The Whitbread Prize–winning author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit delivers a novel that “transports us to something like the future of our own planet” ( Washington Post Book World ). On the airwaves, all the talk is of the new blue planet—pristine and plentiful, as our own was 65 million years ago, before we took it to the edge of destruction. Off the air, Billie Crusoe and the renegade Robo sapien Spike are falling in love. Along with Captain Handsome and Pink, they're assigned to colonize the new blue planet. But when a technical maneuver intended to make it habitable backfires, Billie and Spike's flight to the future becomes a surprising return to the distant past, and they discover that “everything is imprinted forever with what once was.” PRAISE FOR JEANETTE WINTERSON "One of our most brilliant, visionary storytellers." ―San Francisco Chronicle "If words were diamonds and sentences necklaces, Jeanette Winterson would be the De Beers of literature." ―Entertainment Weekly Born in Manchester, England, Jeanette Winterson is the author of seventeen books, including the national bestseller  Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? ,  Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit , and  The Passion . She has won many prizes including the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, and the Stonewall Award.   The Stone Gods By Jeanette Winterson Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Copyright © 2007 Jeanette Winterson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-15-603572-9 Contents Title Page, Contents, Copyright, Dedication, Planet Blue, Easter Island, Post-3War, Wreck City, Acknowledgements, Discussion Points, About the Author, Connect with HMH, CHAPTER 1 Planet Blue This new world weighs a yatto-gram. But everything is trial-size; tread-on-me tiny or blurred-out-of-focus huge. There are leaves that have grown as big as cities, and there are birds that nest in cockleshells. On the white sand there are long-toed clawprints deep as nightmares, and there are rock pools in hand-hollows finned by invisible fish. Trees like skyscrapers, and housing as many. Grass the height of hedges, nuts the swell of pumpkins. Sardines that would take two men to land them. Eggs, pale-blue-shelled, each the weight of a breaking universe. And, underneath, mushrooms soft and small as a mouse ear. A crack like a cut, and inside a million million microbes wondering what to do next. Spores that wait for the wind and never look back. Moss that is concentrating on being green. A man pushes forward with a microphone —'And is there oxygen?' Yes, there is. 'And fresh water?' Abundant. 'And no pollution?' None. Are there minerals? Is there gold? What's the weather like? Does it rain a lot? Has anyone tried the fish? Are there any humans? No, there are not any humans. Any intelligent life at all? Depends what you mean by intelligent. There is something there, yes, and it's very big and very good at its job. A picture of a scaly-coated monster with metal-plated jaws appears on the overhead screen. The crowd shrieks and swoons. No! Yes! No! Yes! The most efficient killing machine ever invented before gunpowder. Not bad for a thing with a body the size of a stadium and a brain the size of a jam-jar. I am here today to answer questions: 'The lady in pink —' 'Are these monsters we can see vegetarian?' 'Ma'am, would you be vegetarian with teeth like that?' It's the wrong answer. I am here to reassure. A scientist steps forward. That's better. Scientists are automatically reassuring. This is a very exciting, and very reassuring, day. We are here today to witness the chance of a lifetime. The chance of many lifetimes. The best chance we have had since life began. We are running out of planet and we have found a new one. Through all the bright-formed rocks that jewel the sky, we searched until we found the one we will call home. We're moving on, that's all. Everyone has to do that some time or other, sooner or later, it's only natural. My name is Billie Crusoe. 'Excuse me, is your name Billie Crusoe?' 'That's me.' 'From Enhancement Services?' 'Yes, Every Day a New Day.' (As we say in Enhancement.) 'Can you tell viewers how the new planet will affect their lives?' 'Yes, I can. The new planet offers us the opportunity to do things differently. We've had a lot of brilliant successes here on Orbus — well, we are the success story of the universe, aren't we? I mean to say, no other planet hosts human life.' The interviewer nods and smiles vigorously. 'But we have taken a few wrong turnings. Made a few mistakes. We have limited natural resources at our disposal, and a rising population that is by no means in agreement as to how our world as a whole should share out these remaining resources. Conflict is likely. A new planet means that we can begin to redistribute ourselves. It will mean a better quality of life for everyone — the ones who leave, and the ones w