Synopses & Reviews
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the
first installment in a monumental new series--an expansive historical
epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the
Atomic Age.
The first installment in Neal Stephenson's Bomb Light cycle, Polostan
follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the
American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in
Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party
line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in
Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn
into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C.,
during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation
about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn
returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization
that later becomes the KGB.
Set against the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century, Polostan
is an inventive, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining historical
epic, and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.
About the Author
Neal Stephenson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Termination Shock, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (with Nicole Galland), Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, The System of the World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Zodiac, and the groundbreaking nonfiction work In the Beginning . . .Was the Command Line. He lives in Seattle, Washington.