Captures the strange world of twenty-first-century Earth, a devastated planet in which sophisticated androids, banned from the planet, fight back against their potential destroyers
A new kind of sci-fi heroine, the tough-as-nails Alyx, is introduced in this Nebula Award finalist that Poul Anderson called an “extraordinary” novel. Set in a semi-utopian world, Joanna Russ’s groundbreaking debut novel is the story of Alyx, a female soldier, survival guide, and agent of the Trans-Temporal Authority. Displaced in time from her ancient Greece, Alyx is tasked with safely leading a group of pampered human vacationers—including some unconventional nuns and a detached teenager known as the Machine—across an uninhabited scenic terrain to a relief station. But the journey proves more challenging than anticipated as they confront one another’s failings; the physical dangers of an icy, hostile wilderness; and Alyx’s own personal demons. Long before the kick-ass heroines of current science fiction and fantasy, Russ unapologetically introduced readers to a short, strong, middle-aged (for her world/time) woman of twenty-six who knows how to survive but struggles with the emotional nuances of her charges and the confusion of her own mixed feelings. With iconic characters like Alyx, Russ “four decades ago helped deliver science fiction into the hands of the most alien creatures the genre had yet seen—women . . . [and] helped inaugurate the now flourishing tradition of feminist science fiction” (The New York Times).
Vornan-19 fell from the sky and landed, naked, on the Spanish Steps in Rome on the afternoon of Christmas Day toward the end of the millennium. And that, for Leo Garfield began an extraordinary and eventful year. For Garfield is an acknowledged expert in the time-reversal of sub-atomic particles and Vornan-19 claims to come from far in the future, a claim that has to be investigated. But the world is in a strange, edgy state as it prepares to move into the next millennium and is ready and willing to see the charming and magnetically charismatic Vornan as some kind of messiah. Even Garfield and his fellow scientists come under Vornan's spell. But can he really be from the future? Or is he just a charlatan and a fraud? First published in 1968
Nebula Award Finalist:Mankind has been reduced to slavery by technology and surveillance, in this near-future novel from the author of Stand on Zanzibar. In The Jagged Orbit, Brunner, writing at the peak of form that allowed him to create Stand on Zanzibar, takes a long, hard, disturbing, and hilarious look at the near and not-so-distant future. Catastrophic changes due to rampant drug abuse, uncontrolled violence, high-level government corruption, inhumane treatment of the too-readily defined “insane,” and the accompanying collapse of the social order are wreaking havoc on the world we recognize and turning it into a reality we must fear and hope to avoid. Brunner tells a spine-chilling tale of where the world could possibly go that is all too believable and real for our comfort. “For each generation, there is a writer meant to bend the rules of what we know. Hugo Award winner (Best Novel, Stand on Zanzibar) and British science fiction master John Brunner remains one of the most influential and respected authors of all time, and now many of his classic works are being reintroduced. For readers familiar with his vision, it is a chance to reexamine his thoughtful worlds and words. For new readers, Brunner’s work proves itself the very definition of timeless.
This Hugo Award finalist, “justifiably regarded as a classic” (SFReviews.net), is the tale of an epic space voyage where time dilation goes horribly wrong. Aboard the spacecraft Leonora Christine, fifty crewmembers, half men and half women, have embarked on a journey of discovery like no other to a planet thirty light-years away. Since their ship is not capable of traveling faster than light, the crew will be subject to the effects of time dilation and relativity. They will age five years on board the ship before reaching their destination, but thirty-three years will pass on Earth. Experienced scientists and researchers, they have come to terms with the time conditions of their space travel. Until . . . the Leonora Christine passes through an uncharted nebula, which damages the engine, making it impossible to decelerate the ship on the second half of their trip. To survive, the crewmembers have no choice but to bypass their destination and continue to accelerate toward the speed of light. But how will they keep hope alive and maintain order as they hurtle deeper into space with time passing more and more rapidly, and their ultimate fate unknown? With its combination of mind-blowing hard science and compelling human drama, Tau Zero is “the ultimate hard science novel” (Mike Resnick).
Let Anne McCaffrey, storyteller extraordinare and New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author, take you on a journey to a whole new world: Pern and discover not only its flora, fauna, population and cultural hierarchy, but the history of an entire civilization. If you like David Eddings, David Gemmell and Douglas Adams, you will love this. "Anne McCaffrey, one of the queens of science fiction, knows exactly how to give her public what it wants" - THE TIMES "I have never read better" -- ***** Reader review "Best book I've read in a long time." -- ***** Reader review "Pern - what a magical place. The author brings not only the characters but the whole world to life. Wonderful. Love it." -- ***** Reader review "Compulsive reading" -- ***** Reader review ************************************************************************ A VITAL RACE AGAINST TIME... Another Turn, and the deadly silver Threads begins falling again. So the bold dragonriders take to the skies and their magnificent dragons swirl and swoop in space, belching flames that destroy the shimmering strands before they reached the ground. But F'lar knows he has to find a better way to protect the peoples and lands of Pern, and he has to find it before the rebellious Oldtimers can breed any more dissent...before his brother F'nor will be foolhardy enough to launch another suicide mission...and before the mercurial fire lizards can cause even more trouble... The Dragonriders of Pern series continues in Dragonsong.
A time traveler stumbles upon a horrific plot to alter the future in this adventure from “one of science fiction’s most revered writers” (USA Today). Born with a strange genetic mutation, Jack Havig can travel backward and forward in time at will. His unique gift enables him to visit ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Wild West. He’s even seen the far future, when the ecology-minded Maurai Federation dominates a world nearly obliterated by nuclear war. Jack undertakes these voyages with one objective in mind: to find others who share his remarkable abilities. In the shadow of the Crucifixion, Jack finally achieves his goal. But a terrible darkness clouds his admission into the secretive, time-traveling organization called Eyrie when the group’s true intentions become clear. For Eyrie’s plans include an unthinkable genocide designed to irrevocably alter the destiny of humankind—and Jack is the only one who can stop it. But he won’t be able to do it alone. The prolific and remarkable Poul Anderson dazzles once again with a humanistic science fiction adventure that races across the boundaries of time. Lightning-paced and marvelously inventive, There Will Be Time is an unforgettable journey through the ages from one of the greats of twentieth-century science fiction. This ebook includes the bonus stories “Progress” and “Windmill.”
Nebula Award Finalist Doctor, watch out! As Dore stood by, he saw the Doctor backing slowly into the corner where he would meet his fate. Initially defending himself with a torch, the Doctor searched frantically for a new method of defense. The crimson mass is lunging forward using long, tentacle-like attachments: what is that thing? Slowly the subhuman blob comes in to focus, and Dore realizes...it's a colossal radish! This is a monster never before wrestled with; what are they going to do? After reading this vegetative tale, you won't look at your garden the same way again.
Nebula and World Fantasy Award Finalist: A fantastic tale of intrigue, love, war, magic, and swashbuckling adventure set in an alternate universe where fairies mingle freely with Englishmen and all of Shakespeare’s fictional characters are real Welcome to an alternate civil-war-torn seventeenth-century England—a world where Hamlet once brooded and Othello jealously raged. Here faeries and sprites gambol in English woods, railroads race across the landscape while manned balloons float above the countryside, and the most respected historian of all is one William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. The year is 1644, and the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. When Rupert, nephew of King Charles I, is taken captive by Cromwell’s troops and imprisoned in a Puritan home, he is immediately smitten with the beautiful Jennifer Alayne, his captor’s niece. Escaping with the help of his newfound beloved and the loyal trooper Will Fairweather, Rupert leads Jennifer deep into the forest, where the faerie folk who dwell there have a vested interest in the outcome of the great and bloody conflict. Though the lovers must soon part—with the prince undertaking a dangerous mission for his magical benefactors that could turn the tide of war—Rupert and his lady love will be forever joined by the rings presented to them by King Oberon and Queen Titania. And despite the strange, twisting pathways and turbulent seas they are destined to encounter, they will always be able to find each other again . . . as long as their love remains true. Nominated for the World Fantasy Award and winner of the Mythopoeic Award, Poul Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest is a titanic achievement—a delightful alternate-history fantasy that brings the fictional worlds of Shakespeare’s plays to breathtaking life with style, wit, and unparalleled imagination.
Triton, the outermost moon of Neptune, is a world of absolute freedom. A world where every wish can be fulfilled. But for Bron Helstrom, one of society's elite, life has lost its meaning. In a world of endless possibilities, Bron begins an odyssey to find the object of his elusive desire. An odyssey that will take him to earth, involve him in political intrigue and transform him completely from the man he once was.
The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival--a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known.... "Massively entertaining." CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER
This is the novel of four who defied the powers of the matrix guardians - fanatics who protected those powers so that the planet of the ruddy sun might never fall beneath the influence of the materialistic Terrans. The four who found themselves fused into a terrifying unity in that defiance were two men and two women. The men were Damon Ridenow, a Comyn of the ruling caste, and Andrew Carr, the Earthman who had won for himself the right of clan-entry. The women were Ellemir, betrothed of Damon, and Callista, who foreswore her vows to seek the love of the alien from the stars. All the forces of the Ancient Darkover were to combine to resist this "unnatural" alliance - and the novel that grew out of this physical and psychic conflict displays the talent of Marion Zimmer Bradley at its finest! The story of the building of the Forbidden Tower - and its ultimate fate - will stand high in the bestselling Darkover saga.
Hundreds of years in the future, Earthmen have moved out into the galaxy of inhabited worlds, only to find that space travelers from Earth are second-class citizens or worse on most of the planets they visit. Joseph Farber, an artist, is part of an Earth colony among the alien Cian on the planet Weinunnach. He is deeply moved by the rituals of the Cian¾and by the captivating Liraun, a humanoid Cian. With love between races forbidden, Faber allows himself to be genetically altered so that he and Liraun may marry and interbreed. But the couple soon discovers that the fundamental differences between their very modes of being may lead to tragedy and, perhaps, ultimate revelation. Dozois is known for his beautiful evocation of setting and emotional intensity within a truly alien and often austere vision of the future. He is a science fiction master of the first order¾a fact fully on display in this outstanding collection. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "Lyric, haunting, heartbreaking¾this is science fiction at its best."¾George R.R. Martin "My generation of writers has produced relatively few authentic masters. . .Gardner Dozois is one of them."¾William Gibson
One of the greatest science fiction epics ever written, John Varley's Titan, Wizard, and Demon comprise a groundbreaking trilogy that will live forever. Human explorers have entered the sprawling mind of Gaea. Now they must fight her will. For she is much too powerful...and definitely insane."These books are going to be around for a long time." --Locus
