Cradle of Splendor - Softcover

Anthony, Patricia

2.98

47 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0441004261 ISBN 13: 9780441004263

Publisher: Ace, 1997

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A freak accident during Brazil's first manned space launch goes from disastrous to baffling when the ship, expected to plummet back to earth, seemingly shoots into orbit without any propulsion. Reprint.

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About the Author:

Patricia Anthony is the highly acclaimed author of Cold Allies (winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel), Brother Termite (motion picture option to James Cameron), Conscience of the Beagle, Happy Policeman, and Cradle of Splendor. She lives in Texas.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Anthony's new venture (Happy Policeman, 1994, etc.) is set in a near-future Brazil whose president, Ana Maria Bonfim, has engineered a social and economic miracle. No longer are women beaten or children killed in the streets, and astonishing technological advances have transformed the economy--maybe, as a global assortment of diplomats and bigwigs gathers to witness Brazil's attempt to put a rocket into orbit, antigravity has even been invented. Suspicious, envious, and perplexed, the US believes that Brazil has captured a UFO and, cloaked in UN approval, it prepares to invade. The drama that unfolds--impossible to summarize adequately--embodies many diverse points of view. Artist Dolores Sims, Ana Maria's former lover and once a CIA agent, knows the truth about Henrique Freitas--Svengali, pervert, former psychic surgeon and suspected by the US of having been absorbed by an alien from another dimension. Whatever the truth, Freitas scares Edson Carvalho; Ana Maria's drunken chief spymaster, Carvalho is haunted by his knowledge of the people who vanish into Freitas's eerie chamber, a doorway to--somewhere. NASA's Roger Lintenberg, sent by the CIA to observe the rocket launch and investigate UFO activity, is astounded to find that the UFOs are real. Indeed, Roger, imprisoned by CIA assassin McNatt, begins to realize that Freitas isn't an alien at all. The merciless McNatt himself contends that Freitas's awesome powers lie within us all. Finally, thousands of innocents die as the invasion gets under way, even though the Brazilian army offers no resistance, while Freitas hurls beautiful yet harmless UFOs at the invaders and, casting aside every restraint, rapes, tortures, and murders his own son. Mesmerizing, full of terrible insights, deeply disturbing, and quite unforgettable, confirming Anthony as the powerhouse of 1990s science fiction. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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