MaelstromAn enormous tidal wave on the west coast of North America has just killed thousands. Lenie Clarke, in a black wetsuit, walks out of the ocean onto a Pacific Northwest beach filled with the oppressed and drugged homeless of the Asian world who have gotten only this far in their attempt to reach America. Is she a monster, or a goddess? One thing is for sure: all hell is breaking loose. This dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel returns to the story begun in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually a primeval form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived only in the deep ocean rift where Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret underwater nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and tough enough to walk home, 300 miles across the ocean floor. She arrives carrying with her the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge. Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir by a writer whose narrative, says Robert Sheckley, "drives like a futuristic locomotive." |
Contents
MESSIAH | 1 |
VOLVOX | 5 |
Fables of the Reconstruction | 7 |
Deathbed | 14 |
Breeder | 19 |
Cascade | 23 |
Backflash | 32 |
Maps and Legends | 38 |
PHYSALIA | 152 |
Jiminy Cricket | 155 |
Footprints | 160 |
An Archetype of Dislocation | 165 |
Punctuated Equilibrium | 172 |
Microstar | 173 |
Matchmaker | 179 |
Heat Death | 181 |
Corpse | 41 |
Bang | 52 |
Stickman | 62 |
An Invitation to Dance | 65 |
Pixelpal | 67 |
Thirdperson Limited | 71 |
Remora | 74 |
Firebug | 76 |
Afterburn | 81 |
Stockpile | 85 |
Icarus | 90 |
Jailbreak | 97 |
The Next Best Thing | 103 |
Beachhead | 105 |
Drugstore | 111 |
Source Code | 115 |
Groundswell | 120 |
Hitchhiker | 121 |
Animal Control | 123 |
Ghost | 127 |
Blip | 135 |
Womb | 136 |
Eclipse | 138 |
Monster | 140 |
Warhorse | 146 |
Blind Date | 184 |
Necrosis | 187 |
Snare | 191 |
Complicity | 195 |
Vision Quest | 204 |
The Algebra of Guilt | 212 |
Starfucker | 215 |
Mask | 222 |
Scalpel | 230 |
By a Thousand Cuts | 234 |
The Generals | 236 |
Sparkler | 238 |
Decoys | 247 |
Crucifixion with Spiders | 262 |
ANTHOPLEURA 275 | 277 |
Behind the Lines | 279 |
Spartacus | 290 |
TursiPops | 292 |
Terrarium | 313 |
Soul Mate 320 | 314 |
SLEEPING BY FIRELIGHT 356 | 314 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 360 | 314 |
REFERENCES 362 | 314 |
NOTES 369 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Desjardins Alice Amitav Anemone anyway asked barely Beebe Behemoth blood body botfly Boyczuk breath Burton Channer Clarke's corpse course CSIRA cycler dark dead deep Desjardins's diveskin door edge eyecaps eyes face flesh fucking gels going gray Guilt Trip hand happened head cheese headset Hongcouver human infection inside Jovellanos Ken Lubin kill Killjoy kind knew Lenie Clarke Lertzman lightstick Maelstrom Martin Perreault medbooth Megabytes mermaid meters monster moved N'AmPac nanobes never nodes ocean okay past Patricia Rowan PETER WATTS quake quarantine refugee rifter Rowan Sault Sainte Marie seawall seemed seen shit shook her head shoulder side smiled somehow someone Sou-Hon Sou-Hon Perreault stared started stop Strip sure talking tapped tell Tesseract There's thing thought told took Tracy turned visor Vive vocoder voice waiting watch wave whispered whole wildlife woman Yeah