Seven Surrenders
Book 2 of Terra Ignota
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4.6 • 36 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
*2018 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL CATEGORY*
From 2017 John W. Campbell Award winner, Ada Palmer, the second book of Terra Ignota, a political SF epic of extraordinary audacity
“A cornucopia of dazzling, sharp ideas set in rich, wry prose that rewards rumination with layers of delight. Provocative, erudite, inventive, resplendent.” —Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings
In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision for the needs of all, a future in which no one living can remember an actual war…a long era of stability threatens to come to an abrupt end.
For known only to a few, the leaders of the great Hives, nations without fixed locations, have long conspired to keep the world stable, at the cost of just a little blood. A few secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction can ever dominate, and the balance holds. And yet the balance is beginning to give way.
Mycroft Canner, convict, sentenced to wander the globe in service to all, knows more about this conspiracy the than he can ever admit. Carlyle Foster, counselor, sensayer, has secrets as well, and they burden Carlyle beyond description. And both Mycroft and Carlyle are privy to the greatest secret of all: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to life.
Shot through with astonishing invention, Ada Palmer's Seven Surrenders is the next movement in one of the great SF epics of our time.
“Seven Surrenders veers expertly between love, murder, mayhem, parenthood, theology, and high politics. I haven't had this much fun with a book in a long time.” —Max Gladstone, author of Three Parts Dead
Terra Ignota
1. Too Like the Lightning
2. Seven Surrenders
3. The Will to Battle
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Palmer's slow-paced second Terra Ignota far-future novel revisits the setting she established in Too like the Lightning, in which wars are not remembered and communal organized religion has been replaced by private ceremonies. Readers enter into this world as it's perturbed by a highly powerful child, Bridger, who can transform inanimate objects into living things. Where Palmer succeeds is in her rich description of a world where sexuality is an intrinsic part of politics and gender is an archaic, dying construct, as well as her allusions to breaking the connection between church and state despite those who cling to religious fervor. Her descriptive passages are many-layered and engrossing, but they overdo the futuristic terminology. The plot is difficult to follow, and the convoluted nature of the story is more apparent than in the first installment. Fans of Palmer's will enjoy the second book, but a refresher might be necessary.
