From Publishers Weekly

In this semi - sequel to last year's Harvest of Stars , Anderson, winner of seven Hugos and three Nebulas, gets back on track. Where its predecessor was disjointed, unbalanced and clogged with capitalist-libertarian preaching, this novel offers suspense, vivid writing and appealing characters wrestling with a big philosophical problem: Is a peaceful, stable life under the benign rule of superintelligent machines a utopia--or comfortable slavery? To explore this question, Anderson traces two converging plot lines. In one, Dagny Beynac--a descendant of Anson Guthrie, founder of the vastly powerful Fireball Enterprises--devotes her life to preserving peace on the Moon, in the process becoming the progenitor of a new race of genetically engineered "Lunarians." Centuries after her death, the solar system is governed by the "cybercosm," a network of machine intelligences--but a secret preserved since Dagny Beynac's time could threaten the cybercosm's hegemony. Ian Kenmuir, a space pilot in the service of the Lunarians, and Aleka Kame, a human ally of the genetically engineered "metamorphs" of Earth, race against time, their own consciences and the deadly pursuit of the cybercosm's agent Venator to bring the secret to light. Though Anderson's politics still color the tale, Kenmuir and Kame are never so certain of themselves or the answers as were Guthrie and others in Harvest , and the result is an engrossing story that leaves the reader wondering about the human need for fresh horizons, adventure and danger.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As human governments labor to construct a habitat in space that will enable Earth's population to exploit the mineral resources of its moon, a small group of Lunarians, genetically altered for survival in low gravity, search the past to find a way to preserve their way of life and their independence. Spanning 500 years, Anderson's latest novel offers a tale of dynastic intrigue and high adventure as two distinct visions of human destiny struggle for ascendancy. Combining complex, believable characters with a skillfully orchestrated plot, the author of Harvest of Stars (Tor Bks., 1993) continues to demonstrate his storytelling excellence. Recommended for most libraries.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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"The CLUSTER series of SF adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets. Every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant but a hosted aura fades at the rate of about 1 unit per Earth day and higher-Kirlian individuals last longer and thus have more freedom of movement. As CLUSTER opens, the alien envoy Pnotl of Sphere Knyfh seeks help from Sphere Sol in a shared galactic-level crisis: Galaxy Andromeda has discovered the secret of energy transfer and intends to use it to steal the basic energy of the Milky Way Galaxy. Knyfh offers the secret of aura transfer on the understanding that Sphere Sol will spread the technology to help create a galactic coalition to find and defeat agents of Andromeda. Sol's highest-Kirlian individual is Flint, a green-skinned native of Outworld, who has a Kirlian aura of 200, an eidetic memory (useful for memorizing the complex equations of Kirlian transfer that he will need to communicate to other spheres). He has extraordinary intelligence, and is highly adaptable. His mission is complicated, however, by the fact that he is pursued everywhere by a very high Kirlian female Andromedan agent and, somehow, the Andromedans are able to detect and trace Kirlian transfers."

Product Description

"Twice before, Milky Way Galaxy has been on the verge of extinction, and twice before a heroic defender has come forward to throw back the invaders from Andromeda Galaxy. In KIRLIAN QUEST the galaxies are united in an alliance of peace. But Hweeh of Weew, the Milky Way's leading research astronomer, observes that Amoeba—just beyond the galaxies' common frontier—is expanding ominously in the direction of the twin galaxies. Herald the Healer is called in. Armed only with his hyper-intense Kirlian aura, he wages an almost single-handed battle against the greatest threat ever to face the galaxies. But first he must unravel the secrets of the Ancients—astounding secrets whose import could never have been imagined... For a thousand years Sphere / of Andromeda was cursed by the other spheres because a representative, Llume of /, betrayed Andromeda during the Second War of Energy. As KIRLIAN QUEST opens, a new threat has appeared on the horizon: the Space Amoeba, a fleet of alien ships one million strong, whose intentions are definitely hostile. Herald the Healer, aural (but not literal) descendant of Flint and Melody, who is a / of Andromeda, has the chance to redeem his species' honor and save the galaxy, but in order to do so he must solve the riddle of the Space Amoeba and of the Ancients themselves."

Product Description

"The CLUSTER series of adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets, where every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant. The first three novels in the sequence, CLUSTER, CHAINING THE LADY and KIRLIAN QUEST form a linked trilogy. THOUSANDSTAR, and VISCOUS CIRCLE came later and take place in the time sequence between the second and third volumes of the original trilogy. VISCOUS CIRCLE is a story about a strange and inhuman race of beings and an experimental attempt to transfer into creatures that seem only slightly sapient. They are ultimate pacifists who take the form of magnetic disks that float through space and simply demagnetize and destroy themselves when faced with an unpleasant thought. The bloodthirsty Solarians, in their desperate hurry to find the mysterious Ancient Site, are determined to wipe out the Bands, a strange and beautiful species whose society is an anarchy of peace. Only Rondl, the whirling green Band can save his race, for he has a singular and awesome knowledge. But suddenly Rondl makes a shocking discovery about his identity--a discovery that may cost him his honor, his beautiful lover Cirl, even his very life."

Product Description

"The CLUSTER series of adventures is set in a future focused on colonization of distant planets, where every living thing has a Kirlian aura that can be measured. Through transfer, a refinement of mattermission technology, the mind and personality of individuals with high aura can be sent to animate a body physically distant. The first three novels in the sequence, CLUSTER, CHAINING THE LADY and KIRLIAN QUEST form a linked trilogy. THOUSANDSTAR, and VISCOUS CIRCLE came later and take place in the time sequence between the second and third volumes of the original trilogy. VISCOUS CIRCLE is a story about a strange and inhuman race of beings and an experimental attempt to transfer into creatures that seem only slightly sapient. They are ultimate pacifists who take the form of magnetic disks that float through space and simply demagnetize and destroy themselves when faced with an unpleasant thought. The bloodthirsty Solarians, in their desperate hurry to find the mysterious Ancient Site, are determined to wipe out the Bands, a strange and beautiful species whose society is an anarchy of peace. Only Rondl, the whirling green Band can save his race, for he has a singular and awesome knowledge. But suddenly Rondl makes a shocking discovery about his identity--a discovery that may cost him his honor, his beautiful lover Cirl, even his very life."

Product Description

At Spearpoint, the ultimate redoubt housing a valuable cache of predark technology, two opposing wills clash. Levi Shabazz intends to carve his own empire out of the vast wastelands, but the Trader intends to thwart him and end his bloody siege of power. It all comes to a head at Virtue Lake, a hard lesson for Trader and a grim rite of passage for Ryan Cawdor. Fir the first time--a feature on the birth of the Deathlands series.

Product Description

When all is lost, there's always the future. But the future in a world shrouded in the radioactive red dust clouds of a generation-old global nuclear war depends on finding hidden caches of food, weapons and technology--the legacy of a preholocaust society--stashed in lonely outposts known as redoubts. When Ryan Cawdor discovers a redoubt in the bitter freakish wasteland that now passes for Alaska, he also uncovers a new threat to a slowly reemerging America.

From AudioFile

What if the world reverted to a primitive state, with just enough leftover high-tech hardware to make the shoot-em-ups sizzle? That's the premise in the Deathlands series, in which Ryan Cawdor and his band of misfits "jump" in a sort of Star Trek-transporter way from spot to irradiated spot in a U.S. decimated by the Third World War--which was lost by every country on earth 100 years earlier. Having read at least a dozen books in this series, I wasn't sure I could get into an abridgment but was pleasantly surprised. McCallister reads with authority, and the pace feels just right--I actually picked up details I'd missed in my own first reading. For anyone who likes the after-the-end-of-the-world-then-what? genre, this series is a must. M.C. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Description

A generation after a global nuclear war, Louisiana is a fetid, sullen landscape of impenetrable swamps and grotesquely mutated wildlife. Above the gnarled bayous, radioactive red dust clouds race across the sky on nuclear winds; below, thick mud sucks at a man's boots. Now and then a biting acid rain falls, swept in on the boiling winds from the Gulf.

In the reeking swampland that was the Mississippi basin, neutron bombs have left barren cityscapes the terrirories of small groups of bitterly opposed survivors. Ryan Cawdor and his companions Krysty Wroth and J.B. Dix come upon one such group who are striving to revive life on earth the way it was before the bombs fell. But they're up against a postholocaust feudal lord who's just as determined to wipe them out.

In the Deathlands, the world blew out in 2001.

GraphicAudio...A Movie in Your Mind is a unique audio entertainment experience that features a full cast of actors, sound effects and cinematic music.

Publisher's Weekly says "Graphic Audio delivers an action and sound effect loaded audiobook that lives up to its tagline, A movie in your mind."

Audiofile Magazine says, GraphicAudio sets the gold standard for full-cast dramatizations, and new listeners will become instant fans.

Product Description

Ryan Cawdor's post-holocaust odyssey across America is about to come full circle Ryan Cawdor is going home.

Forced away from Front Royal by a power-mad brother who had already committed fratricide, Ryan had roamed a devastated America searching out the small pockets of life where civilization was being reborn.

Emerging from a gateway in the ruins of New York City, Ryan decides to put his own house in order it's time to avenge the deaths of his father and older brother.

Accompanied by Krysty Wroth and J.B. Dix, Ryan Cawdor comes face-to-face with the harsh reality of post-nuclear America. In the Deathlands, honor and fair play are words of the past. Vengeance is a word to live by.

GraphicAudio...A Movie in Your Mind is a unique audio entertainment experience that features a full cast of actors, sound effects and cinematic music.

Publisher's Weekly says "Graphic Audio delivers an action and sound effect loaded audiobook that lives up to its tagline, A movie in your mind."

Audiofile Magazine says, GraphicAudio sets the gold standard for full-cast dramatizations, and new listeners will become instant fans.

Product Description

Survival is an endless battle in the dark age of post-holocaust America, but even amid the ashes of the past, new pockets of civilization emerge, fledgeling communities bound by savage rules.

Ryan Cawdor and his band of warrior-survivalists are transported from one Valley of the Shadow of Death to another, shaken by the mind-bending effects of the mat-trans, emerging at last into a promised land whose inhabitants are healthy and young.

The ville is an oasis in a blighted land, but among the blond, blue-eyed near-children, Ryan and his wayfarers are pariahs destined to find out that the quest for Paradise exacts a steep price.

In the Deathlands, the future looks terminally brief.

GraphicAudio...A Movie in Your Mind is a unique audio entertainment experience that features a full cast of actors, sound effects and cinematic music.

Publisher's Weekly says "Graphic Audio delivers an action and sound effect loaded audiobook that lives up to its tagline, A movie in your mind."

Audiofile Magazine says, GraphicAudio sets the gold standard for full-cast dramatizations, and new listeners will become instant fans.

Product Description

Ryan Cawdor and his team are en route to his boyhood home in West Virginia when they are offered shelter--for a price--in the remains of the Freedom Mall, once the largest in the Carolinas, operated by Baron Freedom. The huge mall is a haven for its inhabitants, but Ryan is given an ultimatum--pay a hefty fine or help the Baron's group fight against the "stickies", a marauding army of mutants. Ryan is left no choice but to help, and finds himself pitted against the Baron and the stickies in a desperate struggle to save his friend and escape.

Product Description

As the result of a mat-trans jump gone awry, Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists find themselves in the icy tundra of the Artic Circle. In this especially barren area of the post-apocalyptic world, they become the new bounty in a struggle for dominance between a group of Neanderthals and descendants of a military garrison stranded generations ago.

Product Description

Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists jump into Montana territory, where they are joined by members of the Heimdall Foundation, an organization of whitecoats that investigates the possibility of alien visitation on Earth. Ryan is concerned when Krysty is rendered helpless by one of the Chosen--a type of doomie mutant with mind-control abilities. The group is accosted by a baron's sec men, who are searching for valuable debris from an abandoned space station that fell from the sky.