Angel Station
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
ORPHANS OF DEEP SPACE . . .
They’re outlaws now. Created to serve a function grown obsolete, haunted by the holographic ghost of their father, Ubu and Maria have lived their entire lives skating along the edge of extinction. Now they and their ship Runaway are in flight both from the law and from a predatory clan of competitors. They’re going to come back rich, or not at all.
But what they find in the depths of space isn’t wealth, but a secret so startling that Ubu and Maria will need every last reserve of guile, cunning, and intelligence just to survive . . .
“No one can accuse Williams of failing to grow with each new major work . . . Straight-forward space adventure with a strong picaresque flavor. The pacing is brisk, the high-tech details vivid, the rewards to readers considerable.”
---Booklist
“Williams colorfully invokes the life of the trader families and their honkeytonk space stations. With its emphasis on youth, beauty, sex, and mischief, [ANGEL STATION] also conjures a contemporary mood agreeably distinct from its futuristic settings.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Williams has it all.” --Analog
“Williams is a skillfully literate addition to the stylish new generation of science fiction writers.”
---Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ubu has four arms, a fantastically faithful memory and is 13 years old. His 11-year-old ``sister'' Maria is more conventionally constructed, yet so psychic she considers herself a witch. (Both mature with the artificial aid of ``mones'' to the time of their late teens.) Their ``father,'' Pasco, a small-time trader with an ancient spaceship, originally assembled them from spare genetic material and personality programs, but he commits suicide while in the throes of a depression, leaving his children to fend for themselves. Ubu compounds their problems by making an unwise business move, putting them deeply in debt--in danger of losing the ship and facing a life of virtual indenture. An attempt to capitalize on Maria's psychic abilities in a casino ends in disaster, leading to their arrest, escape and lives pursued on the edge of the law. Williams ( Hardwired ) colorfully evokes the life of the trader families and their honkytonk space stations. With its emphasis on youth, beauty, sex and mischief, the novel also conjures a contemporary mood agreeably distinct from its futuristic setting.