Fallen Dragon

Overview

By the twenty-fifth century, the brilliant notion of a star-trading civilization linking Earth to its interstellar colonies has petered out - the victim of stock market manipulation and cost-benefit analysis. Trade has been replaced by a business-friendly policy of "asset realization" ... which some might call piracy." "Corporate starships of the Zantiu-Braun 3rd Fleet deploy to colonies, disgorging hordes of invulnerable soldiers called Skins. Enforcing their dictates with both orbital weapons and civilian hostages, the Skins loot whole planets, leaving only poverty, misery, and an industrial infrastructure - so that a few years later, Z-B can harvest again." "But on the bucolic world of Thallspring, Z-B's plans are about to go badly awry, all because of: Sgt. Lawrence Newton: In his teens, Lawrence abandoned a life of privilege and love to pursue a dream of seeing the stars. Twenty years of violence as a Skin have destroyed all his hopes and desires, except for one ...; Denise Ebourn: An energetic, dedicated young schoolteacher with a penchant for spinning fables of wondrous lost worlds, Denise is also a guerrilla resistance leader whose tactics would put Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, or even George Washington to shame. But then, they were only human ...; and Simon Roderick: Z-B's Director of Internal Security serves management with a transcendent dedication that nobody, perhaps not even he himself, can hope to understand . . ." Now Lawrence just wants to buy his way out of Z-B by stealing a treasure he believes is stashed in a backwater province on Thallspring. Yet his "score" is also the one thing that Denise will protect at all costs, and that Roderick must possess at any price.

Editorial Reviews

This hefty novel of interstellar war and alien contact in the 25th century, a sort of Starship Troopers as if written by Charles Dickens, ranks as one of Hamilton's best. Though he's a mercenary for the Zantiu-Braun corporation, which gets its profits by periodically looting old interstellar colonies, Lawrence Newton has his eye on picking up a treasure trove of alien technology not on his employer's approved list of loot. When the Zantiu-Braun Third Fleet descends on the planet Thrallspring, the invaders unexpectedly find the inhabitants, who have access to some of that lost alien technology, prepared to fight back. After several hundred pages of well-depicted action and intrigue, the technology of the "dragons" makes the war superfluous, a definite victory for all opponents of the corporate pirates. It also makes it possible for Newton himself to travel in both time and space, and to put right the mishandling of a youthful love affair that forced him into exile in the first place. Ignoring conventional wisdom about expository lumps, flashbacks and viewpoint shifts, Hamilton (The Reality Dysfunction) nicely develops character while he also does some fine world building that's as good as it gets in space opera short of Lois McMaster Bujold. Despite the somewhat uneven pacing, the book is undeniably a page-turner and should provide many absorbing hours for the author's existing readers as well as a salutary introduction to a major SF author for a new audience. (Mar. 11) Forecast: With a five-city author tour and national print advertising both mainstream and genre, expect this one to rack up strong sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Peter F. Hamilton

PETER F. HAMILTON is the author of numerous short stories and novels, including The Reality Dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist and his story collection, A Second Chance at Eden. Mr. Hamilton lives in England and is working on a new novel.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Grand Central Publishing

Filesize

1.58 MB

Number of Pages

650

eBook ISBN

9780446550239