Harvest of Stars

The virtual persona of a long-dead entrepreneur threatens to incite a revolution that could topple Earth's dictatorship in this science fiction classic.

In the future, individual freedom is a thing of the past. North America is a police state controlled by the Avantist government, a despotic, techno-religious ruling order that promises an impending transcendence for the oppressed. Space, however, remains free, thanks to Anson Guthrie's powerful Fireball Corporation. Guthrie's corporeal self died many generations ago, but his essence lives on, preserved forever in a computerized state that enables him to inspire his loyal employees and adherents to keep reaching for the farthest stars.

But now the totalitarian enemy, led by sadistic secret policeman Enrique Sayre, has gained possession of a Guthrie download, intending to subvert it to the Avantist cause, thereby breaking Fireball's hold on the cosmos. The corporation is doomed unless ace pilot Kyra Davis can smuggle a still-unreconstructed version of Guthrie out of enslaved America and rocket him to the moon and beyond, where Fireball's virtual creator can attempt to stoke the flames of revolution—and change the direction of his world.

A truly remarkable work, Harvest of Stars might be the most ingenious and ambitious novel of Poul Anderson's acclaimed and prolific career. Thoughtful and adventurous, rich in imagination and integrity, it offers definitive proof of the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning, Grand Master of Science Fiction's unparalleled mastery in the field of speculative fiction.

Harvest of Stars series

Harvest of Stars (#1)

The Stars Are Also Fire (#2)

Harvest the Fire (#3)

Fleet of Stars (#4)