Heads - Hardcover

Bear, Greg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312063679 ISBN 13: 9780312063672

Publisher: St. Martins Press, 1991

Synopsis

Mickey awaits imminent chaos when his brother-in-law uses the moon's facilities in his quest for Absolute Zero and his sister Rho tries to read the memories of 410 cryogenically frozen heads

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Reviews

YA-- The concept of a future society purchasing 410 cryogenically frozen heads and then probing their minds is the basis of this short novel. Mickey Sandoval, the administrator of a lunar farm station, finds himself involved in a political struggle against a religious group because one of the heads was that of their founder. This is a lean, hard-core science-fiction novel that can be booktalked with success and used by the next-day assignment completion seekers.
- Nora Jane Natke, Riverside City and County Public Library, CA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hard-science-fiction master Bear's ( Queen of Angels ) gem of a novella shines with provocative scientific speculation, well-drawn characters and powerful prose. Mickey Sandoval is a minor administrator in his family's moon-based corporation, supervising accounts on his brother-in-law William's project--an attempt to reach absolute zero, 0 on the Kelvin scale. His mostly routine job becomes rapidly complicated when his sister Rho, William's wife, brings a load of 410 cryogenically frozen heads back with her from earth. Mickey finds her interest in tapping the memories of the long-dead bizarre yet harmless, but suddenly the other industrial families on the moon grow hostile to the project, led by Council President Fiona Task-Felder, a member of the cult of Logology (which bears an unmistakable resemblance to a certain contemporary pseudo-religious movement). Mickey is plunged into high-level political conflicts he cannot handle, stumbling from error to error before Rho's examination of the heads unveils a monumental secret--and explains the Logologists' stake in her project. Readers hungry for the intellectual thrills of traditional science fiction with the literary merits of the best of the genre need look no further.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Slender illustrated science-fiction novella (it first appeared last year in Britain) from the author of Eon, Blood Music, Queen of Angels, etc. In the 22nd century, the Moon is inhabited by extended industrial-economic families. Young narrator Mickey Sandoval's brother-in-law William wins a contract to do research at absolute zero. William's facility offers plenty of spare cooling capacity, so Mickey's sister Rho buys 410 cryogenically preserved heads from Earth, intending to scan the heads for historical information- -indeed, two of the heads belong to the founders of the Sandoval family. Then Mickey, selected to boss the project, runs into unexpected political opposition over the heads from the Moon's ruling council. Why? Well, the councilors belong to a weird space- age cult cooked up by a certain K.D. Thierry. And--readers will guess at once, though Mickey takes forever--one of the 410 heads belongs to Thierry. The cult, which doesn't care to have its fraudulent secrets exposed, eventually will attempt to blow up the heads (and William's experiments at absolute zero), resulting in an eerie psychic meltdown that gobbles up William and Rho and most of the heads too. Wonderfully inventive, but with flabby patches even at this restricted length. The irritatingly stupid narrator doesn't help. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martins Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312063679
• ISBN 13: 9780312063672
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Gambino Fred
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 125