Achilles' Choice - Hardcover

Larry Niven; Steven Barnes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312850999 ISBN 13: 9780312850999

Publisher: Tor Books, 1991

Synopsis

Getting the "Boost" to win Olympic gold and a voice in ruling the twenty-first-century world may not be worth the risk, but Jillian must try when humanity's future is at stake

About this title

About the Author:

Larry Niven is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. His Beowulf's Children, co-authored with Jeery Pournelle and Steven Barnes was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

Born in Los Angeles in 1952, Steven Barnes began writing at the age of five, and since that time has published over two million words. His first published collaboration, "The Locusts," was nominated for the 1980 Hugo award, and his Outer Limits episode "A Stitch In Time" was nominated for a Cable Ace Award and won an Emmy for Amanda Plummer. He also wrote a one-woman show based on the life of Bessie Coleman (the first Black Aviatrix), been the Kung-Fu columnist for Black Belt Magazine (he holds dan rankings in Judo and Karate), and served as the host of the world's longest-running science fiction radio show, Hour 25. Currently living in Washington State with his wife, Novelist Tananarive Due and his daughter Lauren Nicole, Steven is working on a series of novels set in prehistoric Africa, for which he recently spent two weeks on Tanzania's Serengeti plain.

From Publishers Weekly:

The world of 2048 is ruled by a council of computer-enhanced, "linked" people, with new members chosen every four years through a competitive mental, physical and aesthetical Olympics. In training, contender Jillian Shomer debates whether to use a "boost" to enhance her chances. Nobody who has not boosted can prevail over anyone who has, at least in the physical contests, but those who use the boost and do not win will die within 10 years--only the link can counteract its effects and only a council member can be linked. Seeking to learn why the council would so allow the destruction of the majority of the world's finest youths, Jillian discovers unsavory aspects to her utopia. Then someone, or something, catches her spying. Niven and Barnes's ( The Descent of Anansi ) romance-like light fiction, with its predictable plot, loosely drawn characters and no more than a promise of a resolution, is, nevertheless, fun to read.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0312850999
• ISBN 13: 9780312850999
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 214
• Illustrator: Boris Vallejo