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Franke is an accredited scientist as well as a novelist, and puts his knowledge to excellent use in a story that reads like a Philip K. Dick potboiler with a hard science overlay. Quite a few Dickian concepts are utilized in THE ORCHID CAGE, the elusive nature of reality first and foremost, yet they’re all kept (or so I’m told) firmly in the realm of scientific possibility.
Things seem pretty straightforward as the novel begins, with a group of cosmonauts landing on a distant planet. Their mission is to explore the terrain and analyze its flora and fauna, but there’s a complication: it seems our “heroes” are involved in a competition with a competing band of cosmonauts, which really kicks into high gear when the two groups enter an apparently deserted alien city.
The city, it transpires, is very much alive. Filled with bizarre technological structures and contraptions, this place, manned by some unseen entity, seems determined to keep the humans out. Explosives, moving statues and hurled debris are among the initial obstacles, but as time goes on the torment comes to encompass the cosmonauts’ minds and their collective sense of reality.
But the humans have an advantage, as for some reason they keep coming back to life after being killed. We don’t learn precisely why that is until the final chapter, in which a twist is unveiled that more than anything else in this novel justifies the Philip K. Dick comparison. We’re also made privy to what happened to the otherworldly city’s residents, and why the book is titled THE ORCHID CAGE.
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Showing 13 featured editions. View all 13 editions?
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Der Orchideenkäfig: Science-Fiction-Roman
Dec 25, 2015, p.machinery
Paperback
in German
3957650526 9783957650528
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Der Orchideenkäfig: Science-Fiction-Roman
1989, Suhrkamp
Paperback
in German
- 1. Aufl. --
3518381431 9783518381434
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Der Orchideenkäfig: Science-Fiction-Roman
Sep 04, 1982, Goldmann
Perfect Paperback
in German
- 2., vom Autor völlig neu überarb. Ausg., 21. - 30. Tsd.
3442230187 9783442230181
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09
The Orchid Cage: To Protect, To Serve, To Test - To Destroy!
November 20, 1973, Daw Books
Paperback
in English
0879970820 9780879970826
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Der Orchideenkäfig: Ein utopisch-technischer Roman
1963, Goldmann
Paperback
in German
- Ungekürzte Taschenbuchausgabe
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Book Details
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Translation of Der Orchideenkäfig.
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Work Description
Eine tote Stadt auf einem fernen Planeten, zwei Gruppen von Menschen, die sie zu erforschen versuchen. Schritt für Schritt dringen sie ein – in den äußeren Ring mit den Bauwerken einer ultramodernen Technik, in die halbverfallene mittelalterliche Innenstadt und schließlich in das geheimnisumwitterte Zentrum.
Aber ist die Stadt wirklich tot? Die Fabriken beginnen wieder zu arbeiten, die Automaten greifen ein, und irgendwo im Hintergrund liegt noch etwas verborgen, das vielleicht wieder erwachen könnte. Sind es Menschen oder fremdartige Maschinenwesen?
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