Cradle of Splendor

Widely acclaimed and wildly intelligent, the fiction of Patricia Anthony has been praised as “highly accomplished” by the New York Times, and “exciting” by the Washington Post. Now Anthony unleashes the most ambitious, most spellbinding novel of her skyrocketing career, exploring the human need for everything “alien” to come from somewhere far away-when the alien thoughts and desires that frighten us most come from deep within. A very powerful, very human novel from an astronomical talent …

Cradle of Splendor

Brazil's first manned space launch goes horribly wrong. The boosters sputter, and fail. The world holds its breath, expecting the rocket to plummet to earth. But it doesn't, It shoots into orbit-with no boosters, seemingly no propulsion at all. Impossible … but the world saw it happen.

Now the world wants to know how it was done

CNN, live

... and at the end there, that is the general who 6 years ago sent tank into the streets of Brasilia to give Anna Maria Bonfin in absolute control of the country. General, ah, Fernando Machado the man on her left, and the boy ... I'm not sure ...

Susan? Should we attach any importance to the general's placement at the end of the row and Director Carvalho at her right hand?

I'm really ... Sorry, Bernie. There's quite a bit of blowing dust. It's windy here, as it usually is in this interior desert state. As you can see, the flags are flapping. Uh, in answer to your question, no, I don't think we can read anything into

... Certainly there's some rivalry between the army and, I guess you could call O.S. a mixture of FBI and CIA-Ah.

And here's the first national anthem.

Short program.

Yes, and right on time.

As usual, President Bonfin cuts right to the chase. We should point out that there is a lot riding on the president's shoulders. But it looks like they couldn't have asked for a better day for a launch. Hardly a cloud in the sky ...

Cover Art: Stephen Sweet

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, April 1996 by Ace

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eISBN: 123-0-00030-963-5

Electronic version by Baen Books and Event Horizon EBooks/Event Horizon Publishing Group