Since his debut in Terry Carr’s legendary Ace Specials of the 1980s, Carter Scholz has occupied an enviable, if demanding, position on the cutting edge of modern speculative literature (vulgarly called SF).
Proudly debuting in this volume, Gypsy is his first major work since his 2002 nuclear thriller Radiance. An interstellar adventure grounded in the hard science of accurate physics and biology, Gypsy soars far beyond the heliosphere of conventional science fiction. Jettisoning the easy warp-drives of fantasy and space opera, Scholz chronicles with chilling realism the epic voyage of a team of far-seeing scientists, who crowdsource a secret starship and abandon the doomed Earth for the Alpha Centauri system, our nearest stellar neighbor and last desperate chance. Heartbreak and hope collide in this moving and visionary tale.
Plus...
An epistolary story about a story, “The Nine Billion Names of God,” uses a classic SF text to deconstruct literary deconstruction itself, with hilarious results. In the wickedly droll “Bad Pennies,” a spy tasked with trashing a foreign economy testifies before a complacent Congress. Quietly furious, “The United States of Impunity” is an alarming look under the tent of today’s political sideshow. Adults only.
And Featuring: “Gear. Food. Rocks.”—our Outspoken Interview, in which a postmodern Renaissance man charts the synergies and dissonances of a career that embraces both literary and musical composition, reveals the hidden link between winemaking and deep space astronomy, and tells you how to steal his car.
What People Are Saying
“Scholz’s writing crackles with energy, intelligence and dark humor.” —Publishers Weekly
“Not just intellectually provocative, but emotionally rich, even saturated.” —Washington Post Book World
“I doubt there’s another writer in the country who can match Scholz as a stylist.” —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Science of Herself
“Scholz weaves the analytical, the literal, the literary, the imaginary, and the emotional.” —Boston Globe
About the Author
Born in New York, educated on the East Coast, Scholz set foot in Berkeley in the 1970s—and never looked back. Considered a “writer’s writer” he is perhaps the best-kept secret in SF, with a prophetic voice that points to the future and rarely looks back.