The No1 Ethical retailer for Books, CD’s, DVD’s & Games
30 Day Refund Guarantee

Spirit: The Princess of Bois Dormant (Gollancz)

Spirit: The Princess of Bois Dormant (Gollancz)

by Gwyneth Jones (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2008

    $4.30
Synopsis

Bibi (it means princess) is the sole survivor of a massacre. Lady Nef, the General's wife, stops the General taking her as a concubine, winning Bibi's eternal and passionate devotion. Years later, a diplomatic mission to a supposedly friendly planet ends in disaster. Bibi, now a junior officer in Lady Nef's household, is incarcerated with her mistress in the notorious high-security prison on Fenmu. Lady Nef, 150 years old when arrested, dies in prison; she bequeaths to Bibi her rank, her level of access to the AI systems that permeate the Diaspora of inhabited planets, and a highly secret set of 4-space co-ordinates. Bibi uses Lady Nef's death to escape from Fenmu, finds Spirit, an instantaneous-transit space pod, and follows Lady Nef's co-ordinates to a treasure beyond price: a virgin, perfect, uninhabited planet. Soon after this, the mysterious, fantastically wealthy Princess of Bois Dormant makes her debut in the high society of Speranza, the Diaspora's capital city. Thus disguised, Bibi sets out to discover why she and her mistress were condemned to a living hell; and to punish the guilty. Twenty years have passed: Lady Nef's enemies now rule Speranza. As she uncovers a forgotten, ruthless and far-reaching conspiracy, Bibi's vengeance is transformed into a project of world-changing reparation.

$4.30

Save:$14.31 (77%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 480
 Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 29 Dec 2008
ISBN 10: 0575074736
ISBN 13: 9780575074736
Book Overview: Gwyneth Jones, one of the most critically acclaimed of British SF writers, returns to her roots with this high-octane space opera. British writers of space operas are acclaimed all over the world. This is a brilliant retelling of Dumas' THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO set in the far, far future: a rip-roaring space opera! Gwyneth won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for BOLD AS LOVE, and was shortlisted for CASTLES MADE OF SAND, an unprecedented achievement for the third book in a series. She's also won two World Fantasy Awards, a British Science Fiction Award, the Dracula Society's Children of the Night Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and she was joint winner of the first Tiptree Award 'One of Britain's most brilliant SF writers' Francis Spufford, GUARDIAN 'Gwyneth Jones is one of the finest and most important SF writers of the past decade, a writer who has altered the shape of science fiction' FOUNDATION

Media Reviews
The bones of this story are familiar from The Count of Monte Cristo yet it is very effective, re-imagined as a fantastic space opera. Spirit is a memorable combination of cutting-edge science with old-fashioned, swash-buckling romance from one of the most intelligent and unsettling of modern science-fiction writers. -- Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES Part Count(ess) of Monte-Cristo in space, part space opera, and part sociological/gender SF, 'Spirit: The Princess Du Bois Dormant' is a wonderful, wonderful novel that instantly made me a huge fan of Gwyneth Jones and has vaulted into my Top Five Science Fiction novels of 2008 -- Robert Thompson FANTASY BOOK CRITIC A serious, grown-up novel that riffs on current concerns by, for example, casting as its outsider heroine a woman born into a fundamentalist, tribal society. BBC FOCUS The reader picks up a sprawling space opera with certain expectations: a fast pace, exotic settings, mysterious aliens, badly behaved (and also much-abused) nobility, plenty of off-world adventure and intrigue. In her new book, Spirit, Gwyneth Jones delivers all these and more. Because Jones is arguably among the very smartest people writing within the genre of science fiction (or anywhere else), the reader is left quite happily with much to think about after the final page has been turned. -- Karen Joy Fowler THE GUARDIAN There are strong femal protagonists and Jones is clever with her constant referencing to literary history. I could not stop turnign the pages to the end, marvelling at this futuristic world Jones has created with such human characters, human voices and human worries. Jones' beautifully drawn characters are testament to her skill. The best sci-fi book I've ever read. -- Martha Lane MSLEXIA A well-written piece of space opera, stuffed with thought-provoking characterisation, themes and a fantastic galactic tapestry that all feels real. An epic you'll be thinking about long after finishing it. DEATHRAY
Author Bio
Gwyneth Jones lives in Brighton with her husband and son. She won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for BOLD AS LOVE; CASTLES MADE OF SAND was shortlisted for the Clarke and the British Science Fiction Award; four of her previous books have been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. She writes for children as Ann Halam.