by Carter Scholz (Author)
Born from the threat of nuclear weapons comes a program to build an impenetrable defence against them. The technical obstacles are enormous, the costs exorbitant, and the results dubious. Philip Quine didn't come to the Lab to work on weapons, but his expertise with X-rays leads him to Superbright, in theory an orbital battle-station to shoot down missiles, in reality little more than a spotty test data. Superbright is only the beginning, as Quine is drawn further away from the pure physics he set out to do and deeper into the machinations of those who would use the Lab for their own monetary or ideological advantage.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Edition: New
Publisher: Picador
Published: 01 Feb 2003
ISBN 10: 0312311362
ISBN 13: 9780312311360
Ingenious...Scholz's extraordinary language--his ear for befuddled dialogue and scientific obfuscation, his resonant, haunted landscapes--cracks the book open and allows its light to blaze forth. --Salon.com
Radiance is a tour-de-force of obsessive, microscopic realism and a vibrantly satirical phantasmagoria at once. It gives a terrifying glimpse of a war at the juncture of science and politics, one never fully fought or abandoned, only covered in denial and fatigue. It reads like a de-classified document of the human soul. --Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn
Carter Scholz lives in Berkeley, California.