The first installment in Neal Stephenson's Bomb Light cycle Polostan follows the early life of
the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists
Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father a party line
Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as
a teenager in Montana before being drawn into gun running and revolution in the streets of
Washington D.C. during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about
her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities Dawn returns to Russia where she is
groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB. Set against the turbulent
decades of the early 20th century Polostan is an inventive richly detailed and deeply
entertaining historical epic and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.
