Arkwright

by Allen Steele

Overview

Best 19 Science Fiction Books of 2016

Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele's Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.

Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.

This is classic, epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre as well as fans of current major motion pictures such as Gravity and Interstellar.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765382153
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Allen Steele worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a prolific science fiction writer. He has garnered multiple Hugo Awards for his novellas and novelettes; his novel Orbital Decay won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 1990.

Editorial Reviews

“Arkwright is a book that those with knowledge of the genre’s past will appreciate, and those relatively new to it will realise why the interest in SF has endured. It is brilliant.” —SFF World

“Arkwright is an addictive and entertaining read that packs an unbelievable journey that feels larger and grander in scope than should fit in the pages that bind it, but it pulls it off and pulls it off splendidly. It takes the reader through the history and evolution of Science Fiction, rubbing elbows with Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke, and then beyond present day, looking towards the future and the stars for what lays in store for us next.” —The Speculative Herald (4 ½ stars)

“Arkwright is an alternate history, yes, of what we should and could have done. But it’s also a renewed vision of what we still could do. It’s the most optimistically extrovert sci-fi novel to appear for many years, and it lifts the heart like bugles in the morning.” —Wall Street Journal

“Arkwright is a novel you can hand to anyone and say ‘This is why I like science fiction.’” —SF Signal (four out of five stars)

“Arkwright is a great read, and one that wears its love for genre fiction proudly. Steele has taken the brightest and most recognizable parts of science fiction—that sense of wonder, the ability to tell grand stories on cosmic levels, and sense of can-do exploration—and woven it into a novel that’s profoundly aware of where it comes from. It’s certainly a science fiction novel that follows in the path of authors like Heinlein and Clarke, and recent books such as Aurora and Seveneves. At the end of the day, this is a book that really celebrates genre fiction and the possibilities that puts forth for our own future.” –iO9

“In Allen Steele’s capable hands, this wildly unlikely story—stretching across generations of Arkwrights—becomes totally plausible. It’s a fun wish-fulfillment romp that every Analog reader should enjoy.” —Analog

“Steele’s story benefits from roots in real science and actual space-travel theories.” —RT Book Reviews (three out of Five? Stars)

From the Publisher

2016-01-10
In Hugo Award-winning author Steele's (V-S Day, 2014, etc.) latest novel, a popular science-fiction writer aims to colonize space. Nathan Arkwright, a venerated sci-fi icon somewhere between Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry, was the creator of the Galaxy Patrol, a series of space-adventure novels which were developed into a television show and films. Upon his death, his estranged granddaughter, Kate, discovers Arkwright's entire estate will be going to fund something called the Arkwright Foundation. She soon learns the foundation's aim is to launch genetic material—harvested from the descendants of Arkwright and his circle of sci-fi author and editor cronies, among others—into the far reaches of space. When the rocket reaches a habitable planet, the ship's computer will combine the oocytes and sperm into embryos and gestate them in an artificial uterus, thus creating the first human settlement in space, complete with copies of Arkwright's first book, Galaxy Patrol, of course. Steele's book is laid out in a series of novella-length stories and shorter interludes; throughout, characters bearing the Arkwright name shuffle their ways through events of the recent past or the far future, culminating in a groan-worthy and wholly unoriginal ending. The connections from one story to the next are generally too tenuous to be very compelling, leaving the book as a whole feeling like a collection of half-baked ideas that Steele couldn't be bothered to develop into a full-length series. Many of the book's real-world details are either inaccurate (the predominant language of India is not "Indian," for instance) or peddle obnoxious stereotypes: religious protesters are uniformly portrayed as violent fanatics with comically misspelled protest signs, while a white character's first experience on a Caribbean island is getting scammed by an official Steele describes as "a tall black man with a purple-dyed 'fro" committing an act of "third-world graft." Suffice it to say, no one will feel compelled to preserve this book for future generations. A predictable tale that boldly goes where no one should have gone.

Kirkus Reviews