Book Summary and Reviews of Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson

Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson

Burning Paradise

by Robert Charles Wilson

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  • Published:
  • Nov 2013, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Cassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015 - but it's not our United States, and it's not our 2015.

Cassie's world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn't what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades - back to the dawn of radio communications - human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. That by interfering with our communications, this entity has tweaked history in massive and subtle ways. That humanity is, for purposes unknown, being farmed.

Cassie's parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Since then, the survivors have scattered and gone into hiding. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. Others live nearby. For eight years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked.

Until now. Because the killers are back. And they're not human.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. This is a deeply thoughtful, deliberately discomfiting book that will linger long and uneasily in the reader's mind." - Publishers Weekly

"Regulars know where Wilson is coming from and probably won't mind, but it's impossible to avoid just a tinge of disappointment." - Kirkus

This information about Burning Paradise was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Born in California, Robert Charles Wilson grew up in Canada. He is the author of many acclaimed SF novels, including Darwinia, Blind Lake, Julian Comstock, and the Hugo Award–winning Spin.

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