The Star Country [Hardcover]

Michael Cassutt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1986

In the near future, war has torn the United States apart. Small communities barely scrape by amidst climate change and economic collapse. Powerful nation-states struggle over whatever resources remain--technology in California, money in Chicago, oil in Texas. Some small hope has arrived in the form of the Hocq, a group of aliens on a mission to bring their advanced knowledge to Earth. But, as hostile governments across the globe vie for that knowledge, a Hocq named Harrek defects into outlaw territory. Diplomacy seems to have failed, and he can't allow the wrong nation to gain such a huge advantage over the others. Now it's up to Lisa Marquez, the human who helped Harrek escape, and Jeremy Clayton, a poor outland farmer, to keep the alien safe from the military and outlaws. The clock is counting down, and Harrek needs to get the Genesis File into the right hands before he gets found by the humans ... or the other Hocq. In Michael Cassutt's first novel, the author takes standard SF story situations--post-holocaust tribal human struggles, first alien contact--blends them together and and brings his own uniquely original spin to a tried-and-true setting.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

America after the next war: small communities scraping to survive while enclaves of high tech barricade themselves in armed fortresses. This is one of the most common settngs for contemporary SF, with its graphic mirror of the current inequities between rich and poor in the U.S. Cassutt's first novel throws in one wild cardaliens who are negotiating with several Earth governments to decide which will receive their wealth of knowledge. In the midst of the conference one of the aliens defects into outlaw country to prevent the wrong nation from winning that huge advantage. In this unfamiliar terrain the alien is aided by a poor young farmer and sees another way out of the diplomatic stalemate. Concise and direct, Cassutt covers familiar ground, doing best with almost historical vignettes, such as a young man's fearful first visit to town.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (August 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385198469
• ISBN-13: 978-0385198462
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,193,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Cassutt has published fiction (six novels, thirty short stories) and non-fiction (five books, all in the field of human spaceflight, and over two hundred articles). He is also an accomplished television writer and producer, with credits on such series as THE TWILIGHT ZONE, EERIE, INDIANA, and THE DEAD ZONE.