The Eleventh Gate

Warring families and philosophies drive this complex science fiction thriller from Hugo and Nebula award–winner Kress (Sea Change). Refugees from a dying Earth escape via a mysterious stargate leading to the Eight Worlds system. They divide these worlds between three political factions: the totalitarian Peregoy Corporation, the Landry Libertarian Alliance, and the planet Polyglot, a “patchwork of individual nations” and economies. Then a new stargate appears, sparking a race to claim it and whatever world waits on the other side. Ambitious Tara Landry, heir to the Landry Alliance, hatches a hare-brained scheme to prevent the reignited tensions between factions from breaking into war. But when Tara’s plan goes awry, war becomes inevitable. Meanwhile, Philip Anderson, a Polyglot philosopher/physicist and the object of Tara’s unrequited romantic fixation, undergoes experimental brain surgery allowing him to merge with the 11th gate and wield its power at his whim. As the war escalates, the ruthless Peregoy and Landry families uncover generational divisions within their own ranks as dangerous as the military challenges they face. This swift, political story proves a rip-roaring diversion. (May)