Title: The Nano Flower
Author: Peter F. Hamilton
Publisher: TOR Science Fiction
Year: 1999
ISBN: 0812577698
Description: 602 pages
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Society has been turned upside down by the horrible consequences of "The Warming" --
when the greenhouse effect has raised both worldwide temperatures and ocean levels.
Political structures collapsed in the devastation -- old alliances have died and
new ones have sprung into being. The story takes place 27 years after the Warming
has wrecked its havoc.
While the world still has national governments and regional alliances, true power
resides in the "kombinates" -- ultra large, powerful companies. Largest of these
is Event Horizon, based in a sub-tropical England. Julia Evans, president of Event
Horizon, runs a tight ship. She's intelligent, cunning and not above a little
financial ruthlessness if you get on her wrong side. However, its because of her
efforts that post-disaster England is flying high in the world. The Event Horizon
conglomerate is involved in many different endeavours -- aerospace, microelectronics,
genetics, aquaculture and more. Event Horizon discovered the gigaconductor -- a device
that reduced the energy costs of space travel, aviation, personal armour and weapons.
The immense wealth that the discovery brought in, helped Event Horizon, first directed
by Philip Evans (her grandfather) then by Julia herself, expand quickly, dominating
the international industrial scene.
Julia's husband, a gifted geneticist/'ware expert named Royan, has been missing
for the last 8 months. At a charity function, a complete stranger presents an
unusual flower to Evans as a gift. The flower, like nothing ever seen before on
Earth, has a bizarre un-Earthly DNA structure. At the same time, several different
companies come to Event Horizon looking to start a joint-venture in something called
atomic structuring -- a science far beyond the capabilities, the imagination, of
mankind. These events lead Julia to believe that her husband has come into contact
with an alien, and that the flower is a call for help from him. Julia asks Greg Mandel,
a retired tek mercenary and long-time friend to help unravel the twin mysteries. As
Mandel and his team begin to track the one clue as to the whereabouts of Royan --
a paid courtesan named Charlotte Fielder -- all hell breaks loose, on Earth, and
in the orbiting asteroid called New London. Suddenly, it's no longer a missing persons
case, nor industrial espionage. Without warning, the fate of mankind hangs in the
balance.
Score: 91 out of 100. The last(?) installment of the Mindstar Rising series, this book
is an excellent blend of cyberpunk, mystery, espionage and adventure. An excellent book
that was very difficult to put down. I now have to find the other two
installments as soon as I can!
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