A King of Infinite Space: A Novel [Hardcover]

Allen M. Steele (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

For William Alec Tucker III, the son of rich, guilt-ridden parents, life after death--and cryogenics--provides a gateway to the future, but he soon discovers that he has become a pawn in a vast struggle for power that takes him on an odyssey of discovery that reaches into the vastness of outer space."

Editorial Reviews

Review

...surprises await. All is not what it seems. And you ... are destined to be still more satisfied when this one ends. -- Analog, Tom Easton

About the Author

Allen Steele established himself as a popular and innovative SF writer with his first novel, Orbital Decay, which focused on the blue collar workers who built the first space station. HE has gone on the publish a number of additions to the "Near Space" near-future sequence, the latest of which is A King of Infinite Space, as well as completely independent stories such as The Tranquility Alternative and The Jericho Iteration. Steele has also published a number of well-received shorter works including "The Death of Captain Future," which won the Hugo Award and was a Nebula finalist. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Harper Prism (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061052868
• ISBN-13: 978-0061052866
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,694,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Allen Steele is a science fiction writer with sixteen novels and five collections of short fiction to his credit. His works have received the Hugo, Locus, Seiun, and Science Fiction Weekly awards, and have been nominated for the Nebula, Sturgeon, and Sidewise Awards. His first published story, "Live from the Mars Hotel," was published in 1988, and his first novel, Orbital Decay, was published in 1989. His best-known work is the Coyote series -- Coyote, Coyote Rising, Coyote Frontier, Coyote Horizon, and Coyote Destiny -- and the associative novels set in the same universe: Spindrift, Galaxy Blues, and the forthcoming Hex. A graduate of New England College and the University of Missouri, he is a former journalist, and once spent a brief tenure as a Washington correspondent. He was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and now lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and dogs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Example Of Hard Science Fiction!, August 21, 2002

By 

Kevin Spoering (Buffalo, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A King of Infinite Space: A Novel (Hardcover)

First, I thought it was neat how part of the novel was located in the Saint Louis area, I know some of the places in the book as I grew up there, and I am also a fan of cryonics, so this book and I have a lot in common. I enjoyed the description of how a cryonic suspension works, it seems realistic for the most part.

Some other reviewers gave this book poor ratings, I read a lot of science fiction and I consider this novel to be excellent, the ratings from those other reviewers are questionable to me. For me this novel was a page turner, in fact I devoured it. Steele is very adept with including human interst in the story, with technology in the background as it should be. Character development and plot are first rate, and I will have to disagree with some of the other reviewers again as I thought the ending was very much acceptable. This would make a great science fiction action movie with a bit of cerebral stimulation thrown in! This is good stuff. Steele has the main character, Alec, suspended via cryonics after a fatal accident, and he is re-animated at some point in the future, no more details here so I won't be a spoiler, but if you read it I think you will agree with me that this is a fascinating account of what may someday actually take place, with Steele's no-holds-barred style, my kind of writer indeed, and with the recent Ted Williams cryonic suspension in the news this novel takes on new immediacy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best sci-fi books I've read in months!, February 10, 1999

By 

Eliyahu Skoczylas ([e-mail]) (Verde Valley, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A King of Infinite Space (Mass Market Paperback)

I was so enchanted with this book that I set it down after the third page, albeit with difficulty, and typed the text from pages 1 through 3 and sent it out as an email to my friends. Steele's writing is _that_ good.

This "Near Space" future of Steele's is a complex and exciting place, but the good pacing and delightful writing feeds it to us a piece at a time in a very believable fashion; I felt that I missed nothing from not having read the earlier works in this universe, although I plan to correct that misfortune soon. :)

William Alec Tucker, III's recovery from a mindlessness brought on by his resurrection through learning the intricacies of late 21st century living is more than just a device to introduce that world to the reader. It is also the vehicle for a character development that is especially exceptional for this genré. While Steele's "Near Space" is reminiscent of Niven's "Known Space" in its breadth, consistency, and believability, the journey of self-discovery that William Tucker goes through reminded me more of Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

The technical correctness, strong coherency, and brilliant character development are joined by Steele's good command, and use, of the English language. Although not up to the lofty linguistic levels of, say, Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale", (one of my all-time favorite examples of good writing,) the vocabulary is nonetheless rich and full of facile description. I look forward to reading something where Allen Steele is not restricted to a first-person narrative.

This is writing of rare quality, and I heartily encourage any serious science fiction reader to savor "A King of Infinite Space."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best novel in the Near Space series, June 26, 2004

By 

Ian Watts (Charleston, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A King of Infinite Space: A Novel (Hardcover)

A King of Infinite Space is the culminating work in Allen Steele's Near Space series, which began with Orbital Decay in the late 80's and concluded with this novel roughly ten years later. Although the name of Steele's universe is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Larry Niven's Known Space series, I personally find Steele's work to be much more compelling than Niven's. Whereas Niven's characters will traverse hundreds of light years with the flip of a single switch, Steele's Near Space series is perhaps the most satisfying attempt by a contemporary sci-fi author to envision a realistic history of humanity's expansion throughout the solar system over the next few decades. Steele never forgets that people, no matter where they are and what level of technology they have at their disposal, will always be people. A King of Infinite Space is basically an overview of this universe from the perspective of a Gen Xer revived on the cusp of the twenty-second century after his death in 1995. As such it's probably a good place to start for anyone new to Allen Steele. The beginning of the novel, which depicts Alec's death and subsequent rebirth on the asteroid colony of Mr. Chicago, is particularly well-written and engaging. I would go ahead and agree with other reviewers by saying the ending is a little too pat, but it hardly destroys the overall story. Highly recommended.