The year is 1998, the world is a growing nightmare of desperation, of uncontrollable pollution and increasing social unrest. In Cambridge, two scientists experiment with tachyons - subatomic particles that travel faster than the speed of light and, therefore, according to the Theory of Relativity, may move backwards in time. Their plan is to signal a warning to the previous generation. In 1962, a young Californian scientist, Gordon Bernstein, finds his experiments are being spoiled by unknown interference. As he begins to suspect something near the truth it becomes a race against time - the world is collapsing and will only be saved if Gordon can decipher the message in time. Winner of the Nebula Award for best novel, 1980 Winner of the John W. Campbell Award for best novel, 1981 Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel, 1980
A classic novel of man's future and fate, written by the eminent American physicist and award-winning author of Timescape. 2034. An indistinguishable sound is heard from the depths of space and one member of the search and survey team, Nigel, believes he knows its origins. 15 years earlier, he was the astronaut sent to implode a firey comet as it hurtled toward the Asian subcontinent. Once inside the fissure he made an unlikely discovery: an abandoned alien ship. Against his better judgment, Nigel carried out his mission, destroying the vessel-but not before clandestinely removing alien data and technology from on board. Now, as the team sets forth on a new adventure of discovery, Nigel's past will collide with the present, introducing him to wonders beyond human comprehension.
The Family had never seen a manhunter like it. And when its machine-mind engulfed Cap'n Fanny, they knew Mantis was no simple killing-mech. A collector of human minds, a plunderer of living personalities, Mantis was a weaver of complex, murderous illusions. But why, Killeen wondered, did it indulge in such elaborate variations on slaughter when in a single blast it could destroy the remnants of Mankind? His answer lay waiting in Mantis's extraordinary sensorium, in the museum of living ghosts and defiled spirits which drove the heart of the machine . . .
A gripping, masterfully written adventure set against the violent beauty of a planet in the throes of cataclysmic transformation, Against Infinity is Gregory Benford's timeless portrait of a young man's coming of age. -- On the icelands of Ganymede, a man and a boy hunt for the Aleph-an alien artifact that ruled Ganymede for countless millenia, Infinitely dangerous, the Aleph haunts men's dreams and destroys all efforts to terraform Ganymede into a habitable planet. Now an ancient struggle is joined, as a boy seeks manhood, a man seeks enlightenment, and a society seeks to survive. Reviews of Against Infinity "Likely to be considered one of the best SF novels of the year...a powerfully evocative book."-Algis Budrys "Benford is a rarity: a scientist who writes with verve and insight not only about black holes and cosmic strings, but about human desires and fears."-The New York Times Book Review "Typical Benford virtues...a gritty, three-dimensional future, a believable hero, a real flair for the alien."-Publishers Weekly "A confident grasp of the workings and consequences of bio technics, a gift for action scenes and an ability to conceive of a creature as awesome and wondrous as his Aleph. A worthy successor to Timescape."-Booklist
