The Coming
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- CHF 11.00
Descrizione dell’editore
A dystopian future Earth is thrown into turmoil by the imminent arrival of extraterrestrials in this alien-contact novel by the author of The Forever War.
Hugo and Nebula Award–Winning Author
With The Coming, science fiction Grand Master Joe Haldeman ingeniously combines a troubling dark vision of a dystopian near-future with an alien first-encounter tale as thrilling and thought-provoking as Carl Sagan's Contact and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Despite technological advancements designed to alleviate the stress of everyday life, Earth at the midpoint of the twenty-first century is plagued by environmental crisis and manmade catastrophe. Tensions among the nations of Europe bring the threat of World War III closer by the hour as their lands are also ravaged by devastating climatic upheaval, the result of centuries of unchecked ozone depletion and global warming.
Meanwhile, in an America whose population has been sedated by DNA-specific drugs and virtual porn, homosexuality and free sexual expression have been outlawed by a repressive federal government led by an inept media-star president.
But everything changes on October one, 2054, when Professor Aurora Bell, an astrophysicist at the University of Florida, picks up a message from deep space: "We're coming . . ."
Ingeniously told from the viewpoints of a diverse cast of characters ranging from scientists, artists, and ordinary citizens to criminals, con men, and politicians, The Coming is a shockingly prescient work of speculative fiction from the multiple award-winning author of The Forever War and the acclaimed Worlds series, taking the alien invasion story to places it has never gone before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Acclaimed Nebula and Hugo award-winner Haldeman delivers a disappointingly weak tale of the turmoil wrought by a message from outer space. Thin on plot, character and suspense, very little about this novel convinces, except details such as the prevalence of Spanish phrases in casual conversation and some techno gizmos. Clear as astronomy Prof. Rory Bell's name, the message "We're coming" is broadcast from only a 10th of a light-year away to mid-21st-century Earth. The message senders will arrive in three short months and will tolerate no attempt to block their "peaceful" landing. While Rory engages in political battles within her university and against the U.S. president's hawkish reaction to possible alien invasion, another, wider-scale battle among the European nations seems destined to launch WWIII. Meanwhile, a local mobster threatens to expose Rory's husband's illegal homosexuality, which would destroy both his and Rory's credibility. Unfortunately, relating the narrative by more than 20 different characters drains any tension from the story and results in disjointed, stalled storytelling. The concluding revelation about the aliens' nature and intentions, threadbare from overuse by other writers, arrives mercifully quickly.
