The Annunciate [Hardcover]

Serverna Park (Author), Severna Park (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1999

In a desperate, brutal future, a team of researchers searches for a means to eliminate the aggressive instincts that cause human conflict. So far, their only solution is the highly addictive Staze, a drug which leaves its victims lethargic and passive. Now, these scientists-turned-drugdealers roam the planets of Three Sys, manufacturing and selling Staze, while seeking a more effective end to the violence that surrounds and pursues them The lifeform called the Grubs, native to the mysterious planet Paradise, may provide the answer to their prayers. When human and Grub DNA are fused, the genetic components that encode violent human tendencies seem to vanish in the mix. Could this be the beginning of a new, nonviolent humanity? But beneath the seemingly simple, benign Grubs is a more complex, darker truth which may only be revealed by a young woman's inexplicable pregnancy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Severna Park, author of the related SF novels Speaking Dreams and Hand of Prophecy, turns to a new universe in The Annunciate. ThreeSys is a three-star system, and each star has 11 human-settled worlds. The humans are separated not only by vast distances but also by technology, divided into Jackless, Jacked, and Meshed. The Jackless have no access to the virtual reality of the Jacked. And neither caste has access to the nanotech-sculpted dimension that the Meshed can enter to control and manipulate them.

When Jackless and Jacked rise against their overlords, three Meshed survive and struggle to retain their mastery with Staze, a potent, immediately addictive drug that traps users in an overwhelming dream. But the dream may be the entrance to another world--one inhabited by a mysterious and powerful being that wishes to enter our universe. Is it the Unknown Child, the long-prophesied savior of ThreeSys? Or is it an alien predator that will destroy humanity?

The Annunciate is an interesting, ambitious consideration of love and need, power and responsibility, and the complexities of human bonds. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Park ambitiously transposes her characteristic topicsApower, drug use, lesbian relationships and racial hatredAinto a sinister, far-future universe in her third novel (after Hand of Prophecy). Some 3000 years after humanity has settled the multiplaneted triple-star system ThreeSys, a vicious caste war has broken out among its inhabitants. The Jackless, who cannot plug into ThreeSys's vast information resources, and the Jacked, who have surgically implanted limited access, are both trying to exterminate the elite Meshed, who can access all knowledge, enter a virtual dimension and alter the others' reality. Annmarie, her conniving male lover Corey and the novel's 21-year-old protagonist, Eve, are Mesheds who make and sell Staze, an addictive drug that immobilizes its users. After Eve falls in love with Naverdi, a Jacked Staze smuggler and addict, all four travel to ThreeSys's first settlement, the now ruined Paradise, where they encounter a seductive, female alien who can meld VR, dreams and reality, and thus eliminate the distinctions that fuel ThreeSys's war. The succubus arranges to be birthed by Naverdi as a new AnnunciateAthe first settler of an entirely new kind of realityAbut whether this development will save or destroy humanity, no one knows. Park's dizzying plot occasionally founders because the nanotechnology on which the story's progress depends is fuzzily drawn. None of her characters achieve much life as they constantly shift between the virtual and "real" universes. Moreover, her treatment of the romance between Naverdi and Eve, which is integral to her theme of growing up enduring prejudice, suffers from a strident tone unrelieved by the saving grace of humor. Parks's ideas seem crowded here: they stifle one another, while distorting her undeniable literary fecundity. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Eos (T); 1st edition (November 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380977370
• ISBN-13: 978-0380977376
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,473,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended, January 17, 2000

By 

"sirrengade" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Annunciate (Hardcover)

The Annunciate is really an exceptional book because it combines a fascinating and original SF universe with complex characterizations that are problematic in our own world. Although I'm a fan of Nicole Griffith and other writers who emphasize gender issues, Severna Park assumes most of these issues as a starting point and doesn't shrink from the honest appraisal of the most anguished and perhaps insoluable dilemmas in personal relationships among any gender. While this book is well worth reading simply for the surface fiction, I find its underlying psychological aspect to be its most fascinating aspect.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining dark SF, December 2, 1999

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Annunciate (Hardcover)

Humans have traveled throughout the galaxy, but in spite of some incredible technical achievements, Homo Sapiens live in a caste system consisting of the Meshed, Jacked, and Jackless. Technology is the divisor. The Meshed uses nanomachines to link with the sensory and information Net. The Jacked works with a simple computer. The Jackless has no access.

The Meshed is the most powerful and envied of the triad. However, many of the Meshed selfishly and malevolently flaunt their powers by using them for personal gain regardless of the cost to others. The other groups use computer viruses to hunt down the Meshed. Three of the more evil Meshed (Eve, Corey, and AnnMarie) flee to the ThreeSys where they begin to peddle an elixir to end aggressive actions. They actually sell the addictive drug Staze that leaves the user inside an euphoric dream state. The trio finally heads to the planet Paradise where THE ANNUNCIATE and the original Mesh live. Awaiting their arrival is an essence that does not require mechanical means to break down the barrier between reality and virtual reality.

THE ANNUNCIATE is a dark look at the future of humanity and in the fertile mind of Severna Park it appears very bleak. The story line is fast-paced yet thought provoking. The main characters are unappealing including Eve even after she breaks away from Corey and Annmarie. However, that characterization is essential to the overall theme of galaxy growing gloomier wherever mankind is. Not for everyone, Ms. Park is one of the new talents that have energized the SF genre with this novel and the HAND OF PROPHECY.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real "you are there" feel!, December 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Annunciate (Hardcover)

Park's prose really pull you into the story. You get a real sense of feeling the cold wind biting into your skin, the dirt on your hands, etc. You end up so inside the skin of Eve, the viewpoint character, that you react to everything that happens to her in a very visceral way. It makes for a wild ride as the plot snakes through a dark and harrowing path. This novel is one that you'll recall years later, almost like something that actually happened to you.