Venturing into a universe different from where his previous novels Lightpaths, Standing Wave, and Better Angels were set, Howard V. Hendrix tackles one of life's most enduring questions: What does it mean to be human?

In a dramatically altered near-future, the world's newest technology resurrects a plague of apparent global madness that not only destroys ten thousand years of urban civilization, but also creates a world under the sway of the full moon and a human race transformed in astonishing ways.

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The planet Mars has always maintained a strong grip on the human imagination. These 17 wide-ranging essays explore the study of Mars through history and the ways in which Mars has figured in literature, the arts and popular culture. Topics covered include the role of scientific discovery in the development of science fiction as a genre and the ways in which science fiction and popular discourse have, in turn, influenced science; the extent of life in the solar system; and the presence of Mars in the work of popular writers such as Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.

With his astonishing future vision, Howard V. Hendrix has emerged as one of the new masters of science fiction, drawing extraordinary praise for his debut novel, Lightpaths, "a taut...space-age slice of life" (Publishers Weekly), and its "brilliant" (Locus) follow-up, Standing Wave.

Now he meshes virtual reality, deep-space exploration, and human nature in a novel starkly breathtaking in its portrayal of the quest for meaning against a backdrop of scientific and spiritual chaos. Spanning the first part of the twenty-first century, Better Angels revolves around the mystery of an ancient,...