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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: This is the first published collection of short stories by one of the foremost voices in science fiction today. This significant volume contains many characters and situations that later evolved into their own novels. "Mandala" features technologically perfect cities that eject their sinful human occupants, a premise that can be found at the root of Bear's later novel, Strength of Stones. In "Hardfought", Bear brilliantly handles the classic science fiction dilemma of human communication with aliens. Other stories include "The Wind From a Burning Woman" in which a woman holds the world hostage by controlling a giant asteroid; "Scattershot", in which the inhabitants of many universes meet in an undefined limbo space; and "Petra", a story of a world where chaos rules, stone moves and the mind controls reality. Hailed by readers and critics alike, The Venging has been described as "an excellent collection" and its author praised as "one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction field in many a year"--Dragon Magazine

eBook Publisher: e-reads, Published: 1983
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2001

54 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [837 KB], eReader (PDB) [273 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [267 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [234 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [276 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [284 KB], hiebook (KML) [628 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [293 KB], iSilo (PDB) [218 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [273 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [323 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [359 KB]
Words: 79523
Reading time: 227-318 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Greg Bear's first short story collection confirms him as one of the field's distinctive new voices...he has a real flair for new ideas, and he knows how to write convincingly about real people in strange situations...sooner, rather than later, Bear is likely to get the attention he deserves."--PW

"...An exceptional collection. Greg Bear is one of the freshest writers to break into the science fiction and fantasy field in many a year."--Dragon Magazine

"A first rate literary talent."--Fantasy and Science Fiction"

THE WIND FROM A BURNING WOMAN

Five years later the glass bubbles were intact, the wires and pipes were taut, and the city-strung across Psyche's surface like a dewy spider's web wrapped around a thrown rock was still breathtaking. It was also empty. Hexamon investigators had swept out the final dried husks and bones. The asteroid was clean again. The plague was over.

Giani Turco turned her eyes away from the port and looked at the displays. Satisfied by the approach, she ordered a meal and put her work schedule through the processor for tightening and trimming. She had six tanks of air, enough to last her three days. There was no time to spare. The robot guards in orbit around Psyche hadn't been operating for at least a year and wouldn't offer any resistance, but four small pursuit bugs had been planted in the bubbles. They turned themselves off whenever possible, but her presence would activate them. Time spent in avoiding and finally destroying them: one hour forty minutes, the processor said. The final schedule was projected in front of her by a pen hooked around her ear. She happened to be staring at Psyche when the readout began; the effect -- red numerals and letters over grey rock and black space -- was pleasingly graphic, like a film in training.

Turco had dropped out of training six weeks early. She had no need for a final certificate, approval from the Hexamon, or any other nicety. Her craft was stolen from Earth orbit, her papers and cards forged, and her intentions entirely opposed to those of the sixteen corporeal desks. On Earth, some hours hence, she would be hated and reviled.


Copyright (c) 1992 by Greg Bear