Sunless Countries, The (Virga)

New
Paperback
2012
$17.38

In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never reached, the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth lives and dreams of love among the gas lit streets and cafes. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking. As its cold words reach even to the city walls - and as outlying towns and travellers' ships start to mysteriously disappear - only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city's most famous visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so in the end, it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the worldwasp.

Synopsis

In an ocean of weightless air where sunlight has never reached, the running lights of the city of Pacquaea glitter in the dark. One woman, Leal Hieronyma Maspeth lives and dreams of love among the gas lit streets and cafes. And somewhere in the abyss of wind and twisted cloud through which Pacquaea eternally falls, a great voice has begun speaking. As its cold words reach even to the city walls - and as outlying towns and travellers' ships start to mysteriously disappear - only Leal has the courage to try to understand the message thundering from the distance. Even the city's most famous visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so in the end, it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the worldwasp.

$17.38

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: TOR
Published: 13 Jun 2012
ISBN 10: 076532847X
ISBN 13: 9780765328472

Media Reviews

Inventive and solidly enjoyable... Schroeder paints his unique world with deft touches while keeping the story moving briskly. --Publishers Weekly, on The Sunless Countries

I loved it. It never slowed down. The background is fascinating and the characters held my attention. It reminded me a little of The Integral Trees, with technology a little more advanced. --Larry Niven on Sun of Suns

Schroeder...is proving to be one of our most ingenious devisers of exotic, fantastic settings as well as a spinner of ripping yarns....Schroeder's world-building, storytelling, and character-drawing chops seem strong enough to give even Known Space a run for its money. --Locus on Queen of Candesce

[The] world-building continues to be impeccable, and the story's timing is a fantastic tour de force of his creation. The politics and structure of Virga continue to be a fine backdrop to some of the most entertaining space opera out there. --Booklist on Pirate Sun

Ashes of Candesce brings the Virga saga to an operatic, crashing finale; a splendid climax to the hard SF saga of the decade! --Charles Stross on Ashes of Candesce

A delight, a source of seemingly endless invention.... --Locus on Pirate Sun

With Queen of Candesce, Karl Schroeder's Virga saga establishes itself as an SF saga of the same order as LeGuin's Earthsea series, Asimov's Robot stories, and Niven's Ringworld stories. --SFRevu

A fantastically alchemical tale set in a strange yet utterly real world. Hayden is a complex and well-developed protagonist and Schroeder is a amazingly detailed writer whose world-building is superb. --RT Reviews on Sun of Suns

Author Bio

KARL SCHROEDER lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is the author of Ventus (New York Times Notable book for 2001), Permanence (winner of the 2003 Prix Aurora Award for best Canadian SF novel), Lady of Mazes, and the Virga Series, beginning with Sun of Suns.