Polostan - (Bomb Light) by Neal Stephenson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the first installment in a monumental new series--an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age.

The first installment in Neal Stephenson's Bomb Light cycle, Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB.

Set against the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century, Polostan is an inventive, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining historical epic, and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.

Review Quotes

"Stephenson is a towering talent whose discursive writing style meshes smoothly with the complexity of this plot and its characters." - Library Journal

"The first installment in Stephenson's historical epic paints an engrossing picture of the United States during the Great Depression, the Soviet Union in its tumultuous and violent early years, and the looming threat of the technological advancements that will soon lead to the atomic bomb and the space race. . . . A deeply immersive historical epic." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Stephenson is a writer of exuberant prose who revels in embracing big ideas." - New York Times

"Polostan is by far the most engaging book I have read this year. . . . Stephenson has said that his superpower is writing novels and he may well be right." - Book and Film Globe

"Neal Stephenson's enthralling new novel, Polostan, drops readers into a bloody, inspiring, conflict-ridden, and pivotal period of the early 20^th century. . . With its flair for characterization, precision of language, witty apercus, and fecundity of events, the novel delivers what we've come to expect from the author of such fantastical classics as The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Cryptonomicon. . . . Assuming the subsequent books are as good as this one, Stephenson might end up with a series that rivals Michael Moorcock's Pyat Quartet and Edward Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet as a vivid and canny dissection of a century unlike any other." - Washington Post

"Neal Stephenson's enthralling new novel, Polostan, drops readers into a bloody, inspiring, conflict-ridden, and pivotal period of the early 20^th century. . . With its flair for characterization, precision of language, witty apercus, and fecundity of events, the novel delivers what we've come to expect from the author of such fantastical classics as The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Cryptonomicon." - Washington Post

"Stephenson is one of speculative fiction's most meticulous architects. . . .Termination Shock manages to pull off a rare trick, at once wildly imaginative and grounded." - New York Times Book Review

"With meticulously rendered action scenes, surprising plot twists, relatable, off-kilter characters and charming dialogue, [Stephenson's] books are page-turners. His latest proves no exception . . . Termination Shock deals brilliantly and innovatively with our era's most pressing existential matter--while delivering stratospheric gigatons of carefully engineered delight." - Washington Post

"This book is the rare climate thriller that's realistic about political stonewalling in the face of disaster yet unafraid to imagine a possible future where people might actually come together and try to save civilization. The kind of climate-change fiction we all need." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Termination Shock

"The novel is classic Stephenson: fiercely intelligent, weird, darkly witty, and boldly speculative. . . . Stephenson has become one of the most revered science fiction writers of his time." - Publishers Weekly on Termination Shock

"Neal Stephenson has never been afraid of engaging with big ideas within genre forms, and Termination Shock might be his most visionary, and timely, book yet." - Chicago Review of Books

"The work is deeply convincing, from polo playing out West to a meeting of varied officials in Russia that is so engrossing in the subtle dynamics at play (despite being a scene of only minor importance) that I'm reminded of John Le Carré. . . Wildly, almost shamelessly entertaining." - Parade