Within a future world where pilots are launched on giant kites to watch the skies for demonic monsters, two great religions are on the verge of battle for the souls of the realm
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
This remarkable book of linked stories by one of the best prose stylists in SF is set in a future England that has become a tight little island in a destroyed, postholocaust world. Powerful churches have long kept their grip on the people with a theology of fear that makes formidable demons out of the poor, weak mutants of the surrounding badlands. To ward off these specters, an elaborate, tradition-encrusted system of kites with hex signs or armed observers fly over the realm. The men of this Kite Corps, performing hazardous duty to sustain a myth, are driven to find a separate peace, to transform, if they can, disillusionment into enlightenment, to move forward from an assumption of guilt to an assumption of responsibility. These obdurate moral and intellectual questions, together with a pastoral vision of a working, Constable-esque countryside, and the appealing characters whose lives open up to reveal the web of their society are all part of the debt Roberts owes George Eliot, as he acknowledges by naming a key city Middlemarch. Structurally, however, Roberts is so expansive and indirect that he challenges the reader to put the pieces together and some individual sequences are reticent to the point of obscurity. There is also a strong streak of Victorian, paternalistic fantasy in the repeated rescue of waifs. If it is slow and demanding, this is still a rich, complex work that marks a considerable advance in maturity and skill over Roberts's early stories.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 38615707-6
Seller: Ann Wendell, Bookseller, Oroville, CA, U.S.A.
vg/vg, lgt edgewear. Bookclub edition. Binding is hc. Seller Inventory # 000400
Seller: Always Superior Books, Marietta, GA, U.S.A.
Hardback. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Editiion. Book. Seller Inventory # 046363
Seller: Book Lover's Warehouse, Johnson City, TN, U.S.A.
hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. This is an ex-library book with the usual stamps and markings. Jacket has creases, scratches and edge wear. Cover has bumped corners, a small piece of paper attached to one edge and the top edge is faded. Inside cover is torn. See photos. The binding is in good shape. The boards are in good, sturdy condition. The pages of this book are clean and unmarked. FAST SHIPPING & FREE TRACKING! Seller Inventory # 227364
Seller: biblioboy, North Providence, RI, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition Thus. New York: Arbor House . 1986. Hardcover. 0877957908 . First US edition. 288 pages. Fantasy Novel A Near Fine Book with light dust soiling top page edges in Fine jacket. See Photos cel. Seller Inventory # 868431
Seller: Tacoma Book Center, Tacoma, WA, U.S.A.
ISBN 0-87795-790-8. Hardback. First Printing. Very Good condition book in a Very Good condition dustjacket with minor rubs and creases around its edges. Tight sound unmarked copy. $15.95 original price is present and unclipped on front flap of dustjacket. Seller Inventory # 113128
Seller: Midnight Books, Sioux Falls, SD, U.S.A.
Cloth. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. Dirty top edge but otherwise a very nice copy, first printing, dust jacket in a protective mylar cover. Seller Inventory # 000662
Seller: Columbia Books, ABAA/ILAB, MWABA, Columbia, MO, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: fine. NY: Arbor House, c1985. 1st printing, 288pp., 8vo., Fine bright looks unread hardcover, fine unblemished d/j. Seller Inventory # 27336
Seller: Top Shelf Books, Santa Rosa, CA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. Versandi, Jill Bauman (illustrator). First Edition. Hardcover first edition, first printing and first US edition. (Preceded by the UK edition published in 1985.) Fine (unread) copy in fine jacket. Not a book club, remainder or ex-library copy. Uncommon to find copies in fine condition. Award History: 1985 British Science Fiction Award Nominee (lost to Helliconia Winter by Brian W. Aldiss); 1986 John W. Campbell Award Nominee (lost to The Postman by David Brin); 1986 Locus Poll Award Nominee (lost to The Postman by David Brin). Barron (ed), Anatomy of Wonder 4 (1995) 4-359. Book. Seller Inventory # 004122
Seller: Wonder Book, Frederick, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. First edition copy. . Very Good dust jacket. 1st US edition. Review copy card laid-in. Slightly dampstained. From the library of science fiction and fantasy writer, editor, publisher and prolific book reviewer D. Douglas Fratz. (science fiction, fantasy). Seller Inventory # SA07A-01329