K-Machines (Players in the Contest of Worlds) - Softcover

Broderick, Damien

3.13

30 ratings by Goodreads

9781560258056: K-Machines (Players in the Contest of Worlds)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560258055 ISBN 13: 9781560258056

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006

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August Seebeck is a 20-something student from a world not quite the same as ours. In GODPLAYERS, August tumbled into a vastly larger universe, and learned that he wasn't, after all, an orphaned only child. He and his turbulent siblings, and the breathtaking Lune and others still stranger, are Players in the Contest of Worlds. They are mysteriously transformed humans whose ancient task is enigmatic battle with the dread, passionate K-Machines. Now crisis deepens.

Empowered with a potent killing device of his own, an eerie gift from legend, August finds himself flung from world to world in a brutal and baffling game, with entire universes at stake and very little idea of the rules. Only two things are clear: his beloved Lune is not who she seems, and August's pivotal role is no chance accident. In this cosmos, survival of the gods themselves depends upon human victory over the K-Machines.

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About the Author:

Broderick is Australia's most internationally respected SF critic and theorist. He holds a multi-disciplinary PhD in the comparative semiotics of science and literature. The diverse intellectual sweep of his writing includes feminism, literary theory, particle physics, biochemistry, and cognitive science, but he has also found time to write comedy, experiment with fantasy, re-work the odd Shakespearian play, and write a postmodernist non-SF novel about the Melbourne SF fan community.

A prize-winning author throughout his career, for his last two published works Broderick received the 2002 Ditmar Award for Best Australian Collection and the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2002. In 2005 he received the Distinguished Scholarship Award of the International Association of Fantasy Authors. He lives in San Antonio, TX.

From Booklist:

In the sequel to Godplayers (2005), August Seebeck is still wandering through Wonderland, armed with a mysterious, devastatingly powerful vorpal implant (and yes, there is a Jammerwock) and an intense desire to get some straight answers out of his cagey newfound relatives about the Contest of Worlds, his role in it, and their opponents, the K-machines. It seems the contest isn't entirely as it seemed, and neither is the woman August loves. There are betrayals and confusion and misdirection every time August starts to get closer to the truth, or even to asking the right questions. His quest to discover the reasons behind his pivotal role in the contest is a trip down the rabbit hole to doors that don't exist, exotic siblings, and even more exotic locales. It's a fun story, full of galaxy-spanning adventure and intrigue, that incorporates a perspective on that currently hot concept, technological singularity. Broderick also continues his homage to humorous sf masters Roger Zelazny and Fritz Leiber as he seamlessly constructs the story he has to tell. Regina Schroeder
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