Sun of Suns (Virga) - Softcover

Praise for" Sun of Suns"A "Kirkus" Best Book of 2006 "The swashbuckling space settlers of Schroeder's fantastical novel inhabit warring nation-states inside a planet-sized balloon called Virga. This adventure-filled tale of sword fights and naval battles stars young Hayden Griffin of the nation of Aerie, orphaned by an attack on the artificial sun that his parents tried to build. Schroeder layers in scientific rationales for his air-filled, gravity-poor world-with its spinning cylinder towns and miles-long icebergs-but the real fun of this coming-of-age tale includes a pirate treasure hunt and grand scale naval invasions set in the cold, far reaches of space." -"Publishers Weekly" "Outrageously brilliant and absolutely not to be missed." - "Kirkus Reviews," starred review "We already knew that Karl Schroeder could do Kubrick. Now it turns out he can do Dumas as well. And more: not since Middle Earth have I encountered such an intense and palpable evocation of an alien world. "Sun of Suns" puts the world-building exercises of classic Niven to shame." -Peter Watts "Mix in one part thrilling action, one part screaming-cool steampunk tech, and one part worldbuilding and you've got "Sun of Suns." And oh, what worldbuilding! Schroeder is a master."--Cory Doctorow "Karl Schroeder's" Sun of Suns" not only creates an even more unusual and evocative setting than his previous work, but is replete with adventures and turns, and characters that are anything but one-dimensional." --L.E. Modesitt, Jr. "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" "Over the years, science-fiction has provided us with awesome environments, the best ones based on careful logic. There was Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity" and Robert Forward's "Dragon's Egg." Karl Schroeder's new n

It is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and "towns" that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity. Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He's come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago. His target is Admiral Chaison Fanning, head of the fleet of Slipstream, which conquered Hayden's nation of Aerie years ago. And the fact that Hayden's spent his adolescence living with pirates doesn't bode well for Fanning's chances...