The Pollinators of Eden - Softcover

Boyd, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1479427616 ISBN 13: 9781479427611

Publisher: 978-1-4794-2761-1, 2017

Synopsis

John Boyd is back to delight readers of his superb first novel, The Last Starship from Earth. Robert A. Heinlein wrote of it: "This is the best anti-Utopia, the strongest satire on trends in our present culture, I have seen since '1984' appeared. I enjoyed its humor, its half-buried allusions. The puns, the almost-not-quite-quotations, the thinly-veiled references to our 'real' world -- all of these delighted me. It belongs up at the top, along with 'Brave New World' and '1984'."

Dr. Freda Caron, blond and beautiful, had waited in vain for her fiance to disembark from Project Abie's recently returned starship. But Paul had unaccountably requested an extended tour of duty on "The Planet of Flowers" and, in his stead, he had sent an assistant, Hal Polino,with a verbal message and an exquisitely iridescent yellow tulip that not only had a plastic memory—but could talk! Freda soon realized she must unlock the secrets of the flower planet, and its strange hold on Paul, through Hal. Hal's lack of methodology and unscientific irreverence constantly confuse Freda, and they battle one another, the ultra-rational world-of-tomorrow they inhabit, and, ultimately, the strange, sentient, unearthly flower planet Freda journeys to explore. The climax of this shocking and oddly beautiful novel is bizarre and delightful.

Another admirer of John Boyd's debut novel was Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote: "A fascinating novel that kept me amused and interested to the end. The future society it describes is one of the most convincing I've ever encountered.”

About this title

Review:

"This book would be a treat for its picture of intra- and interagency intrigue alone. It gives you much, much more, enough to make it a worthy candidate for the next round of 'best novel' awards." -- P. Schuyler Miller, ANALOG

"[A]ll is right along the way as well, thanks to Mr. Boyd's stylistic control and his knack for making even the most far-fetched plot device seem like a logical outgrowth of what has come before" --The New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: 978-1-4794-2761-1
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1479427616
• ISBN 13: 9781479427611
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220