Fortress Sol

Elinor, aged about 30, toils on the innermost planet Mercury, exploited as a vast mine of metals and minerals. This is a life of enslavement, of hard physical labour. But now she has a baby son, Alfa. Alfa will be physically strong, but also shows signs of high intelligence - and so he may be selected to be taken to Saturn, where is to be found the highest technology in the Solar System - and a decent life. But as it turns out labourers are going to be in more demand when Alfa is ready to start work, aged about seven. Elinor can''t stand the idea of a life like hers for her baby son - and so she cuts off his right hand , rendering him of no use for manual labour. The Solar System is as it is because, in the 25th century, the Scavengers, alien resource-hunters, arrived in the outer System and demolished Neptune, outermost of the major planets. Then it was discovered that the comet cloud beyond the planets is the rubble of an earlier predation, made before humans could observe and understand. If they have come twice, there is a danger that the Scavengers will return again to pick off more planets - eventually, Earth. And as he grows Alfa comes to suspect that Fortress Sol is built on lies inside as well as outside . . .

Préface
In the far future, humans, believing they are the target of an alien threat, have transformed the Solar System into a single, integrated, defensive fortress - a fortress built around ancient sacred geometries. And people must find a way to live their lives within that fortress . . .

Auteur

Stephen Baxter is the pre-eminent SF writer of his generation. With Terry Pratchett he has co-authored the Long Earth novels. Published around the world he has also won major awards in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan. Born in 1957 he has degrees from Cambridge and Southampton. He lives in Northumberland with his wife.

Visit Stephen Baxter's website at www.stephen-baxter.com.

Texte du rabat

When Rab was a baby, his mother made a decision which would change his life. She feared he would be sent to work in the hellish mines of Mercury, to eke out his life until he was worn out, all in the name of maintaning the defense of the Solar Sytem. But when her desperate attempt to flee with her 2 year old failed, she took a desperate step to save him. She cut off his hand.

Decades later, Rab has been spared the physical hardships he can no longer endure, and is now based on the Mask, the all-encompassing structure which hides the Solar Sytem from alien eyes. And it is during his watch that a spaceship arrives, one which has travelled for a hundred years from a long-forgotten colony planet.

If they pierce the Mask, everything humanity has created will be left open to the alien threat. But this strange ship, bearing an offshoot of the species, may bring something else with them. Hope.