| Excerpts
From Transcension ...
(to read
an unabridged version of the opening chapters, click
here)
SEED
ORIGIN i :
DEATH
Face
down in a pool of his blood, being kicked to death in
the public thoroughfare by a troop of street ferals,
Abdel-Malek learned that dying arrived just as he'd
always feared it would: with shock, terror and agony.
Death,
it turned out, provided no soothing anesthesia.
Overwhelmed with shame, he squealed and whimpered. The
hardened
cap of a military-surplus boot smashed the side of his
throat, crushing his larynx. Vomiting, scarcely able to
breathe, he could barely hear his wife's screams. She
was frightened, but more than that she was furious.
`Gutless, selfish, stupid cowards,' she shouted.
`Leave him alone!'
A kind of sad, admiring love brushed his fazed
brain. Another boot took him in the ribs, then the
right cheek. Light bloomed; it felt as if his eye had
exploded. He wanted to cover his face, but his arms
would not lift from the pavement. Mohammed Kasim
Abdel-Malek, bon
vivant and pragmatic optimist, B.A. Hons, Juris
Doctor (license lapsed), D. Sc (cog. sci.), more
honorary degrees than he owned senses and limbs,
desperately curled the fingers of his left hand. He was
reaching absurdly in his last moments for assurance:
for the chrome bracelet at his wrist.
The
stupidity of his plight appalled him. The hubris.
Nothing can touch me, I'm that famous guy. He and Alice
had been the last guests to leave. The Greenhouse
weather had been bad for days, more August than early
June, the news had been worse, the dregs of society
skulked in the shadows, waiting in their perfectly
understandable resentment to smash store windows,
snatch baubles and shiny toys.
To read the opening chapters of the novel, click
here.
|
Broderick's
latest novel was released by Tor Books in February,
2002
To
purchase Transcension from amazon.com, click
here.
Amanda
is a brilliant violinist, a mathematical genius, and a
rebel. Impatient for the adult status her society only
grants at age 30, but determined to have a real
adventure first, she seeks thrills at the risk of life
and limb.
Mathewmark,
who lives on a reservation known as the Valley of the
God of One's Choice, is younger than Amanda in
years. But in his society, he is already considered a
man.
When
Amanda and Mathewmark get together, the result is often
humorous, sometimes moving, and ultimately enlightening
for both of them.
Their
unlikely friendship takes place against a backdrop of a
world that is about to change forever.
|
