Robert Wilson: Burning Paradise

“We have a genius for war, Cassie. I see evidence of it every day.”

“And a genius for hatred. Sure. But also a genius for love.”

“Our genius for love almost killed us.”

She tucked her hair under her woolen cap. “It made us vulnerable. But it’s not a weakness. It’s a strength.”

“Is it?” He gave her a tentative smile. “I hope you’re right.”

The temperature had dropped a good ten degrees by the time she got back to the car. The streets were only barely passable. But the snow had stopped falling, the wind had subsided, the sky was clear, and it was possible to see the way ahead.

Informal conversations with friends and family were indispensable to the writing of Burning Paradise. It would be impossible to do justice to them all, but I need to single out old friends John S. Barker (for a discussion about the philosophical concept of qualia, which contributed to my conception of the hypercolony and the simulacra) and Taral Wayne (for countless conversations about cosmology, evolution and the nature of sentience).

Readers might be interested to know that the laser-launch technology I gave to the parasitized breeding ground is a real and potentially practical way of putting small payloads into orbit and is currently under investigation by several agencies and aerospace firms. The Atacama Desert has been suggested as a possible launch site.

As a source on insect behavior and the concept of distributed intelligence, E. O. Wilson’s The Social Conquest of Earth and The Superorganism (written with Bert Hölldobler) were useful. For the daunting task of imagining a largely peaceful twentieth-century Europe, Tony Judt’s Postwar was an invaluable resource. And while much has been written on the subject of the Atacama Desert, Lake Sagaris’s Bone and Dream stands out as a deeply thoughtful and wonderfully evocative example.

A Hidden Place

Darwinia

Bios

The Perseids and Other Stories

The Chronoliths

Blind Lake

Spin

Axis

Julian Comstock

Mysterium

Vortex

Burning Paradise

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

BURNING PARADISE

Copyright © 2013 by Robert Charles Wilson

All rights reserved.

Edited by Teresa Nielsen Hayden

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First Edition: November 2013

Printed in the United States of America

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