The Invisible Country - Softcover

Mcauley, Paul J.

3.55

56 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380792990 ISBN 13: 9780380792993

Publisher: Eos, 1998

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Nine short stories explore the wonders and dangers of biotechnology and its creations and follow such themes as a mourning physician in a sixteenth-century Venice transformed by a premature Industrial Revolution. Original.

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Review:

Former biologist Paul J. McAuley, multi-award winning author of Fairyland and the Confluence trilogy (beginning with Child of the River), here presents nine of his short works, mostly set in future societies rendered bizarre by rampant biotechnology. McAuley is a brilliant storyteller, and several standout pieces in this collection are astonishingly wonderful. In the short, powerful "Gene Wars," young Evan gets a kit called Splicing Your Own Semisentients, which sets him off on a life of genetic engineering, corporate piracy, and third-world exploitation, ending in the unimaginably distant future. The title story, "The Invisible Country," is an SF-noir tale that embodies the essence of cyberpunk without resorting to dark, dangerous clich�--in his afterword, McAuley explains that he wrote it for a collection in which the central conflict is resolved without violence. Several stories contain shared themes of alienation and subjugation, examined through the plight of the victims of biotech--genetically engineered slaves--and one takes place in McAuley's Confluence universe, a far future in which the stars themselves have been altered. Fans of mature, thoughtful hard SF with a quirky, cinematic edge should delve into McAuley's work. The Invisible Country is a fine place to start. --Therese Littleton

About the Author:

Paul J. McAuley is a professional bio-physicist and the author of Pasquale's Angel, Four Hundred Billion Stars, Red Dust and Eternal Light. A native Englishman, he currently lives in Fife, Scotland.

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