This Alien Shore (Daw Books Collectors) [Hardcover]

C.S. Friedman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Daw Books Collectors | Publication Date: September 1, 1998

In the first age of Earth's colonization of space, the FTL drive that powered the starships caused severe genetic damage in the colonists. Generations later, a new mutated race arises, one which can safely conduct people between the stars. But since they use their ability to tightly control all interstellar commerce, rival interests soon seek to break the monopoly. And when a lab-raised young woman narrowly escapes kidnapping, even as a rogue computer virus wreaks havoc on the interstellar "Net," she must flee into "alien shores," evading her pursuers while attempting to uncover the secrets of her own existence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The spaces between space are full of dragons. The colonists on Guera went mad--one of the plague of mutations that affected all human colonies and drove Earth back from the stars--but their controlled madness meant that they and they alone could cope with hyperspace, could ask the Earth humans they and other new human species hate for past betrayal back into space. But a virus is infecting the human-machine interfaces by which they live and stay sane, and Earth's racists are the prime suspects. Meanwhile, Jamisia, the subject of endless experiments and host to a myriad of alternate personalities, flees Earth's bloody corporate politics in pursuit of safe haven--and everyone wants a piece of her. The hacker known as Phoenix just wants revenge on the makers of the virus for the death of friends.

C.S. Friedman's galaxy full of altered humanities and vicious politics has room in it for tenderness and honor; this is a satisfying space opera because it is full of characters, some of whom will do the right thing. She is good on what stays the same when things change--the austere, mad, security expert Masada and the sweet slob Phoenix are recognizable types, but attractively individualized. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

In a far-future interstellar society, star travel is monopolized by the Outspace Guild, which controls the only method of faster-than-light travel that doesn't result in horrible mutations among the star travelers. Now a deadly software virus is attacking Guild members, so the Guild's investigators, led by Dr. Masada, must learn where it came from and how to defeat it before interstellar society breaks down. Meanwhile, a young woman, Jamisia Shido, has to flee for her life from a space habitat near Earth, where all mutations are forbidden and launched, if discovered, into Guild-controlled interstellar space. Secret illegal therapy for a disaster that killed her parents has left Jamisia with an acute form of multiple-personality disorder?and may have made her the key in the fight against the virus. The plot of this stout novel is simple, with few really original details, and the Guild and Jamisia subplots fail to connect until far into the story. Still, Friedman (the Coldfire trilogy) keeps her tale moving at a vigorous pace that's boosted through an abundance of well-chosen details, such as those accruing to the characterization of Jamisia's unruly guest personality. The novel may read like a cross between cyberpunk and Star Wars, but it is likely to hold readers' interest tenaciously. The ending neither requires nor precludes a sequel, so readers are left with some hope of again encountering Jamisia and the duel between the Guild and Earth that backdrops her adventures.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: DAW Hardcover (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886777984
• ISBN-13: 978-0886777982
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,019,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two thumbs up for concept and accuracy, December 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: This Alien Shore (Daw Books Collectors) (Hardcover)

I'm not really a big scifi fan, but a friend recommended C.S. Friedman, and when I saw This Alien Shore at the store I picked it up and took a look. Pretty soon I was sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisle with my nose buried in the book. (Fortunately it's the sort of bookstore where that's perfectly normal behavior)I finished it today, two trips to the bookstore later, and I think it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. The setting and history was intriguing,especially the problems caused by the FTL drive and the tensions between the variants and the humans, and the whole thing was obviously very thoroughly researched. I'm a neuroscience major, and I thought the concept of brainware was very well done, and the neuroanatomy and physiology she touched on in relation to it was quite accurate. I had a lot of fun trying to deconstruct Gueran society and attempting to figure out what disorder each Gueran had. (Masada and the other irdu are obviously autistic, but the others are harder to place) I'm glad that the author wasn't more specific in decribing the Gueran culture; it's more thought provoking to let people fill in the blanks themselves. I hope that this book doesn't take too long to come out in paperback so I can get my own copy and read it to pieces, and I hope Friedman writes a sequel or another book set in the same world(s), preferably sometime soon

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh take on Cyberspace, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: This Alien Shore (Daw Books Collectors) (Hardcover)

As usual, C. S. Friedman delivers an engrossing world with fleshed out characters in "This Alien Shore."

T.A.S. describes a world where humans are again a far-flung culture, due to a mixture of space travel technologies. The first was abandoned after humanity realized the genetic cost, and colonies of humanity that no longer resembled Homo sapiens were left, with differing results, to fend for themselves. Later, a second method was discovered. One guild rigidly controls passage through spatial "nodes," making them virtual masters of a human space. But now, the ancestors of man are aliens to each-other, and sometimes even themselves.

Despite mankind's spread there is enormous connectivity: data speeds forth faster than the speed of light. Nearly everyone is immersed in a cyber-world (called the outernet) of external data and headware processing power. Real time programs filter your sensory input, provide etiquette tips, monitor and adjust your health, and provide even the poorest with access to news and information on demand. Yet this connectivity does not always bring people closer - why talk to your neighbor if the inside of your head is so much more interesting? And even shared data can be differently interpreted by the alien mindsets the genetic changes have wrought.

These elements combine to craft a diverse universe with common threads, leading to some thoughtful questions: Do we really have more in common with each-other than we have our un-resolvable differences? Can you really now what is going on in a person's head? At what point could we draw a line and say, "this is not human." T.A.S does not offer the answers, but the insights of the characters point to several different possibilities for these questions.

I do have some reservations about the book. The first is a minor quibble: in some of her books (such as "In Conquest Born") we get to visit people peripherally involved or not involved at all with the main plot. This gives us more insight into how the featured societies work. I miss that in this book. Perhaps that would have solved a problem with atmosphere: T.A.S. continuously reminds us how thoroughly her world is data-linked and how nigh impossible it is to keep digital privacy, yet almost every character seems able to circumvent this. I would have liked to see how this effected (both positively and negatively) "normal" people.

More importantly, the plot of this book is not as strong as the characterizations or the compelling nature of the universe it narrates. For me, neither of the main plots held surprises. In brief, in plot A someone has released a computer virus into the outernet and the characters are searching for a way to neutralize it. In plot B, a special girl searches for identity and safety in predatory universe. While some energy is attained at the intersections of the two plots, individually neither are strong. The speed of space travel in this universe dictates many of the pacing elements, but it takes a lot of sense of urgency out of the events.

T.A.S's other strengths more than compensated for that, it they kept me engrossed throughout the entire novel. This book is an ambitious undertaking, and I am happy to write that for the most part it is a successful one. C. S. Friedman continues to take new approaches to even well established genres. This book may not be a "must have" but it is more than worth the time to read it.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book - good characters, 2 mysteries, & politics, June 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: This Alien Shore (Paperback)

A very good book. The characters are engaging, the 2 mysteries (one whodunit, one howdunit) are kept going til the end, and the politics are believable. For a 565 page armbuster, it reads fairly quickly. The author keeps away from long digressions, but gives a good feel for the backstory. The ending (on reflection) is a little "and now the jigsaw puzzle pieces all fit together-ish", but not grating or unbelieveable.

The story, in brief, is that of 2 characters, a young girl from Earth with multiple personalities, who may hold the key to breaking a guild's monopoly on interstellar travel, and a computer security expert hired by the Guild to find the cure for and creator of a dangerous computer virus which threatens the Guild's pilots.

Many of the story elements are reminiscent of the work of Cordwainer Smith. After reading this book, I had the strange desire to planoform, kill some rats and dragons, visit some Scanners and Underpeople, and have tea on Alpha-Ralpha Boulevard with Lord of the Instrumentality Jestocoast and the 'Lady Who Sailed the Soul'.

Reading this one should go fairly high on your list of things to do.

my stars: 1, don't bother; 2, maybe from the library; 3, wait for the paperback; 4, read it; 5, a classic.