Description:

From the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author: “High adventure, considerable tension, and—most important—social consciousness” (Harlan Ellison).

Simeon Krug is the king of the universe. A self-made man, he is the Bill Gates of the era, having built a megacommercial empire on the backs of his products: androids, genetically engineered human slaves. Having amassed incredible wealth, his next major goal is to communicate with aliens living in an uninhabitable world, sending a mysterious signal. This requires building a mile high tower in the arctic tundra.

The androids want civil equality with humans, but are divided on the best means to the goal—political agitation or religious devotion to Krug, their creator. And Krug’s son, Manuel, is reluctant to step into his role as heir to his father’s empire. **

Review

“A multi levelled work of high adventure, considerable tension and social consciousness.” —Harlan Ellison

About the Author

Robert Silverberg is one of science fiction’s most beloved writers, and the author of such contemporary classics as Dying Inside , Downward to the Earth , and Lord Valentine’s Castle. He is a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the winner of five Nebula Awards and five Hugo Awards. In 2004 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America presented him with the Grand Master Award. Silverberg is one of twenty-nine writers to have received that distinction.