The Promise of the Child: Volume One of the Amaranthine Spectrum
Autor Tom Toneren Limba Engleză Paperback – 11 oct 2016
—Tor.com
It is the 147th century.
In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.
In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament’s most closely kept secret.
Lycaste, a lovesick reclusive outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.
Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.
Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament—the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.
From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Preț: 103.29 lei
Nou
19.77€ • 20.79$ • 16.52£
Carte indisponibilă temporar
Specificații
ISBN-10: 1597808555
Pagini: 484
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 mm
Greutate: 0.57 kg
Editura: NIGHT SHADE BOOKS
Colecția Night Shade Books
Recenzii
—Tor.com
“One of the most ambitious and epic-scale pieces of worldbuilding I’ve read. Reading The Promise of the Child, you feel you’re in the presence of an author at the height of his powers. If this is what Toner is like when he’s just getting started, I think we can expect great things from him. Utterly absorbing; a tremendous adventure.”
—Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep and Sun of Suns
“Bold and intense from start to finish, The Promise of the Child is a master-class in innovative, evocative world-building. The entire book buzzes with imagination.”
—Michael J. Martinez, author of The Daedalus Incident
“An amazing debut—a colorful space opera in the post-human tradition of Iain M. Banks, combined with the razor-sharp plotting of Alastair Reynolds. It left me feverish with delight.”
—Loren Rhoads, author of The Dangerous Type
“Humming with energy, this is space opera like you've never seen it before. Absolutely brilliant.”
—Adam Roberts, author of Salt and Jack Glass
“A gorgeously-written, wildly imaginative book. It’s like no space opera I’ve ever read–compelling and addictive.”
—Will McIntosh, Hugo-award winning author of Soft Apocalypse and Defenders
“An amazing debut. Intriguing, disorientating. Like Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief or Moorcock’s Dancers At The End OF Time, it's told with the heightened vibrancy of a fable, and the melancholic sense of age and decadence so prevalent in Jack Vance’s Emphyrio.”
—Gareth Powell, BSFA Award-winning author of Ack-Ack Macaque
“A dizzying mash-up of science fiction and fantasy themes that are both mystifying and entertaining. . .will appeal to readers who enjoy the offbeat end of far-future sf. This is the kind of novel that could develop a cult following.”
—Booklist Reviews
“Ambitious. . .The several 147th-century cultures on display are fascinating. . .The pace picks up as the tale moves toward its end, but this is the kind of book that will most appeal to cerebral readers who can appreciate its characters’ many verbal interactions.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“This is the purest example of space opera we’ve seen in some time. . . .The book is challenging, ambitious, and rewarding, and it’s impossible not to admire Toner’s wild imagination and carefully constructed world. This thing is bonkers, no question. It’s also one helluva debut.”
—Barnes & Noble, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“Marvelous. . .a space opera of surpassing gracefulness, depth, complexity, and well, all-round weirdness.”
—Paul Di Filippo, Locus
“First rate ... a clever and interesting world, with something new always coming across the horizon, more wonders as yet unreached. I ate it up with a spoon.”
—Paul Weimer, SFSignal
Notă biografică
Descriere
An extraordinarily inventive and hugely original SF novel that charts a compelling vision of a future and spins an hypnotic narrative around it. A novel that could command the same amount of attention and furore that met the publication of The Quantum Thief. The richness and originality of its vision combined with its playful take on hard science make this a novel with real commercial potential that will be talked about for years and should launch a major career in SF.
In the far future man has spread out into the galaxy. And diversified. Some have evolved physically into strange new forms, some have become immortal.
Some hark back to the old ways. We have built a glorious new future. One that stretches from the sleepy Old World, to new terraformed planets and Dyson spheres built around artificial suns.
For as long as we can remember (and some have lived 12,000 years) we have delighted in a rich new existence. Yes there have been wars but we are content in our splendour. Art is revered, life is easy, death forgotten for many.
But now there are rumours of a bid to oust the Emperor and a worrying story that our history is not as we remember it - not only man left Earth...