Prise for
DESOLATION ROAD
“This is the kind of novel I long to find yet seldom do—extraordinary and more than that!”
“Desolation Road is wild, original, exuberant, profound, moving, magical, hilarious, fantastic, fabulous…. It is also good science fiction.”
“Most exciting and promising debut since Ray Bradbury’s…. Here’s a first novel brimming with colorful writing, poetic imagination, and outrageous events recounted in a persuasively matter-of-fact manner…. Hugely readable.”
“…destined to be a classic… perhaps a work of true genius. Desolation Road will drift along timelessly, undoubtedly outliving its creator—though may he live long and prosper—and occupying its own special place by the dust-blown literary highways traveled by countless generations of future readers.”
“A spectacular first novel. A lively wit leavens the dense complexity of this epic tale. From the Greatest Snooker Player the Universe Has Ever Known to a mysteriously transported Glenn Miller (father of the Martian swing craze) and the technoevangelist Inspiration Cadillac, the characters are madly memorable, the most extraordinary mix of human and not-quite human since Cordwainer Smith’s tales of Norstrilia.”
“McDonald is a truly original stylist, somewhat reminiscent of Jack Vance, yet still somehow unique. This is a dangerous trick for a writer to attempt, because if he fails the book will be unreadable. McDonald pulls it off, and his prose sings…. The author tells a real story populated by real characters. Desolation Road and its inhabitants will haunt you…. Poetic, moving, and unforgettable. It deserves to be a classic.”
“The quality of the writing is superb…. Most of the truly gigantic cast are memorable and distinct. There is enough invention in this one novel to fuel sixty thousand trilogies…. This is a strange book and its strangeness makes it memorable. Unpack your sense of wonder and buy a ticket to Desolation Road. You won’t regret it.”
“…not since Walter Miller’s master work A Canticle for Leibowitz have I been so profoundly affected by a writer’s breadth of vision and prescience…. I have seen the future and it is Desolation Road.”
Other Pyr® Titles by Ian McDonald
Brasyl
Cyberabad Days
The Dervish House
Desolation Road
River of Gods
Copyright
Published 2010 by Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books
Ares Express. Copyright © 2010 by Ian McDonald. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover illustration © Stephan Martiniere
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McDonald, Ian, 1960–
Ares Express / by Ian McDonald.
p. cm.
Originally published: London : Earthlight, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., a Viacom Company, 2001.
ISBN 978–1–61614–197–4 (pbk.)
ISBN 978–1–61614–345–9 (ebook)
1. Mars (Planet)—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6063.C38A89 2010
823’.914—dc22
2009050115
Printed in the United States