Holy Fire - Bruce Sterling [0]
HEAVY WEATHER
“Brilliant … fascinating … exciting … A full complement of thrills.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A remarkable and individual sharpness of vision … Sterling hacks the future, and an elegant hack it is.”
—Locus
“So believable are the speculations that … one becomes convinced that the world must and will develop into what Sterling has predicted.”
—Science Fiction Age
“Sharp … intriguing … A near-future thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly
THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE (with William Gibson)
“Breathtaking.”
—The New York Times
“Bursting with the kind of demented speculation and obsessive detailing that has made both Gibson’s and Sterling’s work stand out.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Highly imaginative … [A] splendid effort.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Smartly plotted, wonderfully crafted, and written with sly literary wit … spins marvelously and runs like a dream.”
—Entertainment Weekly
ALSO BY BRUCE STERLING
Novels
The Artificial Kid
The Difference Engine
(with William Gibson)
Heavy Weather
Involution Ocean
Islands in the Net
Schismatrix
Distraction
A Good Old-Fashioned Future
Stories
Crystal Express
Globalhead
Nonfiction
The Hacker Crackdown:
Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier
Editor
Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology
This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.
HOLY FIRE
A Bantam Spectra Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam Hardcover edition published October 1996
SPECTRA and the portrayal of a boxed “S” are trademarks of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc,
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1996 by Bruce Sterling.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
eISBN: 978-0-307-79677-6
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
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Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
About the Author
1
Mia Ziemann needed to know what to wear at a deathbed.
The net counseled simplicity and sincerity. Mia was a ninety-four-year-old Californian medical economist, while the prospective deceased, Martin Warshaw, had been her college sweetheart some seventy-four years previously. Mia could expect some prepared statement. There would very likely be a bequest of some sort. Conversation would involve an attempt to put Mr. Warshaw’s life into retrospective order, to supply the sense of grace and closure so desirable during life’s final chapter. She would not be asked to witness the actual moment of death.
A deathbed reunion of long-separated lovers was a challenge to etiquette, but the late twenty-first century shone in social tidiness. Dilemmas of this sort were exhaustively debated in endless rounds of calls for commentary, working papers from boards of experts, anecdotal testimonies, ethics conventions, sworn public hearings, policy manuals. No aspect of human existence escaped smoothing over by thoughtful, seasoned, and mature counsel.
Mia studied as much of this material as she could stomach. She spent the afternoon reacquainting herself with Martin Warshaw’s financial and medical records. She hadn’t seen Martin in fifty years, though she had followed his public career to some extent. Those records of Martin’s were most revealing and informative. They had made his life an open book. This was their purpose.
Mia reached a decision: black flats, support hose, a reactive girdle and cuirass, a knee-length silk dress in maroon and gray, long sleeves, high collar. A hat definitely seemed in order.