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Solstice [Hardcover]

David Hewson (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Book Description

July 1, 1999
As the millennium approaches, the climate on Earth is getting progressively hotter, a phenomenon which makes scientists and others extremely nervous. Unease quickly turns to panic when Air Force One is successfully downed, key communications networks are disrupted, and the world's financial institutions are pushed to the brink of collapse. CIA science chief Helen Wagner and Michael Lieberman, a brilliant designer of a giant space-based solar array, must contend with techno-savvy activists who plan to use the array to cut modern society off at the knees...and start civilization over from scratch.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nonstop action drives this accessible high-tech thriller, putting frighteningly believable technology into the hands of a brilliant eco-terrorist. Hewson's third novel begins with a hot subject: heightened sunspot activity has accelerated global warming to the frying stage, and it seems that particular places are being targeted. Michael Lieberman is hired to map and analyze this phenomenon at Lone Wolf, a solar research station in Mallorca, but when Air Force One is zapped out of midair and two other satellite solar research stations are disabled, he springs into action. His investigations lead to Charlotte (Charley) Pascale, a long-lost friend and computer genius with whom he co-designed a solar powered satellite, equipped with megadeath superweapons, called Sundog. Secretly, Charley has seized Sundog and controls it so completely that global communications networks and financial markets crumble, and cities are incinerated. The CIA and FBI learn that Charley, stricken with a fatal disease, has hallucinated that Gaia (the ancient goddess of earth) has commanded her, and the terrorist cult she has founded, to destroy civilization in revenge for man's sins against the earth. Outsmarted by Charley at every turn, authorities believe Michael is the only one who can stop the mentally ill saboteur. Hewson cleverly mines the increasing vulnerability of the world's computer-dependent infrastructure to provide a megahertz action thriller. As his likable characters chase poor doomed Charley, they add poignancy and tension-breaking humor to this technically feasible nightmare. Rights sold in Germany and the U.K. (July) FYI: The author's previous novel, Semana Santa, won the W.H. Smith Fresh Talent Award. Hewson is a computer technology expert for the Times of London.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Scientists battle eco-terrorists in a remarkably well-written thriller, a US first by British author Hewson, a journalist and computer-technology expert for The Times of London. To the scientific community, it was always clear that Charley Pascal was a genius, but it came to seem that she was also insane. A more nightmarish combination would be hard to conjure up, given that shes captured the giant space-based solar powerhousea devastating weapon in savvy handsthat in her salad days she helped design. In Charley's view, humankind has lost its way, is despoiling the planet, and is now ``the enemy species'' that has to be cleansed. Central to her vision is the idea of a return to a natural order of things, but the enabling force, she decides, must be chaos, which will deliver crushing blows to civilization in the hope that something better will rise up in the aftermath. For CIA science chief Helen Wagner, the battle begins when Air Force One, with the President aboard, is mysteriously downed. For maverick scientist Michael Lieberman, it begins when the sun develops huge and scary ``freckles,'' precursors of violent solar behavior. What could the first possibly have to do with the second? Pretty soon, the evidence is incontrovertible that apocalyptic Charley forms the connecting link, along with the Children of Gaia, her small but devoted and highly skilled band of computer engineers. Crack-brained cultists they may be, but no one doubts their effectiveness as they generate catastrophe upon catastrophe around the globe. The beleaguered new President assembles his ad hoc team of counterterrorist specialists, with Helen and Michael in charge. Their mission: to find Charley and the Children of Gaia, then stop them before they try to save civilization by destroying it. Hewson's science is both complex and authentic. Andperhaps even more impressive for a technothrillerso are his characters. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; First Edition edition (July 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446524492
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446524490
  • Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #824,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Hewson's novels have been translated into a wide range of languages, from Italian to Japanese, and his debut work, Semana Santa, set in Holy Week Spain, was filmed with Mira Sorvino. Dante's Numbers is his thirteenth published novel.

David was born in Yorkshire in 1953 and left school at the age of seventeen to work as a cub reporter on one of the smallest evening newspapers in the country in Scarborough. Eight years later he was a staff reporter on The Times in London, covering news, business and latterly working as arts correspondent. He worked on the launch of the Independent and was a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times for a decade before giving up journalism entirely in 2005 to focus on writing fiction.

Semana Santa won the WH Smith Fresh Talent award for one of the best debut novels of the year in 1996 and was later made into a movie starring Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez. Four standalone works followed before A Season for the Dead, the first in a series set in Italy. The seventh Roman novel featuring Nic Costa and his colleagues, Dante's Numbers, appeared in October 2008. At the end of 2006 he signed renewed contracts with Pan Macmillan in the UK and Bantam Dell in the US to extend the series to nine books, running to 2012. The titles are published in numerous languages around the world including Chinese and Japanese... and Italian.

He has featured regularly on the speaker lists of leading international book events, including the Melbourne and Ottawa writers' festivals, the Harrogate Crime Festival, Thrillerfest, Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime. He has taught at writing schools around the world and is a regular faculty member for the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference in Corte Madera, California, where he has worked alongside writers such as Martin Cruz Smith and Michael Connelly.

 

Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (6)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars SOLSTICE MANIA, June 16, 2005
By 
Sir (parallel universe) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Solstice (Hardcover)
If you enjoy great science fiction novels you'll love SOLSTICE.
The author has developed a modern day Sci-fi Adventure you can't put down. This story is filled with vibrant descriptions of advanced technology and story twists as it unfolds. The pages will disappear as you read it, trust me. Here is just a bit, but, not enough to ruin it for you. His SunDog weapon ranks right up there with "The Borg", "Gateway (Heechee Saga)" by by Frederik Pohl, and works by Maurice Cotterell.
{Note to author} Please do another Sci-fi Tek, dripping lightning ball, SOLSTICE MANIA book :)
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars So disastrous it's hard to know where to begin, November 28, 2006
By 
This review is from: Solstice (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the worst type of science fiction - recycled plot (evil folks use secret weapon to effect sun & temperature), incredibly bad characters (not a soul is memorable or realistic from the black GOP President to the sunspot scientist to the crazy villian), horrible dialogue (written in "bookese" - that language that only those in bad novels speak). The structure is hap-hazard as it jumps from DC to Siberia to science labs to military bases without a shred of coherence.

I mean, this thing is 530 pages long!!! Now, that statement should be followed with caveats - the print is VERY large and there are 59 chapters with wide areas of blank space. But the real problem is that at least 3/4 of the book is pure drivel with the usual fallacies books of this type have. Someone with evil intentions uses a secret weapon for their own purposes, thus outwitting the entire spy and intelligence folks. Hard-working scientific folk and a few unselfish public servants struggle to save the world from disaster. In fact, it's almost like a James Bond movie except without the witty dialogue, hot babes, fancy gadgets and polished effect. There is no "hero" or "heroine" as such. Instead we get a ridiculously long parade of nonentities that come and go at will with all the authenticity of a Hollywood marriage. Needless to say, this one rates an F-.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 8, 2006
This review is from: Solstice (Hardcover)
Having just finished this novel, my overall impression is disappointment. It started off with a lot of promise but quickly deteriorated. If Hewson had stuck with a story of just the damage that could be caused by heightened sunspot activity, it could have been not only credible, but fascinating. However, the eco-terrorism angle (carried out by a hippy-like commune called "The Family", no less) seemed so preposterous, I found myself barely scanning the sections dealing with their terminally ill (yet still sex-crazed?) genius leader, Charley. Worse yet, was the dialog. It was as bad as it gets. Many of the statements throughout the book made absolutely no semantic sense to me, yet the characters participating in the conversations got their gist perfectly. I wondered initially what I was missing (or if they may have been communicating telepathically). Unfortunately, it didn't take me long to realize this book just wasn't very well written. Don't waste your time on this one unless you have nothing else to read.
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