From Robert Charles Wilson, the author of the Hugo-winning Spin, comes Burning Paradise, a new tale of humans coming to grips with a universe of implacable strangeness. Cassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015--but it's not our United States, and it's not our 2015. Cassie's world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression.
Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades--back to the dawn of radio communications--human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. That by interfering with our communications, this entity has tweaked history in massive and subtle ways. That humanity is, for purposes unknown, being farmed.
Cassie's parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Since then, the survivors have scattered and gone into hiding. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. Others live nearby. For eight years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked. Until now. Because the killers are back. And they're not human.
About the Author
Born in California, Robert Charles Wilson grew up in Canada. He is the author of many acclaimed SF novels, including Darwinia, Blind Lake, Julian Comstock, and the Hugo Award-winning Spin.
Industry Reviews
"The finest science fiction author now writing." -Stephen King "The finest science fiction author now writing." --Stephen King"Outstanding...The various science and thriller plot elements are successful, but this is first and foremost a novel of character." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Axis"The long-anticipated marriage between the hard sf novel and the literary novel, resulting in an offspring possessing the robust ideational vigor of the former with the graceful narrative subtleties of the latter, might finally have occurred in the form of Robert Charles Wilson's Spin....Wilson does so many fine things, it's hard to know where to begin to praise him." --The Washington Post on Spin"Spin is many things: psychological novel, technological thriller, apocalyptic picaresque, cosmological meditation. But it is, foremost, the first major SF novel of 2005, another triumph for Robert Charles Wilson in a long string of triumphs." --Locus on Spin The finest science fiction author now writing. Stephen King Outstanding The various science and thriller plot elements are successful, but this is first and foremost a novel of character. Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Axis The long-anticipated marriage between the hard sf novel and the literary novel, resulting in an offspring possessing the robust ideational vigor of the former with the graceful narrative subtleties of the latter, might finally have occurred in the form of Robert Charles Wilson's Spin .Wilson does so many fine things, it's hard to know where to begin to praise him. The Washington Post on Spin Spin is many things: psychological novel, technological thriller, apocalyptic picaresque, cosmological meditation. But it is, foremost, the first major SF novel of 2005, another triumph for Robert Charles Wilson in a long string of triumphs. Locus on Spin" The finest science fiction author now writing. "Stephen King" Outstanding The various science and thriller plot elements are successful, but this is first and foremost a novel of character. "Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Axis" The long-anticipated marriage between the hard sf novel and the literary novel, resulting in an offspring possessing the robust ideational vigor of the former with the graceful narrative subtleties of the latter, might finally have occurred in the form of Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin" .Wilson does so many fine things, it's hard to know where to begin to praise him. "The Washington Post on Spin" "Spin" is many things: psychological novel, technological thriller, apocalyptic picaresque, cosmological meditation. But it is, foremost, the first major SF novel of 2005, another triumph for Robert Charles Wilson in a long string of triumphs. "Locus on Spin"" "The finest science fiction author now writing." -Stephen King "Outstanding...The various science and thriller plot elements are successful, but this is first and foremost a novel of character." --"Publishers Weekly" (starred review) on "Axis" "The long-anticipated marriage between the hard sf novel and the literary novel, resulting in an offspring possessing the robust ideational vigor of the former with the graceful narrative subtleties of the latter, might finally have occurred in the form of Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin."...Wilson does so many fine things, it's hard to know where to begin to praise him."--"The Washington Post "on "Spin" ""Spin" is many things: psychological novel, technological thriller, apocalyptic picaresque, cosmological meditation. But it is, foremost, the first major SF novel of 2005, another triumph for Robert Charles Wilson in a long string of triumphs."--"Locus" on "Spin"
