Glory Season - Paperback

by David Brin (Author)

A woman faces danger on the high seas of another planet--and a mystery that will change her world--in this adventure by the bestselling author of Startide Rising.

On Planet Stratos, clans of genetically identical females dominate society. Natural conceptions are permitted, but only in summertime. Girls born this way--known for their despised uniqueness as 'vars'--must leave their clan homes to pursue their own distinct and hazardous fortunes in this world owned by clones.

That time has come for Maia and her sister, Leie, but as variants, they have limited prospects. Worse, when the sisters do find work on trading vessels, Leie is lost at sea.

And hence, Maia's arduous journey commences, accompanied by rumors that something . . . someone . . . has arrived from across the stars, perhaps ending the isolation of Stratos from the rest of humanity. Who would predict that a lonely var might stumble into a powerful secret? One that will challenge everything Maia knows about her society--and threatens the scientifically-engineered balance that holds it all together.

"One of the most important SF novels of the year." --The Washington Post Book World

"A rousing adventure story . . . brimming with surprises both wonderful and harrowing." --The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Glory Season offers thrills, chills, political intrigue, and other good scientifictional fun, along with yet another round in the battle of the sexes." --Locus

"Brin's prose echoes the influence of Asimov, Frank Herbert, and Aldous Huxley. . . . His world is so painstakingly drawn and is splashed with such radiant and varied hues." --The Christian Science Monitor

Front Jacket

Hugo and Nebula award-winning author David Brin is one of the most eloquent, imaginative voices in science fiction. Now he returns with a new novel rich in texture, universal in theme, monumental in scope--pushing the genre to new heights.
Young Maia is fast approaching a turning point in her life. As a half-caste var, she must leave the clan home of her privileged half sisters and seek her fortune in the world. With her twin sister, Leie, she searches the docks of Port Sanger for an apprenticeship aboard the vessels that sail the trade routes of the Stratoin oceans.
On her far-reaching, perilous journey of discovery, Maia will endure hardship and hunger, imprisonment and loneliness, bloody battles with pirates and separation from her twin. And along the way, she will meet a traveler who has come an unimaginable distance--and who threatens the delicate balance of the Stratoins' carefully maintained, perfect society....
Both exciting and insightful, "Glory Season is a major novel, a transcendent saga of the human spirit.

Author Biography

David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international-bestselling novels include Earth, Existence, Startide Rising, and The Postman, which was adapted into a film in 1998. Brin serves on several advisory boards, including NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, or NIAC, and speaks or consults on topics ranging from AI, SETI, privacy, and invention to national security. His nonfiction book about the information age, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. Brin's latest nonfiction work is Polemical Judo. Visit him at www.davidbrin.com.