Jfvirey@aol.com wrote:
>> I wonder if A.A.Attanasio has even been discussed in Extropian circles. I
>> personally consider him the best science-fiction and fantasy writer ever
Yeah! Wow! Golly! Get this, Proust!
>From AAA's new novel CENTURIES, extract (presumably selected by the proud
parent) at
http://www.qed.net/rebnj/centext.html
The Machine cast a slackfaced glance over a shoulder glossed with sweat and
cobwebbed
in wet hair, and the bores of her eyes met the bore of Tabor's pistol. The
blue bolt struck
her in the temple, and she flew sideways and collapsed with her startled
eyes locked open
in a rigid death stare.
Rafe von Takawa sat upright as if propelled from a nightmare. Before his
angry face could
blink, the next bolt of bluehot energy burned a hole through his forehead
and cauterized a
path into his brain. He fell back soundlessly on the mat.
Tabor returned the laser pistol to a thigh pocket, and a flimmer of regret
troubled him that
there had been no opportunity to flaunt his victory over his oldest rivals
before killing
them. But a fellow Maat and a machine intelligence were not enemies to be
underestimated. Rafe had helped save his life on Earth at CIRCLE when mad
Nandi
attacked. If he had hesitated, that memory could well have stymied him.
A gasp from behind turned Tabor to confront Ellen
Take that, Updike! Cop an eyeboreful, Joyce! Oh, sorry, they're not sf writers, are they?
Damien Broderick