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Angel Station (novel)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 130.47.34.2 (talk) at 20:24, 15 July 2015 (The novel is *not* inspired by the plot of Ubu Roy. A character in Angel Station finds a video of Ubu Roy amusing and names himself after it.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Angel Station
AuthorWalter Jon Williams
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction novel
PublisherTor Books
Publication date
1990
Publication placeUnited States

Angel Station is a 1990 cyberpunk space opera science fiction novel by Walter Jon Williams.

Plot introduction

Using faster-than-light technology, the human race has colonized dozens of star systems.

Ubu Roy and his sister, Beautiful Maria are down-on-their-luck traders on the edge of human space. In a last-ditch effort to make money to pay their debts and repair their aging spacecraft, they are reduced to searching uncharted space for singularities to capture and sell.

In a rare stroke of luck, Ubu and Maria happen upon an alien spacecraft and make humanity's first contact with an alien race. As chance would have it, the alien ship is also in dire economic straights.

The alien technology is stronger than humanity's in some areas (such as biotechnology) and weaker in other areas (such as applied physics), providing ample opportunities for trade between the two ships. Both ships become rich in their respective societies by repeated trade with each other.

However, Ubu and Maria's secret is discovered by their trading rivals, resulting in a struggle to determine who will control the lucrative trade with the aliens.

Ubu and Maria ultimately succeed through Ubu's better understanding of the alien race's psychology and Maria's genetically-engineered psychic abilities.