A far-future Moby-Dick by the author of Schismatrix A desperate
addict on a bleak, arid planet boards a whaling vessel to hunt the drug
he craves.
The powerful narcotic syncophine, commonly known as Flare, comes from
only one source: the oil of the gargantuan whale-like beasts that swim
the dust sea of Nullaqua. It was John Newhouse's addiction to the
substance that made him a dealer and forced him to move to this airless,
inhospitable planet. But when the all-powerful galactic Confederacy
declares Flare illegal, the needs of Newhouse and his clientele leave
the desperate off-worlder no choice but to sign on as an able seaman
aboard a dustwhaler and hunt the giant creatures himself. Joining a crew
of junkies and misfits, including a mad captain with his own dark and
secret agenda and a bewitching, batlike alien woman who is pained by
human touch, Newhouse sets out across the silica ocean at the bottom of
a seventy-mile-deep crater in search of release and redemption . . . and
sails toward a fateful confrontation between man and beast that could
lead to catastrophe.
Bruce Sterling's debut novel is a remarkable feat of world
building--imaginative, provocative, and smart, featuring an
unforgettable cast of colorful characters. If Herman Melville's
Moby-Dick unfolded on Frank Herbert's Dune, the result might be
something akin to Sterling's extraordinary Involution Ocean.
