Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time.
The novel's topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other's perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue," and the other is—you!
The Confederation is on the brink of collapse, both politically and economically, as the 'possessed' infiltrate more worlds. Quinn Dexter is on the loose on Earth, destroying the giant arcologies one at a time. As Louise Kavanagh tries to track him down, she acquires strange and powerful allies whose goals don't quite match her own.
The campaign to liberate Mortonridge from the possessed degenerates into a horrendous land battle, the kind not seen by humankind for six hundred years. Meanwhile, Joshua Calvert and Syrinx fly their starships on a mission to find the Sleeping God—an alien race believes this enigmatic entity holds the key to overthrowing the possessed.
As time runs out for civilization, those who fight on must join forces and form new alliances. But an enemy's enemy isn't always a friend. The war is desperate on all fronts, with battles fought on a scale unseen for centuries. Rumors suggest an ancient space-faring race faced this same threat and survived with the help of the Sleeping God. If it truly exists, it might be our only hope to avert catastrophe.
Not every fallen angel comes from heaven...
The ancient menace has finally escaped from Lalonde, shattering the Confederation's peaceful existence. Those who succumbed to it have acquired godlike powers, but now follow a far from divine gospel as they advance inexorably from world to world.
On planets and asteroids, individuals battle for survival against the strange and brutal forces unleashed upon the universe. Governments teeter on the brink of anarchy, the Confederation Navy is dangerously over-stretched, and a dark messiah prepares to invoke his own version of the final Night.
In such desperate times, the last thing the galaxy needs is a new and terrifyingly powerful weapon. Yet Dr Alkad Mzu is determined to retrieve the Alchemist - so she can complete her thirty-year vendetta to slay a star. This means Joshua Calvert has to find Dr. Mzu and bring her back before the Alchemist can be reactivated.
But he's not alone in the chase, and there are people on both sides who have their own ideas about how to use the ultimate doomsday device.
Book four in Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune Chronicles--one of the most significant sagas in the history of literary science fiction.
Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world's savior, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity's future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him near immortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past thirty-five hundred years.
Leto's rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has made not only his appearance but his morality inhuman. A rebellion, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family, has risen to oppose the despot's rule. But Siona is unaware that Leto's vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted--or could possibly conceive.