Involution Ocean

The only habitable portion of Nullaqua is a handful of islands at the bottom of an immense crater. Surrounding the islands is a sea of finest dust. And in that sea live the dustwhales whose bodies yield Flare, a potent, exhilarating drug. When Flare is outlawed, John Newhouse, drifter and addict, joins the dustwhaler Lunglance to obtain his own supplies. His trip is uncomfortable and dangerous, for he has reckoned without the rigours of the job, the deadly sharks and anemones, and without falling for Dalusa, the winged alien woman for whom human touch is agony.And the last thing he has foreseen is what lies at the bottom of that unfathomed, silent sea...About the AuthorBruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which defined the cyberpunk genre. He writes Catscan, for the SF Eye. In 2003 he was appointed Professor at the European Graduate School where he is teaching Summer Intensive Courses on media and design. Sterling is widely considered to be, along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, and Pat Cadigan, one of the original founders of the early 1980s creators of the pessimistic and dystopian cyberpunk genre of science fiction.