| Search Antiqbook |
Ask a question or
Order this book
Browse our books
Search our books
Book dealer info
VINGE, JOAN D. Alien Blood: Psion; Catspaw
Nelson Doubleday, Inc. 1988. Book Club (BCE/BOMC). Hard Cover. Ill.: Morrissey, Dean (jacket art). Very Good/Very Good. 1988 2-IN-1 BOOK CLUB HARDCOVER -- INCLUDES: Psion; Catspaw. Bookstore stamp on front free endpaper, minor shelf wear. Binding tight, text clean & bright. "In the 23rd century, the interplanetary Human Federation is controlled by such giant hereditary Combines as Centauri Transport, to whom the poor of any world are little more than slave labor. Psions -- men and women who possess any sort of psychic abilities -- are hated and feared, particularly if they can learn Combine secrets. But a teenage pickpocket living on the periphery of society can get by. Even if -- like Cat, whose green feline eyes mark him as the half-breed child of a human and a telepathic alien -- he's an outcast among outcasts. Yet survival is never certain, no matter how street-wise one may be. In Psion, Cat is picked up for stealing and sentenced to hard labor in a mining camp. He knows it means almost certain death, so he's more than willing to cooperate when he's drafted into an experimental group researching how psions' powers work, and how they can be controlled. The truth is, Cat's own considerable talents are locked away behind an almost impenetrable mental barrier. But before he can really awaken his telepathy, he is betrayed. The shock of a fellow psion's violent death has left Cat in a bad way as Catspaw begins, bereft of his psi powers and traveling the starways in search of a new life. He finds it -- when he's kidnapped and offered a job by Braedee, the head of Centauri Transport's Corporate Security. Braedee says he needs the psion's unique talents to help protect the Lady Elnear, a crucial pawn in a Centauri Transport power struggle. Since the Lady happens to be related to an old friend to whom Cat is indebted -- a beautiful friend who personally expresses her concern for Elnear's safety and asks the youth's help -- he's willing to go along. Besides, he needs the money, and something else -- the drugs Braedee gives him to amplify his telepathy. Drugs that a psion deprived of his powers finds impossible to resist, despite the fact that their use may destroy hish talent forever. Yet the drugs are far from the only risk, as Cat quickly discover, because Braedee hasn't exactly told him the truth. And ultimately he's forced to take matters into his own hands, facing the deadly perils of Old Earth's underground as he embarks on a desperate search to regain control of his only real weapon -- his mind." "Joan D. Vinge (born 2 April 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American science fiction author. She is known for her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen, its sequels, and her series about the telepath named Cat. Vinge studied art in college, but eventually changed to a major in anthropology, and received a B.A. degree from San Diego State University in 1971. Her first published story, "Tin Soldier", a novelette, appeared in Orbit 14 in 1974. Stories have also appeared in Analog, Millennial Women, Asimov's Science Fiction, Omni Magazine, and several "Best of the Year" anthologies. Several of her stories have won major awards: Her novel The Snow Queen won the 1981 Hugo Award for Best science fiction Novel. "Eyes of Amber" won the 1977 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. She has also been nominated for several other Hugo and Nebula Awards, as well as for the John W. Campbell New Writer Award. Her novel Psion was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Vinge has been married twice: first to fellow SF author Vernor Vinge, and then to SF editor James Frenkel. Vinge and Frenkel have two children. Her last name is pronounced VIN-jee, rhyming with 'stingy'." -- Wikipedia.
Offered for US$ 3.75 by: Yesterday's Muse Books - Book number: 057329
See more books from our catalog: Science Fiction & Fantasy