Ian McDonald - Desolation Road

“McDonald is a truly original stylist, somewhat reminiscent of Jack Vance, yet still somehow unique. This is a dangerous trick for a writer to attempt, because if he fails the book will be unreadable. McDonald pulls it off, and his prose sings… the author tells a real story populated by real characters. Desolation Road and its inhabitants will haunt you… poetic, moving, and unforgettable. It deserves to be a classic.”

“The quality of the writing is superb…. Most of the truly gigantic cast are memorable and distinct. There is enough invention in this one novel to fuel sixty thousand trilogies… this is a strange book and its strangeness makes it memorable. Unpack your sense of wonder and buy a ticket to Desolation Road. You won’t regret it.”

“…not since Walter Miller’s master work A Canticle for Leibowitz have I been so profoundly affected by a writer’s breadth of vision and prescience…. I have seen the future and it is Desolation Road .”

Brasyl

Cyberabad Days

River of Gods

Published 2009 by Pyr®, an imprint of Prometheus Books

Desolation Road . Copyright © 1988 by Ian McDonald. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McDonald, Ian, 1960–

Desolation Road / by Ian McDonald.

p. cm.

Originally published: New York : Bantam Books, 1988.

ISBN 978–1–59102–744–7 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Mars (Planet)—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6063.C38D47 2009

823’.914—dc22

2009013382

Printed in the United States on acid-free paper