Too Like the Lightning

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Description

The year is 2454. Humanity has engineered a hard-won golden age, forged in the aftermath of a bitter conflict that wiped both religion and nation state from the planet. Now seven factions or 'hives' co-govern the world, their rule fuelled by benign censorship, oracular statistical analytics and technological abundance. But this is a fragile Utopia and someone is intent on pushing it to breaking point. Convicted for his crimes, celebrated for his talents, Mycroft Canner is the indentured instrument and confidant of some of the world's most powerful figures. When he is asked to investigate a bizarre theft, he finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy that could shatter the tranquil world order the Hives have maintained for three centuries. But Mycroft has his own secrets. He is concealing a much greater threat to the seven Hives, a wild card no degree of statistical analysis could have prophesied. This threat takes the unlikely form of a thirteen-year-old called Bridger. For how will a world that has banished God deal with a child who can perform miracles

Reviews

More intricate, more plausible, more significant than any debut I can recall -- Cory Doctorow
The kind of science fiction that makes me excited all over again about what science fiction can do -- Jo Walton
Thought-provoking, disturbing, occasionally perverted, and always entertaining. Worldbuilding at its richest * Kirkus Reviews *
Incredibly ambitious and groundbreaking... Palmer writes gloriously lush prose stuffed with asides, allusions and nods to the reader' * Guardian *
Admirable in its scope and attention to detail... A book thats quirky and makes you think' * Concatenation *
A powerful, beautifully written novel... It is a mystery, historic document, social commentary and futuristic science fiction all combined to make an excellent novel' * Concatenation *

Author Bio

Ada Palmer is an author, historian and composer. She did her PhD at Harvard, teaches History at the University of Chicago, blogs at ExUrbe.com, composes close harmony folk music and performs with the a capella group Sassafrass.