Cradle of Splendor

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Like her Cold Allies, which won Locus's Best First Novel award, Anthony's breakneck fifth book is set in a near-future roiling with intrigue and rumors of UFO activity. When the first Brazilian space shot manages to achieve orbit without booster rockets, the world is stunned, then pushed to the brink of cataclysm as the U.S. accuses Brazil of launching nuclear weapons into orbit. The escalating crisis plays out against a background of erupting brutality and sexual depravity, instigated mostly by industrial, political and military spies, and against convincing TV news reports presented in transcript form. In the face of technological achievement that has possibly been bought by selling Brazil's national soul to an extraterrestrial demon, Anthony's sharply realized characters undergo abrupt changes (the women generally take nobler paths than the men). Former CIA agent Dolores Sims and her (somewhat estranged) friend, Brazilian president Ana Maria Bonfim, give until nothing remains of themselves, while young NASA scientist Roger Lintenberg, Japanese industrial spy Hiroshi Sato, Brazilian general Fernando Machado and jaded Brazilian security chief Edson Carvalho take until they relinquish their humanity. Dramatic shifts of scene and point of view enhance the sense of social fragmentation. Anthony adds to her reputation through a briskly involving narrative that offers disturbing glimpses into the black holes of the human heart. (Apr.)

Carl Hays

Anthony's novels have garnered widespread acclaim for their complex, speculative portrayals of the clash between human and alien cultures. In her latest, the alien presence takes the form of a mysterious benefactor who bestows assorted technological marvels on the citizenry of a near-future Brazil. Following the introduction of cheap nuclear fusion, groundbreaking new drugs, and the transformation of Brasilia into a major metropolis, Brazil surprises the world with the launching of a spacecraft propelled by antigravity. Naturally, this arouses suspicions in the U.S., which, accusing Brazil of deploying space weapons, invades and eventually seizes the new technology. Caught up in the ensuing international political turmoil are a NASA UFO expert, Brazil's own black woman president, her lifelong friend (an undercover CIA spy), and an enigmatic Brazilian presidential adviser with inexplicable, otherworldly powers. In her finest work to date, Anthony seamlessly interweaves politics, UFOs, and speculation on other-dimensional space into a tautly written futuristic spy thriller that echoes the best le Carre.

Kirkus Reviews

Anthony's new venture (Happy Policeman, 1994, etc.) is set in a near-future Brazil whose president, Ana Maria Bonfim, has engineered a social and economic miracle. No longer are women beaten or children killed in the streets, and astonishing technological advances have transformed the economy—maybe, as a global assortment of diplomats and bigwigs gathers to witness Brazil's attempt to put a rocket into orbit, antigravity has even been invented. Suspicious, envious, and perplexed, the US believes that Brazil has captured a UFO and, cloaked in UN approval, it prepares to invade. The drama that unfolds—impossible to summarize adequately—embodies many diverse points of view. Artist Dolores Sims, Ana Maria's former lover and once a CIA agent, knows the truth about Henrique Freitas—Svengali, pervert, former psychic surgeon and suspected by the US of having been absorbed by an alien from another dimension. Whatever the truth, Freitas scares Edson Carvalho; Ana Maria's drunken chief spymaster, Carvalho is haunted by his knowledge of the people who vanish into Freitas's eerie chamber, a doorway to—somewhere. NASA's Roger Lintenberg, sent by the CIA to observe the rocket launch and investigate UFO activity, is astounded to find that the UFOs are real. Indeed, Roger, imprisoned by CIA assassin McNatt, begins to realize that Freitas isn't an alien at all. The merciless McNatt himself contends that Freitas's awesome powers lie within us all. Finally, thousands of innocents die as the invasion gets under way, even though the Brazilian army offers no resistance, while Freitas hurls beautiful yet harmless UFOs at the invaders and, casting aside every restraint, rapes, tortures,and murders his own son.

Mesmerizing, full of terrible insights, deeply disturbing, and quite unforgettable, confirming Anthony as the powerhouse of 1990s science fiction.