Rich Man's Sky
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A NEW NOVEL OF REAL SF FROM WIL McCARTHY
Space: a tycoon's playground. From a space station full of women to a monastery on the Moon, from a Martian reality-TV contest to a solar shade large enough to cool the Earth, the dreams of a handful of trillionaires dictate the future of humanity. Outside the reach of Earthly law and with the vast resources of the inner solar system at their disposal, the “Four Horsemen” do exactly as they please.
The governments of Earth are not amused; an international team of elite military women, masquerading as space colonists, are set to infiltrate and neutralize the largest and most dangerous project in human history. But nothing is that simple when rich men control the sky, as everyone involved is about to discover.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
About Rich Man's Sky:
"Action SF built on a hard foundation of cutting-edge science."—Walter Jon Williams
"An action-crammed story that darts at hyper-speed from Burning Man, Nevada to Suriname to a convent on the Moon to an orbiting colony that’s clearly up to something. A jam-packed adventure fizzing with mind-blowing concepts, and a great read!"—Connie Willis
"A hard science fiction tour de force, populated by memorable characters in a tale of intrigue, adventure, and irresistible market forces."—Linda Nagata
Engineer/novelist/journalist/entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon, and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2," from the novel Lost in Transmission, was rated one of the ten best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable Bloom, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" The Collapsium (a national bestseller), and To Crush the Moon. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science.
Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics and founder/president/CTO of RavenBrick LLC, McCarthy now writes patents for a top law firm in Dallas. He holds patents of his own in seven countries, including twenty-nine issued U.S. patents in the field of nanostructured optical materials.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McCarthy (The Queendom of Sol series) delivers a thought-provoking sci-fi novel set against a near-future space race led by a group of trillionaires. When the ESL1 solar shade, owned and operated by wealthy, notorious drug addict and pervert, Igbal Renz, grows large enough to influence weather conditions on Earth, nervous governments decide to act. As former air force pararescueman Alice Kyeong is recruited by the U.S. president to represent her government's interests in a joint initiative to infiltrate ESL1 and assume command of the station, McCarthy raises questions on the male-dominated nature of space exploration and wealth accumulation. Though Alice borders on incompetent when compared to her fellow operatives from France and New Zealand, her determination to get the job done at any cost, capacity to improvise, and critical thinking makes for a character readers will root for. On reaching ESL1, Alice discovers that Renz's plans are far more dangerous than controlling the climate—and that her fellow operatives are not as firmly on her side as she believed. McCarthy blends a convincing view of space exploration with thoughtful, nuanced ruminations on the merits of government vs. privately controlled enterprises. Fans of slow-burning sci-fi should check this out.
