Научная фантастика
Различные книги в жанре Научная фантастикаSalome and other Decadent Fantasies
Decadent literature is intrinsically and proudly a literature of moral challenge; it is sceptical, cynical, and satirical. It recognizes that everyday morality does not work either in practical or in psychological terms, and is therefore a sham, but that ideal morality is – not necessarily unfortunately – unattainable. This volume collects the best of Brian Stableford's decadent work, including: «Salome,» «O For a Fiery Gloom and Thee,» «The Last Worshipper of Proteus,» «The Evil That Men Do,» «Ebony Eyes,» «The Fisherman's Child,» «The Storyteller's Tale,» «The Unluckiest Thief,» «The Flowers in the Forest,» «The Mandrake Garden,» and «Chanterelle.»
Streaking
For hundreds of years the male members of the Kilcannon family have considered themselves to be the beneficiaries of distortions in the statistical distribution of chance, associating their most fortunate windfalls with visual distortions that they call “streaks.” This belief has led to the accumulation of a vast heritage of superstitions—rules which, if broken, might allegedly terminate the privilege.
The current heir, Canny Kilcannon, is anxious to dispose of this burden, but is unsure as to how far he can go in tempting fate. When his father dies, his life is further complicated when a female beneficiary of a similar centuries-old lucky streak reveals herself to him. Lissa suggests that they attempt the ultimate experiment—to test the boundaries of their gift. Can they succeed? Or will they bring down upon them the “black lightning” of which both of their traditions warn?
A truly compelling tale of luck and probability in the real world.
BRIAN STABLEFORD has written and edited almost 200 volumes of science fiction, horror, fantasy, literary criticism, and reference, among others, many of them being published by the Borgo Press Imprint of Wildside Press. He lives and works in England.
Journey to the Core of Creation
It is 1847, and Paris is edging closer to its next revolution, but something is also astir inside Mont Dragon in the Ardèche. This is a place of annual pilgrimage for a band of enigmatic nomads, and also a place of interest to the ambitious Bishop of Viviers. In spite of his distaste for travel, Auguste Dupin makes the long southward journey, in the hope that he might be able to help an old friend, the evolutionist Claude Guérande. Guérande believes that he has made discoveries in the caves of Mont Dragon that might cast new light on the origin of humankind, and of life itself. Over the years, however, not everyone who has gone into the caves has come out again, and not everyone who has come out has been unaltered…and 1847 promises to be a critical year, more dangerous than any before it. And when the bizarre flameflower begins to bloom, everything changes! Another great tale in the Auguste Dupin series.
The Gates of Eden
Despite the development of a faster-than-light drive, Earth’s space program has been in the doldrums for centuries, as has Earth itself. Hyperspace being impossible to navigate without beacons at which to aim, there is no alternative but to wait for vessels sent out at sub-light speed decades previously to find somewhere worth going. <P> Unfortunately, when a worthwhile planet finally turns up, it doesn’t take long for political conflicts to materialize over its exploitation. Then, when an entire survey team perishes, the problems intensify. Lee Caretta is the man most likely to solve the problem—if his conflict-ridden employers will let him, if he can keep his tendencey to suffer unexplained blackouts under control, and if the world really is sufficiently Earth-like not to be deadly to the explorers. <P> And then the humans begin to die once more! Despite the development of a faster-than-light drive, Earth’s space program has been in the doldrums for centuries, as has Earth itself. Hyperspace being impossible to navigate without beacons at which to aim, there is no alternative but to wait for vessels sent out at sub-light speed decades previously to find somewhere worth going. <P> Unfortunately, when a worthwhile planet finally turns up, it doesn’t take long for political conflicts to materialize over its exploitation. Then, when an entire survey team perishes, the problems intensify. Lee Caretta is the man most likely to solve the problem—if his conflict-ridden employers will let him, if he can keep his tendencey to suffer unexplained blackouts under control, and if the world really is sufficiently Earth-like not to be deadly to the explorers. <P> And then the humans begin to die once more!
Mars Needs Books!
In the not-so-distant future, men have come to Mars to escape the oppressive Earth government. Ryan is an agent for a super-secret government agency, the Department of Control (DOC), and has always been willing to do whatever his masters want of him. But on Mars, everything is different, and all that Ryan does is read books: hardboiled, noir crime paperbacks dating from the last century. In fact, such works are read and collected by everyone on Mars, even serving as a medium of exchange. Why? Is there some secret DOC plot involved? Or has Ryan conjured up a literary fantasy in his own guilt-twisted mind? Maybe he's still confined in a prison cell back on Earth, reading a science-fiction novel called Mars Needs Books! As Ryan probes deeper and deeper into the mystery, he comes to understand just one thing: he must uncover the truth!
The Cracks in the Aether
"Help me!" With these simple words is triggered an awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping jaunt through the multiverses that comprise the cosmos of Morpheus, Scanner Prime to Her Puissant and Sublime Majesty, Queen Eveteria of Korynthia in Nova Europa. Faced with the inevitable consequences of his prescient visions of doom and collapse, not only for his own country, but for all of the civilized world, Morpheus must attempt the impossible: to somehow rescue the greater whole and restore stability to the cosmos by finding and saving a single prisoner hidden in an impenetrable cell somewhere on one of the infinity of alternate earths in the six known circles of the Otherworlds. Accompanied by his faithful wherret, Scooter, and ultimately by a band of loyal cutthroats and adventurers, Morpheus prepares to embark on a quest that will whisk him from world to world.
Human's Burden
Poor Jack Wong is a clueless cadet at the Unified Space Academy when his pod is stranded on a planet of disgusting aliens. All he wants to do, other than escape, is to fulfill his proud duty to advance Earth Culture's Primary Heuristic: «Wherever possible, find the weak spot in an alien civilization and interfere as much as possible for the benefit of humanity.» It's the Human's Burden! But everything comes unstuck, made worse by his irritating Machiavellian AI. And that's just the start of Jack's troubles in space and time....
After the Collapse
From the swarming, last-redoubt towers of the polar regions, where humanity huddles from the savage heat of Greenhouse Earth, to the dusty refugee camps of a shattered America; from the virtual reality landscape where teenagers seek to repair a wounded planet, to the post-human globe populated by wily transgenic heirs to mankind; and, lastly, across the ideology-splintered ruins of the U.S.A…a cast of dedicated survivors tries to make the best of what’s left behind, picking up the pieces of their lives and arranging them in new patterns of hope and dreaming. Here are six riveting tales of life during the hard-luck times of a post-holocaust planet.
Nature's Shift
Peter Bell the Third, accidentally named from the title of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is called upon to renew his old friendship with Rowland Usher, who was deliberately named after the protagonist of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. In the new House of Usher that Rowland is growing in the Orinoco Delta, Usher explains the scientific work in genetics that he’s doing there to Peter, while they both mourn Rowland’s dead twin sister, Magdalen, who has apparently committed suicide for reasons that no one quite understands. As a scientist, Peter is inevitably convinced, when he discovers Magdalen’s “ghost” haunting the house, that the haunting can only be figurative and symbolic—but that does not make it any less meaningful, or problematic. A marvelous new novel in this long-running series by a master of biological extrapolation.
The Second Science Fiction MEGAPACK®
Hours of great reading await, with tales from some of the 20th century's most renowned science fiction authors, Here are 25 science fiction stories: <P> WHAT’S HE DOING IN THERE? by Fritz Leiber<BR> THE MARCHING MORONS, by C.M. Kornbluth<BR> GHOST, by Darrell Schweitzer<BR> DEATH WISH, by Robert Sheckley<BR> THE WAVERIES, by Fredric Brown<BR> ADAM AND NO EVE, by Alfred Bester<BR> FOXY LADY, by Lawrence Watt-Evans<BR> THIN EDGE, by Randall Garrett<BR> COMPANDROID, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman<BR> POSTMARK GANYMEDE, by Robert Silverberg<BR> KEEP OUT, by Fredric Brown<BR> THE HATE DISEASE, by Murray Leinster<BR> UNIVERSAL DONOR, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman<BR> THE GREEN BERET, by Tom Purdom<BR> MR. SPACESHIP, by Philip K. Dick<BR> BRKNK'S BOUNTY, by Jerry Sohl<BR> THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG SCIENCE, by Pamela Rentz<BR> THE EGO MACHINE, by Henry Kuttner<BR> THE MAN FROM TIME, by Frank Belknap Long<BR> THE SENSITIVE MAN, by Poul Anderson<BR> REVOLUTION, by Mack Reynolds<BR> THE THING IN THE ATTIC, by James Blish<BR> KNOTWORK, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman<BR> THE DUELING MACHINE, by Ben Bova and Myron R. Lewis<BR> THE PLANET SAVERS, by Marion Zimmer Bradley <P> And don't forget to check out all the other volumes in the «Wildside Megapack» series! Search on «Wildside Megapack» in the ebook store to see the complete list…covering adventure stories, military, fantasy, ghost stories, and more!