George Turner – författare

Francis Conway is Swill - one of the millions in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. Life, already difficult, is rapidly becoming impossible for Francis and others like him, as government corruption, official blindness and nature have conspired to turn Swill homes into watery tombs. And now the young boy must find a way to escape the approaching tide of disaster.The Sea and Summer, published in the US as The Drowning Towers is George Turner''s masterful exploration of the effects of climate change in the not-too-distant future. Comparable to J.G. Ballard''s The Drowned World, it was shortlisted for the Nebula and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best novel, 1988

David Chance has been raised in an orphanage and, now an adult, finds that he is the child of a man genetically modified before birth by a group of scientists experimenting in increasing human intelligence and creativity. But his father is dead.He pursues the search for the true nature of his father and, through it, the true nature of the experiments and the survivors of the final disaster that ended them. Chance exposes his roots and finds them entangled in horror, deceit, vengeance and perverse scientific illumination. Peace and self knowledge are achieved only at great risk and terrible cost.

Two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action - not by being killed, but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death.They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been "cleansed" from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life. This cleaning was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world - and who, in this distant future, are dying off.This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner''s characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.

Eight journeys into the future from this prize-winning author: a civilized society where barbarism is the norm; a search for super-intelligence that goes horribly wrong; a world where to be Non-Legal is to be non-human; an experiment to test the very nature of reality. Contains:A Pursuit of MiraclesNot in Front of the ChildrenFeedbackShut the Door When You Go OutOn the Nursery FloorIn a Petri Dish UpstairsGeneration GapThe Fittest

In the era of "the big squeeze" - when an environmentally ravaged Earth groans beneath the weight of twelve billion people - two men control the destiny of humankind. One was recently senile...the other is going insane.In the year 2069, with the Earth''s population dangerously out of control, procreation and the medical treatment of terminal illness are the two most heinous crimes against society. But behind the doors of the top secret Biophysical Institute, an old man has been illegally cured of the ravages of Alzheimer''s disease and made artificially younger - to serve the unspecified purposes of Premier Jeremy Beltane, one of the world''s most powerful leaders. A member of the underprivileged "Wardie" class, Detective Sergeant Harry Ostrov has been assigned to serve as a guardian to the mysteriously rejuvenated nonagenarian - and entrusted with a devastating secret that could topple the unstable "Minder" government. But once within the confines of the Beltane family enclave, the dedicated police officer is dragged deeper and deeper into a lethal mire of scandal, corruption, political outrage, and moral dilemma - sworn to silence even as he observes his nation''s ruler, a man ultimately responsible for the future of civilization, descend steadily into depression, uncertainty . . . and madness.

In a distant future, on an Earth populated by a scant few hundred thousand humans, the Atkins''s Thomas performs without question the duties for which he was genetically bred. Called "Soldier" by one and all, he is a man of honor and ability, responsible for keeping the peace, for maintaining the status quo . . . and, most important, for guarding the great Book House on the hill - a vast repository of Last Culture knowledge presided over by Libary, Soldier''s mentor, the most senior of the mystic Celibate scholars. Such is Thomas''s life in the serene, semi-primitive world without nations and cities and governments - until the night the starship comes home. Having fled a dangerously overcrowded Earth years before the Collapse and the Twilight that followed, for seven centuries the men and women of the space-going vessel Search have been combing the galaxy for inhabitable planets - their aging processes dramatically slowed by the relative magic of light speed travel and cryogenic sleep. And now, lonely and frustrated, the weary voyagers have returned to a homeworld unrecognizably altered by the relentless tides of time - a world that does not want them back. A bitter welcome awaits the Searchers, as old Libary gathers Earth''s Ordinands and Elders together to tap the terrifying power of the collective unconscious - in preparation of the Carnival night when they will sweep the helpless intruders back to their lonely sky in the name of Holy Science. And it is Soldier who stands in the middle, silent and alone - bound by duty to evict the homesick star-travelers . . . yet cursed by a preordained genetic destiny that has decreed their eviction will mean Soldier''s death.

Beloved Son told how the world was given atomic power and chose the atom bomb, was given the key to genetic miracles and chose biological warfare.The world was lucky the first time; enough of it remained for salvaging in a few decades. It was simply unfortunate that in those difficult years a new menace arose-the offer of dreams-come-true in this world, here and now. There was a price of course. What World Council could not realize-and did not properly query-was the immensity of the price, but the offer was one nobody in his right mind could refuse. Or could he?Psychiatrist James Lindley recognized the danger of dealing with the Devil but fanatical Police Controller Parker saw it as the Gift of God; Angus, whose name and face changed as often as his coat, saw it as a fine game to be played, while Commissioner Ferendija saw it as an exercise in pragmatism-and Security Tech Sanders lost everything he believed in as the welter of guilt and disillusionment swallowed him whole.Under the pressure of decision the cracks showed in the highest echelons of the proud Ethical Culture. Is there a benefit so great that, if the price were the end of homo sapiens, we would pay it?George Turner''s Beloved Son was the first volume in what is now recognized as on of the outstanding science fiction achievements of the past decade. Vaneglory is its successor; and, though completely self-contained, it develops with gripping imaginative brilliance the characters and situations already established in Beloved Son.