Perihelion Summer
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Greg Egan's Perihelion Summer is a story of people struggling to adapt to a suddenly alien environment, and the friendships and alliances they forge as they try to find their way in a world where the old maps have lost their meaning.
Taraxippus is coming: a black hole one tenth the mass of the sun is about to enter the solar system.
Matt and his friends are taking no chances. They board a mobile aquaculture rig, the Mandjet, self-sustaining in food, power and fresh water, and decide to sit out the encounter off-shore. As Taraxippus draws nearer, new observations throw the original predictions for its trajectory into doubt, and by the time it leaves the solar system, the conditions of life across the globe will be changed forever.
Praise for Perihelion Summer
“Egan here doubles down on climate change with his typically rigorous exploration of a cosmic accident’s effect on Earth and all its people. His characters are sharp and funny and their courageous response to the massive challenge they face works as a spur to cause us to think—why couldn’t we do as well with our own great challenge? This is what the best science fiction can do that no other genre can, and we need it now more than ever. Bravo!” — Kim Stanley Robinson
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hugo-winner Egan (Phoresis) postulates a bleak too-near future in this hard SF apocalyptic tale of abrupt climate change sparked by a binary black hole rapidly approaching Earth. Young Australian scientist Matt Fleming is testing a new kind of aquaculture with the Mandjet, an innovative "floating fish farm" that can withstand sea level changes. As a fearfully hot summer and an equally violent winter cause crop failures and widespread disaster across the planet, Matt struggles to bring his parents and sister to relative safety on Mandjet, battling both the Australian government's lack of preparation and his relatives' personal denial of the looming tragedy. Traveling with a ragtag flotilla to Antarctica, Matt and his shipmates develop a grim plan for survival that seems to be humankind's only hope of enduring Earth's rapid collapse. Egan's rapid-fire plot, full of convincing scientific detail, and his sympathetically drawn characters of various races and backgrounds make this a vivid commentary both on societies' stubborn refusal to face an environmental threat and individuals' determination to survive it.