Apologies to Pam and her readers

Webmaster Glen here with a little note of apologies to all who may have tried to visit this site recently and not been able to or received a notice about this being an attack site. All of the web pages in my server were compromised at the end of May, likely due to a backdoor ftp hack. Basically, an unscrupulous web site had added a small amount of code on every *.html page that would provide them additional links, thus raising their site in Google's search ranks. Google, therefore, identified all of my sites, including this one which I host and maintain for Pam, as an "attack site."

After a thorough clean and rinse (including locking down ftp a bit more thoroughly), everything should have been returned to normal around here, but do let me know (either by comments here or to engelcox at gmail) if you see any broken links or missing pictures.

Signed,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Webmaster

Child of Venus

Child of Venus

Description

The Project--the terraforming of Venus--was begun centuries ago. And generations more will come
and go before the planet's surface has been rendered fully habitable and its human settlers, the
Cytherians, can finally leave their protective domes. There are those, however, whose patience
has grown dangerously thin--malcontents unwilling to resign themselves to never enjoying the fruits
of freedom promised to their descendents.

Devastation and horror recently paralyzed this world in transition, as two religious cult leaders
brought a plague of civil war to venus, and were ultimately destroyed by their own treachery and
despair. Out of the chaos and conflict came Mahala Liangharad--a true child of Venus conceived from
the rebels' genetic material and artfully gestated after their deaths. Some believe Mahala should
never have been born; others see her as the glorious light that arose out of a dark time. Mahala
herself is conflicted, as she struggles to come to terms with her painful birthright and her
immutable future: a lifetime of unquestioning service to the Project.

Young Mahala fears her obligations to the expectations of others will leave her no room to pursue
her own destiny, whatever it may be. But things are changing in the universe around her--and not all
for the good. The already fragile alliance between Earth and Venus shows signs of shattering, as the
Cytherians seek a greater independence from the stifling dominance of the home planet. And rumors of
a hidden agenda among the "Habbers"--the cybernetically enhanced dwellers of the mobile asteroid
"Habitats"--threaten to bring about a rebirth of the bloody turmoil that once nearly doomed a world.
With catastophe looming, it is Mahala who must take the steps to ensure that there is a future
for her flawed, star-traveling kind--as a mysterious call from deep space pulls her toward the
fulfillment of her most cherished dreams...even as it tears her brutally away from everything she
has ever known and loved.

The long-awaited conclusion to Pamela Sargent's remarkable epic trilogy of the colonization of
Venus is a stunning feat of inventive storytelling and flawless world-building from a widely
respected name in the field of speculative fiction. It is a masterful achievement, combining
heartrending humanism with breathtaking wonder.

What the Critics are Saying...

"Nebula and Locus Award-winner Sargent's latest novel completes her masterful SF trilogy about
terraforming the planet Venus...as in previous books, Sargent brings her world to life with
sympathetic characters and crisp, concise language."--Publishers Weekly

"The author of Venus of Shadows and Venus of Dreams concludes her trilogy
set in the far future with a tale of redemption and bravery that belongs in most sf collections."
--Library Journal

"Child of Venus...brings the reader into this world and time right along with the
infant Mahala and other children who will develop into major characters as Venus struggles
toward both physical and political autonomy...Terraforming, extended lives, the profound splits
between differing cultures and tech levels, all get their due here...a worthy conclusion to an
ambitious trilogy."--Faren Miller, Locus

"For some sf writers...the stylistic and narrative experiements of the great modernist
James Joyce have been an inspiration; and now we might include Pamela Sargent in that peculiar
group although she...satisfies our genre expectations as well...Sargent's accomplishment here
is superb."--Donald M. Hassler, The New York Review of Science Fiction

"With Child of Venus, Pamela Sargent has returned to complete the task she began
in Venus of Dreams and Venus of Shadows. The novels are a multi-generational
family epic chronicling the history of the Venus Project...these books deserve a place among
all the grandly conceived histories of SF...Child of Venus is a novel about human beings
trying to understand themselves and their place in the future they envision. This is science
fiction that asks us to question ourselves as much as we question the universe."--Greg L.
Johnson, SF Site

"Reading the older volumes [of this trilogy] in conjunction with the newest, one detects
a remarkable uniformity of purpose and continuation of vision...What Sargent chooses to
concentrate on...is generational change, family history and the burden of parental and
grandparental choices on those who follow...The resonances and disjunctions down the years
are the main epiphanies of this series, a kind of interplanetary Roots."--Paul Di Filippo,
Science Fiction Weekly

"Sargent draws an enormous amount of careful, critical thinking into her plot, refusing to
neglect or omit any of the subtle and dramatically powerful aspects of her story. The human
relationships are real and acute, but they are never allowed to boil over; Sargent tempers the
character-driven elements with hard science, wisely incorporating sociology into the scientific
disciplines which inform the book...Though Sargent takes us across the galaxy in this novel, the
true journey she leads us on here is into the mysteries of the human spirit. In this respect,
Sargent transcends genre and achieves something rare in the world of letters: a genuine
contemplation of truth, in all its nasty, brilliant glory."--Kilian Melloy, wigglefish.com

I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse

Well, Dick Cheney can easily refuse this particular offer, but I really think he should accept it.

Update, June 29, 2009: Some advice for Mary Matalin, who will be publishing Cheney's memoir.

Available Books at E-Reads

A reminder that a number of my books are available in both paper and electronic formats from E-Reads, including Venus of Dreams. Go here to find out more.

"In the meantime..."

...as I wrote to a friend the other day, "between bouts of writing, I am heading into the fifth year of my day job, where I pass the old building where Herman Melville attended school on the way to my office, located in what is usually described as a 'historic brownstone' once inhabited by relatives of Melville's who thought Cousin Herman was a bit dotty. Somehow this seems appropriate."