Red Dust (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Paul J. McAuley
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—dystopia
- Time of Work: Ten thousand years in the future
- Setting: Mars
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Dystopian fiction
- Subjects: Future, Superman or superbeings, Mars, Artificial intelligence, Viruses
- Locales: Mars
The Plot
Scotsman Paul J. McAuley, a past winner of the Philip K. Dick Award, proves himself to be one of the more inventive writers on the science-fiction scene with Red Dust. As in his critically acclaimed Eternal Light (1991), McAuley presents a future speculation that is dystopian in its orientation by combining science with high-tech mysticism and spiritual allegory.
The novel begins with a simple sentence: “Mars was dying.” The reader is catapulted into a world that is at once familiar and odd. It is the second year of the Silence of the Emperor....
[The entire page is 953 words long]
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