Restore Point

In the theater of your mind, explore the dazzling worlds of prize-winning Australian writer Damien Broderick. The Truth Machine: Kicked to death on a sidewalk by thugs, aged Nobel laureate Bruce is frozen for centuries in cryonic biostasis. When his chilled flesh is rebuilt and rejuvenated, he wakes in a placid future ruled by a world-commanding computer system, the Truth Machine. But is this utopia or oppressive horror-heaven or hell? Transmitters: Science fiction had its own secret masters, the fanzine editors who preceded today's internet bloggers and tweeters. In a jargon all their own, they transmitted joy and jollity and feuding enmity-and some still do. In this cast of delightful oddballs, Joseph hopes to detect messages from the end of the universe while his girlfriend Caroline dances at the edge of madness. Ray and Marj tussle with the suburban in-laws. Brian spoofs a talkback host. 1984, that fabled year, looms. "The portrait of a generation is incisive"-George Turner. Besterman: What if Hamlet were not Prince of Denmark but Lord Besterman, scion of the Director of the Recombinant Engineering Cartel on asteroid Pallas? What if Besterman's uncle Feng slew his father by hurling him into a black hole? What if Ratio, a robot from Earth, visits the small world to thwart the murderous conflict that could explode across the worlds? And what of Folly, an Ophelia with iron in her soul? Reinventing Shakespeare is a bold gamble, but Broderick is the writer to carry it off in style. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Damien Broderick was Theodore Sturgeon Award finalist in 2010 and 2011, and winner of the A. Bertram Chandler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Science Fiction, 2010.