Crystal Express (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Bruce Sterling
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Stories
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—future history
- Time of Work: Various times between the medieval period and several centuries into the future
- Setting: Various locations on Earth and in space
- Genres: Short fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Extraterrestrial life, Future, Space flight or travel, Space ships, stations, or vehicles, Middle Ages
- Locales: Space, Earth
The Plot
The stories in Crystal Express are grouped into three sections. The first five stories belong to a future history in which the human race has gone into space and contacted other intelligent life-forms. The alien species that appears most often is a reptilian one called the Investors. They are interstellar traders. Humanity itself has split into factions, the two most important of which are the Shapers and the Mechanists. They are similar in that they insist that human beings must change. The Shapers practice genetic engineering, especially on their own...
[The entire page is 921 words long]
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