This month, we go back into the future for a new take on the perennial conflict between old and new. This time between old humanity on Earth and the evolving inhabitants in the rest of the solar system. We'll be reading The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley, available as a digital download from BARD at:

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.70472
 
Here's the NLS synopsis:

After Earth is damaged by climate change and the Overturn, many refugees escape to Mars and the moons of
Jupiter and Saturn. Greater Brazil's powerful families and green saints control most of the remaining survivors and create innovative warfare technology to prepare Earth for war with the Outers.
 
And here's a longer description from Publishers Weekly taken from Amazon's page for this book:
 
Starred Review. Shortlisted for this year's [2009] Arthur C. Clarke Award, this sweeping interplanetary adventure is also a thoughtful examination of human nature. The few people remaining on feudal 23rd-century Earth are obsessed with repairing the damaged ecosystem, while the near-anarchic Outers, who fled to the solar system's outer worlds, would rather probe the atmosphere of Saturn and grow gardens in vacuum. Earth tries
to rein in the Outers with a campaign of intrigue, assassination and sabotage that culminates in bloody carnage. McAuley (Cowboy Angels) moves deftly among five well-drawn characters in the thick of the action: a cloned spy, a hotshot pilot, a ruthless scientist, a bluntly independent biological engineer and an unscrupulous diplomat. They all, in different ways, must choose between the familiar and the new, struggling to reconcile conflicting desires. This compelling tale opens vast panoramas while confronting believable people with significant choices.
Sounds like this one will have substantial action as well as being thought provoking, an excellent combination. So hope lots of you can come and talk about it with us in November.

J. R. Westmoreland, Group Facilitator
Email: jr@jrw.org