Jerry Oltion0.0 In a world dominated by America's heavy hand, an independent scientist reveals the secret of fast, cheap interstellar travel, sparking an exodus like none in history. When anyone with a few hundred dollars and a little ingenuity can build their own spaceship, even American citizens can't wait to get out from under the United States's domineering thumb.
Trent and Donna Stinson, of Rock Springs, Wyoming, seal up their pickup for vacuum and go looking for a better life among the stars, but they soon learn that you can't outrun your problems. America's belligerent foreign policy is expanding just as fast as the world's refugees, threatening to destroy humanity's last chance for peaceful coexistence. When their own government tries to kill them for exercising the freedoms that people once took for granted, Trent and Donna reluctantly admit that America must be stopped. But how can patriotic citizens fight their own country? And how can they succeed where the rest of the world has failed?
...В этом будущем искусственные интеллекты имеют равные права с людьми, города защищают непроницаемые биокуполы, благонадежные граждане практически бессмертны, а неблагонадежных наказывают "прижиганием клеток".
Именно здесь ведется "охота за головой" наследницы колоссальной финансовой империи. Голова не должна быть приживлена к новому телу. Почему? Это уже другая история...
It has been two years since the starship Phoenix left Alpha Station on a rescue mission to a faraway sector of space where over four thousand human spacers were under attack by a hostile alien race. Now, the Phoenix is almost home, having successfully rescued the stranded colonists through the combined negotiating talents of Bren Cameron-brilliant human paidhi to the atevi court, currently representing Tabini-aiji, the atevi ruler-and of Tabini's grandmother Ilisidi, the aiji-dowager, a fearsome, wily, and ambitious atevi leader in her own right.
Fortunately, both Bren and Ilisidi have considerable experience with alien interface, since for two hundred years the human paidhi have walked a fine and dangerous line, trading technological information with the volatile atevi to ensure the continued peace and safety of the small human colony living in isolation on the island of Mosphiera.
It had taken all of Bren's and Ilisidi's diplomatic abilities to make peaceful first contact with the kyo. And though their mission had been successful, they returned home with a possible threat to their world. For the kyo considered everyone they met to be bonded and allied with them forever, a permanent part of their community-although they themselves had alien enemies they could bring into atevi territory.
Exhausted from a two-year journey, with resources strained by four thousand extra mouths to feed, the crew of the Phoenix yearns for the luxuries of home. But when the ship makes the final jump into atevi space, things do not seem right. And when they make contact with Jules Ogun, Captain of Alpha Station, they learn the worst: that supplies to the station have been cut off; that civil war has broken out on the atevi mainland; that the powerful Western Association has been overthrown; and that Tabini-aiji, Bren's primary supporter and Ilisidi's grandson and ally, is missing and may be dead.
With no one left to lead the Western Association, Ilisidi and Bren know that the survival of their allies lies in their hands. And though two of the three atevi-built shuttles have been disabled on planet, the third is docked at Alpha. They must make planetfall as soon as possible to insure the greatest level of safety, for they know that their enemies, realizing that the Phoenix has returned, will be awaiting them in hopes of destroying the Shuttle during reentry. With the atevi world at war, the only safe landing strip lies on the human colony at Mosphiera. Although there are many dangers inherent in bringing a powerful atevi leader such as Ilisidi onto human lands, Bren realizes they have no choice but to do so.
But even if they safely survive their landing, will Bren and Ilisidi together prove strong enough to muster the remaining shards of the Western Association and regain control of their planet?
Fledgling, Octavia Butler’s last novel, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human.
It’s the second decade of the twenty-first century, and terrorism has escalated almost beyond control. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has been blown to bits by extremists and, in retaliation, thousands have died in another major attack on the United States. New weapons are being spawned in remote basement labs. No one feels safe. In North America, the FBI uses cutting-edge technology to thwart domestic terrorists. Sat-linked engine blockers stop drug-traffickers cold; devices the size of Magic Markers test for bio-hazards on the spot; 3-D projectors reconstruct crime scenes from hours-old evidence; and sophisticated bomb suits protect against all but the most savage forces. Despite all this, the War on Terror has reached a deadly stalemate. Now the FBI has been dispatched to deal with a new menace. Like the Anthrax threat of 2001, a plague targeted to ethnic groups-Jews or Muslims or both-has the potential to wipe out entire populations. But the FBI itself is under political assault. There’s a good chance agents William Griffin, Fouad Al-Husam, and Jane Rowland will be part of the last class at Quantico. As the young agents hunt a brilliant homegrown terrorist, they join forces with veteran bio-terror expert Rebecca Rose. But the plot they uncover-and the man they chase-proves far more complex than anyone expects.
Финалист