Научная фантастика
Различные книги в жанре Научная фантастикаThe Still, Small Voice of Trumpets
The IPR Bureau (whose motto is «Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny») works to bring newly discovered planets up to the point where they have a planetary democratic government and then induct them into the galactic federation. Unfortunately, the planet Furnil offers problems. The continent of Kurr has a well-entrenched monarchy, and the citizens seem little inclined to change. In fact, they immerse themselves in art rather than politics…and have been doing so for more than 400 years! So what's a poor IPR agent to do…? Classic science fiction!
Better Angels
With his astonishing future vision, Howard V. Hendrix has emerged as one of the new masters of science fiction, drawing extraordinary praise for his debut novel, <I>Lightpaths</I>, «a taut…space-age slice of life» (<I> Publishers Weekly</I>), and its «brilliant» (<I>Locus</I>) follow-up, <I>Standing Wave</I>. <P> Now Hendrix meshes virtual reality, deep-space exploration, and human nature in a novel starkly breathtaking in its portrayal of the quest for meaning against a backdrop of scientific and spiritual chaos. Spanning the first part of the twenty-first century, <I>Better Angels</I> revolves around the mystery of an ancient, alien artifact resembling an angel's shoulder blade, and the transcendent effect it has on five people, whose lives and relationships lead to–and are forever altered by–its discovery. <P> A novel of unparalleled brilliance from the author leading the way into the new millennium. Kim Stanley Robinson has named Howard V. Hendrix as «One of the very best of the new science fiction writers.»
Speaking of the Fantastic III
Darrell Schweitzer interviews seventeen science fiction writers. Included are scintillating conversations with: George R. R. Martin, James Morrow, Jack Dann, Geoffrey A. Landis, Joe W. Haldeman, Zoran Zivkovic, Esther M. Friesner, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Harry Turtledove, Gregory Frost, Tom Purdom, D. G. Compton, Robert J. Sawyer, Charles Stross, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, and Howard Waldrop.
All the Colors of Darkness
When the Universal Transmitting Company finally perfected a matter transmitter capable of sending a person instantly from terminals scattered throughout the United States to any major city in foreign countries, it seemed like man's ultimate conquest of time. Opening day in New York City was a tremendous success, with throngs of travelers crowding into the terminal. But on the second day of operations, two women failed to arrive at their destinations and could not be traced. The UTC called in private detective Jan Darzek. What Darzek discovers sends him on a trail of extraterrestrial adventure and gripping suspense…on which hinges the fate of all mankind!
The Truth Spinner
Castor Jenkins is a Welshman who tells stories that may (or may not) be true…but no matter how fantastic, no one can prove they never happened! In the tradition of Lord Dunsany's «The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens» and Arthur C. Clarke's «Tales of the White Hart,» here is a collection of club stories full of wonder and marvels, as only Rhys Hughes could have told them
The Chronocide Mission
His name was Vladislav Kuznetsov, and he had been a twenty-one-year-old student at Mount Harwell College in Mount Harwell, Ohio. On a Friday afternoon, March 24, 2001, he succumbed to a sudden attack of spring fever and cut his classes for a stroll in a public park near the campus. Even after fifty years and several hundred centuries, he remembered it as vividly as though it had happened an hour before. <P> It was a warm, fresh day with a promise of spring–the first really pleasant day of the year after the usual vagaries of a midwest winter. He strolled leisurely through the park, thinking with shameless delight of the stuffy classrooms he was avoiding. Eventually he seated himself on a patch of greening grass with a convenient tree to lean against and enjoyed the soft breeze and the peaceful surroundings while he absently whittled on a twig he had picked up. He felt sleepy. Probably he dozed off. <P> Then came a tremendous jerk, like having a chair pulled from under him at the same instant that a truck hit him, and he almost lost consciousness. He landed with a painful bump and skidded for a short distance along a very rough wood floor. For a moment he sat gazing about him dazedly. He had been abruptly translated from his seat on the ground in a pleasant park on a lovely spring day to a seat on a wood floor in a large, dim room with a thunderstorm raging outside. He had a distinct impression that the two scenes had been linked by an earthquake. He tried hard to focus his thoughts, staring first at a table where a candle burned brightly and then at an animal tied to one of the table's legs by a short leash. It was a hairy pig. He raised his eyes to the room's two small, water-streaked windows and saw nothing beyond but branches swaying in a strong wind…
Young Thongor
Lin Carter's greatest creation, the barbarian swordsman Thongor of Lemuria, returns in his first new book in more than 40 years! «Young Thongor» collects Carter's short stories about Thongor's earliest adventures. Drawing on Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, Lin Carter has created an enduring new character sure to please all who treasure sword & sorcery in the classic vein.
The Time Trap
There are six people in millionaire Nick Clayton's limousine when it leaves a country home to return to London: Clayton himself; his girlfriend, Bernice; Dawlish, his driver; the unhappily married financier Harvey Brand and his wife, Lucy; and the tragic socialite, Betty. But the car never reaches its destination; instead, it drives thirty miles down a country road–and just disappears! And when the travelers suddenly find themselves in an alternate reality, one where time stands still, they begin wondering if they'll ever escape…THE TIME TRAP!
Star Haven
Three days after asking the Captain of the Earth mothership to land his party of colonists on the planet Hyperon, Commander Williams has reason to worry. He's assumed that there'll be records left by the 500 original settlers that'll tell him what's happened to the men and women who were dropped here a decade ago. But there ARE no records–none that make any sense–and the colonists have just vanished, abandoning homes, equipment, and personal belongings. Is the planet inimical to human life? The climate's ideal, there's no animal life to threaten the settlers, and the local vegetation produces edible fruit year-round. But if this world is such a paradise…where are the people? Another great SF adventure by an entertaining storyteller!
War Games
Throughout the centuries that have passed since humans first ventured into interstellar space, they have been at war with the alien Veich. The human race has, in consequence, been fully militarized, its educational system being a form of military training–which includes, among other disciplines, the elimination of fear from the human psyche. Attitudes to the war have, however, been colored by the gradual discovery of relics revealing that it is echoing an earlier interstellar conflict whose antagonists have completely disappeared, victors and vanquished alike. On a neglected continent of an unimportant world, ex-sergeant Remy and other human and Veich deserters have joined forces to form a mercenary company that places its expert skills at the disposal of the dominant indigenes. This refuge from the greater war is, however, disrupted when archeologists on another world discover evidence that there might be significant relics of the earlier war buried in the inhospitable heart of the continent, where barbarian tribes are currently massing for a religious war. Remy has no alternative but to revert to working for his own race, knowing that whatever he enables them to find, or even if they find nothing at all, his own life will be in grave peril, and that nothing will ever be the same again.... Great military SF! Also published as Optiman.