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1993 Philip K Dick Award (nominee)
Publisher's Weekly
Though billed as a novel about the Earth imperiled by a colliding asteroid, and though such an asteroid, called Icarus, does indeed threaten the planet in Hand's third novel, readers should not expect a familiar near-future disaster thriller. Instead, Hand combines a variety of science fiction elements into an original and colorful weave. Hundreds of years in the future, various factions war over Earth's fading resources, and ''geneslaves''--the products of genetic engineering--serve their human Masters. But that's changing. An ancient military android, dubbed Metatron, has fomented a rebellion of the geneslaves. The Aviator 'Imperator' Margalis Tast'annin, who died at the end of Hand's Winterlong but is now resurrected in a cyborg body, pursues Metatron. Meanwhile, other characters from Winterlong end up among the rebels. In all the confusion, warnings about the asteroid have gone unnoticed save by Metatron, who sees the coming cataclysm as the final blow against the Masters. Hand keeps the story moving briskly, and her future world is filled with vivid images made more striking by her evocative prose. The only drawback is the inconclusive ending--the story will obviously be resolved in a later book.
BookList - Carl Hays
Author of two previous, well received novels set in the same terrestrial future, Hand is quickly forging a reputation as one of sf's most brilliant and original stylists. Her latest explores the unique, unlikely relationship between a family of cannibalistic, genetically enhanced clones occupying a series of space colonies orbiting Earth and several refugees of a global war on its surface. The latter include a talking chimpanzee named Miss Scarlet and a resurrected military pilot whose entire body, except his eyes and one hand, has been virtually transformed into cybernetic machinery. With considerable imagination and a remarkable talent for alternating strikingly different points of view, Hand takes her characters through an engrossing plot involving a secret and powerful humanoid weapon called the Metatron, which is left over from a long-collapsed political dynasty and is now maneuvering to lead the clones in their own revolution. Richly conceived and masterfully realized, this is science fiction at the cutting edge of both technological extrapolation and literary invention.
Genre: Fantasy
Though billed as a novel about the Earth imperiled by a colliding asteroid, and though such an asteroid, called Icarus, does indeed threaten the planet in Hand's third novel, readers should not expect a familiar near-future disaster thriller. Instead, Hand combines a variety of science fiction elements into an original and colorful weave. Hundreds of years in the future, various factions war over Earth's fading resources, and ''geneslaves''--the products of genetic engineering--serve their human Masters. But that's changing. An ancient military android, dubbed Metatron, has fomented a rebellion of the geneslaves. The Aviator 'Imperator' Margalis Tast'annin, who died at the end of Hand's Winterlong but is now resurrected in a cyborg body, pursues Metatron. Meanwhile, other characters from Winterlong end up among the rebels. In all the confusion, warnings about the asteroid have gone unnoticed save by Metatron, who sees the coming cataclysm as the final blow against the Masters. Hand keeps the story moving briskly, and her future world is filled with vivid images made more striking by her evocative prose. The only drawback is the inconclusive ending--the story will obviously be resolved in a later book.
BookList - Carl Hays
Author of two previous, well received novels set in the same terrestrial future, Hand is quickly forging a reputation as one of sf's most brilliant and original stylists. Her latest explores the unique, unlikely relationship between a family of cannibalistic, genetically enhanced clones occupying a series of space colonies orbiting Earth and several refugees of a global war on its surface. The latter include a talking chimpanzee named Miss Scarlet and a resurrected military pilot whose entire body, except his eyes and one hand, has been virtually transformed into cybernetic machinery. With considerable imagination and a remarkable talent for alternating strikingly different points of view, Hand takes her characters through an engrossing plot involving a secret and powerful humanoid weapon called the Metatron, which is left over from a long-collapsed political dynasty and is now maneuvering to lead the clones in their own revolution. Richly conceived and masterfully realized, this is science fiction at the cutting edge of both technological extrapolation and literary invention.
Genre: Fantasy
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