Gryphon (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A ground-breaking page turner in the realm of speculative science fiction by Crawford Kilian.

What can a twenty-five-year-old with a spaceship do in a Solar System invaded by Gryphons? Freedom for Alex Macintosh was meaningless.

About the Author

Crawford Kilian has been around. He's explored Western Canada and even lived in China, but when it comes to writing, he does his homework the new-fashioned way.online. A professional writer and educator, Kilian spends much of his "writing time" in research. For Icequake alone, he put in thousands of hours learning everything he could from a variety of resources about Antarctica and its denizens. The author estimates that he spent six to eight months "getting it right." However, Kilian is quick to assure you that the research is part of the pleasure of writing. It brings believability to the work and a real relationship with the subject matter. From his snowy enclave in Vancouver, Kilian does his research from the comfort of his cozy home using the Web. But, it hasn't always been that way. In the early '80s, this full-time college English professor realized that the Internet was the wave of the future...for writers, teachers, and students. So, he took up his department's challenge to develop writing courses that integrated technology. What started with some phone conferencing is now an expertise in distance education that takes him to numerous speaking engagements each year. Like many educators, Kilian feels that the Web is a good supplement to the classroom, not a replacement for it. He says, "It's not just a valuable tool for research. It also forces us as educators to examine what works and doesn't work in our teaching...in both areas, the real and the virtual classroom." Kilian is also sold on the latest technologies in publishing and has republished most of his out-of-print classics with toExcel. He says, "I thought the books could find a new audience in a new generation, and toExcel offered that opportunity." toExcel is pleased to add this terrific writer/educator to it's stable of republished authors! ************************** Crawford Kilian's writing career has included a decade as regular weekly columnist for the Vancouver Province, eleven novels, two ch

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc (January 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583481176
• ISBN-13: 978-1583481172
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,485,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gryphon, May 8, 2003

By	Donna "dmv39" (New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews

I am not a sci-fi fan, so it takes something really interesting to grab me. This one did and held me with excellent description and "show, not tell" narrative. Sucks even "non sci-fi" reader in, so you forget you're reading and find yourself "experiencing." The plot doesn't even matter because the writing just sweeps you along like a piece of debris in outer space. Sort of like a Star War thing. Good literary adventure to go on.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An overlooked treat, September 17, 2007

By	readersf (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Back in print is this fine book. In the fairly distant future, a peaceful Solar System is invaded by the Gryphons, who have developed a (much) faster than light drive, hitherto thought impossible. This is a well written adventure, and a compulsive page-turner. It has several remarkable features:
1. Very well written. Not as much of that around as there should be.
2. The sort of adventure Heinlein would have loved: a small group of individuals take on a monolithic power in the name of freedom. But, to my mind, more sophisticated than most Heinlein, without the juvenile philosophy and the chest beating. Sorry, but you know what I mean.
3. This was one of the first books to really imagine a future dominated by nanotechnology, just about the same time as "Blood Music". It is early enough that nanotechnology is called "molmechs", the nomenclature still being up in the air. Unlike "Blood Music", its pathbreaking role is often overlooked. This is sad because in this book, nanotechnology is the foundation of daily life.
4. This book, at least in its beginning, is just about the only true Libertarian Utopia I have come across in SciFi. Technology allows each individual to live as autonomous power, doing whatever they want, making love or war on the neighbors as they see fit.