PERMANENCE

Winner of the 2003 Aurora Award for best Canadian SF novel

Fleeing from her abusive brother, Meadow-Rue Cassels steals a shuttle and flies alone into deep space. Far outside the Solar System, almost out of fuel and despairing, her radar pings off of a mysterious starship passing in the darkness. It’s not a human ship, and it appears to be uncrewed. So Rue stakes a salvage claim on it—and soon finds herself at the heart of an interstellar conflict reaching back millions of years…

In the May, 2002 issue of Locus, Farin Miller said of the book:

"Anyone who still thinks the heyday of intelligent SF adventure fiction ended with the passing of Heinlein and Asimov should give this book a try. I think they'll end up up agreeing that galactic civilizations may tumble and Gibraltars may crumble... but Schroeder is here to say."

  • "A thoughtful, well-informed, insightful work, with a sharp yet subtle political subcontext."

    —Kirkus Reviews

  • "His first book, Ventus, was good enough for me to worry that he couldn't do it twice, but Permanence shows that he's here to stay, and getting better every time."

    —SF Revu

  • "The best kind of coming-of-age tale, one that seizes the imagination and the emotions as it presents a fully realized future society, fascinating technology, and believable characters."

    —Booklist

  • "The narrative fairly bursts with interesting ideas"

    —Publisher’s Weekly

  • "An exciting romp worthy of Heinlein [with] an incredible amount of excitement and intellectual riches in its pages."

    —Scifi.com

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In my weekly newsletter, Unapocalyptic. I reimagine the future by reimagining science fiction’s core ideas. The purpose? To help you earn hope in the future; and, to give you tools and access to resources that’ll help you confront that future on your own terms, framed as a truly 21st project.