electronic communication and sending sims-artificial products of its hive mind-to kill anyone who discovers the truth. This is familiar stuff, and readers will expect to see heroic humans casting off the alien tyranny. Instead, Wilson focuses on the difficult moral choices his characters must face as they consider what has been done for (not just to) humankind, and as they discover sims among their closest companions. Heroism is set side by side with deep pain, and there are no easy answers. This is a deeply thoughtful, deliberately discomfiting book that will linger long and uneasily in the reader's mind. Agent: Shawna McCarthy, McCarthy Agency. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Kirkus Book Review
Skewed, alternate-world, aliens-among-us yarn from the talented author of Julian Comstock (2009). The world Cassie Iverson of Buffalo inhabits has been peaceful since the Great Armistice of 1914. As a result, social welfare has advanced, technology has lagged and computing is primitive. Cassie, however, is a member of the Correspondence Society which, years ago, discovered that the atmosphere's radio-reflective layer is actually a living entity, a cellular hypercolony that mimics intelligence through sheer computational power. And through its human agents, or sims, who look normal but have no individual awareness and bleed green goo, it controls human progress. In 2007, sims murdered Cassie's parents and other leading Society members; the rest scattered and went into hiding. She lives now with her aunt Nerissa and younger brother Thomas. One night when Nerissa is out, she sees a sim watching the house--a sim that dies in a traffic accident crossing the road, leaking green goo--and immediately flees with Thomas to Leo Beck, another Society member who lives nearby. Together, they formulate a desperate plan to locate Leo's rich father, Werner, who has long nurtured plans to destroy the hypercolony. Meanwhile, in rural Vermont, another sim visits Cassie's reclusive uncle Ethan--but this sim says it wants to talk. When Nerissa shows up, they disable the sim and interrogate it. It says it isn't part of the hypercolony but another, parasitical, entity--and it says it wants their help. This dazzling, complex and typically weird backdrop, augmented by nifty, character-driven plotting and action, leaves no doubt that it's all scarily real. However, later revelations tend to undermine all this excellent work, leaving a final third that doesn't convincingly add up. Regulars know where Wilson is coming from and probably won't mind, but it's impossible to avoid just a tinge of disappointment.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
Born in California, ROBERT CHARLES WILSON grew up in Canada. He is the author of many acclaimed SF novels, including Darwinia , Blind Lake , Julian Comstock , and the Hugo Award-winning Spin .