Darwin’s Paradox

Toronto, ON ~ Bakka-Phoenix Science Fiction Books.

It’s Canada’s oldest science fiction bookstore. Located in Toronto’s funky Queen Street West, this shop has hosted many a big name science fiction writer signing, including Robert J. Sawyer, who used to work there during his salad days. Those of you passing through Toronto, Canada, or who live there, you can now find my book, “Darwin’s Paradox” on the shelves of this genre bookstore. And if you can’t find my book, it’s only because it’s temporarily sold out! (so I was told the other day). More were on order and may have arrived by now.

I will nonetheless be appearing there this Friday to sign the last remaining copy (or others, if they’ve arrived) as Bakka waits for more to come in (very soon!). If you live in or are visiting Toronto, please consider visiting this independent bookstore dedicated to good science fiction, and support the independent bookstore industry by buying something from the knowledgeable and friendly staff (well, you know which book I’m going to suggest!).
Here’s their address:

Bakka-Phoenix Books
697 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6J1E6
CANADA

Worldwide Release

DARWIN’S PARADOX IS OUT TODAY!

It’s been an incredible journey bringing Darwin’s Paradox to light!  It has just been awe-inspiring to watch this project develop into a global affair… 

Please join us in celebrating!

The book is currently being sold at:

Amazon United States

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

Amazon United Kingdom

Amazon France

Amazon Japan

The book can be found throughout North America (both at stores and through their online webstores) at:
Barnes & Noble United States
Borders.com United States
Chapters-Indigo Canada
White Dwarf Books Vancouver, B.C.
The Sentry Box Calgary, Alberta
Blackwell Books United Kingdom

It is also being offered through various online bookstores as an ebook!

You can also buy or order the book at Target , one of the major department stores in the U.S. as well as India and Malaysia.   It can also be purchased through Wal-Mart, a major retailer, or online at Buy.com, yet another major retail store.

It’s been only half-a-day and I noticed that it’s ALREADY temporarily out of stock/sold out at most stores. YOU did that! Thank you so much! Those of you who haven’t ordered it yet; not to worry…go ahead and order…more are coming!

Here is the Press Release from PRWeb:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/darwins-paradox/nina-munteanu/prweb568631.htm

Shine on SFgirl, shine on!

~~~~~~~~~~~

One day away from “Darwin’s Paradox” launch at Amazon (and other bookstores around the world)…I’m kind of beside myself, looking on and whispering: “Hey! Comb your hair, girl!”…

Oh, in honor of the book, Karen Mason created the really neat widget of “Darwin’s Paradox” over to the right there. If you like the book, or what I write here, or just plain like “me” (embarrassed grin) … and want to support/advertize the book, please go ahead and put the widget on your site. I thank you so much for your support, dear reader.

 A World on the Brink of Violent Change…

When an intelligent virus and an intelligent machine community conspire to threaten the world with destruction and chaos, the only person who can save humanity is the woman who caused the cataclysm in the first place. Compelled by the virus awoken inside her, Julie Crane returns to the city from which she fled, accused of atrocity, in an attempt to redeem herself and fulfill her final destiny as Darwin’s Paradox, the key to the evolution of an entire civilization.

“An exciting novel…an engaging read…a thrill ride that makes us think and tugs the heart.” — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of “Hominids” ( )

The cover art was done by the accomplished (Croatian) science fiction and fantasy illustrator, Tomislav Tikulin  of tomtikulin-art.com.  His artwork is transporting, evokative, eerie and thoughtful.   Darwin’s Paradox is honored to be graced with his vision.

Darwin’s Paradox is published by Dragon Moon Press, and is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

Fifteen

“Okay, let me do all the talking,” Daniel said sternly to his willful daughter as they peered through the bushes at their gateway into Icaria, the glass tower rising from the outer-city rubble that rippled in the heat. “Remember, I used to live here.”

“That was twelve years ago, Dad,” she reminded him. “Things probably changed a lot since then. Like that skyship we borrowed.”

He frowned at her and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “Smart aleck,” he murmured. She was alluding to his less than impressive ability to pilot the skyship, despite the fact that he used to drive tubejets, Icaria’s commuter trains. Once Angel had convinced him to use the skyship, it was she who eventually figured out how to drive the odious thing and navigate to the towers of Icaria. The skyship had saved them three weeks of travel, which meant that they were now hot on Julie’s heels. Daniel noticed Angel staring at the towering structure that rose like a shining sentinel out of the ruins of the surface city and realized with wry amusement that she’d never seen a building higher than one story before.

“It’s magnificent,” she said.

“Is it?” he teased, following her gaze up. Wait until you see the inside, he thought ~

Angel tugged the sleeve of his leather shirt. She looked concerned. “Dad, do you hear it too?” To his puzzled frown, she explained, “Those funny sounds . . . in my head.”

“Your mother heard them too.” He patted her on the shoulder as if to console her. “Don’t worry, they’re just the lower forms of artificial intelligence in the city talking to each other. You can hear them for the same reason that you and your mom can ‘talk’ to each other. Just ignore them.”

“Okay, Dad,” she said, tilting and shaking her head as if trying to get rid of water in her ears. That confirmed it: his daughter was a veemeld like her mother. And like her mother, one with special talents, he thought.

After stashing their packs, Daniel approached the building. He glanced down at the old service card he’d kept all these years and wondered if it would still work on the entrance door. This was not exactly the place he wanted to be. In fact, it was the last place he wanted to be. No great memories here. Except meeting his beloved Julie. She was the best thing that happened to him in Icaria. Now he had to go back in and try to find her and get her out. And he didn’t think it would be easy. First he had to convince his stubborn wife to leave. Then he had to convince Icaria to let her go. He thought of another possibility, one that had ached deep inside him and surfaced now. There was the awful but very possible chance that she was in no shape to leave or was even dead. He recalled those assassins she’d lured away from camp, for instance. Who had seized his wife? What if they’d taken her to the DP and conducted debilitating experiments on her? Turned her into a half-machine, eyes vacant and tubes coiling out of her into some immense A.I. device ~

“Daddy?” Angel looked at him expectedly.

“Think they still speak English?” Daniel winked at her, then drew in a deep breath.

In a few springing steps Angel beat him to the door. When she tried the door it refused to open. She turned back to her father with a frown.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her with a smirk. “This might work.” He held out the old card. “And if it doesn’t, I’ll find some other way. I was pretty good with technical stuff in my day,” he said, recalling how he’d tapped into the cyber-network to feed and clothe his fellow techno-slummers in the inner city. He extended the card, secretly wondering if they were setting off some alarm inside, and couldn’t pass it over the reader. His hand didn’t want to do it.

Angel took it gently from his hand and waved the card and they heard a soft click. Angel shrieked gleefully. “Look! The door’s opening!”

Too easy, Daniel thought and managed a wry smile. I’m starting to think like my wife. He put a finger to his lips, indicating silence, and walked through the open doorway. It led into an empty hallway with another door. Once they entered, he shut the outside Exit door behind him and felt a strange foreboding he couldn’t shake off. Exhaling, he led Angel to the next door. She was looking around her at the smooth peach-coloured walls and floor with interest. Just you wait, little one, he thought, waving his card at the next door. There’s more, he thought. So much more . . .

When he opened the inner door, they were assaulted by a dizzying cacophony of sounds, smells and images that made Angel start with surprise and gawk. Despite his unease with this place, Daniel couldn’t help laughing at his overwhelmed daughter. She’d just entered her first mall.

~~~~

A lot was the same. But a lot was different too, Daniel thought, noticing the inordinately high number of droids in the milling crowd as he surveyed Darwin Mall with his daughter and fought from wincing at every booming sound; he hadn’t remembered this place so noisy. Daniel swallowed self-consciously as they navigated the moving sea of dazzling colours. Instead of quietly blending in, they stood out of the crowd in their faded clothes like blazing holo ads.

Angel’s excitement drew him out of his dark thoughts and he let his gaze drift beyond the crowd. He’d forgotten how splendid Darwin Mall was with its vaulted arches of white light, intoxicating music and heady perfumes. As he watched Angel gawking in wide-eyed wonder, he was keenly aware of the mall’s alluring qualities. As though she’d entered an enchanted land, Angel kept snapping her head left and right then up to catch everything.

She pirouetted and twirled giddily as if animated by some invisible puppeteer. As if afraid to miss something. Like the giant moving holos above . . . the rushing sound of Icarians who sounded like a flock of chattering birds . . . the many droids that plied through the sea of people like shiny vessels . . . the glittering shops and restaurants and strobing signs that beckoned even the most seasoned Icarian with their alluring messages of pleasure and delights.

Once Angel had become used to all the people, she maneuvered the crowd easily, pulling Daniel along and bombarding him with questions: “What are those things they wear on their heads?”

“Vee-sets, darling. Like wearing a vee-com.”

“What’s a vee-com?”

“It’s a machine that thinks for you.” Big frown.

“The people look like machines,” she said. He had to agree; some looked mostly machine. Then Angel’s eyes lit up, “Who are they? How come they can fly like that?” Pointing to the holo ads floating above them.

“Those are holos, three-dimensional projections. They’re not real, Angel.” The feeling of discomfort, of conspicuousness returned.

“Look at that!” Pulling him toward a park. “They stuck part of the heath inside the mall!” Acutely aware that people were staring at them now.

“I think we should leave the mall, darling . . .” He sensed the crowd drawing away from them as if they had some disease ~

“Show me your ID,” a baritone voice commanded. Daniel turned, hand still clutching Angel’s, and felt the surge of alarm. It was a Pol dressed in beetle black. The crowd continued to swarm around them, leaving an empty space around the trio.

With a convulsive swallow, Daniel fought from cowering and started to stammer an incoherent reply, when Angel spoke up, “We lost them. Are you a cyborg?”

The Pol’s mouth grew stern, eyes hidden beneath his opaque visor. He towered over Daniel like a behemoth. Everything about him was huge. His chest distended like a barrel and his arms were as thick as Daniel’s legs. Ignoring Angel’s question, he asked Daniel in an unfriendly voice, “How did you manage to lose your I.D.s?”

“We-we . . .” Daniel stuttered desperately, his mind blank.

“We came in from Icaria-6 and left our I.D.s on the transport,” Angel said with a friendly smile.

The Pol decided wisely to direct his next questions to the girl and bending a little to look at her directly, he asked in a softer voice, “What’s your name?”

“Angel,” she said before Daniel could stop her. “Angel Woods. And that’s my dad, Daniel.” She pointed to Daniel, who was trying hard not to look agitated. But Angel seemed to have disarmed the Pol. The man was almost smiling.

“What’s your business here?” asked the Pol, now glancing at Daniel.

Daniel started, “We’re here to ~”

“Look for my mother,” Angel said. “Julie Crane.”

Time stopped.

Daniel’s stomach heaved. His heart hammered and he thought of seizing Angel and pelting out of there. Then his gaze fell on the Pol’s gun.

“I see,” the Pol said. His mouth tightened and it was obvious that he knew who Julie Crane was. “I think you better come with me.” His hand now rested on the gun.

“Do you know where she is?” Angel asked him, completely unaware of what she’d done.

“The legendary Julie Crane?” A smile finally slid across the Pol’s rough face. “I might.”