Summary
In this bleak work of near-future SF, author Octavia Butler continues to explore the difficult moral compromises made by people who simply want to survive. CLAY’S ARK takes place some years after MIND OF MY MIND, and although it doesn’t share any characters from that book, plot elements from both CLAY’S ARK and MIND OF MY MIND establish the far-future setting of the novel PATTERNMASTER. Rane Maslin; her sister Keira, who’s terminally ill with leukemia; and their father, Blake, are on a road trip to visit the girls’ grandparents in Arizona when they’re kidnapped by a strange group, all infected with a mysterious disease that causes permanent biological and genetic alterations. Their leader is Eli, formerly the geologist on the first starship, Clay’s Ark; he returned with the disease, an alien microorganism that compels its carriers to pass it on to others. According to Eli, once the microorganism incubates within the Maslins, not only will they be unable to escape...they may no longer want to.
Customer Reviews
Review this book!
Media Reviews
"Suffice it to say that the aliens in CLAY'S ARK are closer to home than most invaders in science fiction, but no less frightening. Yet Mrs. Butler is so even handed in her characterizations and so accomplished in her action scenes that each radical reassessment of the situation served to widen and deepen my sympathies.
Life as we know it struggles to survive, often at the expense of its neighbors. Can an Earthbound morality embrace the imperative of survival on a cosmic scale even as its home base is being violated by the competition? Readers familiar with Ms. Butler's earlier books, like PARABLE OF THE SOWER and BLOODCHILD will recall that she never asks easy questions or settles for easy answers." -- Gerald Jonas
-- New York Times Book Review
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Grand Central Pub
Published date: 1996
Size: 4.25 x 6.75 inches
Weight: 0.25 pounds
Publisher's Notes
In a violent near-future, Asa Elias Doyle and her companions encounter an alien life form so heinous and destructive, they exile themselves in the desert so as not to contaminate other humans. To resist the compulsion to infect others is mental agony, but to succumb is to relinquish humanity and free will. Desperate, they kidnap a doctor and his two daughters as they cross the wasteland...and endanger not only their victims, but the world.
Other Editions
Similar books
The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYS TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR "A NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT . . . Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense."--USA Today "AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED . . . If you have to send a group of people to a newly discovered planet to contact a totally unknown species, whom would you choose? How about four Jesuit priests, a young astronomer, a physician, her engineer husband, and a child prostitute-turned-computer-expert? Thats who Mary Doria Russell sends in her new novel, The Sparrow. This motley combination of agnostics, true believers, and misfits becomes the first to explore the Alpha Centuri world of Rakhat with both enlightening and disastrous results. . . . Vivid and engaging . . . An incredible novel."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "POWERFUL . . . Father Emilio Sandoz [is] the only survivor of a Jesuit mission to the planet Rakhat, a soul . . . looking for God.' We first meet him in Italy . . . sullen and bitter. . . . But he was not always this way, as we learn through flashbacks that tell the story of the ill-fated trip. . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence."--San Francisco Chronicle "SMOOTH STORYTELLING AND GORGEOUS CHARACTERIZATION . . . Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them."--Entertainment Weekly SELECTED BY THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB
The Last Hot Time
by John M. Ford
After saving the life a beautiful woman, Danny is propelled into a strange world where men and elves interact freely, with bizarre and violent results, and finds himself transformed into Doc Hallows, house medic for the powerful and dangerous Mr. Patrice. By the award-winning author of The Dragon Waiting.
Spin
by Robert Charles Wilson
After witnessing the onset of an astronomical event that has caused the sun to go black and the stars and moon to disappear, Tyler, Jason, and Diane learn that the darkness has been caused by a time-altering, alien-created artificial barrier and that the sun will be extinguished in less than forty years.
Speaker for the Dead
by Orson Scott Card
Ender Wiggin, the young military genius, discovers that a second alien war is inevitable and he must dismiss his fears to make peace with humanity's strange new brothers.
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
A completely revised edition of Card's award-winning novel with an introduction by the author. Ender's Game is the story of Ender Wiggin, a boy genetically engineered to be a superior military mind, and bred to win Earth's long war with an alien insectoid race by completely destroying their homeworld.
|
0 items in cart
Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved. Some content for books is owned by Baker & Taylor, Inc. or its licensors and is subject to copyright and all other protections provided by applicable law.
