The Stars Are Also Fire - Hardcover

Anderson, Poul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312855346 ISBN 13: 9780312855345

Publisher: Tor Books, 1994

Synopsis

Returning to the universe of Harvest of Stars, a new era of space exploration journeys to a solar system dominated by machine intelligence, and the legacy of a single woman spells the fate for those of flesh and blood.

About this title

About the Author

The bestselling author of such classic novels as Brain Wave and The Boat of a Million Years, Poul Anderson won just about every award the science fiction and fantasy field has to offer. He has won multiple Hugos and Nebulas, the John W. Campbell Award, The Locus Poll Award, the Skylark Award, and the SFWA Grandmaster Award for Lifetime Achievement. His recent books include Harvest of Stars, The Stars are also On Fire, Operation Chaos, Operation Luna, Genesis, Mother of Kings, and Going for Infinity, a collection and retrospective of his life's work. Poul Anderson lived in Orinda, California where he passed away in 2001.

From Publishers Weekly

In this semi - sequel to last year's Harvest of Stars , Anderson, winner of seven Hugos and three Nebulas, gets back on track. Where its predecessor was disjointed, unbalanced and clogged with capitalist-libertarian preaching, this novel offers suspense, vivid writing and appealing characters wrestling with a big philosophical problem: Is a peaceful, stable life under the benign rule of superintelligent machines a utopia--or comfortable slavery? To explore this question, Anderson traces two converging plot lines. In one, Dagny Beynac--a descendant of Anson Guthrie, founder of the vastly powerful Fireball Enterprises--devotes her life to preserving peace on the Moon, in the process becoming the progenitor of a new race of genetically engineered "Lunarians." Centuries after her death, the solar system is governed by the "cybercosm," a network of machine intelligences--but a secret preserved since Dagny Beynac's time could threaten the cybercosm's hegemony. Ian Kenmuir, a space pilot in the service of the Lunarians, and Aleka Kame, a human ally of the genetically engineered "metamorphs" of Earth, race against time, their own consciences and the deadly pursuit of the cybercosm's agent Venator to bring the secret to light. Though Anderson's politics still color the tale, Kenmuir and Kame are never so certain of themselves or the answers as were Guthrie and others in Harvest , and the result is an engrossing story that leaves the reader wondering about the human need for fresh horizons, adventure and danger.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312855346
• ISBN 13: 9780312855345
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 413