A young woman with nothing to live for is persuaded to embark on a suicide mission to find a missing scientist...When a number of leading scientists disappear without trace, concern grows within the international intelligence community. Are they being kidnapped? Blackmailed? Brainwashed? One woman appears to have the key to the mystery. Unfortunately, Olive Betteron now lies in...(展开全部)

阿尔弗雷德·贝斯特1913年生于美国纽约，1940年开始发表小说，曾参与《超人》、《蝙蝠侠》等美国著名漫画剧本的编写。从20世纪50年代开始，随着一系列优秀短篇科幻小说的发表，特别是两部想像非凡的长篇科幻小说《被毁灭的人》、《群星，我的归宿》的出版，贝斯特成为美国科幻界最核心的明星作家。《被毁灭的人》获得了首届世界科幻大奖“雨果奖”，这部作品与《群星，我的归宿》一样，已经成为科幻史上的经典名著。1987年，贝斯特在美国宾夕法尼亚州去世。贝斯特的科幻小说情节紧张、刺激，充满了大师级科幻文学的杰出贡献，1987年，美国科幻与幻想小说协会授予他“星云奖”特别奖。贝斯特是该协会评选出的第九位“科幻大师”。

Julie Y. Chu is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

Year after year a woman sits in her bare living quarters with her bags packed. She is waiting for a phone call from her snakehead, or human smuggler. That longed-for call will send her out her door, away from Fuzhou, China, on a perilous, illicit journey to the United States. Nothing diffuses the promise of an overseas destiny: neither the ever-increasing smuggling fee for succ...(展开全部)