The novel “The Gold Coast” by Kim Stanley Robinson was published for the first time in 1988. It’s the second book in the trilogy of the Three Californias.

Jim McPherson has a part-time job as a teacher with ambitions as a poet but his life is mostly about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s an unstable situation that among other things generates constant conflicts with his father Dennis, an engineer at Laguna Space Research (LSR), an aerospace company struggling with problems connected to a major US Air Force contract.

Jim McPherson criticizes the many US military engagements around the world and for that reason, he becomes a pacifist activist but he feels he’s getting nowhere. Disenchanted, he ends up joining a group that carries out attacks on industries that work with the military.

The novel “The Children of the Company” by Kage Baker was published for the first time in 2005. It’s part of the cycle of the Company.

Labienus is the name used by one of the cyborgs created by Dr. Zeus Incorporated who carry out the company’s plans but over time has reached a level of power far beyond what a cyborg can typically achieve. His work over the millennia started from posing as a deity in Sumeria and in many other missions he took advantage of every opportunity for his personal gain.

During his long life, Labienus also developed his plans against Aegeus, another important Dr. Zeus cyborg. This means among other things striking at Victor, a protégé of Aegeus. In that fight, the life of mortals counts for nothing.

The novel “The Tide Went Out”, later republished in a revised edition as “Thirst!”, by Charles Eric Maine was published for the first time in 1958.

The magazine Outlook is pulled from newsstands by order of the British government due to the presence of an article by Philip Wade. The journalist hypothesized a link between nuclear tests in the Pacific and a series of earthquakes and the lowering of sea levels. Confidentially, his publisher Walter Stenninger tells him that his hypothesis is correct and governments around the world started controlling information on what could be a global catastrophe.

For Philip Wade, it’s difficult to think that the Earth’s crust could really have been split by nuclear tests causing a slow drain of seawater. However, Walter Stenninger sold his magazine and informed Philip that he will be contacted by the Secret Service to work for them. Could the seas disappear completely? What consequences could there be globally if that happens?