Getting Back
by William Dietrich
Published February 2000
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The year is 2048. The world's population has doubled. Wilderness exists only in
bad movies. Every region on Earth has been explored, organized, and tamed. But
in this brave new age of multi-national corporations, a homogenized global
culture and stultifying jobs, one secret organization promises the most
forbidden pleasure of all: a true outdoor adventure.
The price? A year's salary.
The destination? The one continent that disease and destruction have put
off-limits after bioengineering that went haywire.
The catch? On this expedition, once you go, you may never return.
In the belly of a shimmering twenty-first century pyramid, Daniel Dyson
occupies Cubicle 17 and fantasizes about love and escape. By day he pursues
petty ways to subvert his overly programmed life. By night he flirts with a
shadowy group that dares him to rebel and reclaim his autonomy. Then he stumbles
onto "Outback Adventure."
This mysterious company doesn't advertise and keeps its Internet site heavily
encrypted. Yet Daniel, partly to inject some deeper meaning into his life,
partly to find a woman who doesn't want to be found, soon finds himself taking a
perilous trek across the forbidden continent of Australia. There, the adventure
firm has promised, he will find out what it means to be truly alive, to test his
limits, and to understand real survival. What he and two dozen fellow
adventurers don't know is that all their high-tech gear and all their plans
haven't prepared them for what lies ahead. Because this journey will not only
plunge them into stark desert and a gauntlet of natural dangers, it will force
them to face the ferocity of fellow human beings -- and test their own core
beliefs about civilization, freedom, and the wild.
Getting Back is a novel of physical survival and a search for meaning in
which both have become extinct � an eco-thriller that asks us whether getting
back is the object of the game, or the punishment for losing�
Reviews
"Dazzlingly cinematic, Getting Back is the thinking man's Road Warrior, a
journey into a wasteland depopulated of civilization but not of
ideas . . . Speculative fiction at its best, a brainy amalgam of action, romance, and
a probing of post-twentieth-century urban civilization that cuts disturbingly
close to the bone. A hit."
--Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire
"If you've never understood why some people care so much about
wildness, then this gripping novel will provide a few of the answers."
--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
"Dietrich has married the traditions of 1984 and
Deliverance
to produce a futuristic wilderness thriller that is not only utterly gripping
but thought-provoking."
--Robert Clark, author of In the Deep Midwinter
"An engaging read with considerable depth and twists . .
. The
ingenuity and survivalist mentality of the characters will make you sneak peeks
at this one during dinner."
--Christian Science Monitor
"The outdoor action never stops."
--Outdoor Magazine
"Part Lord of the Flies, part Travels in Arabia Deserta
. . . leaves
the reader cheering."
--Seattle Times
"The taut narrative and engaging prose rival the page-turners
of early John Grisham."
--Skagit Valley Herald
"An exciting, thought-provoking, terrifying novel that is
difficult to put down before the final page."
--Sullivan County Democrat
"A fast read with plenty of excitement and suspense,
characters you care about, and an attitude that jumps up and bites the reader."
--Salem Statesman Journal
hardcover / $24.95 / Warner Books / 0446524573 / February 2000
paperback / $7.50 / Warner Books / 0446609749 / March 2001 |
