Maximum Ice
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
They thought Earth would always abide. But it hadn't, not at all . . . .
Zoya Kundara has lived on the space vessel Star Road for 250 years. As Ship Mother, she is awakened from Deep Sleep in times of crisis, providing counsel to generations of its Romany crew. Now the starship has returned home, only to discover an Earth on the verge of extinction, blanketed in a crystalline substance called Ice. But it's not ice. This pearl-white mantle is a grand and mysterious ecology of information-bearing crystals. And it is relentlessly enclosing the last free lands.
To find a home for her crew, Zoya must approach the denizens of this strange new Earth. She will discover the Ice Nuns, who seek sole control of the physics-defying crystals; people huddled like moles in underground techno-warrens; and the snow witches, creatures of Ice, both mad and prophetic . . . and one snow witch in particular, who will defend the kingdom of Ice with power and immortal cunning. f
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Full-bodied characters, palpable environs, layered mystery and heady suspense combine like the many facets of "Ice" in this sparkling SF novel. Fleeing from harmful interstellar radiation back to an Earth that persecuted their ancestors 250 years earlier, the gypsy crew of the spaceship Star Road is in for a shock. Earth's surface, but for a ring around the equator, is covered with crystalline Ice, a fantastic information-storage structure that no one has known how to access or control for centuries. Zoya Kundara, Ship Mother of Star Road, has guided generations of the crew through crises and slept away the years between, and now she is sent to track down information and stop Ice from covering up the remnant of land which may be her people's only hope of avoiding extinction. Meanwhile, a scheming faction onboard Star Road teams up with the treacherous Ice Nuns to keep Zoya out of the way permanently. Through vivid prose, Kenyon (Tropic of Creation) portrays the harshness of the planet's environment and its creatures such as snow witches whose moans and mimicking speech can be heard over the fiercest winds and rodents who feed on travelers. Kenyon is a surprising new talent, and SF enthusiasts will appreciate her imaginative world and characters.
