On My Way to Paradise
Encyclopedia
On My Way to Paradise is a novel by Dave Wolverton
and was published in 1989 by Bantam Books
. It is set in the far future (circa 2300AD) depicting a man, Angelo Osic, who is running from an everchanging and frightening world of war and politics.
The novel was based on a short story with the same title, which was awarded the L. Ron Hubbard
Gold Award at the 1987 Writers of the Future
contest.
. He is approached by a stranger, the woman Tamara Marian de la Garza, who requires him to regrow her right hand. The bloody stump on the end of her arm, signifying a traumatic amputation. It transpires that she is on the run from powerful political forces, the assassins of which attempt to kill her and Osic.
He flees from the Earth with Tamara who is in an incapacitated state. On board the orbital shuttle, he attempts to get employment with a Japanese company, Motoki Corporation, as a Pharmacologist, but his application is rejected. Instead he is offered to fight as a legionnaire for Motoki, who are attempting to gain control of the planet Baker, a satellite of the Delta Pavonis
system. The story describes Osic's reaction to the intense battle training that takes place on board the starship Chaeron and his interaction with the mostly South American refugiados, and chimera
s, genetically upgraded humans, who are also escaping their uncertain future on Earth.
Their arrival on Baker highlights the vast cultural differences between the Legionnaires and their Japanese employers, who have trained them to fight a rival Japanese company of settlers, the Yabajin. These differences culminate in rebellion, with the Legionnaires (now self described as Conquistadors) seizing the Motoki city, and then setting out to attack the Yabajin settlement which lay 3000 kilometers away across forbidding deserts, encountering the wildlife of Baker.
Dave Wolverton
Dave Wolverton is a science fiction author who also goes under the pseudonym David Farland for his fantasy works. He currently lives in St. George, Utah with his wife and five children.-Career:...
and was published in 1989 by Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
. It is set in the far future (circa 2300AD) depicting a man, Angelo Osic, who is running from an everchanging and frightening world of war and politics.
The novel was based on a short story with the same title, which was awarded the L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
Gold Award at the 1987 Writers of the Future
Writers of the Future
Writers of the Future is a science fiction and fantasy story contest that was originated by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1980s. Hubbard...
contest.
Plot
Osic is a morphogenic pharmacologist who tended in a booth in a feria in Gatun city, PanamaPanama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. He is approached by a stranger, the woman Tamara Marian de la Garza, who requires him to regrow her right hand. The bloody stump on the end of her arm, signifying a traumatic amputation. It transpires that she is on the run from powerful political forces, the assassins of which attempt to kill her and Osic.
He flees from the Earth with Tamara who is in an incapacitated state. On board the orbital shuttle, he attempts to get employment with a Japanese company, Motoki Corporation, as a Pharmacologist, but his application is rejected. Instead he is offered to fight as a legionnaire for Motoki, who are attempting to gain control of the planet Baker, a satellite of the Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis is a star about 19.9 light years away from Earth. It is in the constellation Pavo.-Observations:It is a subgiant of spectral type G8 IV, meaning it is about to stop fusing hydrogen in its core and is starting the process of becoming a red giant. Because of that, Delta Pavonis is...
system. The story describes Osic's reaction to the intense battle training that takes place on board the starship Chaeron and his interaction with the mostly South American refugiados, and chimera
Chimera (genetics)
A chimera or chimaera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic...
s, genetically upgraded humans, who are also escaping their uncertain future on Earth.
Their arrival on Baker highlights the vast cultural differences between the Legionnaires and their Japanese employers, who have trained them to fight a rival Japanese company of settlers, the Yabajin. These differences culminate in rebellion, with the Legionnaires (now self described as Conquistadors) seizing the Motoki city, and then setting out to attack the Yabajin settlement which lay 3000 kilometers away across forbidding deserts, encountering the wildlife of Baker.