Ghost Spin
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF CHRIS MORIARTYSPIN STATE
Amazon.com Top 10 Editors’ Pick for Science Fiction & Fantasy 2003
A
Kansas City Star
Noteworthy Book for 2003
Library Journal
Pick for Best First Novel
“
Spin State
is a spiky, detailed, convincing, compelling page-turner, and the science is good too. Chris Moriarty is a dangerous talent.”
—S
TEPHEN
B
AXTER
“Vivid, sexy, and sharply written,
Spin State
takes the reader on a nonstop, white-knuckle tour of quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and the human heart.”
—N
ICOLA
G
RIFFITH
“Knife sharp. An amazing techno-landscape, with characters surfing the outer limits of their humanity, pulling the reader into a scary and seductive future. A thrilling, high-end upgrade of cyberpunk!”
—K
AY
K
ENYON
“Action, mystery, and drama, set against some of the most plausible speculative physics I’ve seen. This is science fiction for grownups who want some ‘wow’ with their ‘what-if.’ ”
—D
AVID
B
RIN
“
Spin State
is an intriguing, fascinating, and totally engrossing—yet truly terrifying—look into the time beyond tomorrow, a time and place where an AI and a military officer face love, betrayal, and worse in a struggle over the shape of a future that already has full genetic engineering, bio-engineered internal software, FTL communications and travel … and the age-old human weaknesses of greed and lust … and the love of power.”
—L. E. M
ODESITT
, J
R
.
“Chris Moriarty is one of the sharpest new talents to come onto the hard-SF scene in years. This stylish book tempts and tantalizes the reader. Moriarty fills it with a multitude of delights: gripping characterization—human and otherwise; a mystery that keeps you guessing; technological hijinks that take you along for the ride; and a story that is as thought-provoking as it is just plain fun. The plot blazes along, at the same time challenging the reader to ask questions about how human relationships will change as we change ourselves. This is a top-notch book.”
—C
ATHERINE
A
SARO
“Moriarty manages fresh insights into humanity—and posthumanity—in this highly atmospheric debut.… Moriarty effectively postulates the Faustian price of enhancing humanity with silicon, of playing God through genetic manipulation. Beneath this complex tale ominously simmers Orwell’s question: If all animals are to be equal, what can prevent some from making themselves more equal than the others?”
—Publishers Weekly
“Moriarty has visualized a very consistent universe here, and the tensions build nicely. It’s not usual that a novel captures my attention exclusively until the last page, but this one did.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“What makes this book really fabulous is the combination of mystery and technology … wonderfully realized wetware, genetic constructs and emergent AI all combined with an almost magically surreal world where reality is only virtual, but the consequences are just as permanent.… A truly remarkable science fiction debut.”
—Affaire de Coeur
(4½
STARS
)
“Moriarty’s debut novel combines a vivid future world of high technology and low politics with sharply drawn characters and a taut story line.”
—Library Journal
“
Spin State
is a novel with countless virtues—a vividly created far-future setting solidly foreshadowed by present-day political issues, a brilliant hard-SF concept, a complex detective story and crackling suspense [and] an unusual romance.”
—Locus
(A
LYX
D
ELLAMONICA
)
“
Spin State
is the most impressive U.S. debut I’ve seen in several years, ambitious and full of inventive energy.”
—F&SF
“An assured and accomplished first novel … an enjoyable and, at times, provocative read. A writer with Moriarty’s abundant talents can only get better.”
—
SCIFI.COM
“Dark, exciting, visceral, riveting, compelling … it’s all that and more. Moriarty has combined the desperate lives of miners with intelligently deployed speculative science and woven it into a story fueled by the best and worst of human drives.”
—
SFREVU.COM
“An impressive hard-sci-fi debut … Moriarty tells an imaginative story [which] turns out to be all too human.”
—Kansas City Star
“Moriarty keeps the action moving, with both overt and subterranean conflicts, hidden agendas and blatant power plays spurring on an incredibly complex plot. A strong debut, using a hard SF McGuffin to spin a thriller in the best cyberpunk mode.”
—Asimov’s Science Fiction
“In
Spin Control
, Moriarty addresses an ultra-high-tech future where ‘humans’ can be anything from soulless biologic robots to individuals whose personalities and abilities have been enhanced and transferred into artificial intelligences. Entire subspecies of humans have been developed where every individual is essentially genetically identical to every other. For old-style humans, even with enhancements, implants, and other adaptations, birthrates are falling, and Earth is a battle zone, ecologically, politically, and militarily. Against this backdrop, Moriarty ‘spins’ a fascinatingly intricate story of deception, alien subversion, betrayals within betrayals … and love under the most difficult of situations.”
—L. E. M
ODESITT
, J
R
.
“This richly textured second novel explores issues of identity and loyalty, swapping quantum mechanics for complexity theory and mystery for suspense.… Where
Spin State
was nominated for awards, this sequel may win them.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In Moriarty’s high-stakes, tension-riddled addition to visions of the posthuman future, the characters have the complexity of motivation and backstory to make this more than just another dire-future thriller.”
—Booklist
“A fine book … twisty and thoughtful.”
—
SFREVU.COM
“The cynical yet somehow still romantic spirit of John le Carré infuses
Spin Control
. The Middle Eastern setting, as well as the shifting sands of loyalties and allegiances, personal and otherwise, that leave not only characters but readers feeling as if there is nothing solid to stand on, nothing and no one that can be trusted, make it as much a traditional spy thriller as it is a science-fiction novel. Moriarty succeeds on both counts. I wrote in my review of
Spin State
that ‘a writer with Moriarty’s abundant talents can only get better.’ She has.”
—
SCIFI.COM
Ghost Spin
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Spectra eBook Edition
Copyright © 2013 by Chris Moriarty
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Spectra, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Spectra and the portrayal of a boxed “s” are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Moriarty, Chris.
Ghost spin / Chris Moriarty.
pages cm
eISBN: 978-0-345-52628-1
I. Title.
PS3613.O749G48 2013
813′.6—dc23 2012046650
Title page image ©
iStockphoto.com/
Tomasz Sowinski
Cover design: Carl Galian
v3.1
Dip the apple in the brew. Let the Sleeping Death seep through.
—“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
I begin to understand Death, which is going on quietly & gradually every minute & will never be a Thing of one particular moment.
—Ada Lovelace
THE CRUCIBLE
The apple was perfect. It glistened on the battered hotel table, a vivid spot of red in the dingy room, reflecting the loaded pistol that lay beside it.