Items related to Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance

Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance - Softcover

 
9780312861438: Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
In 3229 A.D., human civilization is scattered among the planets, moons, and asteroids of the solar system. Billions of lives depend on the technology derived from the breakthroughs of the greatest physicist of the age, Arthur Holywelkin. But in the last years of his life, Holywelkin devoted himself to building a strange, beautiful, and complex musical instrument that he called The Orchestra. Johannes Wright has earned the honor of becoming the Ninth Master of Holywelkin's Orchestra. Follow him on his Grand Tour of the Solar System, as he journeys down the gravity well toward the sun, impelled by a destiny he can scarcely understand, and is pursued by mysterious foes who will tell him anything except the reason for their enmity, in The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Though now best known for his massive 1990s Mars trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson has been publishing fine, intelligent SF novels since 1984. The Memory of Whiteness (1985) describes a grand musical tour of the 33rd-century solar system, beginning on Pluto at the bleak outer edge, visiting various moons, asteroids and planets, and climaxing in the blinding light and heat of a futuristic power station orbiting close to the Sun's solar-flare zone. All these places are habitable thanks to technologies spawned by the Unified Field Theory of physicist Holywelkin, whose other gift to posterity was his mysterious Orchestra--a fantastic amalgam of over 150 instruments controllable by a single player. Past Orchestra Masters simply played classical music, but the new master is a visionary who thinks he sees Holywelkin's original purpose: to explore his revolutionary Ten Forms of Change equations through music, and reach a devastating insight about the universe. The interplay of music and mathematics (as in Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach) is persuasive and resonant. Meanwhile, plots, deceptions, conspirators, cultists, and sabotage attempts dog the Grand Tour as it spirals inward through the system.... Gripping thriller elements alternate with elegant philosophical speculation and slightly cutesy asides to the "dear Reader". Strange and fascinating. --David Langford
Review:

"The Memory of Whiteness is ambitiously, intricately, and deliberately orchestrated, and philosophical to boot....If you are a fan of music, of Jack Vance, of intricately recomplicated tales, you will love Robinson's novel!" --Analog

"Robinson creates an intellectual dessert, The Memory of Whiteness: physics, music and intrigue; an outré and improbably delicious world; wit and philosophy. A symphony of ideas!" --Greg Bear

"Robinson's narrative technique is impressive and the richness of his concepts and language is extraordinary." --Booklist

"Robinson is one of science fiction's most emotionally evocative writers. [But] this novel is a cerebral tour de force. Carefully structured and full of futuristic notions, The Memory of Whiteness becomes a fable about art and scientific determinism." --Philadelphia Inquirer

"The Memory of Whiteness is about music. It is also about the structure of the universe and the meaning of life....A rich mix of cultures, based on divergent notions of political order, but unified by an appreciation of music as a language that speaks, without the need of translation, to something deep in human nature." --The New York Times Book Review

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherTor Books
  • Publication date1996
  • ISBN 10 0312861435
  • ISBN 13 9780312861438
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages352
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780765391988: The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780765391988
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction, 2016
Softcover

  • 9780312934675: The memory of whiteness : a scientific romance

    New Yo..., 1985
    Hardcover

  • 9780356108285: Memory of Whiteness

    TBS Th..., 1986
    Hardcover

  • 9780812552355: The Memory of Whiteness

    Tom Do..., 1986
    Softcover

  • 9780006482567: The Memory of Whiteness

    Voyager, 1999
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance 0.98. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780312861438

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 13.13
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 599967-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 15.79
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 2.09
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
California Books
(Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9780312861438

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 17.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Kim Stanley Robinson
Published by St. Martins Press-3PL (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New PAP Quantity: 15
Print on Demand
Seller:
PBShop.store US
(Wood Dale, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # IQ-9780312861438

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 21.82
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
LibraryMercantile
(Humble, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # newMercantile_0312861435

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 19.52
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 2.38
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0312861435

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 19.21
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 3.17
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Greene
Published by ST MARTINS PR 3PL (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Russell Books
(Victoria, BC, Canada)

Book Description Softcover. Condition: New. Special order direct from the distributor. Seller Inventory # ING9780312861438

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 15.50
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 7.91
From Canada to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0312861435

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 21.97
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 2.77
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0312861435

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 22.12
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 3.37
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Published by Orb Books (1996)
ISBN 10: 0312861435 ISBN 13: 9780312861438
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Front Cover Books
(Denver, CO, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0312861435

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 24.76
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 3.41
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book