- Mass Market Paperback: 513 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group (1 Oct 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 055358023X
- ISBN-13: 978-0553580235
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.6 x 2.9 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,295,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
There is a fine line between transformation and ruin....
Twenty-four-year-old Reeve Calder has spent his life on a high-tech space station, watching as terraforming gradually fails on his home planet of Lithia--a failure that has doomed the colonists stranded there to short, brutish lives. Reeve's dream has always been to rebuild Lithia. But when a mysterious explosion destroys the station, forcing Reeve to crash-land on Lithia's blood-hued soil, he soon learns that the reality of saving a dying planet is quite different from what he imagined. For Gabriel Bonhert, former captain of the space station, has set in motion a world cataclysm, using a fatal probe that will travel down the fiery pathway of a deep mantle plume.
Now, to save the homeland he has never known, Reeve is caught in a race against time to reach Bonhert's base in the Rift Valley, a remote volcanic gateway to the hidden heart of Lithia. His staunchest ally may be a feral girl who alone seems enthralled by what Lithia is becoming, and whose enigmatic past holds the key to startling possibilities. As the old Lithia struggles to be reborn in a tide of toxic red flora creeping across the oxygen-starved planet, Reeve forges onward, coming into conflict with savage enclaves of colonists, a doomsday genemorphing cult, and a mysterious alien race with its own intentions for the planet--intentions that may include humanity's slavery or their terrible transformation....
Twenty-four-year-old Reeve Calder has spent his life on a high-tech space station, watching as terraforming gradually fails on his home planet of Lithia--a failure that has doomed the colonists stranded there to short, brutish lives. Reeve's dream has always been to rebuild Lithia. But when a mysterious explosion destroys the station, forcing Reeve to crash-land on Lithia's blood-hued soil, he soon learns that the reality of saving a dying planet is quite different from what he imagined. For Gabriel Bonhert, former captain of the space station, has set in motion a world cataclysm, using a fatal probe that will travel down the fiery pathway of a deep mantle plume.
Now, to save the homeland he has never known, Reeve is caught in a race against time to reach Bonhert's base in the Rift Valley, a remote volcanic gateway to the hidden heart of Lithia. His staunchest ally may be a feral girl who alone seems enthralled by what Lithia is becoming, and whose enigmatic past holds the key to startling possibilities. As the old Lithia struggles to be reborn in a tide of toxic red flora creeping across the oxygen-starved planet, Reeve forges onward, coming into conflict with savage enclaves of colonists, a doomsday genemorphing cult, and a mysterious alien race with its own intentions for the planet--intentions that may include humanity's slavery or their terrible transformation....
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First Sentence
Reeve Calder watched from two hundred miles overhead as the planetary winds smeared the ash cloud eastward. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Reeve Calder watched from two hundred miles overhead as the planetary winds smeared the ash cloud eastward. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
An excellent SF adventure with intelligence
31 Dec 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Contrary to one reviewer, I find the writing in this book to be quite good . . . something I don't often find, as I am a published writer myself (with 7 books under my belt) and a long time reader of SF. It's rare that I'm able to look forward to returning to a book just for pleasure. I'm utterly caught up in the many-layered stories of the several characters, and have no trouble keeping them separate in my mind. I'm quite envious of the author's grasp of any number of concepts, and the sheer scope of this book. I look forward to reading her other books as well.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Not a masterpiece, but great characters and suspense
22 Jan 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lithia is a planet which humans have tried to terraform but have failed; it is now reverting to its original state. What's left of the colonists live now in 'claves' (enclaves) who are slowly drifting towards primitivism and are consumed by illnesses; only a small number have remained on the former space station, not losing the scientific knowledge. A spaceship is coming to Lithia, interested in reterraforming it, only the colonists still on the space station only want to escape the planet and thus devise a plan to geologically 'attack' Lithia so the ship will not stay. Add to this a strange decadent alien race, the orthong, who have also chosen Lithia as their home.
The book follows the treks of several characters.
First, a young man, Reeve Calder, together with a middle-aged woman named Marie, leave the space station in order to try to stop the plan to destroy Lithia. On the way, they meet a courageous claver named Spar with a no-nonsense attitude who is accompanying a strange girl named Loon. This girl seems to be adapting to Lithia in ways nobody understands and may hold the key to the survival of humanity.
Second, we see the team that plans to destroy the planet at work, through the eyes of a young boy who doesn't quite know what's happening around him. (This is the least interesting part of the book.)
And third, we follow a claver woman named Nerys who seeks the help of the orthong in order to survive. This story did not start quite so engaging, but looking back on it I think it was the most interesting of all. She slowly learns to communicate with the orthong (a very secretive race who think humans are a lower species) and even struggingly becomes friends with one of them, rising from her position as a child-bearer to that of a quasi-adviser.
There are not so many original ideas in this book, certainly nothing that would come as a breakthrough; but still, the story is told nicely, with a good rhythm, and is well put together. I followed the adventures of all characters with much interest; I cannot say I was unable to put down the book, though.
What I enjoyed most were the characters. They are all very distinct and complex personalities, and you can sympathize with each of them, understand what motivates and drives them. There is not one unjustified action or thought on their part, even when the decisions they make are not always for the best. They are all very human...
This book was pretty different in style from 'The Seeds Of Time'. That book had great SF ideas, but the writing style and the characters were not so good. This is the writing of an author who has evolved and is more sure about herself. I will certainly continue to read her books.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful hard science fiction adventure
5 Oct 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
RIFT is a complicated, exciting, heartrending, satisfying page-turner. This is a terrific novel, with characters you won't forget, and spiced by real honest-to-goodness science. The images of a terraformed planet reverting are fantastic, and there are both aliens and humans to care about. Don't miss this great read.
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