Книги жанра «Фантастика» на букву «M»
Symbolické atributy, které podtrhují osobnost člověka, jsou samozřejmě velmi početné. Oděv představuje velmi významnou kategorii těchto symbolů, a když se někdy lidé sejdou, bývá docela zábavné studovat (nenápadně, samozřejmě), jak jsou oblečeni, a zjišťovat, do jaké míry volili tu kterou součást ošacení se záměrem dosáhnout určitého specifického účinu. Přes symbolický význam oblečení se však muži i ženy posuzují z valné části především podle znaků, které se definují mnohem obtížněji — držení těla, přízvuku, zabarvení hlasu, tvaru a barvy těla, a především tváře. Hlas může být modulován, dieta a cvičení dokáží, alespoň teoreticky, zformovat tělo do společensky přijatelných kontur. Co lze provést s obličejem? V tomto směru bylo už vynaloženo enormní úsilí. Tvar čelistí se dá upravit, obočí přidělat nebo odstranit, nos zkrátit, ztupit, narovnat. Vlasy můžeme tvarovat do tisíců různých podob — lze je vyfoukávat, nakrucovat, zvlhčovat, vysušovat či jinak modelovat, jak je komu libo, vždy s cílem dosáhnout módního účinu. Seberafinovanější kamufláž bývá ovšem průhledná a neodolá kritickému oku. Ať podléháme jakýmkoli sklonům, ať se nám naše obličeje líbí, nebo ne, jsme nuceni s nimi žít a chtě nechtě přijímat výhody, omezení i posměšky, které nám přinášejí. Ovšem kromě rafinovaných a inteligentních obyvatel světa zvaného Siréna, o jejichž neortodoxních společenských zvycích se pojednává na následujících stránkách.
The trick is to get people interested enough to do what needs to be done—and the operative word is “trick!”
In this thrilling debut, David J. Williams delivers a hard-hitting blend of military SF and dystopian cyberpunk, set in a futuristic landscape where hostilities rage from the Eastern and Western hemispheres to the outer ranges of space.
In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Built by the U.S./Pan-Asian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it's just been destroyed.
The South American insurgent group Autumn Rain claims responsibility for the attack, but with suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents, and former lovers—though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Forced to set aside the enigma of their past, their agenda is to trust no one. For in a time of shifting loyalties, the enemy could be anyone—from a shadowy assassin working a questionable mission on the dark side of the moon, to a Euro data thief working under deep cover and wooed into a dangerous pact.
As the crisis mounts, and the search for Autumn Rain spans both Earth and Moon, the lives of all those involved will converge in one explosive finale—and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they've ever known—about their mission, their world, and themselves
In this thrilling debut, David J. Williams delivers a hard-hitting blend of military SF and dystopian cyberpunk, set in a futuristic landscape where hostilities rage from the Eastern and Western hemispheres to the outer ranges of space.
In the 22nd century, the first wonder of a brave new world is the Phoenix Space Elevator, designed to give mankind greater access to the frontier beyond Earth. Built by the U.S./Pan-Asian Coalition, the Elevator is also a grand symbol of superpower alliance following a second cold war. And it's just been destroyed.
The South American insurgent group Autumn Rain claims responsibility for the attack, but with suspicions rampant, armies and espionage teams are mobilized across the globe and beyond. Enter Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe, U.S. counterintelligence agents, and former lovers—though their memories may only be constructs implanted by their spymaster. Forced to set aside the enigma of their past, their agenda is to trust no one. For in a time of shifting loyalties, the enemy could be anyone—from a shadowy assassin working a questionable mission on the dark side of the moon, to a Euro data thief working under deep cover and wooed into a dangerous pact.
As the crisis mounts, and the search for Autumn Rain spans both Earth and Moon, the lives of all those involved will converge in one explosive finale—and a startling aftermath that will rewrite everything they've ever known—about their mission, their world, and themselves
In this tour de force, Doctorow (Little Brother) uses the contradictions of two overused SF themes—the decline and fall of America and the boundless optimism of open source/hacker culture—to draw one of the most brilliant reimaginings of the near future since cyberpunk wore out its mirror shades. Perry Gibbons and Lester Banks, typical brilliant geeks in a garage, are trash-hackers who find inspiration in the growing pile of technical junk. Attracting the attention of suits and smart reporter Suzanne Church, the duo soon get involved with cheap and easy 3D printing, a cure for obesity and crowd-sourced theme parks. The result is bitingly realistic and miraculously avoids cliché or predictability. While dates and details occasionally contradict one another, Doctorow's combination of business strategy, brilliant product ideas and laugh-out-loud moments of insight will keep readers powering through this quick-moving tale.1.0 — создание файла
Dawno, dawno temu z powierzchni ziemi zniknęli czarodzieje, pozostawiając po sobie wiedzę, ukrytą w zagadkach. Morgon, książę prostych kmieci z wyspy Hed, okazał się mistrzem w ich rozwiązywaniu, kiedy to, rzucając na szalę własne życie, wyzwał na pojedynek Pevena, zmarłego lorda Aum, i wygrał od niego koronę.
Ale oto przeciwko Morgonowi sprzysięgły się starożytne siły zła. Zmiennokształtni zajęli miejsce przyjaciół i nikomu już nie można było ufać. Tak więc Morgon ucieka z wrogich mu królestw i wyrusza w drogę do tajemniczej Góry Erlenstar, w której rządy sprawuje Najwyższy.
Podczas wyprawy towarzyszy mu Deth — Harfista Najwyższego. Przed nimi mrożące krew w żyłach przygody i osobliwe spotkania. Nie odstępuje ich też największa z nierozwiązanych zagadek — zagadka znamienia w postaci trzech gwiazdek na czole Morgona, w których, jak wszystko wskazuje, zapisane jest jego przeznaczenie.
Severian, wygnany z konfraterni katów za złamanie zasad, dotarł do Thraxu. Obejmuje stanowisko liktora i sumiennie wypełnia obowiązki strzegąc więźniów i ścinając skazańców. Mimo poszukiwań nie zdołał zwrócić Pazura Łagodziciela — klejnot o uzdrawiającej mocy zaczyna mu ciążyć, odbierając spokój i sen. Severian wyczuwa coraz bardziej mrok gromadzący się nad światem, zaczyna wątpić w swoje powołanie, aż wreszcie wbrew rozkazowi archonta daruje życie kobiecie skazanej na uduszenie. Musi uciekać z Thraxu i udaje się na północ, w góry zamieszkane przez istoty, które odrzuciły człowieczeństwo. Rozpoczyna niebezpieczną podróż, która wyjaśni wiele kłębiących się wokół niego tajemnic.
Powieść Mona Liza Turbo jest przez krytykę uważana za jedną z najlepszych książek autora Neuromancera. Wejdźmy w niezwykły świat Gibsona — liryczny i zmechanizowany, erotyczny i brutalny, posępny i podniecający — gdzie wielonarodowe korporacje i stechnicyzowani przestępcy walczą o władzę, przenosząc się w generowane komputerowo universum zwane cyberprzestrzenią. W tym świecie pojawia się Mona, dziewczyna o mętnej przeszłości i niepewnej przyszłości. Życie prowadzi ją po kursie kolizyjnym ze światowej sławy gwiazdą Sense/Netu, Angie Mitchell. Angie od dzieciństwa potrafiła włączyć się do cyberprzestrzeni, nie używając do tego komputera. Teraz do wnętrza cyberprzestrzeni wiodą nici intrygi mającej na celu jej porwanie. Spiskiem kieruje widmowa jaźń, która ma swoje plany wobec Mony, Angie i całej ludzkości. A w tle kryją się potężni Yakuza z japońskiego podziemia przestępczego…
Ich przywódcy bezlitośnie posługują się ludźmi dla osiągnięcia własnych celów (a przynajmniej tak im się wydaje).
After an upbringing of proper behavior and oppressive expectations, Aralorn fled her noble birthright for a life of adventure as a mercenary spy. Her latest mission involves spying on the increasingly powerful sorcerer Geoffrey ae'Magi. But in a war against an enemy armed with the powers of illusion, how do you know who the true enemy is—or where he will strike next?
ANATOLS IMERMANIS
MORTONA PIRAMĪDA
Fantastisks romāns
izdevniecība «liesma» rīgā 1971
Robērs Merls
MALVILAS PILS
FANTASTISKS ROMĀNS
RĪGA «ZINĀTNE» 1981
Robert Merle MALEVIL Paris 1972
Merls R.
Malvilas pils: Fantastisks romāns / No franču vai. tulk. V. Meļinovskis; V. Meļinovska pēcvārds. — R.: Zinātne, 1981. — 719 lpp. — (Fantastikas pasaulē).
Sociālās fantastikas žanrā risinātais romāns «Malvilas pils» ir dramatiskiem notikumiem piesātināts darbs. Tā varoņi Ir grupa cilvēku, kuri palikuši dzīvi pēc atomkatastrofas. Autors parāda, kā traģiskajā situācijā mainās cilvēku rīcības motīvi, izveidojas jauns kopdzīves modelis, par dzīves dominanti kļūst cilvēces un cilvēcības saglabāšana.
No franču valodas tulkojis V. MEĻINOVSKIS V. MEĻINOVSKA pēcvārds
Izdots saskaņā ar Latvijas PSR Zinātņu akadēmijas Redakciju un izdevumu padomes lēmumu
© Tulkojums latviešu valodā pēcvārds
Izdevniecība «Zinātne», 1981
MARSIEŠU HRONIKAS
REJS BREDBERIJS
MĀKSLINIECE MĀRA RIKMANE
IZDEVNIECĪBA «ZINĀTNE» RĪGĀ 1967
R. Brcdberijs MARSIEŠU HRONIKAS
Redaktors O. Jansons. Māksi, redaktore Sk. Elcte. Tehn. redaktore M. Andersone. Korektore A. Āva. Nodota salikšanai 1966. g. 24. augusta. Parakstīta iespiešanai 1967. g. 24. janvāri. Papīra formāts 70X90/32. 10,5 fiz. iespiedi.; 12,29 uzsk. iespiedi.; 9,25 izdevu. 1. Metiens 50 000 eks. Maksā <59 kap. Izdevniecība «Zinātne» Rīgā, Turgeņeva ielā Nr. 19. Iespiesta Latvijas PSR Ministru Padomes Preses komitejas Poligrāfiskās rūpniecības pārvaldes 2. tipogrāfijā Rīgā, Dzirnavu ielā Nr. 57. Pašūt. Nr. 2565. A (Amer)
Māksliniece Mara Rikmane No angļu valodas tulkojušas M. Andersone un I, Veide
Izdota saskaņā ar Latvijas PSR Zinātņu akadēmijas Redakciju un izdevumu padomes 1966. gada 11. augusta lēmumu.
DAŽI VARDI IEVADAM
Rejs Bredberijs Amerikā šodien ir viens no populārākajiem fantastikas rakstniekiem, un viņa spalvai pieder vesela virkne zinātniski fantastisku romānu, stāstu un — pēdējā laikā — ari lugu. Tomēr «Marsiešu hronikas» nevar ierindot parasto šī žanra darbu vidū. Te gan izmantoti populāri modernās fantastikas elementi — roboti, telepātija, atmiņu un vēlmju materializācija, taču rakstnieka mērķis nav iztēloties, kāda izskatīsies Zeme un Marss divdesmit pirmajā gadsimtā, ko tad būs paveikusi zinātne, cik tālu būs attīstījusies tehnika. «Marsiešu hronikas» nav zinātniskā fantastika šī vārda parastajā izpratnē, jo zinātnes stingrās loģikas te bieži vien trūkst. Rakstnieks gan aizved lasītāju nākamajā gadsimtā, taču risina mūsu pašu divdesmitā gadsimta Zemes sasāpējušās problēmas. Te zinātniskās fantastikas valodā runā nevis zinātnieks, bet humānists, kurš brīdina pasauli no atomkara šausmām, raizējas par mūsu kultūras vērtību un civilizācijas likteņiem.
«Marsiešu hronikas» uzrakstītas piecdesmitajos gados un publicētas periodikā kā atsevišķi stāsti un epizodes, kuri tikai pēc tam apvienoti grāmatā. Līdz ar to darbam trūkst stingras kompozicionālas viengabalainības, stāstiņus saista galvenokārt tematiskā kopība, un tikai nedaudzas personas — kapteinis Vailders un Sems Parkhils — lasītāja priekšā stājas vairākkārt.
Arī visu stāstu mākslinieciskā vērtība nav vienāda. Blakus tādai lieliskai nodaļai kā «. . . Lai gan mēness spoži degs», kur visspē- clgāk izskan grāmatas pamatdoma, blakus tādām mazām pērlēm kā «Zajais rīts» vai «Muzikanti» ir arī bālākas lappuses. Tomēr kopīgā skanējuma spēku tās nemazina.
īpaši gribētos pieminēt nodaļu «Ašers II». Tā sasaucas ar vairākiem Edgara Alana Po stāstiem, kuri pagaidām latviešu valodā nav tulkoti un tāpēc mūsu lasītājiem sveši.
Mistera Stendāla milzīgo bibliotēku sadedzinājuši Morāles klimata pārvaldes ļaudis. Līdz ar citām grāmatām tie sametuši krāsnīs arī visus Edgara Alana Po darbus, tos pat kārtīgi neizlasījuši. Pēc daudziem gadiem misters Stendāls atlido uz Marsu un te realizē savu ilgi loloto atriebības plānu — «inscenē» virkni Po stāstu («Ašera mājas bojā eja», «Muca amontiljado», «Priekšlaicīga apbedīšana», «Bedre un svārsts» un citus) un, atkārtodams tajos aprakstītos notikumus, nogalina ienīstos barbarus no Zemes.
Stāsts izskan kā sašutuma pilns protests pret valdības politiku, kas ierobežo rakstnieka jaunrades brīvību. Viss sākas ar «smilšu graudiņu piecdesmitajos un sešdesmitajos gados», kas noved pie Lielās Dedzināšanas 1975. gadā. Bet Rejam Bredberijam par godu jāsaka, ka gadījumā, ja vēsture tiešām atkārtotos un atkal liesmotu grāmatu sārti, tajos degtu ari «Marsiešu hronikas».
Līdztekus galvenajai tēmai — raizēm par mūsu planētas nākotni — ieskanas arī cita doma: kas notiks ar Marsa civilizāciju, kad uz šīs planētas ieradīsies zemieši, šajā gadījumā amerikāņi. Vai tie, kas nav pratuši sargāt kultūras vērtības savā zemē, spēs just cienību pret citas planētas dārgumiem? Vai arī Marsa kanālos peldēs tukšas viskija pudeles, tempļos mētāsies konservu kārbas? Un kā veidosies šo abu planētu iedzīvotāju attiecības?
Katru grāmatas lappusi caurstrāvo rakstnieka dziļā atbildības sajūta par visu, kas šodien notiek pasaulē. Viņš uzskata par savu pienākumu brīdināt cilvēci no briesmām, pirms vēl nav par vēlu.
Re ja Bredberija «Marsiešu hronikas» ir ne tikai saistoša un interesanta lasāmviela kā vairums zinātniski fantastisko romānu. Šī grāmata rosina domas, iedarbojas uz jūtām, un, aizšķirot pēdējo lappusi, neviļus rodas secinājums: to taču viņš rakstījis par mums, mūsu laiku, mūsu problēmām!
M. Andersone
Manai sirsnīgi mīļotajai sievai MARGARITAI
«Labi, ka esam atguvuši spēju brīnīties,» filozofs sacīja. «Kosmiskie lidojumi mūs visus atkal padarījuši par bērniem.»
Meklējumu pasaulē
V.Ochotnikovs
Iespiesta Poligrāfijas mākslas arodskolā Nr. 2 Rīgā 1952. g
Redaktore V. В r u t ā n e. Māksi. red. R. J a n s о n s. Techn. red. I. S а u l e.
MESS-MEND jeb jenkiji Petrogradā
Marieta Šaginjana alias Džims Dolārs
LATVIJAS VALSTS IZDEVNIECĪBA RĪGA 1958
Tulkojusi Skaidrīte Cielava Mākslinieks G. Ķirke
MUTANTS-59 PLASTMASU ĒDĀJS
KITS PEDLERS DZERIJS DEIVISS
IZDEVNIECĪBA «ZINĀTNE» RĪGA 1976
KIT PEDLER AND GERRY DĀVIS
MUTANT 59:
THE PLASTIC EATER
NEW YORK, THE VIKING PRESS, 1972
К. ПедлеР' Дж ' Дейвис МУТАНТ-59, ПОЖИРАТЕЛЬ ПЛАСТМАСС Серия «В мире фантастики»' Издательство «Зинатне» Рига 1976
На латышском языке
Kits Pedlers, Džerijs Deivjj MUTANTS — 59, PLASTMASU ĒDĀJS
Перевод с английского 3. И н е с и с а Художник М. Р и к м а и е Послесловие Е. Парнова
No angļu valodas tulkojis Z. Inesis Māksliniece M.Rikmane Pēcvārda autors J. Parnovs
Redaktors O. Jansons. MāK4IIBlM4 M. Uiv .mclne. Maksll 'redaktors G. Krutojs. Tehn. redaktore M. Andersone. Korektore L. Btahmane.
Nodota salikšanai 1975. g. 29. septembrī. Parakstīta iespiešanai 1976. g. 1. oktobri. Tipogr. papīrs Nr. 1, formāts 70X100/32. 9 fiz. iespiedi.; 11,70 uzsk. iespiedi.; 12,39 izdevn. 1. Metiens 30 000 eks. Maksā 76 kap. Izdevnieciba «Zinātne» Rīgā, Turgeņeva ielā 19. Iespiesta Latvijas PSR Ministra Padomes Valsts izdevniecību, poligrāfijas un grāmatu tirdzniecības lietu komitejas Rīgas Paraugtipogrāfijā Rīgā, Vienības gatvē 11. Pašūt. Nr. 782.
<© Tulkojums latviešu valoda Izdevniecība «Zinātne», 1976
Izdota saskaņā ar Latvijas PSR 70304—138 Zinātņu akadēmijas Redakciju M811(11)—76 un izdevumu padomes lēmumu
NIKOLAJS GOGOLIS
IZLASE
MAIJA NAKTS VAI SLĪKONE
LATVIJAS VALSTS IZDEVNIECĪBA 1948
Tulk. M. Mencendorfa
Noskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis
NIKOLAJS GOGOLIS
IZLASE
LATVIJAS VALSTS IZDEVNIECĪBA 1948
MIRGORODA
STĀSTI, KAS UZSKATAMI KA TURPINĀJUMS VAKARIEM CIEMATA DIKAŅKAS TUVUMĀ
Tulk. Aleksandrs Čaks
Noskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis
A Halál kiskertjében üldögélt, és a kaszáját élezte. Az már olyan éles volt, hogy még a kósza szellőket is egyetlen mozdulattal két meglepett fuvallatra vágta szét, bár a kósza szellők nem voltak különösebben gyakoriak a Halál csöndes kertjében. A kert egy védett fennsíkon terült el, amely a korongvilág komplex dimenzióira nézett, s mögötte az Örökkévalóság hideg, zord, néma és elképesztően magas hegyei emelkedtek. Ide állt be inasnak Mort, a családja számára égetően kínos fiatalember. (Nem mintha a legkisebbik fiú nem lett volna segítőkész, ám az a meghatározhatatlan, lelkes segítőkészség jellemezte, amit a felnőtt férfiak hamar megtanulnak rettegni. Volt valami ragályos, esetleg az sem kizárt, hogy végzetes benne.) A kötelességtudó Halál bevezeti inasát a halálkodás művészetébe, aztán nyugdíjba vonul hogy kipróbálja azt, amit mindig is szeretett volna. Pecázni, kismacskát simogatni és krumplit sütni. Inasa viszont okoz némi bonyodalmat a valóság szövedékében, ami különben is hajlamos a csomósodása. Így aztán nem hal meg egy tőrbecsalt királykisasszony, visszatér holtaiból egy kétezer éves varázsló, de legalább a halál lánya jól mulat.
A Korongvilág alkimistái felfedezték az ezüstvászon varázslatát. Vajon mily sötét titkot rejteget a Holivud domb?
Viktor Tugelbendre („Nem tudok énekelni. Nem tudok táncolni. Valamennyire tudom forgatni a kardot.”) és Theda Withelre („Egy olyan kicsinyke faluból jöttem, hogy valószínűleg még soha nem hallottál róla”) vár a feladat, hogy kiderítse…
In the midst of recovering from their successful if casualty prone first mission, the crew of the Alliance Space Ship Vorpal Blade are suddenly scrambled back into action. All other priorities take second place as word arrives on earth of a gate colony which has fallen to an unidentified alien assault. As the only space ship currently available to the Human-Adar Alliance, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to find out what happened to the colony, rescue any survivors and learn the identity of the attackers.
With new complexities added to the universe started in the novel Into the Looking Glass and continued in Vorpal Blade, Manxome Foe continues the tradition of non-stop action, valorous if quirky characters and rigorous science drawn from the frontiers of current theory. The odd-ball crew of the Vorpal Blade is an unlikely savior of earth, but none dare say they quail at engaging the Manxome Foe.
Mass Effect: Retribution
© Drew Karpyshyn, 2010
Перевод:
Xzander (пролог, главы 1-11),
Merc (главы 12–18),
Missis Taylor (главы 19–28, эпилог)
A Labirintus Majipoor gigászi bolygójának bürokratikus szíve, egy spirálformában mélységbe tekeredő folyosórendszer. Innen felügyeli az álarcos hivatalnokokat minden egykori Napkirály, és itt él Hissune, a volt utcagyerek, aki a trónra segítette Lord Valentine-t. Amikor megindul felfelé a hivatali ranglétrán, első lépésként évtizedekig unalmas feljegyzéseket kéne csak katalogizálnia a végtelen folyosókon. Még szerencse, hogy a közelben található a Lélektároló, ahol Majipoor utóbbi kilencezer évéből raktározzák több milliárd alattvaló önkéntes léleklenyomatát. Hissune pedig unatkozik, ezért hamis papírokkal rendszeresen besurran, kikér néhány lélekkapszulát, és elmerül a történelem egy-egy jelentős vagy jelentéktelen szereplőjének életében. Szeme előtt lassan roppant mozaik ölt formát e gigantikus bolygó évezredeiről, melynek alakjai mégis egytől egyig érző, hús-vér személyek.
In an America driven to near bankruptcy with crushing foreign debt, the Talos Corporation stands out as a major success story – training soldiers and security forces from around the world and providing logistics and troops for nearly all branches of the United States government. But Talos has another plan in mind – the destruction of the federal system and constitutional law.
Three FBI agents are all that stands between Talos's CEO Axel Price and the subversion of our nation. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, on the Talos Campus – but he may have just overplayed his hand. Agent William Griffin will engage in a desperate diversion to try to rescue Al-Husam, and the top-secret information he literally carries in his blood.
Rebecca Rose is called into action to partner with an unlikely hero: Nathan Trace, one of a team of four who created and programmed the thinking machines that are about to help Axel Price in his plans for domination. Trace and his colleagues were caught up in a violent incident in the Middle East several years ago, and experienced Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. All of them were forcibly enrolled in a treatment program sponsored by Talos Corporation, code-named Mariposa – which supposedly cured their PTSD. But now they are beginning to notice unexpected side effects. The Mariposa subjects are being liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns – and all mental limits – to become brilliant sociopaths. They are out of control and they must die.
Buying Time...
An ancient legend comes to life when assassins from three great tribes of warriors set up shop in the village of Sinanju, with the wholesale destruction of Remo Williams on their minds. For a guy like Remo, a little mortal combat's no big deal, but this time, a day's work only buys him trouble. A powerful old enemy is back in business, determined to close out Remo's account, and even with all the skills of Sinanju, Remo keeps coming up short.
To make matters worse, Harold W. Smith, director of CURE, is sitting on the deadliest threat to U.S. security he's ever encountered, and no one's minding the store. If Remo and Chiun don't turn up soon, the free enterprise system will be out of business, and Smith will have hell to pay - with his life and the future of his country.
Trzeci tom trylogii haińskiej, którego akcja rozgrywa się jednak całe stulecia po wypadkach opisanych w „Świecie Rocannona” i „Planecie wygnania”.
Obejmująca niegdyś tysiące planet Liga Wszystkich Światów rozpadła się, a zamieszkała przez nieliczne ludzkie plemiona Ziemia przeżywa nawrót barbarzyństwa. Są tacy, którzy winią za to przybyłych z kosmosu obcych przybyszów, chociaż owi Shinga nie posługują się przemocą, a fizycznie niczym nie różnią się od ludzi. Znaleziony przez leśnych osadników Falk, człowiek z wytartą pamięcią, wyrusza do miast Es Toch, by poznać swoją przeszłość i swe przeznaczenie. Jednak w Mieście Złudzeń staje wobec nowych zagadek. Kim w istocie jest on sam: Ziemianinem czy przybyszem z odległego świata? I kim są ci, którzy mienią się dobroczyńcami ludzi i spadkobiercami ich wspaniałej cywilizacji? Od odpowiedzi na te pytania może zależeć los całej ludzkości…
Zap! You're dead!
The Mafia had entered the computer age with a vengeance. The game they were playing went way beyond Pac-Man. They didn't make images vanish from a screen - they made human beings vanish from the earth. With the world's biggest computer company in their pocket, they had the world in their power - and only Remo and Chiun had a swiftly disappearing chance of pulling the plug on this megabyte menace and debugging its satanic system before it programmed the Destroyer himself for destruction...
Jake Sullivan watched his father, suffering from a rare condition, collapse and linger in a vegetative state, and he’s incredibly paranoid because he inherited that condition. When mindscanning technology becomes available, he has himself scanned, which involves dispatching his biological body to the moon and assuming an android body. In possession of everything the biological Jake Sullivan had on Earth, android Jake finds love with Karen, who has also been mindscanned. Meanwhile, biological Jake discovers there is finally another, brand-new cure for his condition. Moreover, Karen’s son sues her, declaring that his mother is dead, and android Karen has no right to deprive him of his considerable inheritance. Biological Jake, unable to leave the moon because of the contract he signed, becomes steadily more unstable, until finally, in a fit of paranoia, he takes hostages. Sawyer’s treatment of identity issues —of what copying consciousness may mean and how consciousness is defined —finds expression in a good story that is a new meditation on an old SF theme, the meaning of being human. (Amazon.com)
Won John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2006
Jest to króciutkie opowiadanko bardzo wyróżniające się na tle twórczości Lema. Po pierwsze główną postacią jest istota płci żeńskiej. Po drugie język jest niezwykle wyrafinowany, kunsztowny, stylizowany na dawne czasy (ale bez przesady z tą ostatnią cechą), z długimi zdaniami. Po trzecie jest to bardzo nietypowe science — fiction. Brak w nim w zasadzie elementu science, a tym samym opisów technicznych wynalazków ani zagadnień z zakresu fizyki czy astronomii. Po czwarte fabuła umiejscowiona jest… na dworze królewskim. Przypominało mi to XVII wiek tak na oko. Po piąte pomysł jest kosmiczny, wielce oryginalny, wręcz oszałamiający. Po szóste — zakończenie, takie nieoczekiwane. To wszystko przyczynia się do gonitwy myśli i coraz bardziej opadającej szczęki czytającego…
Lionel Salkind was a rising musical star. His twin brother, Leo Foss, was a researcher in government work that he couldn’t talk about. Then the helicopter they were flying crashed.
When he woke up, Lionel learned that both he and Leo had sustained fatal injuries, and he was only alive because the surgeon had used organs from Leo to repair Lionel’s slightly less damaged body. More than half of Lionel’s brain was gone, and had been replaced with Leo’s. Lionel, in fact, had become His Brother’s Keeper.
The book was written in 1982 and revised in 1998.
Stephen Baxter established himself as a major British sci-fi author with tales of exotic, far-future technology. More recently, in Voyage, Titan and now Moonseed, he shows his love for the hardware of the real world’s space programme. (Comparisons with Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff have been frequent.) Moonseed is a spectacular disaster novel whose threat to Earth comes from a long-forgotten Moon rock sample carrying strange silver dust that seems to be alien nanotechnology — molecule-sized machines. Accidentally spilt in Edinburgh, this ‘Moonseed’ quietly devours stone and processes it into more Moonseed. Geology becomes high drama: when ancient mountains turn to dust, the lid is taken off seething magma below. Volcanoes return to Scotland, and Krakatoa-like eruptions spread Moonseed around the world. A desperate, improvised US/Russian space mission heads for the Moon to probe the secret of how our satellite has survived uneaten. Baxter convincingly shows how travel costs could be cut, with a hair-raising descent on a shoestring lunar lander that makes Apollo’s look like a luxury craft. The climax brings literally world-shaking revelations and upheavals. Moonseed is a ripping interplanetary yarn.
In this epic story, Fulgrim author Graham McNeill tells of the civil war on Mars, and the genesis of the Dark Mechanicum. This next installment is guaranteed to keep fans hooked as the series goes from strength to strength.
Uczeni prowadzący badania, nagle zaczynają napotykać przedziwne, czasem wręcz absurdalne przeszkody. Czyżby komuś zależało na tym, by zatrzymać ich na krok przed dokonaniem epokowych odkryć? A jeśli tak, to komu? Pozaziemskiej cywilizacji? A może zjawisku, które od tysiącleci ludzkość nazywała „ślepym losem”?
Sandry finds a dance-mage boy in Summersea, the twelve-year-old Pasco Acalon, the son and grandson of two police families (known as «harriers» in Summersea). When a rich trading family falls prey to a serial killer, she and Pasco must work together to stop the killer mages who have a deadly weapon — unmagic, which is the absence of magic and life.
Belzagor: un mondo misterioso, un pianeta preistorico immerso in un clima tropicale di vapori fumanti e di giungle intricate e abitato dai Nildoror, una razza indigena di esseri intelligenti simili ad elefanti, asserviti e schiavizzati dai terrestri durante i giorni dell’imperialismo interstellare, ma ora finalmente di nuovo liberi. Mentre i Nildoror attendono pazientemente la partenza delle ultime colonie umane, Edmund Gundersen, un tempo agente della Compagnia che aveva sottomesso gli abitanti del pianeta, e detentore del potere di vita e di morte, ritorna su questo strano mondo spinto da un intimo senso di colpa e dal desiderio di rivedere la bella Seena, da lui abbandonata dieci anni prima. Ma durante l’avventuroso pellegrinaggio nelle nebbie calde di Belzagor, molti incontri belli e orrendi attendono Gundersen, prima che egli possa osservare il mistico rituale della rinascita dei Nildoror, una cerimonia arcana che pochi terrestri hanno potuto vedere e a cui nessuno è sopravvissuto per riferirne.
Anno 2381: nell’esistenza umana l’utopia è diventata realtà. Guerre, fame, contrasti sociali, criminalità e controllo delle nascite sono ormai un semplice ricordo del passato. L’esistenza si svolge tranquilla e ordinata all’interno di giganteschi grattacieli alti centinaia di piani. In una specie di ciclo chiuso, gli esseri umani nascono, studiano, lavorano, mettono al mondo figli, muoiono, senza mai uscirne. I figli sono considerati la massima benedizione di dio e il solo pensiero di porre un limite al loro numero è un’eresia. La libertà sessuale è totale: agli uomini — e alle donne — è permesso cambiare letto ogni notte e giacere con il partner che essi desiderano volta per volta. Soltanto chi è in preda alla pazzia può concepire il desiderio dl una vita privata, dell’intimità coniugale, e nutrire sentimenti di gelosia, tutti sintomi di una pericolosa eresia. Poiché è stato del tutto eliminato il bisogno di uscire fuori del proprio ambiente, di viaggiare, se n’è estinto anche il desiderio. Risuscitare tale desiderio sarebbe una grave eresia, e per chi si rende colpevole di eresia ci sono diversi trattamenti, il più drastico dei quali è l’eliminazione fisica del colpevole, la morte. Ma il numero di coloro che vengono colti da impulsi malsani, che desiderano sfuggire alla facile esistenza programmata delle monadi urbane, alla ricerca di qualcosa che neanche loro sanno con esattezza cosa sia, ma che è radicata nell’anima degli esseri umani, aumenta. Ormai, infatti, la vita stessa è diventata un’utopia. Robert Silverberg, un autore che si è imposto nel campo della fantascienza, oltre che della narrativa, vincitore di un premio Hugo ed ex-presidente dell’associazione degli scrittori americani di science fiction, ripropone in questo libro uno dei più pressanti problemi dell’umanità, prospettandone una terrorizzante conclusione.
Nominato per premio Hugo in 1972.
The future is a grim place in which the declining human population wanders, drugged and lulled by electronic bliss. It’s a world without art, reading and children, a world where people would rather burn themselves alive than endure. Even Spofforth, the most perfect machine ever created, cannot bear it and seeks only that which he cannot have—to cease to be. But there is hope for the future in the passion and joy that a man and woman discover in love and in books, hope even for Spofforth. A haunting novel, reverberating with anguish but also celebrating love and the magic of a dream.
Review
“A moral tale that has elements of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Superman, and Star Wars.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Set in a far future in which robots run a world with a small and declining human population, this novel could be considered an unofficial sequel to Fahrenheit 451, for its central event and symbol is the rediscovery of reading.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Because of its affirmation of such persistent human values as curiosity, courage, and compassion, along with its undeniable narrative power, Mockingbird will become one of those books that coming generations will periodically rediscover with wonder and delight.”
—The Washington Post
“I’ve read other novels extrapolating the dangers of computerization but Mockingbird stings me, the writer, the hardest. The notion, the possibility, that people might indeed lose the ability, and worse, the desire to read, is made acutely probable.”
—New York Times bestselling author ANNE MCCAFFREY
“Walter Tevis is science fiction’s great neglected master, one of the definitive bridges between sf and literature. For those who know his work only through the movies, the lucid prose and literary vision of Mockingbird and The Man Who Fell to Earth will come as a revelation.”
—AL SARRANTONIO, Author of The Five Worlds saga
From the Inside Flap
Mockingbird is a powerful novel of a future world where humans are dying. Those that survive spend their days in a narcotic bliss or choose a quick suicide rather than slow extinction. Humanity’s salvation rests with an android who has no desire to live, and a man and a woman who must discover love, hope, and dreams of a world reborn.
Muse of Fire is a science fiction novella by Dan Simmons. It is about a group of Shakespearean actors in the far future where humans are an interstellar but insignificant race.
My name is Raine Benares. I'm a seeker. The people who hire me are usually happy when I find things. But some things are better left unfound…
Raine is a sorceress of moderate powers, from an extended family of smugglers and thieves. With a mix of street smarts and magic spells, she can usually take care of herself. But when her friend Quentin, a not-quite-reformed thief, steals an amulet from the home of a powerful necromancer, Raine finds herself wrapped up in more trouble than she cares for. She likes attention as much as the next girl, but having an army of militant goblins hunting her down is not her idea of a good time. The amulet they're after holds limitless power, derived from an ancient, soul-stealing stone. And when Raine takes possession of the item, it takes possession of her.
Now her moderate powers are increasing beyond anything she could imagine—but is the resumé enhancement worth her soul?
"An absolutely enjoyable read." C E Murphy
A blistering near-future thriller that will propel Richard Morgan onto the bestseller lists - a novel that will be enjoyed by any thriller reader.
Awards
John W Campbell Memorial Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award (nominee)
La Terra è caduta sotto il dominio degli Insonni, i mutanti che non hanno bisogno di riposo. Ma sotto la pressione di turbe umane sempre più inquiete e ribelli — i Mendicanti — i superuomini sono ostretti a rifugiarsi nello spazio. Un secolo di incognite si apre di fronte a coloro che vegliano, e la sopravvivenza stessa della Terra è minacciata. Chi la salverà?
È il problema più Delicato che lei abbai mai dovuto affrontare: da una parte la vecchia Terra e dall’altra un Mondo Vergine, una civiltà enigmatica, aliena oltre i limiti. L’ambasciatrice è sola e deve Decidere. Forse contro di loro, forse contro se stessa.
Diaspar je posledním domovem lidstva již po několik miliard let, poté co se celá Země proměnila v poušť. Lidé zapomínají a z dávných dramatických událostí se stávají mýty. Pouze jediný z nesmrtelných, Alvin, zoufale touží dovědět se, co leží za hranicemi bezpečně chráněného města. Kdysi se stalo něco, co nejenom zničilo zvědavost člověka, ale také jej vyhnalo z hvězd, aby se choulil v posledním malém uzavřeném městě. Alvin se s neutuchajícím úsilím krok po kroku prokousává tajemstvími a zasutými vědomostmi aby odhalil osud lidstva i celé galaxie skrytý pod nánosem strachu a lži. Snad jeho odhalení umožní lidstvu oprostit se od nadvlády paměťových bank a obnovit ve městě cyklus života a smrti umožňující lidstvu jeho rozvoj.
The magic and mayhem continue in this thrilling second instalment of Hobb's new series.
Althea Vestrit has found a new home aboard the liveship Ophelia, but she lives only to reclaim the Vivacia as her rightful inheritance. However, the Vivacia has been captured by the pirate, 'King' Kennit, and is acquiring a keen bloodlust. Meanwhile in Bingtown, the fading fortunes of the Vestrit family lead Malta deeper into the magical secrets of the mysterious Rain Wilds Traders. And just outside Bingtown, Amber dreams of relaunching the Paragon, The Mad Ship…
The second volume in this superb trilogy from the author of THE FARSEER TRILOGY continues the dramatic tale of piracy, serpents, love and magic.
Aleksander Grin, właściwie Gryniewski (1880–1932), jest pisarzem znanym i chętnie czytanym w Polsce. Przełożono już na język polski sporo jego opowiadań, opowieści i niemal wszystkie powieści („Biegnąca po falach”, „Droga donikąd”, „Złoty łańcuch”). Polskiemu czytelnikowi została wreszcie udostępniona jedna z najciekawszych powieści tego pisarza rosyjskiego „Migotliwy świat”, która może przykuć uwagę swoją sensacyjno-przygodową fabułą, utopijną futurologią, nietypową fantastyką i tajemniczością.
Il romanzo tratta dell’imbarbarimento della società in seguito al diffondersi del virus Chung-Li, il quale colpisce e distrugge irrimediabilmente tutti i tipi di quella che sinteticamente e definita “erba”, in dettaglio tutte le piante erbacee appartenenti alla famiglia delle Graminaceae, tra cui il comune foraggio erbaceo da graminacee, il mais, il miglio, il sorgo, la segale, l’orzo, il riso ed il grano, causando così la lotta globale per l’accaparramento delle scorte alimentari. Il protagonista del romanzo combatte per raggiungere la valle del fratello che rappresenta la salvezza, dove contro l’ottimismo delle autorità mondiali e la distruzione folle delle risorse, si sono isolate e difese le rimanenti piante alimentari, non appartenenti alla famiglia in argomento.
Il romanzo esce per la prima volta in Italia nel 1958 nella collana I Romanzi del Corriere (n° 43) con il titolo La peste verde (traduttore Sergio Uglioni). Il presente traduzione di Mario Galli era pubblicato nel 1967 nel collana Urania (n° 476).
Not everyone would envy young Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, even though he had formed his own mercenary fleet before attending the naval academy, and even though his mother was the beautiful Cordelia, the ship captain who has taught the Lords of Barrayar much about the perils of sexism. Even the fact that Miles is the third in line to the throne and personally owns a major chunk of his home planet would not tempt any normal person to change places with him.
When assassins came to rid the world of his father, his mother, pregnant with Miles, was in the line of fire, and Miles was but an egg for the omelet in an all too literal sense. Thanks to heroic medical intervention, Miles survived his near fatal brush with war gas—as a pain-filled dwarf with bones as weak and brittle as some malign composite of chalk and glass. Miles is often mistaken for a mutant by his mutant-loathing countrymen.
Фанфик по "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Попытка понять, о чём же думал Синдзи и что чувствовала Рей в шестом эпизоде «Neon Genesis Evangelion» - в то время, что Синдзи провёл в госпитале после почти смертельной атаки пятого Ангела. И, меня всегда интересовало - что же именно постоянно слушает Синдзи, включая плеер? Ficlet. Частично POV.
Фанфик по "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Попытка понять, о чём же думал Синдзи и что чувствовала Рей в шестом эпизоде «Neon Genesis Evangelion» - в то время, что Синдзи провёл в госпитале после почти смертельной атаки пятого Ангела. И, меня всегда интересовало - что же именно постоянно слушает Синдзи, включая плеер? Ficlet. Частично POV.
Фанфик по "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Попытка понять, о чём же думал Синдзи и что чувствовала Рей в шестом эпизоде «Neon Genesis Evangelion» - в то время, что Синдзи провёл в госпитале после почти смертельной атаки пятого Ангела. И, меня всегда интересовало - что же именно постоянно слушает Синдзи, включая плеер? Ficlet. Частично POV.
Фанфик по "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Попытка понять, о чём же думал Синдзи и что чувствовала Рей в шестом эпизоде «Neon Genesis Evangelion» - в то время, что Синдзи провёл в госпитале после почти смертельной атаки пятого Ангела. И, меня всегда интересовало - что же именно постоянно слушает Синдзи, включая плеер? Ficlet. Частично POV.
Menschen werden vor dem Ende unseres Jahrhunderts auf dem Mars landen, oder ich müßte mich sehr irren. Sie werden entdecken, daß dieser Planet sie nicht gerade mit angenehmen Lebensbedingungen empfängt. Die Luft ist dünn, das Wetter ist kalt, und man wird kein Wasser finden. Aber die Menschen werden versuchen, dort Fuß zu fassen, wie sie es in den gefrorenen Wüsten der Antarktis und den schaurigen Einöden der Sahara taten. Wie aber werden sie den Mars kolonisieren? Indem sie sich Unterkünfte bauen, die ihnen das Leben unter gewohnten Verhältnissen ermöglichen? Oder indem sie versuchen werden, die menschliche Struktur so zu verändern, daß sie sich den Gegebenheiten des Mars anpaßt…?
Amerikaning mashhur fantast yozuvchisi Rey Bredberining nomi va asarlari o‘zbek o‘quvchilariga ham yaxshi tanish. Endi adibning shoh asari “Marsga hujum”ni siz aziz fantastika ixlosmandlariga havola etmoqdamiz. Oltmish yoshida ilk marta uchoqqa chiqqan, uyida eski yozuv mashinkasidan boshqa bironta zamonaviy texnika uskunasi bo‘lmagan Rey Bredberi favqulodda quvvai zehni bilan olis-olis galaktikalarga xuddi fazogirlarday “sayohat” qiladi va mo‘‘jizaviy taassurotlarini jahon ahli bilan baham ko‘radi.
Muallifning fantastika vositasida bunday g‘aroyib “sayohat”lari zamirida ulkan majoziy ma’no yotadi — u Yerdagi hayot, xususan ona tabiatga munosabat allaqachon izdan chiqqanligini alam, o‘kinch va zaharxandalik bilan ifoda etadi. Hatto biz shaffof marsliklar istiqomat qiladi deb tasavvur etganimiz Mars sayyorasini ham mana shu odamlar allaqachon boshiga yetib bo‘lganini alohida uqtiradi. Bu esa Yerdagi har bir odamni chuqurroq o‘ylashga, hushyor bo‘lishga da’vat etadi.
“Jahon adabiyoti” jurnalidan
Kosmiczna winda wywożąca na orbitę towary i ludzi to projekt inżynieryjny istniejący od XX wieku, teraz wreszcie staje się rzeczywistością. Dla inżyniera Bracknella jest ona dziełem życia, ale dla wielkich korporacji, które na tanim transporcie na orbitę stracą majątki, oraz dla Nowej Moralności, dla której budowa wieży w niebo jest obrazą Boga, stanowią cierń w boku. Zostaje zawiązany spisek i wieża runie w dół, grzebiąc w globalnej katastrofie miliony ludzi. Winnym zostanie uznany Bracknell, karą jest wygnanie Ziemi.
Inżynier traci dorobek całego życia, ale przypadkiem dowiaduje się o sabotażu i spisku i od tej pory całe swoje życie podporządkowuje jednemu — zemście na osobach winnych zniszczenia wieży i jego osobistej tragedii.
Mercenary Kate Daniels cleans up urban problems of a paranormal kind. But her latest prey, a pack of undead warriors, presents her greatest challenge.
As a mercenary who cleans up after magic gone wrong, Kate Daniels knows how waves of paranormal energy ebb and flow across Atlanta like a tide. But once every seven years, a flare comes, a time when magic runs rampant. When Kate sets out to retrieve a set of stolen maps for the Pack, Atlanta's paramilitary clan of shape shifters, she quickly realizes much more is at stake. The stolen maps are only the opening gambit in an epic tug of war between two gods hoping for rebirth, and if Kate can't stop the cataclysmic showdown, the city may not survive.
Drafted into working for the Order of Merciful Aid, mercenary Kate Daniels has more paranormal problems than she knows what to do with. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide, that's saying a lot.
But when Kate's werewolf friend Derek is discovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challenge yet.
Kate Daniels cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to deal with—especially if they involve Atlanta's shapeshifting community.
And now there's a new player in town—a foe that may be too much for even Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family.
Kate Daniels has quit the Order of Merciful Aid, but starting her own business isn't easy when the Order starts disparaging her good name. And being the mate of the Beast Lord doesn't bring in the customers, either. So when Atlanta's premier Master of the Dead asks for help with a vampire, Kate jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, this is one case where Kate should have looked before she leapt.
«A Vuestros Cuerpos Dispersos», «El Fabuloso Barco Fluvial», «El Oscuro Designio» y «El Laberinto Mágico» constituyen los cuatro volúmenes de una de las series mas famosas de la literatura mundial de ciencia ficción: El Mundo del Río.
El mundo imaginado por Philip José Farmer es un mundo cruzado por un único y caudaloso río que lo atraviesa de parte a parte y cuya fuente es desconocida, y al que van a parar todos los seres muertos sobre la Tierra y, resucitados por una desconocida y extraña entidad con propósitos ignorados, en ese extraño planeta.
La vida puede ser muy apacible allí: la subsistencia está asegurada y la resurrección, tras cualquier tipo de muerte, también esta asegurada. Pero el hombre es un ser social, y las relaciones de esa sociedad artificial no son sencillas precisamente. La vida, aun en un mundo así, puede ser terriblemente difícil…
Philip José Farmer escandalizó a la puritana sociedad norteamericana en 1952 con su novela «Los Amantes», donde relataba, mas allá de todo convencionalismo, los amores de un terrestre con una mujer alienígena, por encima de todos los tabúes sociales y religiosos. Más adelante seguiría escandalizando al público con novelas como «Extrañas Relaciones», «Dare», con casi pornográficas como «Carne» y «La Imagen De La Bestia», y con novelas satíricas escritas al estilo Burroughs en las que enfrentaba a su gran personaje Tarzán con otros personajes literarios de la más diversa índole. Nada de su obra sin embargo ha alcanzado la resonancia universal de su serie del Mundo del Río…
«A Vuestros Cuerpos Dispersos», «El Fabuloso Barco Fluvial», «El Oscuro Designio» y «El Laberinto Mágico» constituyen los cuatro volúmenes de una de las series mas famosas de la literatura mundial de ciencia ficción: El Mundo del Río.
El mundo imaginado por Philip José Farmer es un mundo cruzado por un único y caudaloso río que lo atraviesa de parte a parte y cuya fuente es desconocida, y al que van a parar todos los seres muertos sobre la Tierra y, resucitados por una desconocida y extraña entidad con propósitos ignorados, en ese extraño planeta.
La vida puede ser muy apacible allí: la subsistencia está asegurada y la resurrección, tras cualquier tipo de muerte, también esta asegurada. Pero el hombre es un ser social, y las relaciones de esa sociedad artificial no son sencillas precisamente. La vida, aun en un mundo así, puede ser terriblemente difícil…
Philip José Farmer escandalizó a la puritana sociedad norteamericana en 1952 con su novela «Los Amantes», donde relataba, mas allá de todo convencionalismo, los amores de un terrestre con una mujer alienígena, por encima de todos los tabúes sociales y religiosos. Más adelante seguiría escandalizando al público con novelas como «Extrañas Relaciones», «Dare», con casi pornográficas como «Carne» y «La Imagen De La Bestia», y con novelas satíricas escritas al estilo Burroughs en las que enfrentaba a su gran personaje Tarzán con otros personajes literarios de la más diversa índole. Nada de su obra sin embargo ha alcanzado la resonancia universal de su serie del Mundo del Río…
Presenting a collection of short novels and stories set in the many worlds of Robert Asprin. One of his most popular creations was the "Myth" series, chronicling the misadventures of Skeeve and Aahz, a magician who has lost his power and his hapless human apprentice as they travel through strange and varied worlds in pursuit of wealth and glory, but mostly getting into one Myth-ical mess after another. Collected in this volume for the first time are all the Myth stories of less-than-novel length, and even avid fans of the series will find new and enjoyable reading here.
Also included are other short works by Asprin, including his award-winning novelette "Cold Cash War," and several unpublished stories discovered after the writer's death. Asprin's many fans, as well as all readers who enjoy humorous fantasy and science fiction, will find a treasure trove of enjoyable reading. As editor Bill Fawcett puts it, "His stories are always fun, but never predictable."
Ознакомительный фрагмент: предисловие + первые 4 из 17 рассказов.
Presenting a collection of short novels and stories set in the many worlds of Robert Asprin. One of his most popular creations was the "Myth" series, chronicling the misadventures of Skeeve and Aahz, a magician who has lost his power and his hapless human apprentice as they travel through strange and varied worlds in pursuit of wealth and glory, but mostly getting into one Myth-ical mess after another. Collected in this volume for the first time are all the Myth stories of less-than-novel length, and even avid fans of the series will find new and enjoyable reading here.
Also included are other short works by Asprin, including his award-winning novelette "Cold Cash War," and several unpublished stories discovered after the writer's death. Asprin's many fans, as well as all readers who enjoy humorous fantasy and science fiction, will find a treasure trove of enjoyable reading. As editor Bill Fawcett puts it, "His stories are always fun, but never predictable."
Ознакомительный фрагмент: предисловие + первые 4 из 17 рассказов.
It's an offer you can't refuse. Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork's Royal Mint and the bank next door? It's a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long. The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There's something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Royal Mintruns at a loss. A 300 year old wizard is after his girlfriend, he's about to be exposed as a fraud, but the Assassins Guild might get him first. In fact lot of people want him dead Oh. And every day he has to take the Chairman for walkies. Everywhere he looks he's making enemies. What he should be doing is ...Making Money!
It's an offer you can't refuse. Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork's Royal Mint and the bank next door? It's a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long. The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There's something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Royal Mintruns at a loss. A 300 year old wizard is after his girlfriend, he's about to be exposed as a fraud, but the Assassins Guild might get him first. In fact lot of people want him dead Oh. And every day he has to take the Chairman for walkies. Everywhere he looks he's making enemies. What he should be doing is ...Making Money!
New York è stretta nella morsa di un inverno rigidissimo, ma i vampiri non sentono il freddo e Lestat, incontrastato principe delle tenebre, attende nella notte, pregustando il sangue della sua prossima vittima: Roger, un boss della droga. Una facile preda, se non fosse per uno strano turbamento che Lestat prova nei confronti della carismatica figlia dell’uomo, Dora. A dispetto degli inviti alla prudenza da parte dell’amico David Talbot, Lestat compie l’atto finale della caccia, affondando i denti nel collo di Roger. È un tragico errore: il fantasma del morto, infatti, minaccia di perseguitare Lestat se non si prenderà cura di Dora. Per il bene della sua nuova protetta, ma anche per liberarsi dall’angosciante sensazione di essere braccato — una sensazione che lo perseguita da tempo — il vampiro sarà costretto ad affrontare le sue paure più oscure e inconfessabili, perfino a costo di perdere la ragione. Una sfida che culminerà nello scontro con una creatura sovrannaturale, che dice di chiamarsi Memnoch e di essere nientemeno che il diavolo.
London is hunting.
The great Traction City lumbers after a small town, eager to strip its prey of all assets and move on. Resources on the Great Hunting Ground that once was Europe are so limited that mobile cities must consume one another to survive, a practice known as Municipal Darwinism.
Tom, an apprentice in the Guild of Historians, saves his hero, Head Historian Thaddeus Valentine, from a murder attempt by the mysterious Hester Shaw — only to find himself thrown from the city and stranded with Hester in the Out Country. As they struggle to follow the tracks of the city, the sinister plans of London’s leaders begin to unfold…
Christa Lind z Ludzi Lodu została wybrana na matkę wyjątkowego dziecka. Gdy odpowiedni czas nadejdzie, podejmie ono walkę z samym Tengelem Złym. Ojczym Christy pragnął wydać ją za mąż za bardzo religijnego wdowca, Abla Garda. Abel był jednak dwa razy starszy od dziewczyny, poza tym miał siedmiu synów. Myśli Christy zajmował Lindelo, urodziwy chłopiec z biednej komorniczej rodziny. Tajemniczego Lindelo otaczała cudowna, mistyczna aura…
O miłości, zdradzie i nienawiści. Fascynująca opowieść o potomkach Tangela Złego, który zawarł pakt z Diabłem. Zdobyła serca czytelników na całym świecie.
Saga Simon należała do wybranych w rodzinie Ludzi Lodu. Kiedy otrzymała wiadomość, że krewni w Norwegii potrzebują jej pomocy, niezwłocznie wyruszyła w pełna trudów i niezwykłych przygód podróż. Los chciał, że za współtowarzyszy miała dwóch fascynujących młodych mężczyzn. Jeden z nich od pierwszego wejrzenia zapłonął gwałtowną namiętnością do pięknej Sagi i było raczej wątpliwe, czy drugi jest wystarczająco silny by zapobiec katastrofie…
Michael Cunningham, Francine Prose, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Jim Shepard, and more than thirty other extraordinary writers celebrate fairy tales in this thrilling new volume. Inspire by everything from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" and "The Little Match Girl" to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and "Cinderella" to the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" and "Rumpelstiltskin" to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino and from China, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Norway, and Mexico, here are stories that soar into boundless realms, filled with mischief and mystery and magic, and renewed by the lifeblood of invention. Although rooted in hundreds of years of tradition, they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature.
Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count. Now on probation for a felony, it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken.
That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers, Angel remembers being in a horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at a county morgue—and that's it's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.
Before she knows it she's dealing with with a huge crush on a certain hunky deputy and a brand new addiction: an overpowering craving for brains. Plus, her morgue is filling up with the victims of a serial killer who decapitates his prey—just when she's hungriest!
Angel's going to have to grow up fast if she wants to keep this job and stay in on piece. Because if she doesn't, she's dead meat.
Literally.
Four New York Times bestselling authors. One supernaturally seductive town where "Desperate Housewives meets Charmed" (Fresh Fiction).
Welcome to Mysteria, Colorado, home to a vegan vampire, a neighborly werewolf, a pair of sisterly witches, a demon nanny, and more. Passions run high in this hot two-in-one omnibus edition of Mysteria and Mysteria Lane.
Schuyler Van Alen wants an explanation for the mysterious deaths of young Blue Bloods. Her search brings her to Venice, Italy, in the hopes of finding the one person who can help. Meanwhile, back in New York, preparations are feverishly underway for the famous Four Hundred Ball, an exclusive gala hosted by the city’s wealthy, powerful, and unhuman—a true Blue Blood affair. But it’s at the after-party masquerade that the true danger lurks. Hidden behind the masks is a revelation that will change the course of a young vampire’s destiny.
Rich with glamour, attitude, and vampire lore, this second installment in the Blue Bloods saga will leave readers thirsty for more.
After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods.
Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all of her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online…for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again.
As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler’s mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart.
To escape his past, Keller has become an Eye—an all-seeing, unfeeling human video recorder. But his detachment fails when he meets Teresa, and he becomes involved in murder, smuggling and worse.
Je to sbírka kratších i delších, svěže napsaných povídek, které pojí několik prvků: odehrávají se v Guslaru Velikém, provinčním městečku pár hodin jízdy od Vologdy, ústřední postavou bývá vedoucí místního stavebního úřadu Udalov a téměř ve všech se aspoň na chvíli mihne mimozemštan.
Autor se nebere nikterak vážně a jeho povídky jsou hlavně sranda. I když se v nich (notně neotřelým způsobem) řeší události doslova kosmického významu. Kromě toho jsou i skvělou sondou do života sovětského maloměsta. Kdo tu dobu nezažil, asi nepochopí. Což je možná dobře.
First published in Azimov’s Science Fiction in Oct 1987. Later published as part of Escape from Kathmandu collection (Tor Books, 1989).
Muero por dentro es un clásico de referencia y una de las más inspiradas historias de su autor: en ella aborda un tema tan clásico como es la telepatía de manera sutil, ahondando en el lado oscuro del ser humano, rebosa soledad, devastación interior y sensibilidad.
Nombrado para el premio Nebula a la mejor novela en 1972.
Nombrado para el premio Hugo a la mejor novela en 1973.
Nombrado para el premio Locus en 1973.
Morire dentro: è questa la sorte che attende David Selig, il telepate, profilandosi come un incubo all’orizzonte della sua esistenza. Una minaccia a un tempo psichica e biologica corrode i suoi poteri: e per Selig, abituato a «spiare» gli angoli più morbosi e reconditi dei suoi simili, a nutrirsi delle emozioni altrui, il lento affievolirsi delle proprie capacità è un graduale stillicidio. Robert Silverberg ci trasporta con questo romanzo (uno dei suoi ultimi) nella mente del telepate, sicché il lettore può provare, in «soggettiva», l’incredibile esperienza dl guardare in un altro universo, condividendo le emozioni dl una terza vista. Selig raggiunge cosi l’età in cui il suo dono potrebbe maggiormente giovargli: e invece si trova nuovamente respinto da una società che non è pronta per quelli come lui, e in cui anche il rapporto con un essere che possiede i suoi stessi poteri ESP diventa ambiguo e pericoloso. Moderno «Slan», David Selig si trova di fronte a un enigma troppo vasto per la sua fragile personalità: perchè sta perdendo il suo potere mentale? Si tratta solo di un male biologico, o di una minaccia più insidiosa? E che cosa sarà di lui al termine di questa incredibile «odissea nel pensiero»? Come ha scritto la rivista Analog: «Questo romanzo è intensamente umano… intensamente vero. I lettori ricorderanno Morire dentro per una generazione, e forse ancor più».
Robert Silverberg non ha bisogno di presentazioni; Fantasy & Science Fiction ha scritto di lui: «E il nostro autore migliore. Di volta in volta ha costantemente ampliato i parametri della fantascienza».
A veteran of Gulf War II, telepath Greg Mandel enters the high-tech world of computer crime, zero-gravity smuggling, and artificial intelligence when an elusive saboteur threatens a powerful organization and the very future of humankind.
The fifth and final volume in the humorous SF series that began with THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is somewhat darker than its predecessors. The Earthman Arthur Dent spends years selling genetic material in exchange for travel to various parallel universes in search of somewhere vaguely resembling his home planet. When he finally settles (actually, crash lands) on a backwater planet, his pleasant new career as tribal sandwich-maker is interrupted by the arrival of his daughter, Random–the result of those many, many sales of his DNA. Meanwhile, Arthur's friend Ford Prefect discovers that the happy-go-lucky executives of his employer, the publishers of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, have been replaced by a frighteningly grim and worryingly familiar new management team. His plot to disturb their business plan puts him once again into Arthur's path...with devastating results.
In this Discworld installment, Death comes to Mort with an offer he can't refuse – especially since being, well, dead isn't compulsory. As Death's apprentice, he'll have free board and lodging, use of the company horse, and he won't need time off for family funerals. The position is everything Mort thought he'd ever wanted, until he discovers that this perfect job can be a killer on his love life.
Cameras roll - which means the imps inside have to paint really fast - in the fantastic Discworld when the alchemists discover the magic of the silver screen.
But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill?
As the alien clich's of Tinsel Town pour into the world, it's up to the Disc's first film stars to find out...
THRILL as Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little") and Theda Withel ("I come from a little town you've probably never even heard of") battle the forces of evil and cinema advertising...
SCREAM as Gaspode the Wonder Dog nearly saves the day...
EAT POPCORN as you watch the filming of "Blown Away", the oddest Civil War picture ever made...
A Passionate Saga Set Against the Background of a World Gone Mad!
This Will Amaze You!
With a Thousand Elephants!
("And afterwards, why not dine at Harga's House of Ribs, for the best in international cuisine; only two minutes from this book...")
China Miéville stworzył swą najdoskonalszą dotąd powieść — egzystencjalny thriller rozgrywający się w mieście najniezwyklejszym ze wszystkich, realnych czy wyimaginowanych…
Gdy w ponurym, chylącym się ku upadkowi mieście Besźel położonym gdzieś na skraju Europy znaleziono ciało zamordowanej kobiety, wydawało się, że inspektora Tyadora Borlú z Brygady Najpoważniejszych Zbrodni czeka kolejna rutynowa sprawa. W miarę postępów śledztwa Borlú odkrywa jednak dowody wskazujące na spiski znacznie dziwniejsze i groźniejsze niż wszystko, co mógłby sobie wyobrazić. Wkrótce inspektorowi i bliskim mu ludziom zaczyna grozić niebezpieczeostwo. Borlú musi przekroczyć granicę niepodobną do żadnej innej i wyruszyć do jedynego miasta na Ziemi, które jest równie dziwne jak to, w którym mieszka…
Powieść nagrodzona „Arthur C. Clarke Award 2010” oraz „Hugo Award 2010”.
Totally delightful account of the wild results of outlandish experiments of a scientist lured into joining the staff of an incredible institution where the most intensive research is done to harness the power of black magic, wizardry, the secrets of super-science and paranormal talents.
Totally delightful account of the wild results of outlandish experiments of a scientist lured into joining the staff of an incredible institution where the most intensive research is done to harness the power of black magic, wizardry, the secrets of super-science and paranormal talents.
Галактика в осаде. Каждые пятьдесят тысяч лет, расы живых машин вторгается в нашу галактику с целью собрать урожай всех органических форм жизни. Они — Жнецы.
Два человека узнавшие правду, отчаянно ищут способ прервать цикл: адмирал флота Дэвид Андерсон и его подруга, Кали Сандерс. Им удалось найти ужасающие доказательства того, что Жнецы это реальная угроза. Но при этом они вторглись в сферу интересов «Цербера», секретной военизированной организации, и ее таинственного лидера, Призрака, поставившего под угрозу жизни Дэвида и Кали, так как он не остановится ни перед чем, лишь бы защитить свои секреты.
И на своем нелегком пути, они встречают сомнительного, но вероятного союзника — Джиллиан Грэйсон, девушку обладающую удивительными способностями. Однажды, она уже была объектом ужасающих научных экспериментов «Цербера», но теперь Джиллиан свободна и научилась управлять своей смертоносной силой, но узнав, что «Цербер» ответственен за смерть ее отца, Джиллиан клянется отомстить организации и Призраку, тем самым поставив под угрозу планы Кали и Дэвида, и все за что они борются.
Mass Effect: Deception © William C. Dietz, 2012
Перевод: www.BioWare.ru
Xzander (пролог, главы 1–8, 11, 12, 15, 16), MissisTaylor (главы 9, 10), TiRTo (главы 13, 14)
A fanfiction novel based on the Firefly television series (starring Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite and directed by Joss Whedon).
An enormous tidal wave on the West Coast of North America has just killed thousands. Lenie Clarke, in a black wetsuit, walks out of the ocean onto a Pacific Northwest beach filled with the oppressed and drugged homeless of the Asian world who have gotten only this far in their attempt to reach America. Is she a monster or a goddess? One thing is for sure: all hell is breaking loose. This dark, fast-paced, hard SF novel returns to the story begun in Starfish: all human life is threatened by a disease (actually a primeval form of life) from the distant prehuman past. It survived only in the deep ocean rift where Clarke and her companions were stationed before the corporation that employed them tried to sterilize the threat with a secret underwater nuclear strike. But Clarke was far enough away that she was able to survive and tough enough to walk home, three hundred miles across the ocean floor. She arrives carrying with her the potential death of the human race, and possessed by a desire for revenge.
Maelstrom is a terrifying explosion of cyberpunk noir by a writer whose narrative, says Robert Sheckley, "drives like a futuristic locomotive."
Claire Danvers's college town may be run by vampires but a truce between the living and the dead made things relatively safe. For a while. Now people are turning up dead, a psycho is stalking her, and an ancient bloodsucker has proposed private mentoring. To what end, Claire will find out. And it's giving night school a whole new meaning.
The long-awaited return of the great master of horror. Mister B. Gone is Barker's shockingly bone-chilling discovery of a never-before-published demonic ‘memoir’ penned in the year 1438, when it was printed — one copy only — and then buried until now by an assistant who worked for the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg.
The World is Frozen
Civilization survives in pockets of warmth, most notably in the vast, Mississippi-based Middle Kingdom of North America and in glacier-covered Boston. Boston, where high technology that borders on magic is used to create the "moonrisen," people with the genes of animals. Boston, which looks at the growing strength of Middle Kingdom, united under the brilliant King and Commander, Sam Monroe, and sees a time when Boston will not rule.
A coup destroys Middle Kingdom's royal family, save for young Prince Bajazet. With Boston's minions in pursuit, before long Baj is Prince no longer, just a man on the run. His saviours are three of the moon's children, who are conspiring with the surviving northern Tribes to overthrow Boston. Baj has no choice-he must side with the rebels or die.
I was born a monster. Although truthfully, I was only half monster. My mother was human; my father was something...else. Half monster or whole, in the end it didn't matter. I had my weaknesses, same as anyone else.
And I was facing one of them now.
After saving the world from his fiendish father's side of the family, Cal Leandros and his stalwart half-brother Niko have settled down with new digs and a new gig-bodyguard and detective work. And in New York City, where preternatural beings stalk the streets just like normal folk, business is good.
Their latest case has them going undercover for the Kin—the werewolf Mafia. A low-level Kin boss thinks a rival is setting him up for a fall, and wants proof. The place to start is the back room of Moonshine—a gambling club for non-humans. Cal thinks it's a simple in-and-out job. But Cal is very, very wrong.
Cal and Niko are being set up themselves—and the people behind it have a bite much worse than their bark...
My brother had spent a lifetime—mine, at least—telling me that I was normal, that I wasn't a monster. With his help, I'd finally realized that as long as I could remain who I was, I could survive what I was. It was only bad genes....
Half-human Cal Leandros and his brother, Niko, aren't exactly prospering with their preternatural detective agency. Who could have guessed that business would dry up in New York City, where vampires, trolls, and other creepy crawlies are all over the place?
But now there's a new arrival in the Big Apple. A malevolent evil with ancient powers, dead set on making history with an orgy of blood and murder, is picking off humans like sheep. And for Cal and Niko, this is one paycheck they're going to have to earn...if they live long enough to collect it.
What newly married couple doesn't dream of a romantic retreat where they can escape the world for a while—but what happens when supernatural forces intrude on their wedded bliss?
Nine of today's hottest paranormal authors answer that question in this all-star collection of supernatural stories. Can a vampire-hunter enjoy her honeymoon when she's just learned that her new hubby is a werewolf? How can newlyweds focus on their wedding night when their honeymoon suite is haunted by feuding ghosts? And what's a wizard to do when a gruesome monster kidnaps the bride on her way home from the wedding?
With so much otherworldly mayhem awaiting our newlyweds, will they ever get around to the honeymoon itself? Find out in...My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon.
Werewolves, vampires, witches, voodoo, Elvis—and weddings
An “ordinary” wedding can get crazy enough, so can you imagine what happens when otherworldly creatures are involved? Nine of the hottest authors of paranormal fiction answer that question in this delightful collection of supernatural wedding stories. What's the seating plan when rival clans of werewolves and vampires meet under the same roof? How can a couple in the throes of love overcome traps set by feuding relatives—who are experts at voodoo? Will you have a good marriage if your high-seas wedding is held on a cursed ship? How do you deal with a wedding singer who's just a little too good at impersonating Elvis?
MYTH-TOLD TALES is a collection of short stories by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye that introduce and set up the new Myth Adventures Series which launches in August 2003 with MYTH ALLIANCES!
MYTH-TOLD TALES is a collection of short stories by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye that introduce and set up the new Myth Adventures Series which launches in August 2003 with MYTH ALLIANCES!
Someone is collecting animated treasures and keeping them from their heroic destinies. Reunited with the lovely Trollop Tananda, Aahz the Pervect must help out a sword called Ersatz, and embark on a quest that just may restore his lost magical powers.
In Hogan's intriguing fifth SF novel in the series that began with Inherit the Stars (1978), Earth has reestablished contact with the Ganymeans, an alien race that manipulated proto-humans into homo sapiens on Minerva, a planet that once occupied the region of the present asteroid belt. After the Ganymeans migrated to the Giants' Star 20 light-years from Earth, a war on Minerva caused by intelligences from an alternate reality-one of an infinite number suggested by the Multiverse hypothesis-led to the planet's destruction. Now, several decades into the 21st century, people on Earth have developed a means of exploring these realities, including one in which Minerva still exists, and mount a rescue mission to prevent the war on Minerva. While the need to establish the backstory slows the book's first half, Hogan does an excellent job of extrapolating the science from current theories of quantum physics. The second half moves briskly and logically to a satisfying climax, though the villain is straight out of James Bond. Readers who like their science hard will find this one a diamond.
Dreams have magic in them.
A few of us have the power to make that magic real.
A masterwork by one of fantasy’s most gifted storytellers: a magnificent tale of love, courage, and the power of imagination to transform our lives.
This is the novel Charles de Lint’s many devoted readers have been waiting for, the compelling odyssey of a young woman whose visionary art frees ancient spirits into the modern world.
Isabelle Copley’s visionary art frees ancient spirits. As the young student of the cruel, brilliant artist Vincent Rushkin, she discovered she could paint images so vividly real they brought her wildest fantasies to life. But when the forces she unleashed brought tragedy to those she loved, she turned her back on her talent—and on her dreams.
Now, twenty years later, Isabelle must come to terms with the shattering memories she has long denied, and unlock the slumbering power of her brush. And, in a dark reckoning with her old master, she must find the courage to live out her dreams and bring the magic back to life.
Charles de Lint’s skillful blending of contemporary urban characters and settings with traditional folk magic has made him one of the most popular fantasy authors of his generation.
Memory and Dream is the most ambitious work of de Lint’s extraordinary career, an exciting tale of epic scope that explores the power our dreams have to transform the world-or make it a waking nightmare.
It is the story of Isabelle Copley, a young artist who once lived in the bohemian quarter of the northern city of Newford. As a student of Vincent Rushkin, a cruel but gifted painter, she discovered an awesome power—to craft images so real that they came to life. With her paintbrush she called into being the wild spirits of the wood, made her dreams come true with canvas and paint. But when the forces she unleashed brought unexpected tragedy to those she loved, she ran away from Newford, turning her back on her talent-and on her dreams.
Now, twenty years later, the power of Newford has reached out to draw her back. To fulfill a promise to a long-dead friend, Isabelle must come to terms with the shattering memories she has long denied, and unlock the slumbering power of her brush. She must accept her true feelings for her newfound lover John Sweetgrass, a handsome young Native American who is the image of her most intense imaginings. And, in a dark reckoning with her old master, she must find the courage to live out her dreams, and bring the magic back to life.
Charles de Lint - Novelist, poet, artist, and musician, Charles de Lint is one of the most influential fantasy writers of his generation. With such warmly received works as Spiritwalk, Moonheart, Into the Green, and Dreams Underfoot(also set in the town of Newford), he has earned high praise from readers and critics alike, Booklist has called him “one of the most original fantasy writers currently working.” And The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction writes: “De Lint shows us that, far from being escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep, mythic literature of our time.”
De Lint and his wife MaryAnn Harris, an artist, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where they are both Celtic musicians in the band Jump At the Sun.
“For more than a decade, Charles de Lint has enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s leading fantasists.”— Toronto Star
“A superb storyteller. De Lint has a flair for tales that blur the lines between the mundane world and magical reality, and nowhere is this more evident than in his fictional city of Newford.”— Library Journal
“De Lint can feel the beauty of the ancient lore he is evoking. He can well imagine what it would be like to conjure the Other World among ancient standing stones. His characters have a certain fallibility that makes them multidimensional and human, and his settings are gritty. This is no Disneylike Never-Never Land. Life and death in de Lint’s world are more than a matter of a few words or a magic crystal.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
“There is no better writer now than Charles de Lint at bringing out the magic in contemporary life ... The best of the post-Stephen King contemporary fantasists, the one with the clearest vision of the possibilities of magic in a modern setting.” — Orson Scott Card
“In the fictional city of Newford, replete with the brutal realities of modern urban life, de Lint’s characters encounter magic in strange and unexpected places ... In de Lint’s capable hands, modern fantasy becomes something other than escapism. It becomes folk song, the stuff of urban myth.” — The Phoenix Gazette
The author brings to a conclusion the confrontation between the mighty Confederacy and the small but powerful worlds of the Warden Diamond.
Kaylee has one addiction: her very hot, very popular boyfriend, Nash. A banshee like Kaylee, Nash understands her like no one else. Nothing can come between them.
Until something does.
Demon breath. No, not the toothpaste-challenged kind. The Netherworld kind. The kind that really can kill you. Somehow the super-addictive substance has made its way to the human world. But how? Kaylee and Nash have to cut off the source and protect their friends—one of whom is already hooked.
And so is someone else.
Some nights never end.
Some desires never die. . . .
Shape-shifting werewolf and vampire Riley Jenson is through with death — causing it, solving it, surviving it. Her soul mate, Kye Murphy, is dead — and at Riley's own hands. Not even the seductive embrace of her vampire lover, Quinn, can fully ease her mind, for she has begun questioning everything that makes her Riley — including her job at the Directorate.
Now, the ritualistically slain bodies of ex-cons have started turning up. Reluctantly, Riley takes the case, but something even worse is waiting in the wings. A vicious enemy from her past is determined to strip Riley of everything that gives her life any meaning: her lover, her brother — and even her own identity. Can Riley survive this ultimate assault? All she knows is, she must fight one last time to find answers, before everything goes dark forever.
El tema de esta novela es el aterrador mundo del futuro: la gente y la política mundial en el año 1999. La población de la tierra ha llegado a ocho mil millones de seres humanos. La escasez creciente de recursos naturales ha conducido a.las dos grandes potencias al borde del conflicto nuclear.
A pocos cientos de kilómetros sobre la superficie terrestre, en sus respectivas colonias lunares, los Estados Unidos y la Unión Soviética luchan afiebradamente por completar sus propias redes de satélites que los protegerán de un ataque atómico.
Ambas potencias saben que quien complete primero la red protectora quebrará en su favor el largo equilibrio de fuerzas. Así se ganaría una ventaja decisiva.
Dos hombres están vitalmente comprometidos en este posible holocausto: el jefe ruso y el jefe norteamericano de las bases lunares. Afortunadamente para la humanidad, ambos hombres son idealistas de buena voluntad, decididos a luchar juntos por conquistar un mundo donde sea posible la coexistencia. ¿Triunfarán los idealistas? ¿Qué fuerzas luchan contra ellos? ¿Podrán sobrevivir? Este es el dramático nudo de esta magistral novela de suspenso.
Fragment książki — Proszę włączyć powietrze — dał rozkaz Erg Noor pozostałym na statku. Dzieliła ich od tamtych nieprzepuszczalna ściana. Dopiero kiedy ciśnienie w komorze osiągnęło wysokość dziesięciu atmosfer i było wyższe niż zewnętrzne, dźwigi hydrauliczne wypchnęły ciasno przylegające drzwi. Ciśnienie powietrza niemal wyrzuciło ludzi z komory, nie pozwalając, aby z obcego świata przedostało się do wnętrza statku coś szkodliwego. Drzwi zatrzasnęły się gwałtownie. Smuga reflektora wyznaczyła jaskrawą drogę, po której badacze zaczęli kuśtykać na swoich sprężynowych nogach, ledwie dźwigając ciężkie ciała. Przy końcu świetlnej trasy widniał ogromny statek, ale nierówna, usiana kamieniami droga zdawała się ciągnąć bez końca.
V románu Mlhovina v Andromedě jsou děje od nás vzdáleny předělem staletí. Nikoli však nazpět — ale kupředu, do období nazvaného érou Velikého Okruhu. To se již spojily obydlené planety naší Galaxie, člověk se vypravil ke vzdáleným hvězdám. Nově a rozumně je uspořádána společnost, lidské zájmy i osudy se zásadně změnily. Přitom však Jefremovi nejde o to, aby líčil přludné a růžové utopie. Dívá se do budoucnosti jako vědec i umělec zároveň a obezřetně posuzuje, zda to, co píše je reálné či nikoli. Mohutná, udivující je jeho vynalézavost i důslednost, s níž se snaží vytvořit nikoli jen dílčí, ale úplnou představu soustrojí budoucího řádu.
A jövő század kaotikus világában a kontinenseket uraló magakorporációk küzdelmének dzsungelében magára marad egy lány.
Azaz majdnem.
Mert a Cyberspace-ciklus harmadik kötetében sem az élet, sem a halál sem a holnap fogalma nem olyan egyértelmű amilyennek az első pillanatban látszik…
A jövő század kaotikus világában a kontinenseket uraló magakorporációk küzdelmének dzsungelében magára marad egy lány.
Azaz majdnem.
Mert a Cyberspace-ciklus harmadik kötetében sem az élet, sem a halál sem a holnap fogalma nem olyan egyértelmű amilyennek az első pillanatban látszik…
Tajemné Město s umělým sluncem a bezhvězdnou oblohou přijímá do svých domů pouze dobrovolníky. Ti ovšem přicházejí z různých "pozemských" let, z různých zemí — a také z různých důvodů. Ve Městě však musí nevyhnutelně tvořit jednu společnost. Někteří z nich pochopitelně začnou brzy pochybovat: K čemu jsou vlastně připravováni? Nechtějí na nich prostě jen budoucí kolonizátoři planety Země studovat psychiku potenciálních otroků? Proč přichází zkouška za zkouškou, katastrofa za katastrofou? A je vůbec možné z Města uniknout?
Trwa Wielki Eksperyment. Żaden z mieszkańców Miasta nie wie, jaki jest jego cel. Uczestnikami są zwerbowani przez tajemniczych Nauczycieli ludzie różnych narodowości, wyznań i przekonań. Zagubieni, poddawani niezrozumiałym próbom i sprawdzianom muszą podporządkować się niejasnym prawom rządzącym zaskakująco zmiennym światem.
Vampire hunter extraordinaire Anita Blake arrives in Philadelphia to raise a witness from the dead so that his testimony can be taken with the help of Micah, the king of the wereleopards, but she is more fearful of spending time alone with Micah, her former lover, than dealing with a zombie.
The time has come for Meredith Gentry to put aside her detective work and fulfill her ultimate obligation to the world of Faerie — where her efforts to conceive an heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court are crucial to restoring magic, and life itself, to the Fey kingdom.
When Kaylee Cavanaugh screams, someone dies.
So when teen pop star Eden croaks onstage and Kaylee doesn't wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can't cry for someone who has no soul.
The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad's ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend's loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld-a consequence they can't possibly understand.
Kaylee can't let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk…
A paradise in space, under threat of being turned into a resort world. But the natives have a secret plan for their own survival.
The short story “Monument” was first published in Analog Magazine, June of 1961, and was included in the anthology Analog 1, edited by John W. Campbell (Doubleday, 1963). This novel is an expanded version of that story.
When Master Drachton Below unleashed a plague of sleep, which ironically claims him as well as his targets, Cley realizes that he will have to journey into his former master's memory to find a solution.
An omnibus of novels
From four of today's hottest fantasy authors – all-new novellas of dark nights, cruel cities, and paranormal P.I.s.
The best paranormal private investigators have been brought together in a single volume – and cases don't come any harder than this.
New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher delivers a hard-boiled tale in which Harry Dresden's latest case may be his last.
Nightside dweller John Taylor is hired by a woman to find something she lost – her memory – in a thrilling noir tale from New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.
National bestselling author Kat Richardson's Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a 'simple job' goes bad and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave.
For centuries, the being that we know as Noah lived among us. Now he is dead, and fallen-angel-turned-detective Remy Chandler has been hired to find out who killed him in a whodunit by national bestselling author Thomas E. Sniegoski.
An omnibus of novels
From four of today's hottest fantasy authors – all-new novellas of dark nights, cruel cities, and paranormal P.I.s.
The best paranormal private investigators have been brought together in a single volume – and cases don't come any harder than this.
New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher delivers a hard-boiled tale in which Harry Dresden's latest case may be his last.
Nightside dweller John Taylor is hired by a woman to find something she lost – her memory – in a thrilling noir tale from New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.
National bestselling author Kat Richardson's Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a 'simple job' goes bad and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave.
For centuries, the being that we know as Noah lived among us. Now he is dead, and fallen-angel-turned-detective Remy Chandler has been hired to find out who killed him in a whodunit by national bestselling author Thomas E. Sniegoski.
‘There's a room in there where millions of people of Majipoor have left memory-readings. You pick up a capsule, put it in a special slot and suddenly... you find yourself living in Lord Confalume's time, or Lord Siminave's, or out there fighting the Metamorph Wars…’
The archives of the House of Records of the planet Majipoor have been rediscovered by the boy Hissune in the time after the restoration of the Coronal Lord Valentine.
In tales of life, love, conflict and discovery, the complex and colourful world of Majipoor is explored from different perspectives, ranging across its long history and immense terrain.
Il pavimento del mondo è increspato come il fondale di un oceano. Il sole al tramonto inchiostra d’ombra violetta ogni increspatura. Le dune riempiono il mondo fino agli orli. E su questo pianeta che non è la Terra, un uomo insegue l’amsir, la grande bestia alata, per ucciderla. Perché gli uomini hanno sempre fatto cosi, da che il tempo è iniziato all’ombra della Spina. Ma per Honor White Jackson qualcosa cambia all’improvviso: l’amsir parla, e scaglia dardi. Forse, allora, la realtà non è soltanto quella di cui ha sempre parlato l’Anziano... Cosi inizia Morte dell’utopia, uno dei romanzi più originali, magici e inquietanti della fantascienza moderna, scritto da un maestro del genere, Algis Budrys.
MARAKOTA BEZDIBENIS
A.KONANS DOILS
Pasaulslavenais angļu rakstnieks (1859—1930) lasītājus iepriecinājis ne vien ar privātdetektīva Serloka Holmsa un viņa uzticamā drauga doktora Vatsona gaitām, bet arī ar vairākiem zinātniski fantastiskiem darbiem. Sajā grāmatā lasītājs iepazīsies ar dažiem dēkaiņiem: avīzes reportieri, mednieku aristokrātu un diviem zinātniekiem, kuriem izziņas alkas liek doties bīstamos ceļojumos gan kalnos, gan jūras dzelmēs. Autors ir spraiga sižeta meistars, māk jautri un trāpīgi pajokot un joprojām ir viens no jaunatnes vismīļākajiem rakstniekiem.
RĪGA «LIESMA» 1989
2. izdevums
(A.KONANS DOILS MARAKOTA BEZDIBENIS)
No angļu valodas tulkojušas Rute Runce, Tija Pētersone un Ņina Krilova
Mākslinieks Ģirts Boronovshis
Redaktors Andrejs Rijnieks
Izdevniecība «Liesma», 1989
METEORA MEDĪBAS Žils Verns
Jules Verne LA CHASSE AN METI ORE Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1923
Julcs Verne LES CINQ CENTS MILLIONS DE LA BEGUM Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1917
No franču valodas tulkojusi M. Silmale Pēcvārda autors J. Brandiss Mākslinieks N. Seminihins
Izdots saskaņa ar Latvijas PSR Zinātņu akadēmijas Redakciju un izdevumu padomes lēmumu
Tulkojums latviešu valodā, 70304-068 47mnnnnnn pēcvārds Izdevniecība
«Zinātne», 19
Opowieśc o Mordimerze Madderdinie, inkwizytorze, który nie waha się zadawać pytań i dążyć do odkrycia prawdy o otaczającym go świecie.
Świecie pełnym intryg i zła. Świecie, w którym ludziom zagrażają demony, czarownicy oraz wyznawcy mrocznych kultów. Świecie, którego siłą napędową są nienawiść, chciwość oraz żądza. Do tego właśnie uniwersum Mordimer Madderdin niesie żagiew Boskiej miłości…
OTO ŚWIAT, w którym Chrystus zstąpił z krzyża i surowo ukarał swych prześladowców. Świat gdzie słowa modlitwy brzmią: "i daj nam siłę, byśmy nie przebaczali naszym winowajcom". Świat, w którym "nasz Pan i jego Apostołowie wyrżnęli w pień pół Jerozolim". OTO ON: inkwizytor i Sługa Boży. Człowiek głębokiej wiary.
Warning: Although this the action of this book is set on Mars, it could just as easily have taken place in one of the desert communities around Los Angeles. The real action takes place inside the minds of the characters. If you're looking for all the external trappings of interplanetary Sci-Fi, you will be deeply disappointed. Approach it with an open mind, and you will be richly rewarded. What happens when one of the most powerful men on the planet Mars finds that real-estate speculators are intent on gobbling up the remote and seemingly worthless Franklin D Roosevelt mountains? Naturally he wants to find out why. A casual conversation with a psychologist followed by a chance encounter with a master repairman leads to one of those Dickian leaps: Since (1) autistic children do not respond to others because they are living in the future, (2) just build a machine to slow down time and (3) maybe even use it to go back in time and retroactively post a claim on the land before the speculators do. Well, the mechanism works, in a way. The speculators were proposing to build giant apartment blocks to help relieve overcrowding on polluted Earth. The autistic boy, Manfred Steiner, sees much further, however, to the time the apartment block would become a warehouse for the sick and dying, a "tomb world," of which he himself is a denizen. Manfred's visions have a way of bending the reality of those around him; he persistently retreats to a vision of reality as "gubble" -- entropy seen as large wormlike constructs that underlie reality, leading to pure "gubbish." MARTIAN TIME-SLIP is one of my favorite Philip K Dicks. (The problem is that I like all 15 or so I've read more or less equally.) Reading Philip K Dick tends to bend your sense of reality much as Manfred Steiner does. And one can't help looking over one's shoulder for a few hours after reading him. I see Dick as not so much a science fiction writer as a creator of disturbing and eerily plausible futures.
Warning: Although this the action of this book is set on Mars, it could just as easily have taken place in one of the desert communities around Los Angeles. The real action takes place inside the minds of the characters. If you're looking for all the external trappings of interplanetary Sci-Fi, you will be deeply disappointed. Approach it with an open mind, and you will be richly rewarded. What happens when one of the most powerful men on the planet Mars finds that real-estate speculators are intent on gobbling up the remote and seemingly worthless Franklin D Roosevelt mountains? Naturally he wants to find out why. A casual conversation with a psychologist followed by a chance encounter with a master repairman leads to one of those Dickian leaps: Since (1) autistic children do not respond to others because they are living in the future, (2) just build a machine to slow down time and (3) maybe even use it to go back in time and retroactively post a claim on the land before the speculators do. Well, the mechanism works, in a way. The speculators were proposing to build giant apartment blocks to help relieve overcrowding on polluted Earth. The autistic boy, Manfred Steiner, sees much further, however, to the time the apartment block would become a warehouse for the sick and dying, a "tomb world," of which he himself is a denizen. Manfred's visions have a way of bending the reality of those around him; he persistently retreats to a vision of reality as "gubble" -- entropy seen as large wormlike constructs that underlie reality, leading to pure "gubbish." MARTIAN TIME-SLIP is one of my favorite Philip K Dicks. (The problem is that I like all 15 or so I've read more or less equally.) Reading Philip K Dick tends to bend your sense of reality much as Manfred Steiner does. And one can't help looking over one's shoulder for a few hours after reading him. I see Dick as not so much a science fiction writer as a creator of disturbing and eerily plausible futures.
Warning: Although this the action of this book is set on Mars, it could just as easily have taken place in one of the desert communities around Los Angeles. The real action takes place inside the minds of the characters. If you're looking for all the external trappings of interplanetary Sci-Fi, you will be deeply disappointed. Approach it with an open mind, and you will be richly rewarded. What happens when one of the most powerful men on the planet Mars finds that real-estate speculators are intent on gobbling up the remote and seemingly worthless Franklin D Roosevelt mountains? Naturally he wants to find out why. A casual conversation with a psychologist followed by a chance encounter with a master repairman leads to one of those Dickian leaps: Since (1) autistic children do not respond to others because they are living in the future, (2) just build a machine to slow down time and (3) maybe even use it to go back in time and retroactively post a claim on the land before the speculators do. Well, the mechanism works, in a way. The speculators were proposing to build giant apartment blocks to help relieve overcrowding on polluted Earth. The autistic boy, Manfred Steiner, sees much further, however, to the time the apartment block would become a warehouse for the sick and dying, a "tomb world," of which he himself is a denizen. Manfred's visions have a way of bending the reality of those around him; he persistently retreats to a vision of reality as "gubble" -- entropy seen as large wormlike constructs that underlie reality, leading to pure "gubbish." MARTIAN TIME-SLIP is one of my favorite Philip K Dicks. (The problem is that I like all 15 or so I've read more or less equally.) Reading Philip K Dick tends to bend your sense of reality much as Manfred Steiner does. And one can't help looking over one's shoulder for a few hours after reading him. I see Dick as not so much a science fiction writer as a creator of disturbing and eerily plausible futures.
"'Stephen Fry is one of the great originals… This autobiography of his first twenty years is a pleasure to read, mixing outrageous acts with sensible opinions in bewildering confusion… That so much outward charm, self-awareness and intellect should exist alongside behaviour that threatened to ruin the lives of innocent victims, noble parents and Fry himself, gives the book a tragic grandeur and lifts it to classic status.' Financial Times; 'A remarkable, perhaps even unique, exercise in autobiography… that aroma of authenticity that is the point of all great autobiographies; of which this, I rather think, is one' Evening Standard; 'He writes superbly about his family, about his homosexuality, about the agonies of childhood… some of his bursts of simile take the breath away… his most satisfying and appealing book so far' Observer"
Kontynuacja wątków zarysowanych w Grze Endera. Niezagrożona ludzkość zaczyna współczuć pokonanym napastnikom i skazuje Endera na banicję. Tymczasem otwartość Ziemian zostanie wystawiona na próbę przez kolejne zjawienie ię obcych.
Nagroda Nebula 1986.
Nagroda Hugo 1987.
The national bestselling author returns with a new passionate, erotically charged paranormal novel.
Roberto, a jaguar-shifter of mixed Monère heritage, arrives in Cozumel to kill a rival. But he finds a more valuable prize in Mona Lisa, a Monère who's lost her memory and can be manipulated into believing anything—no matter how dark or dangerous.
When ten billion filthy drug dollars' worth of heroin pollutes the Jersey shore and threatens to make the Mafia a second Evil Empire, the president knows there's just one man who can stop a Jersey Kingpin from destroying the country and that's an ex-Jersey cop resurrected and nicknamed the Destroyer. Remo Williams is on a mission to mainline death and destruction into the Cosa Nostra before Main Street gets stuck. But how will Master Chiun's masterpiece of a human killing machine score? Will history's biggest drug score go bust? With Remo on the mission you know he'll sniff out the swine and cover his tracks but when he gets to the top will he find he's gone too high and realize that the Mafia fix is in?
An army of renegade cops across the country have been assigned the task of squashing criminal cockroaches under their boots. It's a dirty job and the White House entrusts it to only one man - The Destroyer. Between Master Chiun's exquisite sense of justice and Remo Williams' knack for murder, they are ready to bring justice to town once and for all.
The Robler Clinic is getting a reputation for too many deaths during routine operations. A gorgeous female administrator, Ms. Kathy Hahl, is discovering a profitable little racket, and her tame anaesthetist, Dan Demmet, is playing along nicely. When timid mother-dominated Nathan David Wilberforce - a subject of special interest to CURE - comes to a premature death at the clinic, Remo and Chiun decide it is time to infiltrate... And it is Remo who books in as the 'patient' - exposing him to the rare and deadly ageing drug.
Word on the streets is don't mess with the Lords. The Saxon Lords kill for cigarette money and rule the New York ghettos with fear. Even the cops stay off their turf. But one man can't stay away when he reads about the brutal beating of an old woman in broad daylight. Remo Williams, the Destroyer, goes hunting for punks. Stalking the slums with Chiun, master Sinanju assassin, Remo starts his own program of urban renewal. The Big Apple will never be the same.
Beer for breakfast, that's how the brother-in-law of the President of the United States starts his day. Beer is his food, his fuel, and his future, if not his finale. His sudsy philosophy immersed him in a continuing controversy, embarrassing the White House, and making him a media personality. It is also giving him some very lucrative consulting jobs for foreign governments. Like the Libyans. They want his help in obtaining plutonium . . . For peaceful purposes, of course . . . a Holy War against Israel being the furthest thing from their minds. Suddenly good old Bobby Jack is missing. And the list of suspects seems endless. America's number-one beer drinker is finally muzzled. But by whom? The Bad Guys or the Good Guys? Terrorists or patriots? The Libyans or the Israelis? The Secret Service or the Mafia? The Destroyer?
Now you see him, now you don't! Law-enforcement officials think they've see everything until they bump into Elmo Wimpler, the inventor of a substance that can make anything invisible. Wimpler's found his niche in life by dropping out of sight - literally - and killing with a device that crushes skulls. His victims are multiplying, there are no clues in sight, and authorities are groping in the dark. Under suspicion themselves, Remo and Chiun set out to play blindman's buff with the killer no one can see, but they, too, draw a blank. As they stalk their quarry sight unseen, the assassin's ultimate target materializes a deposed Middle Eastern sovereign with a $25 million price tag on his head. The United States has granted him asylum, and it's up to Remo and Chiun to bring the curtain down on Wimpler's operation before he sends the monarch to Kingdom Come . . .
When sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird gets Marked as a fledgling vampire she must join the House of Night school where she will train to become an adult vampire. That is, if she makes it through the Change. But Zoe is no ordinary fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the Goddess Nyx and discovers her amazing new power to conjure the elements: earth, air, fire, water and spirit. When Zoey discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look within herself to embrace her destiny - with a little help from her new vampire friends.
All alone: an idiot boy, a runaway girl, a severely retarded baby and twin girls with a vocabulary of two words between them. Yet, once they are mysteriously drawn together, this collection of misfits becomes something very, very different from the rest of humanity.
A brilliant physicist and the daughter of one of Mars’ oldest colonizing families — both involved in the student uprising of 2171 — see the revolution take a dramatic, unexpected turn.
Won Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1994.
Nominated for Hugo, Locus, and John F. Campbell Memorial Awards in 1994.
Messier 13 to nazwa gwiazdozbioru, w pobliżu którego odkryta została pewna planeta, na której odnaleziono ślady obcej cywilizacji. Planetę tę badają naukowcy, których z kolei strzeże tajna struktura o pięknej nazwie Słoneczna Agencja Ochrony (SAO), ale metodach działania nieodmiennie kojarzących się z KGB, SB, UB itp.
Główny bohater jest funkcjonariuszem SAO, więc dokładnie poznajemy styl i sposób działania organizacji i jedyne, co mi przychodzi na myśl, to że pomysł na taką powieść mógł powstać tylko w głowie pisarza wychowanego w ustroju totalitarnym.
Niemniej jednak, jeśli pominąć odczucia wywołane istnieniem, możliwościami i metodami działania tejże SAO, powieść czytało mi się zaskakująco dobrze.
Stara (1975 r.), dobra powieść o badaniu Kosmosu i kontakcie.
Messier 13 to nazwa gwiazdozbioru, w pobliżu którego odkryta została pewna planeta, na której odnaleziono ślady obcej cywilizacji. Planetę tę badają naukowcy, których z kolei strzeże tajna struktura o pięknej nazwie Słoneczna Agencja Ochrony (SAO), ale metodach działania nieodmiennie kojarzących się z KGB, SB, UB itp.
Główny bohater jest funkcjonariuszem SAO, więc dokładnie poznajemy styl i sposób działania organizacji i jedyne, co mi przychodzi na myśl, to że pomysł na taką powieść mógł powstać tylko w głowie pisarza wychowanego w ustroju totalitarnym.
Niemniej jednak, jeśli pominąć odczucia wywołane istnieniem, możliwościami i metodami działania tejże SAO, powieść czytało mi się zaskakująco dobrze.
Stara (1975 r.), dobra powieść o badaniu Kosmosu i kontakcie.
Przed miliardem lat Człowiek z przyczyn, których nikt już nie pamięta, porzucił stworzone przez siebie Galaktyczne Imperium i wycofał się na Ziemię. Ostatni przedstawiciele ludzkiej rasy schronili się w tkwiącym pośrodku pustyni mieście Diaspar. Mieszkańcy Diaspar odczuwają lęk przed otwartą przestrzenią i nigdy nie opuszczają murów miasta, żyjąc w całkowitej izolacji od świata zewnętrznego. Pewnego dnia pojawia się jednak wśród nich wolny od tej fobii człowiek, który postanawia wyjaśnić tajemnice przeszłości. Opuszcza miasto i prowadząc żmudne dochodzenie, odsłania dramatyczne dzieje rasy ludzkiej. Dzięki jego determinacji i odkryciom przełamana zostaje stagnacja, w której od tysiąca milionów lat grzęźnie Diaspar, i Człowiek znowu zaczyna śmiało patrzeć w gwiazdy, których widok napawał go dotąd takim przerażeniem.
For star-crossed lovers Nimira and Erris, there can be no happily ever after until Erris is freed from the clockwork form in which his soul is trapped. And so they go in search of the sorcerer Ordoria Valdana, hoping he will know how to grant Erris real life again. When they learn that Valdana has mysteriously vanished, it's not long before Nimira decides to take matters into her own hands-and begins to study the sorcerer's spell books in secret. Yet even as she begins to understand the power and limitations of sorcery, it becomes clear that freeing Erris will bring danger-if not out-and-out war-as factions within the faerie world are prepared to stop at nothing to prevent him from regaining the throne.
This is the collection of Frank Belknap Long stories, with the complete short novel «The Horror from the Hills».
One of the early works of pulp terror, «The Horror from the Hills» is the legendary first tale of the Cthulhu Mythos. It is drawn from the disturbing nightmares of Belknap Long's friend and colleague, H. P. Lovecraft, the master writer of supernatural fiction of the modern age. A blood-sucking demon from the fourth dimension is mistakenly exhibited in a Manhattan museum and feasts on the blood of its admirers. This influential tale of extraterrestrial terror, a bestseller in the 1930s and 1940s, has been out of print for more than three decades. In a relatively short narrative, Long takes us from the remotest origins of our common culture, to the center of civilized mid-twentieth-century, to the cutting edges of contemporary technology to bring us face to face with horrible bloodsucking malevolence. We are fortunate that Chaugnar Faugn is a creation of fiction, drawn from one dark mind into another's pen.
Trying to work things out with Nash — her maybe boyfriend — is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can't just pretend nothing happened. But "complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.
See, Sabine isn't just an ordinary girl. She's a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people's fears — and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.
And Sabine isn't above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever — and whoever — she wants.
Jane, a shapeshifting vampire-hunter-for-hire, crosses paths with a stranger who has arrived in New Orleans, enlisted to hunt vampires who have gone insane—or so he says...
Le 21e siècle. Demain.
Cinquante hommes et cinquante femmes, représentant les nations majeures et toutes les disciplines scientifiques, embarquent à bord de l’Arès, un immence vaisseau spatial, un micro-monde où ils vont vivre pendant plus d’un an avant d’atteinde Mars, à cent millions de kilomètres de là. Un homme, déjà, a posé le pied sur Mars : John Boone. Héros mythique depuis son retour sur Terre, il s’est porté volontaire pour ce second voyage.
Un voyage aller, sans espoir de retour vers la Terre.
Car les hommes et les femmes de l’Arès devront aller au-delà de l’exploration. Il devront survivre dans un monde usé, désolé, hostile. Si l’homme ne peut s’y adapter, il faudra adapter Mars à l’homme. Descendre dans ses canyons immenses pour y chercher de la glace. Il faudra ensemencer les vallées où coulèrent des fleuves, il y a des millions d’années. Il faudra inventer de nouvelles villes, avec des matériaux et des concepts nouveaux. Des cités de rêve greffées sur le désert, au flanc des plus grands volcans du système solaire. Il faudra affronter les diférences politiques, religieuses.
Recommencer l’Histoire dans un décor nouveau.
Une mission de tout repos pour trois sorcières de haut vol (Air Balai) : empêcher les épousailles d’une servante et d’un prince. Pas de quoi impressionner Mémé Ciredutemps, Nounou Ogg et Magrat Goussedail. Oui, mais :
1 — Ca se passe à l’étranger (beurk !), dans la cité lointaine de Genua.
2 — Que faire d’une baguette magique de seconde main qui ne sait que transformer les choses en citrouilles ?
3 — Comment s’opposer au pouvoir irrésistible des contes s’ils sont manipulés par la redoutable « bonne fée » Lilith ? N’est-ce pas le merveilleux destin d’une servante que d’épouser le prince ? Comme celui des mères-grands de se faire dévorer par le loup ?
Tel n’est pourtant pas l’avis de Madame Gogol, la sorcière vaudou des marais de Genua.
« Enco an piti zassiette di gombo, ma chè ? »
Mars la rouge… Les hommes ont débarqué sur un nouveau monde, qu’ils ont entrepris de modifier pour le rendre habitable. C’est une utopie à long terme : créer une atmosphère, changer les déserts et les cratères arides en prairies, la glace des pôles en fleuves, en mers.
Mais les hommes et les femmes ont changés, eux aussi. Depuis leur révolution, durement réprimée, de 2061, les Cent Premiers sur Mars se sont dispersés sur toute l’étendue de la planète. Certains, constructeurs de villes radieuses, vivent au grand jour sous la surveillance orbitale de l’ONU. D’autres ont rejoint l’underground, la résistance, ses opérations de sabotage écologique, ses factions extrémistes, Mars-Unistes ou Rouges.
Tout peut à nouveau basculer dans la violence, et le rêve d’une Mars vivable et douce se transformer en cauchemar.
Mais pendant ce temps, sur Terre, entre toutes les multinationales avides, une seule a compris l’enjeu. Il faut libérer Mars. Avec ceux qui sont en train d’en faire Mars la verte…
Après Mars la rouge (récompensé par le prix Nebula), voici Mars la verte qui a obtenu le prix Hugo en 1994.
Depuis toujours, Kim Stanley Robinson est fasciné par Mars, une planète qu’il a longuement étudiée, en étroite collaboration avec les services spécialisés de la NASA. Il est le chef de file d’une nouvelle « école » qui se qualifie de Real Science-Fiction, la science-fiction réelle (on pourrait même dire hyper-réaliste). Cette trilogie qui s’achèvera bientôt avec la publication de Mars la bleue, lui aura demandé dix-sept années de recherche et d’écriture.
Le Vert a triomphé, Mars est « terraformée ». Ceux qui espéraient préserver la planète rouge dans sa terrible beauté ont perdu la bataille. Leur objectif, désormais : empêcher l’invasion de Mars par les Terriens. La tentation isolationniste est forte : c’est la position que défendent les partisans de Mars Libre. Ces derniers ne veulent pas comprendre que, sur la planète mère, la situation est désespérée : un déluge cataclysmique a fait monter l’eau des océans, aggravant un problème de surpopulation déjà crucial. Et l’administration du traitement de longévité ne va pas arrager les choses… On ne voit pas ce qui pourrait empêcher les Terriens, poussés par le désespoir, n’ayant plus rien à perdre, de déclarer la guerre à Mars.
L’enjeu est maintenant la conquête des autres planètes du système solaire. Les premiers colons s’embarquent dans des astéroïdes évidés, pour des voyages de plusieurs dizaines d’années qui les emmèneront vers les étoiles les plus proches.
Qu’importe la durée du voyage, ils vivront longtemps. C’est peut-être le nouveau départ dont l’humanité avait besoin…
Siglo XXI. Durante eones, las tormentas de arena han barrido el estéril y desolado paisaje del planeta rojo. Ahora, en el año 2026, cien colonos, cincuenta mujeres y cincuenta hombres, viajan a Marte para dominar ese clima hostil. Tienen como misión la terraformación de Marte, y como lema: “Si el hombre no se puede adaptar a Marte, hay que adaptar Marte al hombre”. Espejos en órbita reflejarán la luz sobre la superficie del planeta. En las capas polares se esparcirá un polvo negro que fundirá el hielo. Y grandes túneles, de kilómetros de profundidad, atravesarán el manto marciano para dar salida a gases calientes. En este escenario épico, habrá amores y amistades y rivalidades, pues algunos lucharán hasta la muerte para evitar que el planeta rojo cambie.
Marte rojo ya no existe, fue destruido por la fallida revolución del 2062. Una generación más tarde, Marte verde ha sido terraformado y areoformado. Pero también hay otros que quieren explotar las riquezas minerales de Marte, las materias primas que la Tierra necesita. La nueva generación de colonos está expuesta a insurrecciones, conflictos y pruebas. Sobrevivientes de los Primeros Cien, entre ellos Hiroko, Nadia, Maya y Simon, saben que la tecnología no es suficiente. La creación de un nuevo mundo requiere confianza y colaboración, pero esas cualidades son tan escasas como el aire mismo que respiran en Marte…
Tengo la impresión que Kim Stanley Robinson fue uno de los primeros colonos en Marte, y que ha regresado para contarnos la historia en esta brillante nueva novela.
Knowledge is expanding exponentially, as humanity fills the galaxy and then some. But advances in physics (which Draper describes in fictional mathematical terms) are able to keep up with the storage problem, until all of human knowledge, for all time to come, is packed into one drawer. Of course, there is one wee problem. Retrieval is ultimately macroscopic. And so the indexes grow. And when they get miniaturized, the indexes to the indexes grow. And so on, which then leads to a higher-order index of the iterated indexes, and then so on again. All this is spelled out in some detail.
The neverending recursion, while threatening to grow to Ackermann-like proportions, is still manageable. But when a spontaneously generated Gödelian self-reference is discovered in the indexing system, the whole lbry, and with it all of human civilization, collapses overnight. . .
By William E. Emba
Knowledge is expanding exponentially, as humanity fills the galaxy and then some. But advances in physics (which Draper describes in fictional mathematical terms) are able to keep up with the storage problem, until all of human knowledge, for all time to come, is packed into one drawer. Of course, there is one wee problem. Retrieval is ultimately macroscopic. And so the indexes grow. And when they get miniaturized, the indexes to the indexes grow. And so on, which then leads to a higher-order index of the iterated indexes, and then so on again. All this is spelled out in some detail.
The neverending recursion, while threatening to grow to Ackermann-like proportions, is still manageable. But when a spontaneously generated Gödelian self-reference is discovered in the indexing system, the whole lbry, and with it all of human civilization, collapses overnight. . .
By William E. Emba
Szigetvilág azúrkék tengerén, egy kicsiny sziget kicsiny falujában, távol a világ zajától különös képességekkel bíró fiú látja meg a napvilágot. Veleszületett varázsereje már gyermekként felkelti a mágusok érdeklődését, így hamarosan maga a híres Oromon keresi fel, s fogadja tanítványául. Az ifjú Kóbor nagy tettekre született, megvan benne minden, hogy nevét és tetteit egyszer a legnagyobb hősök mellett emlegessék. Ám a tehetség nem minden. A fiú ereje mellé hamarosan gőg társul, tettrekészsége nagyravágyásba fordul, mígnem egy vészterhes éjjelen megidéz valamit, amit a leghatalmasabb mesterek sem tudnak irányítani. Egy névtelen árnyat a túlvilágról, amelynek egyetlen célja megszerezni Kóbor lelkét, hogy aztán annak erejét a világ romlására használja. Legendákba illő üldözés veszi kezdetét.
A mysterious island.
An abandoned orphanage.
A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
„Milion nowych dni” to powieść, której akcja rozgrywa się dwa wieki później, i w której pewien wierny małżonek zostaje uwikłany w biologiczny eksperyment związany z konsekwencjami nieśmiertelności. Powieść ciekawie napisana, niemal sensacyjna, ale wartka akcja to nie jest jej jedyny walor. Ciekawe jest również tło, w którym rzecz się dzieje. Autor wykazuje się wieloma nowymi, świeżymi pomysłami na temat, jak może wyglądać codzienne życie za dwieście lat. Taki np. klucz hotelowy wysyłający impulsy działające na fluoryzujące pod ich wpływem strzałki na ścianach korytarzy, i w ten sposób wskazujące drogę do własnego pokoju, mógłby być stosowany już dziś.
Upiór grasuje w budynku Opery w Ankh-Morpork. Nosi maskę białą jak kość i terroryzuje cały zespół, w tym nieśmiertelnego Enrico Basilicę, który je bez przerwy, nawet kiedy śpiewa. Czy jest lepszy sposób na pozbycie się upiora niż czarownica? Na scenę wkracza najnowsza operowa diva, Perdita X.
Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale spinner, author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails? What kind of world results when the Dark Lord is in charge? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises and magical martial-arts action that begins in Mistborn.
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.
Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.
But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.
Sometime in the dark future of urban jungles, riots, food shortages, and senseless violence, a cynical New York City detective embarks on a desperate hunt for the truth.
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
La Gran Nave lleva viajando por el espacio más tiempo del que su tripulación es capaz de recordar. Desde que, hace algunos milenios, entró en la Vía Láctea y fue colonizado por los humanos, este colosal vehículo del tamaño de un planeta ha vagado por la galaxia transportando a billones de hombres y miles de razas alienígenas que han conseguido la inmortalidad gracias a la alteración genética.Pero los pasajeros no viajan solos: en el interior de la nave duerme un secreto tan antiguo como el propio universo. Ahora está a punto de despertar…
Ill luck made Roger Torraway the subject of the Man Plus Programe, but it was deliberate biological engineering which turned him into a monster — a machine perfectly adapted to survive on Mars. For according to computer predictions, Mars is humankind's only alternative to extinction. But beneath his monstrous exterior, Torraway still carries a man's capacity for suffering.
Won Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1976.
Nominated for Hugo, Locus, and Campbell awards in 1977.
In the Micronesian Islands, a top secret, U.S. government- sponsored undersea lab conducting vital biomedical research on a rare jellyfish known as the Blue Medusa suddenly . . . disappears. At the same time, off Bermuda, a bathysphere is attacked by an underwater vehicle and left helpless a half mile below the surface, its passengers-including Zavala-left to die. Only Kurt Austin's heroic measures save them from a watery grave, but, suspecting a connection, Austin puts the NUMA(r) team on the case. He has no idea what he's just gotten them all into. A hideous series of medical experiments . . . an extraordinarily ambitious Chinese criminal organization . . . a secret new virus that threatens to set off a worldwide pandemic. Austin and Zavala have been in tight spots before, but this time it's not just their own skins they're trying to save-it's the lives of millions.
Marte ha crecido. Ha sido completamente terraformado —plantas y animales transgénicos— viven a orillas de los canales y mares tormentosos que han aparecido en los últimos años. Marte es ahora un planeta políticamente independiente. La mayoría de los Primeros Cien están muertos; los que quedan son los Mitos vivientes de los jóvenes marcianos…
Mientras tanto la Tierra ha crecido demasiado. Nacionalismo rabioso, recursos naturales escasos… demasiado gente… Marte parece un utopía burlona, un sueño inalcanzable, para vivir, para luchar, tal vez, para morir. Un libro hermoso, para vivirlo por dentro. Que sea cierto.
Когда-то давно Московское метро замышлялось как гигантское бомбоубежище, способное спасти десятки тысяч жизней. Мир стоял на пороге гибели, но тогда ее удалось отсрочить. Дорога, по которой идет человечество, въется, как спираль, и одажды оно снова окажется на краю пропасти. Когда мир будет рушиться, метро окажется последним пристанищем человека перед тем, как оно канет в ничто.
Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself.
A smoldering debut novel exploring the passion, hunger, and danger that can break loose in the moonlight.
From the time she was a child, Mona Lisa knew she was different—but she never knew how different until a man of otherworldly beauty appeared during her night shift in the ER. Gryphon is hurting and hunted and he attracts her as no man ever has before. He is a Monère, one of the children of the moon—and what's more, so is she.
Long exiled from the moon, the men of the Monère serve—and mate with—imperious Queens who can channel the rays of their far-off homeland. Gryphon believes that Mona Lisa is a Queen—perhaps the first of Mixed Blood ever known. But her introduction to the nighttime court of the Monère, simmering with intrigue, casual lust, and calculated cruelty, is far from smooth.
Mona Lisa has finally accepted what she really is — a Mixed-Blood of the Monère, the children of the moon. Stronger, faster, and more beautiful than any human, they are the origins of Earth's darkest legends — and Mona Lisa is their newest Queen.
Accompanied by her loyal cadre of warriors and kin, Mona Lisa is entering her territory of Louisiana for the first time. She slowly learns the erotic and savage customs of the Monère elite — though some of her new subjects are uneasy at being ruled by a half-human. Her reign is threatened by enemies old and new, and she is ensnared in the thrall of dark forces she cannot deny. In a hidden world of animal passions and unrelenting lust, Mona Lisa soon grasps the tremendous power she must command if she is to hold her realm together — and if she is ever to come into her own.
Dante, the warrior son of a healer, was cursed by the high priestess to endure a never-ending cycle of life and death, born and reborn into an ever-diminishing bloodline. Someone shares one of his past lives. Her name was Mona Lyria. Back then, on the moon in another world, she was his victim. Today, she is Mona Lisa, and this time, she is his savior. Dante's wish is to die by her hands to end his cursed existence, but she feels fate has given them both a second chance. For even stronger than her craving for blood is her craving for what every Monère female desires, and needs…to bear life. Now she has found her mate — but with this blessing could come a new curse under the shadow of a new moon.
On the vernal equinox, Mona Lisa is taken against her will to NetherHell, the cursed realm of the damned. In this place, she will be torn from both within and without by desire, love, and ecstasy. And when her first love crosses the boundaries of the world to rescue her, she must choose her own destiny — before others choose it for her.
Powiadają, że Eugeniusz Dębski nie lubi pisać fantasy. Jest on wszakże znany raczej z kryminałów i dreszczowców science-fiction. Mimo to popełnił kilka powieści z gatunku magii i miecza. Jedną z nich, bodajże najwcześniejszą, bo wydaną po raz pierwszy w 1990 roku, jest właśnie Śmierć Magów z Yara. Można by rzec, że autor zmierzył się z fabułą, za którą sam nie przepada. I jaki jest wynik tego "starcia"?
Na tylnej części okładki książki napisane jest, że to baśń. I rzeczywiście, narracja jest typowa dla tego rodzaju opowieści. Występują więc w niej liczne, jak najbardziej celowe uproszczenia, chociażby takie, że praktycznie ani jedna kobieta nie pojawia się w powieści, postaci charakteryzują się stalową psychiką i nadludzką wręcz wiarą we własne, mizerne w końcu siły. Bohater niewiele też musi się natrudzić, wypełniając misję, której się podjął. Większość wyzwań i niebezpieczeństw pokonują za niego towarzysze, zwierzęta, przedmioty czy nadludzkie siły. Na swej drodze spotyka on niemal równie wielu przyjaciół, co wrogów. Zawsze umie znaleźć rozwiązanie sytuacji lub kogoś, kto będzie je znał.
Sama fabuła jest dość typowa, mamy królewicza o czystym i odważnym sercu, pradawne zło, które opanowało całą krainę oraz ułomek magicznego miecza, jedynego oręża zdolnego pokonać tytułowych magów. Bohater, książę Malcon, jest wybrańcem, wręcz pionkiem w rękach losu i wyższych sił, które chyba naznaczyły go na długo nim się urodził. Dowiedziawszy się, że oto właśnie zostanie królem i jest ostatnim człowiekiem, który może zniszczyć zło w przeklętej krainie Yara, wyrusza bez zastanowienia w straceńczą misję. Bierze ze sobą bojową wilczycę, wiernego rumaka i miecz Gaed. Mimo wielu niespodzianek i przeciwności, od samego początku wiadomo, jaki będzie finał tej przygody.
Wrażenia po przeczytaniu z pewnością będą zależeć od nastawienia, upodobań i… wieku. Niżej podpisany uważa, że Śmierć Magów z Yara jest adresowana do młodszych czytelników, a także do osób lubiących baśniowe klimaty. Ktokolwiek szuka mocnej, męskiej akcji o nieoczekiwanych zwrotach, drobiazgowej narracji, wciągających dialogów czy przewrotnego zakończenia, niech sobie tą pozycją nie zawraca głowy, bo się zawiedzie i tylko może, niesłusznie przecież, nisko ocenić prozę Dębskiego. Dobrze jest wiedzieć, jaka to powieść, zanim się ją zacznie czytać, by się później nie zdziwić jej formą i treścią, które trochę mogą budzić skojarzenia z Gwiezdnym pyłem Gaimana. Czy to porównanie zachęcające, czy wręcz przeciwnie, każdy musi już odpowiedzieć sobie sam.
Dodatkowym smaczkiem jest umieszczony na końcu Podarunek Nailishii, krótkie opowiadanie opisujące, jak król Cergolus otrzymał niegdyś Gaeda i skąd się wziął półboski byt, który pomaga Malconowi w walce z magami.
W Spichrzy, najpiękniejszym mieście Krain Wewnętrznego Morza, nadchodzi czas karnawału. Zbójca Twardokęsek liczy, że wreszcie wypocznie, posili się i nażłopie trunków na koszt księcia. Czy mu się to uda?
Na ulicach i w zaułkach Spichrzy narasta świąteczny zamęt. Mieszkańcy, przerażeni wieściami o rzezi, zgotowanej przez szczuraków okolicznym miasteczkom, topią strach w winie i wyrzekają przeciw księciu i radzie miejskiej. Tumult przeradza się w krwawą ludową rewoltę, kiedy rozjuszeni rzemieślnicy zaczynają mordować patrycjuszy.
Tymczasem Szarka, niepomna na marzenia kompana, w towarzystwie wiedźmy i żalnickiej księżniczki ugania się po mieście w poszukiwaniu Koźlarza. Ciekawa, co tym razem zgotowali jej bogowie, zapędza się do wieży Śniącego, gdzie wśród zwierciadeł ukryta jest podobno przyszłość Krain Wewnętrznego Morza. A Zarzyczka, wypowiadając życzenie, budzi przepowiednię i stare legendy zaczynają się wypełniać na nowo.
"Żmijowa harfa" – kontynuacja "Plew na wietrze" – to historia świata w przededniu wojny, która zmieni zarówno bogów, jak i śmiertelników.
Anna Brzezińska – mediewistka, jedna z najpopularniejszych polskich autorek fantasy, trzykrotna laureatka Nagrody Fandomu Polskiego im. Janusza A. Zajdla.
Nareszcie Czytelnicy doczekali się kolejnego dzieła spod pióra równie świetnego, co nieczęsto piszącego autora. Jedno spojrzenie na Miasta pod Skałą wyjaśnia, dlaczego trzeba było czekać kilka dobrych lat: tomiszcze to prawdziwa cegła, liczy sobie niemalże 800 stron, a przecież Marek Huberath nie żyje samym pisaniem, ma jeszcze pracę, życie prywatne.
Temu, kto zna już tego pisarza z jego wcześniejszych dokonań, nie trzeba żadnych zachęt ani reklam, ponieważ poziom wyznaczony przez dotychczasowe opowiadania i powieści Huberatha jest naprawdę wysoki. Jego styl jest niepowtarzalny, a przekazywane treści co najmniej intrygujące.
A jakież są Miasta pod Skałą? Naprawdę ciężko powiedzieć w kilku słowach coś konkretnego o tej książce. Akcja rozgrywa się w aż trzech światach. Zaczyna się od tego, że bohater, Humphrey Adams, przenosi się dziwnym korytarzem z "naszej" rzeczywistości w realia rodem z Ferdydurke. Jest to pierwsze z tytułowych miast. Adams, historyk sztuki, twardo stąpający po ziemi, nie wierzy w prawdziwość tego, co spotyka go w owym tajemniczym przejściu, gdzie ożywają posągi. Uważa to za sen, zresztą wszystko na to wskazuje. W samym mieście atmosfera jest równie oniryczna, a zdarzenia i zachowania wprost niedorzeczne, stąd też Humphrey nie dopuszcza do siebie myśli, że to może dziać się naprawdę. Za nic jednak nie może się obudzić…
W końcu Adams odkrywa pewien klucz i wydostaje się z miasta absurdu, jakże przypominającego rzeczywistość komunistyczną. Przechodzi kolejny etap międzywymiarowego korytarza i trafia do świata, który można w uproszczeniu nazwać hard fantasy.
Więcej treści zdradzić już nie można, by nie zepsuć przyjemności czytania. Książka jest bowiem niesamowita. Przede wszystkim wszelkie opisy są niezwykle szczegółowe, co momentami może nużyć, jednak wspaniale przybliża realia światów, w których przyjdzie sobie radzić Adamsowi. Nie można też nie zauważyć przynajmniej kilku z niezliczonych motywów, które przywołuje Huberath: Adam i Ewa wpuszczający do świata grzech oraz wychodzący z raju, taniec śmierci czy przerażające, boschowskie piekło. To tylko niektóre, co bardziej oczywiste spośród nich.
W sposób nieco typowy dla siebie Huberath umieszcza bohatera w naprawdę ciężkich sytuacjach, z których ten powoli acz konsekwentnie wydostaje się, budując w chorym świecie własny kącik z odrobiną normalności i stabilizacji. Po czym, wskutek okrucieństwa losu, traci to wszystko w mgnieniu oka i ląduje na powrót gdzieś w okolicy dna. Te usilne starania postaci, ciągła walka z przeciwnościami oraz zbieranie i układanie w całość strzępków informacji przypominają nawet nieco te ciekawsze z gier crpg.
Adams wydaje się być nowoczesnym bohaterem. Racjonalny, pragmatyczny, świadom tego, że żaden z niego heros i posiada sporo ograniczeń, niemniej potrafi skutecznie wykorzystać swoją wiedzę i umiejętności. Sypia właściwie z każdą kobietą, która wyrazi taką chęć, mimo tego czuje się zupełnie w porządku, bo przecież to wszystko "tylko mu się śni".
Wypada powtorzyć, że Miasta pod Skałą są książką trudną do sklasyfikowania, zaszufladkowania. Jest tak złożona i niejednorodna, że nie można jej zaliczyć do gatunku innego niż "huberathowy". Z pewnością zadowoli miłośników prozy tego autora, jak również ogólnie pojętej fantastyki. Można nawet całkiem śmiało stwierdzić, że powinna trafić też do umysłów i w gusta czytelników tak zwanego mainstreamu. Pomyliłby się jednak ten, kto pomyślałby, że to książka komercyjna, bo nie jest to pozycja łatwa. A czy przyjemna? To już trzeba samemu ocenić. Pewne jest, że Huberath stworzył dzieło wielkie, stojące o poziom wyżej od standardu. Tu nie tylko czytelnik wyznacza poprzeczkę książce, ale i ona stawia pewne wymagania odbiorcy. Kto je spełni, nie zawiedzie się.
Former astronaut Paul Stavenger is driven by his vision of colonizing space. His dream becomes a reality with the creation of a viable, flourishing, nearly self-sufficient community at Moonbase. But Paul has made an implacable enemy; one who will carry his vendetta to the frontiers of space.
Throughout history, man has been searching for better ways to gather information about his universe. But although they may have longed for it, not even the most brilliant minds could conceive of a device as infinitely powerful or as immeasurably precise as the macroscope, until the twenty-first century. By analyzing information carried on macrons, this unbelievable tool brought the whole universe of wonders to man’s doorstep. The macroscope was seen by many as the salvation of the human race. But in the hands of the wrong man, the macroscope could be immensely destructive — infinitely more dangerous than the nuclear bomb. By searching to know too much, man could destroy the very essence of his mind. This is the powerful story of man’s struggle with technology, and also the story of his human struggle with himself. This novel takes us across the breathtaking ranges of space as well as through the most touching places in the human heart. It is a story of coming of age, of sacrifice, and of love. It is the story of man’s desperate search for a compromise between his mind and his heart, between knowledge and humanity.
Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1970.
Throughout history, man has been searching for better ways to gather information about his universe. But although they may have longed for it, not even the most brilliant minds could conceive of a device as infinitely powerful or as immeasurably precise as the macroscope, until the twenty-first century. By analyzing information carried on macrons, this unbelievable tool brought the whole universe of wonders to man’s doorstep. The macroscope was seen by many as the salvation of the human race. But in the hands of the wrong man, the macroscope could be immensely destructive — infinitely more dangerous than the nuclear bomb. By searching to know too much, man could destroy the very essence of his mind. This is the powerful story of man’s struggle with technology, and also the story of his human struggle with himself. This novel takes us across the breathtaking ranges of space as well as through the most touching places in the human heart. It is a story of coming of age, of sacrifice, and of love. It is the story of man’s desperate search for a compromise between his mind and his heart, between knowledge and humanity.
Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1970.
With the capital city of Ar under the sway of the beautiful traitress Talena, a ruler placed in power by the Cosian invaders, Tarl Cabot and the Delta Brigade, the members of the underground force sworn to defeat Cos, must call upon the unique talents of master magician Boots Tarsk-Bit to recapture the precious Home Stone of vanquished Ar’s Station.
For snatching the Home Stone from the enemy’s grasp may prove the vital ingredient in Tarl’s desperate and dangerous campaign to rouse the people of Ar to fight on to regain their freedom from the hated foe.
In Magicians of Gor, Tarl Cabot and his allies must work a unique magic with illusions and sword blades to root out the treachery at the heart of a mighty empire.
With the capital city of Ar under the sway of the beautiful traitress Talena, a ruler placed in power by the Cosian invaders, Tarl Cabot and the Delta Brigade, the members of the underground force sworn to defeat Cos, must call upon the unique talents of master magician Boots Tarsk-Bit to recapture the precious Home Stone of vanquished Ar’s Station.
For snatching the Home Stone from the enemy’s grasp may prove the vital ingredient in Tarl’s desperate and dangerous campaign to rouse the people of Ar to fight on to regain their freedom from the hated foe.
In Magicians of Gor, Tarl Cabot and his allies must work a unique magic with illusions and sword blades to root out the treachery at the heart of a mighty empire.
Tarl Cabot has struggled to free himself from the control of Gor's powerful Priest-Kings, but to no avail. Now he finds that mission challenged by a threat emanating from the planets forbidding northern lands. There, a menacing alien force waits for Tarl, who faces an awesome choice: protect his own position as a rich merchant-slaver, or risk everything to defend the freedom of his world. An adventure filled with incredible incident, barbaric peoples, and the ferocious clashes between men and women that have made John Norman one of science fiction's legendary storytellers.
Tarl Cabot has struggled to free himself from the control of Gor's powerful Priest-Kings, but to no avail. Now he finds that mission challenged by a threat emanating from the planets forbidding northern lands. There, a menacing alien force waits for Tarl, who faces an awesome choice: protect his own position as a rich merchant-slaver, or risk everything to defend the freedom of his world. An adventure filled with incredible incident, barbaric peoples, and the ferocious clashes between men and women that have made John Norman one of science fiction's legendary storytellers.
El descubrimiento de un mundo hueco que orbita alrededor de una lejana estrella desencadena una tremenda lucha entre la humanidad y otras dos razas en plena expansión imperialista: los titerotes, cobardes e intrigantes, y los kzinti, guerreros feroces. Hasta la misma Tierra se ve amenazada, y sólo el desparpajo y la suerte increíble de la protagonista femenina, que es el centro de la acción, permiten conducir la lucha… a un inesperado desenlace.
El lector siempre puede contar con Larry Niven para refrescarse con un relato de ciencia-ficción heroica al estilo clásico, franqueando distancias inconcebibles, desafiando leyes físicas y gozando con las especulaciones de una imaginación desbordada.
With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs…
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.
With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs...
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon
Umysły czterech kryminalistów zastąpiony umysłem najlepszego agenta Konfederacji. Agenci wysłani na Lilith, Cerbera i Charona odnieśli sukces. Wyrafinowany plan Konfederacji zaczął przynosić efekty.
Tarin Bul wylądował na Meduzie.
Na tej mroźnej planecie szybko dołączył do miejscowych konspiratorów, którzy zamierzali obalić znienawidzonego Lorda Talanta Ypsira; cel buntowników doskonale mu odpowiadał. Jednak połączenie, jakie stanowili obcy i tajna moc Ypsira, okazała się ponad jego siły.
Do akcji wkroczył Agent Bez Imienia, nadzorujący wszystkich czterech wysłaninników. Był zmuszony wykazać się swoimi nadzwyczajnymi umiejętnościami, gdyż wszystko sprzysięgło się przeciw niemu.
W czwartej ostatniej księdze ekscytującej tetralogii Jack Chalker doprowadza do dramatycznego zakończenia epicką konfrontację pomiędzy potężną Konfederacją a małymi — ale równie potężnymi — światami Rombu Wardena.
Król polskiej fantasy!
Sapkowski zawładnie Waszą wyobraźnią i marzeniami.
To nie jest cykl opowiadań, to cały świat!
"Literacki fenomen lat dziewięćdziesiątych!"
Nowe Książki
Andrzej Sapkowski jest pisarzem formatu Tolkiena, choć odeń różnym, bo zdecydowanie bliższym współczesności i obdarzony gorętszym słowiańskim temperamentem.
Czytając Sapkowskiego jesteśmy zarazem gdzieś w świecie Tolkiena, na seansie u przeinaczonego Disneya, w średniowieczu, u Sienkiewiczowskiego Zagłoby, na seminarium ekonomicznym, w krainie ponurych pogańskich obrzędów, w przemalowanej na baśniową scenerii z czarnego kryminału.
"Polityka"
Never-before-published vampire stories by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, and many others.
Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous-these all-new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires (or birthdays) in quite the same way again.
In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's "Dracula Night," Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula's birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up-and finds Sookie to be a tasty-looking present.
New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher's crime-solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role-playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in "It's My Birthday Too," only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don't share their brotherly love.
In "Twilight," Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year-but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt.
Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake.
Tout allait bien à Two Rivers, cette petite ville du Michigan. Tout allait bien, c’est-à-dire qu’il ne s’y passait pas grand-chose. Jusqu’au jour où le gouvernement y installa cette espèce de base, sur le site de l’ancienne réserve indienne. Usine d’armement ? Laboratoire de recherches ? Au début, on a pensé que ça ferait redémarrer l’économie, que ça créerait des emplois. Mais non. Le personnel arrivait par camions, était parqué dans des baraques, ne se mêlait pas à la population. Bizarre… Inquiétant, même.
Et puis, ce soir-là… Un immense éclair dans le ciel. L’orage ? Non, ce n’était pas la saison. Le lendemain, ébahis, les habitants de Two Rivers découvrirent qu’ils étaient coupés du monde. Leur ville se terminait net, en bordure de forêt. C’est alors qu’apparurent les avions. De vieux coucous de la dernière guerre…
I was my dad's vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that's how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it's why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing. Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn't the first. No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn't trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus' ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens' portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives. And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant — my father — who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That's the thing about policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge.
For centuries, interstellar prospectors had searched for the fabled worlds of the Three Kings, the lost El Dorado of the galaxy. But none had succeeded. Only the mad cyborg Prophet, Ishmael Hand, had ever seen the mysterious system, and he had refused to reveal its location before vanishing forever into history. Then, with the help of his flock, a starfaring evangelist—Doctor Karl Woodward, preacher and leader of the starship The Mountain—found it, only to disappear in turn.
Now a new group of explorers must follow the trail that Woodward blazed. A spacegoing salvage team, desperately in debt after a violent alien menace ruins a lucrative assignment and decimates the group, is hired to follow the clues Woodward left behind. But the team’s shady creditors won’t want to wait...and they won’t much care how they get their investments back.
Fearing pursuit by their former backers, the group heads off for the ultimate salvage operation. By hook or by crook, they will find the Three Kings—if the galactic underworld’s repo men don’t get them first!
Не такое далёкое будущее, начало 24 века. Триста лет Земля переживает последствия экологической катастрофы - синдром ядерной осени, разыгравшейся после полномасштабной войны между Североатлантическим альянсом и Китаем, вышедшим из ШОС. На планете практически не осталось растительности и животных. Белые США расколоты на Западные и Восточные прибрежные штаты, между которыми лежит Чёрная пустошь, населённая чернокожими дикарями, штурмующими малочисленные города-анклавы. Остатки государств втянуты в борьбу не только за продукты и скудные ресурсы, но и за право сохранить культуру и цивилизацию. Политики играют жизнями людей, набирая вес в борьбе за власть, в то время как обычные люди являются лишь пешками в их игре, достаточно несчастными, но не безвольными, готовыми в какой-то момент дать отпор. В разгар очередного политического гамбита на Землю высаживаются инопланетные захватчики, которые, тем не менее, воюют не против людей, а занимаются совсем непонятными делами - кражами растений. Кто-то из землян начинает борьбу с ними, кто-то смиряется. Но опять же, есть люди, готовые из всего извлечь свою выгоду, не считаясь с другими. Главный герой - "золотой ребёнок", сын наследного сенатора одного из Восточных прибрежных США. Женщины, алкоголь, наркотики - обычное для него времяпровождение. Когда отцу-сенатору это надоедает, он решает взять воспитание сына под свой жёсткий контроль. Череда событий несколько раз настолько круто меняет жизнь бывшего бездельника и лентяя, что, в сущности, он в какой-то момент становится единственным, от чьего слова зависит спасение не только своего родного штата или Восточных США, но и всего человечества.
The Culture is a far-future society of seemingly limitless resources and infinite technological possibilities. Yet the Culture is far from perfect, and it is still subject to brutal wars, political upheaval and intrusions from beyond the edges of known space. With extraordinary imaginative scope and storytelling prowess, Iain M. Banks’ new Culture novel will be one of the most highly anticipated SF novels of the year.
The Culture is a far-future society of seemingly limitless resources and infinite technological possibilities. Yet the Culture is far from perfect, and it is still subject to brutal wars, political upheaval and intrusions from beyond the edges of known space. With extraordinary imaginative scope and storytelling prowess, Iain M. Banks’ new Culture novel will be one of the most highly anticipated SF novels of the year.
The sequel to “Moonrise”.
Douglas Stavenger and his dedicated team of scientists are determined to defend their life’s work, but technology-hating factions on Earth want to close the flourishing space colony, Moonbase. Can a combination of military defence and political wisdom save the colony?
Główny bohater książki, zawodowy morderca Tanner Mirabel przybywa do Chasm City, aby zabić swego wroga Reivicha. Obu łączy mroczny sekret i okryta tajemnicą przeszłość. Rozpoczyna się niebezpieczna gra, która zakończy się śmiercią jednego z nich i odsłoni przerażającą prawdę o wydarzeniach, które miały miejsce 15 lat wcześniej, doprowadzając do straszliwego kataklizmu.
Kontynuacja Migotliwej wstęgi: Pościgu. Główny bohater książki, zawodowy morderca Tanner Mirabel przybywa do Chasm City, aby zabić swego wroga Reivicha. Obu łączy mroczny sekret i okryta tajemnicą przeszłość. Rozpoczyna się niebezpieczna gra, która zakończy się śmiercią jednego z nich i odsłoni przerażającą prawdę o wydarzenia, które miały miejsce 15 lat wcześniej, doprowadzając do straszliwego kataklizmu.
el tipo (yasutaka tsutsui) q nos induce a un estado imaginario poco comun dentro de los cuentos q he leido la historia basicamente trata de un escritor frustado q a su esposa la enterraron convirtiendola en un arbol (au, si es bien ficcionero)por conspirar contra el gobierno.
Sometimes having to do things on a tight budget just might have an advantage or two.
Sul pianeta Pyrrus è in corso una guerra tra gli uomini che lo stanno colonizzando e gli originari abitanti: sembra quasi che tutta la flora e la fauna di Pyrrus sia in lotta contro i coloni. È in questa fase che si inseriscono le avventure di Jason DinAlt, giocatore professionista con poteri paranormali, che con la sua intelligenza e il suo coraggio riuscirà a far cessare la guerra.
L’année 2007, dans l’histoire des Etats-Unis a été l’année de l’invasion. D’une invasion comme on n’en a jamais vu jusqu’alors. Les ennemis, innombrables, se présentent sous un aspect stupéfiant : des boules gélatineuses, animées de mouvements amiboïdes. Ils arrivent par astronef de la planète Titan.
Leur tactique est la plus simple : ils se collent sur la nuque des hommes et ceux-ci deviennent immédiatement des esclaves, des marionnettes soumises complétement à la volonté de ces choses innommables, de ces « maîtres » à la fois malfaisants, despotiques et diaboliquement habiles.
Il faudra une véritable guerre pour venir à bout de cette menace qui pèse sur le genre humain tout entier. Mais l’homme vaincra encore une fois les puissances mauvaises, grâce à un brillant agent des Services Secrets, Elisée Nivens, sa ravissante femme Mary, et son père, le fameux « Patron ».
Nad Morganville zbierają się cienie… Wkrótce rozpocznie się walka, która zdecyduje o losach miasta i jego mieszkańców…
Do Morganville wrócił Bishop, potężny wampir, który zamierza przejąć władzę i zaprowadzić nowy krwawy porządek. Myśli siedemnastoletniej Claire zaprząta jednak coś innego: piękna i niebezpieczna wampirzyca ze świty Bishopa zapragnęła jej chłopaka i robi wszystko, żeby go zdobyć.
Lecz prawdziwy koszmar zaczyna się, gdy Claire odkrywa, jakie zamiary ma Bishop wobec żywych i umarłych. I jaką potworną pułapkę zastawił na śmiertelnych mieszkańców Morganville…
In this weird little alternative history novella, acclaimed futurist Charles Stross takes the familiar clashes of the Cold War and stretches and warps them to fit a flattened Earth where the emergence of new continents incites competitive colonization efforts from the Americans and Soviets. When the colonists encounter 1,000-year-old radioactive ruins and poisonous termite-like creatures that exhibit eerie degrees of intelligence, the true nature of their changed world slowly becomes clear. The result is a blend of 1900s H.G. Wells and 1970s propaganda, updated for the 21st century in the clear, chilly and fashionably cynical style that lets Stross get away with premises that would be absurdly cheesy in anyone else’s hands.
First publiched in On Spec (Canadian SF magazine) in April 1990. Published in 2005 as part of Gravity Wells short stories collection.
Una fantasy orrorifica con i pirati, uno spadaccino voodoo? Chi potrebbe mai mescolare il mondo del pirata Barbanera con la magia nera se non Timothy Powers, il creatore di Le Porte di Anubis, l’autore più originale e geniale prodotto dal mondo fantascientifico e fantastico negli ultimi decenni. Lo scenario di questo eccezionale romanzo è il Mar dei Caraibi del 1718, periodo di grandi cambiamenti per i pirati, un tempo strumento dell’Impero Britannico, libera forza mercenaria che non riveste più nessuno scopo strategico per gli inglesi. È su questo scenario in evoluzione che compare il giovane John Chandagnac, ex burattinaio orfano alla ricerca di vendetta su uno zio malvagio. Ciurme di Zombie, magia nera, riti voodoo, giungle infestate da spettri: fra mille pericoli il protagonista inizierà una sorta di viaggio iniziatico che lo porterà in un luogo ignoto al di là del tempo e dello spazio, in un luogo mitico e terribile dove si cela la vagheggiata fonte della vita eterna. Partito per vendicarsi di un torto subito, Chandagnac andrà incontro al suo destino e troverà a sbarrargli la strada nientemeno che… il pirata Barbanera!
Melanie Conway è una bella violinista spesso preda di inquietanti visioni di morte. Durante un concerto, si accascia per terra e il fidanzato Bodie la sente parlare di una tragedia imminente… Penelope Conway è perfino più seducente della sorella e, pur prendendosi sul serio come scrittrice, viene notata dagli uomini solo per le sue curve e, per giunta, è perseguitata da telefonate oscene… Attratto a un certo punto da entrambe le ragazze, Bodie si trova coinvolto in una vicenda agghiacciante, grondante sangue…
Someone is collecting animated treasures and keeping them from their heroic destinies. Reunited with the lovely Trollop Tananda, Aahz the Pervect must help out a sword called Ersatz, and embark on a quest that just may restore his lost magical powers.
Eastern Propaganda
When Chiun an infomercial produced by Man Hyung Sun and his cult of Loonies, he revels in the leader's sales pitch about the Sun Source and upcoming conversion of all humanity into Koreans. After all, what could be more divine. Chiun knows he has found a true holy man. Remo knows he has found a true nut.
When the CURE pair thwart assassins at a Loonie mass wedding, Chiun is elevated to hero and close personal friend of Sun - and Remo's just fed up. Especially as CURE ships him to North Korea, where brainwashed American Loonies are dancing to their leader's tune in a gambit to all-out war.
But Korea isn't the only split faction at war. Chiun's had about enough of his pupil's disrespect for the Seer Sun, and the former happy couple is headed for the mother of all battles...
STAY TUNED FOR MORE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
Somebody is using television as a mind control vehicle, sending subliminal messages to hollow-eyed viewers, and turning ordinary couch potatoes into raging mobs programmed to kill. A secret enemy dares to take over the world - by controlling it's greatest natural resource: the boob tube.
Worse, it's soon clear that whoever is behind the conspiracy knows about CURE and plans to preempt its mission to protect the world. Will Remo and Chiun kill each other...or just change the channel? Will Harold Smith discover his new assistant is a traitor...or just a victim of bad programming. Will the Destroyer be cancelled by a certain network bigwig...or will the most fiendish plot ever to grip the airways become just another failure in the cutthroat world of big entertainment?
Mortimer, detto Morty, non ha le idee chiarissime su quel che vuol fare da grande. Almeno fin quando non diventa l’apprendista di un insolito maestro: la Morte, proprio quella con la falce, in persona. Una volta appurato, con notevole sollievo, di non dover essere necessariamente morto per poter svolgere il lavoro, Morty si appassiona alla nuova «materia», anche se ben presto scoprirà che essere apprendista della Morte non è poi così romantico e affascinante come sembrava… Pericoli e sfide terribili lo attendono, forse troppo grandi anche per lui, il predestinato.
Il primo romanzo del «sottociclo» del Morte.
Czarnoksiężnik Móri był nieśmiertelny i dlatego leżał uśpiony w nie oznakowanym grobie, podczas gdy cała rodzina z wyjątkiem Dolga przekroczyła tajemnicze Wrota. Teraz Marco oraz Nataniel z Ludzi Lodu pomagają mu odnaleźć zaginionego syna. Poszukiwania Dolga wymagają pełnej niebezpieczeństw podróży na Islandię i do krainy elfów.
Wysłannicy z Królestwa Światła mieli przed sobą dwa ważne zadania: odnaleźć Berengarię i Móriego, a także unieszkodliwić Lenore i Talornina, którzy ich uprowadzili. Armas nie mógł się doczekać, kiedy już wreszcie będzie się pławić w miłości i podziwie Berengarii, lecz nie dostrzegał bólu w oczach Lisy. Zaś nieśmiertelny Marco, bez którego nie daliby sobie rady, chodził roztargniony, bo po raz pierwszy w swym nieprawdopodobnie długim życiu się zakochał…
Miranda, życzliwa ludziom dusz, zawsze troszczy się o innych. Tym razem pragnie zanieść światło nieszczęsnym mieszkańcom Królestwa Ciemności, chociaż wie, że żyją tam złe, niebezpieczne istoty. Po przejściu przez terytorium potworów, rozciągające się w pobliżu muru, Miranda spotyka dwóch Waregów. Harama i Gondagila. Nie przypuszcza, że na zawsze rozdzieli przyjaciół…
Если вам кажется, что драконы от вас что-то скрывают, жители вашего же мира издеваются, а вокруг происходит что-то странное, не спешите отмахиваться от паранойи. Вдруг она права? И когда вам на голову посыпятся странные существа, ненужные вам тайны и прочие не шибко приятные вещи, не спешите жаловаться. Вероятно вас готовят к чему-то грандиозному. Морально готовят. И когда мир в очередной раз перевернется с ног на голову, вам будет намного проще смириться. Или это он с головы на ноги стал?
The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.
She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.
But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.
Anna Maria Olsdotter przyjechała do małego górniczego osiedla Martwe Wrzosy, by poprowadzić szkołę dla dzieci robotników. Nie wszyscy jednak ucieszyli się z jej obecności, a wkrótce ktoś usiłował ją zamordować. Anna Maria wezwała na pomoc kuzyna, Heikego Linda. Przybył on dosłownie w ostatnim momencie, gdy nad wieloma mieszkańcami osady zawisło śmiertelne niebezpieczeństwo…
Bracia Jordi i Antonio wraz ze swym dalekim kuzynem Mortenem oraz przyjaciółkami, Unni i Veslą, usiłują rozwiązać zagadkę klątwy. Ktoś jednak nastaje na ich życie, ataki się powtarzają. Wśród członków grupy budzi się miłość, lecz straszne przekleństwo sprawia, że młodzi nie mogą myśleć o własnym szczęściu…
Magiczna i mroczna opowieść o czarnych jeźdźcach z przeszłości oraz ich współczesnych potomkach. Spoczywa na nich nie lada zadanie – zdjęcie klątwy z ich przodków. Aby tego dokonać muszą zmierzyć się z mnichami inkwizycji. Kto zna twórczość Margit Sandemo nie będzie zaskoczony pojawieniem się wątków romantycznych.
Dotarli w końcu do celu, do dużej groty w cichej, kamienistej dolinie. Skarb został odnaleziony, ale wszyscy, którzy na niego polowali, pomarli, znaleźli się w grobach. Został tylko Tommy, pogrążony w śpiączce.
Przekleństwo ciążące na rycerzach i ich potomstwie zostało usunięte, zagadka niemal rozwiązana. Grupa zdołała zlikwidować wszelkie przeszkody tak, by dwoje królewskich dzieci mogło się połączyć, ale najgorsze jeszcze pozostało – sarkofag króla Wizygotów, Agili, zamykał wielką dziurę w górskiej ścianie, dziurę, którą w 1481 roku zrobili ludzie rycerzy w wyniku nieszczęśliwego zbiegu okoliczności. Otwór, który wtedy powstał, prowadził wprost do Ciemności, królestwa demonów. Teraz wyszło na jaw, dlaczego rycerze wypalili znak na ramieniu Jordiego. On bowiem był jedynym człowiekiem, który dzięki temu znakowi na ramieniu potrafiłby zamknąć otwór tak, by można było przesunąć sarkofag Agili i pozwolić staremu królowi nareszcie odpocząć. Równocześnie zostałyby na całej kuli ziemskiej pozamykane połączenia między Ciemnością i światem ludzi. Gdyby Jordiemu się udało.
Po tamtej stronie skalnej ściany kłębiły się setki demonów gotowych do wylania się na zewnątrz, gdyby sarkofag został choć odrobinę odsunięty.
Tabris uwięził Urracę, by ją zaprowadzić do władcy Ciemności. Ale jego miłość do Sissi i przyjaźń łącząca go z innymi członkami grupy sprawiły, że się rozmyślił i postanowił stać się człowiekiem. Występuje teraz jako Miguel, ale nadal ma w sobie wiele z demona Tabrisa. Poza tym jest pierwszą istotą, na której demony się zemszczą, jeśli wydostaną się na zewnątrz. Wobec tego Urraca wysyła go w świat, by trochę sobie spiłował demoniczne kanty, zanim poważnie zacznie myśleć o Sissi. Miguel opuszcza dolinę, na świeżym śniegu zostawia ludzkie ślady. Sissi uznaje to za dobry znak.
Kiedy Jordi szykuje się do ostatniego zadania, wszyscy są strasznie wymęczeni i głodni. Coś układa się nie tak jak trzeba i Jordi ponownie otrzymuje wyrok śmierci, który miał zostać wykonany w jego dwudzieste piąte urodziny. Słyszy, jak Unni z daleka, z bardzo daleka woła go po imieniu.
Комедийное бредовое повествование о изрядно преувеличенной войне с мышами в маленьком ЗАО «ОПТИК».
Akcja pierwszego tomu rozpoczyna się w Bergen w Norwegii pod koniec XVII wieku. Tiril Dahl jest samotnym dzieckiem, które dorasta w cieniu ślicznej siostry Carli. Z czasem wokół obu sióstr zaczynają się dziać bardzo złe rzeczy. Tiril staje wobec niezwykle trudnego dylematu, jej życiu zagraża prawdziwe niebezpieczeństwo. Pomocną dłoń wyciąga do niej młody przedsiębiorca Erling, ale jednocześnie w jej otoczeniu pojawia się tajemniczy, budzący grozę Islandczyk. Jego imię brzmi Móri, ma on w życiu tylko jeden cel: stać się najpotężniejszym czarownikiem wszech czasów.
W zimny styczniowy dzień roku 1937 do portu Halden przybił statek z Rotterdamu. Na ląd zszedł pasażer na gapę, a za nim krok w krok podążała Śmierć. Wśród osób, których życie zawisło na włosku, znalazła się nieszczęśliwa Vinnie Dahlen. Policjant Rikard Brink otrzymał zadanie powstrzymania zagrażającej całemu miastu katastrofy, ale by tego dokonać, musiał najpierw zdobyć zaufanie przerażonej Vinnie…
Nowy zbiór opowiadań przeznaczony jest nie tylko dla dorosłych ale również dla młodszych czytelników.
Neil Gaiman tak mówi o swojej nowej książce: W zebranych tu opowiadaniach spotkacie twardego detektywa ze świata dziecięcych bajek i grupę ludzi, którzy lubią jadać najróżniejsze rzeczy, znajdziecie też wiersz o tym, jak się zachować, gdy traficie do magicznego świata, i historię o chłopcu, który spotyka pod mostem trolla i dobija z nim targu. Jest tu też opowieść, która stanie się częścią mojej następnej książki dla dzieci, “Księgi cmentarnej” o chłopcu, który mieszka na cmentarzu, wychowywany przez umarłych, a także opowiadanie, które napisałem w młodości, zatytułowane “Jak sprzedać Most Pontyjski”, historia fantasy zainspirowana przez autentycznego człowieka, “Hrabiego” Victora Lustiga, który naprawdę sprzedał wieżę Eiffla, mniej więcej w taki właśnie sposób (po czym w kilka lat później zmarł w więzieniu Alcatraz). Jest tu kilka nieco strasznych historii, kilka innych raczej zabawnych, a także parę nie należących do żadnej z tych kategorii. Mam jednak nadzieję, że i tak się wam spodobają.
Gdy byłem chłopcem, Ray Bradbury wybrał ze swoich wcześniejszych zbiorów opowiadania, które, jak uznał, przypadną do gustu młodszym czytelnikom i wydał je w książkach “R jak rakieta” i “K jak kosmos”. Skoro zdecydowałem się na to samo, spytałem Raya, czy miałby coś przeciw temu, gdybym zatytułował ten zbiór “M jak magia”. (Nie miał.)
M naprawdę jest jak magia, podobnie jak wszystkie litery, jeśli złoży się je razem jak należy. Można z nich tworzyć magię i sny. A także, mam nadzieję, kilka niespodzianek.
Klasyczna opowieść SF, jeden z najczęściej filmowanych w Hollywood utworów SF (4 ekranizacje). Historia żony profesora uniwersyteckiego, która praktykuje magię voodoo, aby dopomóc mężowi w karierze naukowej. Niestety, okazuje się, że żony konkurentów męża do stanowisk na uczelni, to także czarownice. Konflikt jest nieunikniony.
Klasyczna opowieść SF, jeden z najczęściej filmowanych w Hollywood utworów SF (4 ekranizacje). Historia żony profesora uniwersyteckiego, która praktykuje magię voodoo, aby dopomóc mężowi w karierze naukowej. Niestety, okazuje się, że żony konkurentów męża do stanowisk na uczelni, to także czarownice. Konflikt jest nieunikniony.
Małe miasteczko na północy Stanów Zjednoczonych staje się miejscem wygnania gwiezdnego przestępcy. Intruz ma tylko jedno pragnienie — wrócić. Wykorzystuje do tego celu ludzi i zwierzęta, opanowując ich mózgi. Śmierć ofiary jest dla niego jedyną szansą zdobycia następnej. Serią podejrzanych, pozornie ze sobą nie powiązanych samobójstw, zaczyna się interesować wybitny naukowiec spędzający w miasteczku urlop. Nie wie, jak straszliwą walkę przyjdzie mu stoczyć, by ocalić Ziemię przed agresją Obcych.
Bane the Bastard is the illegitimate son of the Rigante king who men called Demonblade. Born of treachery, Bane grew up an outcast in his own land, feared by his fellow highlanders, and denied by the father whose unmistakable mark he bore-the eyes of Connavar, one tawny brown, the other emerald green
Hounded from the country of his birth, Bane found acceptance across the seas-only to have it stripped away in an instant by a cruel and deadly swordsman. Now fighting as a gladiator in the blood-soaked arenas of the Empire, Bane lives for one thing: revenge. And he pursues his goal with the same single-minded determination that won his father a crown.
But more is at stake than a young warrior's quest for vengeance. The armies of the Stone are preparing to march on the lands of the Rigante. The fate of human and Seidh alike will be decided by the clash of swords-and by the bonds of twisted love and bitterness between a father and a son…
The Ship has traveled the universe for longer than any of the near-immortal crew can recall, its true purpose and origins unknown. Larger than many planets, it houses thousands of alien races and just as many secrets. Now one has been discovered: at the center of the Ship is a planet: Marrow.
Per cercare una via di scampo a un tragico passato, Raymond Keller acconsente a diventare un Occhio, ovvero un volontario che accetta di farsi impiantare nel cervello un perfetto impianto di registrazione. In tal caso non potrà più guardare dove vorrà, ma solo dove è necessario per vedere, registrare, documentare. E così dimentica il proprio passato, il presente, il futuro. Finché incontra Teresa, la meravigliosa ragazza che è anche una splendida artista. Una donna preda delle violente allucinazioni indotte dai gioielli sognanti seminati in epoche remote da una razza di extraterrestri, e che hanno proprietà ancora non completamente esplorate dalla razza umana. Occorre qualcuno che abbia rinunciato a sé per poter penetrare un segreto tra i meglio custoditi dell’universo.
She doesn't see dead people, but.
She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.
Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next.
The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind. But the last remains of civilisation have already become a distant memory, the stuff of myth and legend. More than 20 years have passed since the last plane took off from the earth. Rusted railways lead into emptiness. The ether is void and the airwaves echo to a soulless howling where previously the frequencies were full of news from Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires. Man has handed over stewardship of the earth to new life-forms. Mutated by radiation, they are better adapted to the new world. Man's time is over. A few score thousand survivors live on, not knowing whether they are the only ones left on earth. They live in the Moscow Metro – the biggest air-raid shelter ever built. It is humanity's last refuge. Stations have become mini-statelets, their people uniting around ideas, religions, water-filters – or the simple need to repulse an enemy incursion.It is a world without a tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans, hopes. Feelings have given way to instinct – the most important of which is survival. Survival at any price. VDNKh is the northernmost inhabited station on its line. It was one of the Metro's best stations and still remains secure. But now a new and terrible threat has appeared. Artyom, a young man living in VDNKh, is given the task of penetrating to the heart of the Metro, to the legendary Polis, to alert everyone to the awful danger and to get help. He holds the future of his native station in his hands, the whole Metro – and maybe the whole of humanity.
«Malaria» Андрея М. Мелехова — это во многом необычный приключенческий роман о прошлом, настоящем и будущем. Автор попытался взглянуть на сегодняшние события сквозь потускневшую от времени призму раннего христианства и реалий императорского Рима.
Главный герой романа — юный офицер-переводчик, закончивший первый курс Военного института. Честный и пока во многом наивный юноша. Волею судьбы восемнадцатилетний парень становится участником событий, призванных изменить судьбы мира на десятилетия вперёд. Как это ни странно, лишь в малярийном бреду ему открывается загадочная связь между прошлым и будущим. Болезненные видения о гладиаторских боях в Древнем Риме неожиданно оказываются реальностью, а ближайший помощник императора Нерона вдруг начинает говорить по-русски…
Global overcrowding, a new immortality serum and an unfriendly alien ambassador are only a few of the problems confronting Roy Walton, government's new Master of Life and Death in Robert Silverberg's early and accomplished novel. Praised by a distinguished critic, Anthony Boucher, for "its complete clarity and narrative drive" the novel retains its power today.
Eine fremdartige Macht droht die Menschheit zu vernichten.
November 1963. Die Ermordung Kennedys erschüttert die Welt. Doch die Menschheit ahnt nicht, wie nah sie am Abgrund steht: Eine außerirdische Macht hat sich der wichtigsten Entscheidungsträger in Washington bemächtig und will die Weltherrschaft erringen. Der junge Regierungsmitarbeiter John Loengard weiß von der Gefahr, aber als er das ganze Ausmaß der Verschwörung begreift, ist es fast zu spät. Zusammen mit seiner Geliebten Kimberley mobilisiert er in letzter Sekunde Kräfte, die denen seiner Gegner ebenbürtig scheinen. Bis er auch in den Augen eines vertrauten Menschen die Saat des Todes entdeckt...
Das Buch
1947 in einer Wüstengegend im Westen der USA: Alles, was in Regierung und Militär Rang und Namen hat, ist unter dem nächtlichen Himmel versammelt – Truman, der junge George Bush und die Generäle der US-Armee. Plötzlich landet ein Raumschiff von einem fremden Planeten, eine Tür öffnet sich, und die Menschheit hat zum ersten Mal Kontakt zu Außerirdischen.
1963: Der Agent John Loengard und seine Freundin Kim wissen, dass die Aliens sich bereits Washingtons wichtigster Entscheidungsträger bemächtigt haben. Die Wesen aus dem Weltraum wollen die Welt ins Chaos stürzen und die Weltherrschaft übernehmen. John und Kim hatten einen Gesprächstermin bei Präsident John F. Kennedy, um ihn vor der Verschwörung zu warnen, doch dieser wurde kurz vor dem Treffen in Dallas ermordet. Sollte verhindert werden, dass er die Wahrheit über die Außerirdischen erfährt? Nur John und Kim können die Menschheit vor einer grausamen Übernahme bewahren, doch sie wissen nicht, wem sie trauen können. Vielleicht sind alle, die ihnen Hilfe anbieten, bereits Agenten der Außerirdischen?
Dieser Roman ist die Fortsetzung zu Dark Skies – Das Rätsel um Majestic 12 (01/10.860).
Eine fremdartige Macht droht die Menschheit zu vernichten.
November 1963. Die Ermordung Kennedys erschüttert die Welt. Doch die Menschheit ahnt nicht, wie nah sie am Abgrund steht: Eine außerirdische Macht hat sich der wichtigsten Entscheidungsträger in Washington bemächtig und will die Weltherrschaft erringen. Der junge Regierungsmitarbeiter John Loengard weiß von der Gefahr, aber als er das ganze Ausmaß der Verschwörung begreift, ist es fast zu spät. Zusammen mit seiner Geliebten Kimberley mobilisiert er in letzter Sekunde Kräfte, die denen seiner Gegner ebenbürtig scheinen. Bis er auch in den Augen eines vertrauten Menschen die Saat des Todes entdeckt...
Das Buch
1947 in einer Wüstengegend im Westen der USA: Alles, was in Regierung und Militär Rang und Namen hat, ist unter dem nächtlichen Himmel versammelt – Truman, der junge George Bush und die Generäle der US-Armee. Plötzlich landet ein Raumschiff von einem fremden Planeten, eine Tür öffnet sich, und die Menschheit hat zum ersten Mal Kontakt zu Außerirdischen.
1963: Der Agent John Loengard und seine Freundin Kim wissen, dass die Aliens sich bereits Washingtons wichtigster Entscheidungsträger bemächtigt haben. Die Wesen aus dem Weltraum wollen die Welt ins Chaos stürzen und die Weltherrschaft übernehmen. John und Kim hatten einen Gesprächstermin bei Präsident John F. Kennedy, um ihn vor der Verschwörung zu warnen, doch dieser wurde kurz vor dem Treffen in Dallas ermordet. Sollte verhindert werden, dass er die Wahrheit über die Außerirdischen erfährt? Nur John und Kim können die Menschheit vor einer grausamen Übernahme bewahren, doch sie wissen nicht, wem sie trauen können. Vielleicht sind alle, die ihnen Hilfe anbieten, bereits Agenten der Außerirdischen?
Dieser Roman ist die Fortsetzung zu Dark Skies – Das Rätsel um Majestic 12 (01/10.860).
In the future, interstellar travel to alien worlds will be too expensive for most ordinary people. It certainly is for Marvin, a college student who wants to take a really good vacation. And so he signs up for what he can afford, a mindswap, in which your consciousness is swapped into the body of an alien lifeform. But Marvin is unlucky, and finds himself in the body of an interstellar criminal, a body that he has to vacate fast. But that criminal consciousness has stolen Marvin’s earthly body, and Marvin has to find a body on the black market. Travel from world to world with Marvin, each one crazier than the last, as he keeps finding far from ideal bodies in awful situations, just to stay alive.
CONTENTS
A Beautiful Friendship, David Weber
A Grand Tour, David Drake
A Whiff of Grapeshot, S. M. Stirling
The Universe of Honor Harrington, David Weber
Morty traverse les champs en courant ; il mouline des bras et s’égosille comme un beau diable. Non. Même ça, même effrayer les oiseaux pillards, il n’est pas fichu de s’en tirer proprement.
Son père, au désespoir, l’observe depuis le muret de pierres.
« Il manque pas de coeur, fait-il à l’oncle Hamesh.
— Ah, dame, c’est le reste qu’il a pas. »
Et pourtant un destin hors du commun attend Mortimer. Car à la foire à l’embauche, LA MORT l’emporte sur son cheval Bigadin.
Il faut dire que LA MORT a décidé de faire la vie ; et l’assistance d’un commis dans son labeur quotidien lui permettrait des loisirs. Mais... est-ce bien raisonnable ?
Avec, comme toujours, un scénario qui décoiffe, une distribution prestigieuse et, peut-être, peut-être, une exceptionnelle apparition de l’illustre Rincevent.
Inne dzieci dostawały w prezencie cymbałki. Susan musiała tylko prosić dziadka, żeby zdjął kamizelkę…
Tak. Ma Śmierć w rodzinie.
Trudno jest normalnie dorastać, kiedy dziadek jeździ na białym koniu i dzierży kosę — zwłaszcza gdy trzeba przejąć rodzinny interes, a jedyny pomocnik mówi tylko po szczurzemu.
A już szczególnie wtedy, kiedy ma się do czynienia z nową, uzależniającą muzyką, która pojawiła się w Świecie Dysku.
Jest bezprawna. I zmienia ludzi.
Nazywana jest „Muzyką z wykrokiem”.
Ma rytm i można przy niej tańczyć, ale…
Jest… żywa.
I nie chce ucichnąć.
“The best science fiction writer working today in any language.”
— Newsweek
In this widely acclaimed sequel to The Star Diaries, Ijon Tichy, space traveler of future centuries, discovers that “out there” isn’t very different from “down here.” Especially when he finds a galactic society over which the Plenum Moronicum presides, which appoints as ruler a ruthless Machine; the inhabitants, docilely cooperating in their own destruction, go by the name of Phools.
Tichy seems to attract inventors of splenetic genius, such as the madman who has invented the soul, or another who invents kitchen appliances so good at their jobs they might as well be wives or slaves. Throughout these nine wild adventures, surprise follows witty surprise for the discerning reader of riotously imaginative fiction.
STANISLAW LEM, who “knows science well enough to be playful about it” (Time), lives in Poland and is the author of books translated into nearly thirty languages, including Tales of Pirx the Pilot and His Master’s Voice.
* * *
In this sequel to The Star Diaries, Ijon Tichy, space traveler of future centuries, discovers that “out there” isn’t very different from “down here.” Throughout these nine wild adventures, surprise follows witty surprise.
Line drawings by the Author.
These fourteen science fiction stories reveal Lem’s fascination with artificial intelligence and demonstrate just how surprisingly human sentient machines can be.
“Astonishing is not too strong a word for these tales”
(Wall Street Journal).
Commander Pirx, who drives space vehicles for a living in the galaxy of the future, here faces a new series of intriguing adventures in which robots demonstrate some alarmingly human characteristics.
Review
Five more tales featuring Pirx — a bumbling rookie in the original Tales (1979), now a seasoned and level-headed (but coolly cerebral) space jockey. The first three pieces are short, ironic, and somewhat thin on ideas: Pirx fails to intercept a drifting alien hulk thanks to a shipboard comedy of errors; he searches for a robot that has inexplicably cut loose to go mountain climbing; and he survives a close encounter with a berserk mining robot. The two long yarns, unfortunately, are not so much fiction as rather pedantic reflections on the nature of artificial intelligence: a choppy and overinvolved Turing test, in which Pirx must identify (and foil the murderous plans of) the robot among his crew as they fly through the rings of Saturn; and a talky, motionless analysis of why an intelligent computer aboard an experimental ship went neurotically haywire and crashed on Mars. A ruminative, often discursive bunch, wanting in urgency and drama — without the mature idea-wrestling of last year’s Memoirs of a Space Traveler. (Kirkus Reviews)
A tale of revenge and technological endeavor set on our solar system’s most desolate stage. The closest planet to the sun, Mercury is a rocky, barren, heat-scorched world. The planet’s surface faces the sun for nearly sixty earth days at a time, and the only places that stay cool are the ice caches at Mercury’s poles.
Cuento ganador del premio Hugo y SF Chronicle Readers. Finalista de los premios Nebula y Bram Stoker.
The sudden, tragic death of her husband leaves Caroline Evans alone in New York City to raise her children with little money and even less hope. When she meets and marries handsome, successful Anthony Fleming, the charismatic man of her dreams, she believes her life is destined for happiness. She and her children move into her new husband’s spacious apartment in the legendary Rockwell on Central Park West. Despite her son’s instinctive misgivings about the building and its residents, Caroline dismisses the odd behavior of her neighbors as pleasant eccentricities. But after her daughter begins to experience horrifying nightmares and a startling secret emerges, Caroline realizes that the magnificence of her new home masks a secret of unimaginable horror…
„Ohne Umschweife erklärte der rothaarige Gnom dem Biologen Waingarten, daß eine gewisse außerirdische Zivilisation schon seit langem besorgt seine Experimente verfolge und daß er bevollmächtigt sei, ihm und noch einigen Wissenschaftlern den sofortigen Abbruch der Arbeiten und die Vernichtung sämtlichen Materials anzuempfehlen.
„Warum wir das fordern, hat Sie nicht zu interessieren, erklärte der Kupferrote. Sobald Sie unserer Forderung nach kommen, werden wir alle Ihre Wünsche erfüllen. Sie erhalten drei Tage Bedenkzeit. Danach wird sich besagte Zivilisation befugt sehen, mit Maßnahmen der Stufe drei durchzugreifen.““ Wie soll man sich entscheiden, wenn man so massiv unter Druck gesetzt wird?
Die Strugazkis trachten stets danach, ihre phantastischen Welten dinglich-konkret zu schildern. Das phantastische Element dient ihnen als künstlerisches Mittel, heranreifende Widersprüche, Konflikte des realen Lebens in verfremdeter, allegorischer Form sichtbar zu machen. In ihrer jüngsten Erzählung
„Milliarden Jahre vor dem Weltuntergang“ ist, die Handlungszeit die Gegenwart, sind die Helden unsere Zeitgenossen. Darum ist die Entscheidung, die sie zu treffen haben, in gewisser Weise auch unsere Entscheidung.
Kirill Bulychev es uno de los más versátiles y populares escritores jóvenes de la ciencia ficción soviética. Su imaginación, humor y talento lo hicieron merecedor de una introducción del ya consagrado Theodore Sturgeon, para los magníficos relatos de este volumen. Uno de los mas originales y logrados es Media Vida, el diario de una mujer que soporta el cautiverio junto con extraños animales de otros planetas,que serán sus aliados en una nave espacial manejada por robots. En un alarde de imaginación y humor, Protesta, es la mas refinada crítica a un sistema burocrático. La doncella de Nieve, es la recreación de un cuento de hadas proyectado a un tiempo y un mundo muy distinto, que sin embargo no ha perdido el sentido de la poesía y el amor. En la tierra o en el espacio, sus personajes son cálidamente humanos, buscan la libertad, el amor o la paz, con resultados insospechados. Siete cuentos de antología que colocan a Bulychev en la primer línea de los autores de ciencia ficción del mundo.
Das Buch
Mit großem Enthusiasmus und Pioniergeist haben die Menschen den Mars besiedelt. Doch nun, Jahre später, ähnelt das Leben dort auf erschreckende Weise dem Alltagstreiben auf der Erde. Und auch die politischen Grabenkämpfe setzen sich nahtlos fort: Arnie Kott ist bereits der mächtigste Mann auf dem Mars, aber das ist ihm nicht genug. Mittels eines geistesgestörten Jungen, für den die Schranken der Zeit nicht existieren, will er seinen Feinden eine endgültige Niederlage beibringen. Doch der Junge ist nicht nur in der Lage, vorwärts und rückwärts durch die Zeit zu stürzen, er kann Vergangenheit und Zukunft auch nach den Vorstellungen seines umnachteten Gehirns umgestalten. Die gewohnte Ordnung der 0.00cm Dinge zerfällt, Raum und Zeit lösen sich auf. Und der Traum vom Pionierleben wandelt sich endgültig zum Alptraum ...
»Philip K. Dick ist ein visionärer und zugleich naiver (im guten Sinne des Wortes) Science-Fiction-Maler. Er ist ein Bosch im Fell eines Holzschnitzers, ein Goya, der mit der Schminke und dem Rouge einer Theatergarderobe aus der Provinz arbeitet.«
- Stanislaw Lem
»Das ist nicht nur ein geniales Buch in bester Philip-K.-Dick-Manier, sondern auch einer der hervorragendsten Mars-Romane, die je geschrieben wurden. So wie Dick es schildert, könnte es eines Tages wirklich sein.«
- Kim Stanley Robinson
Der Autor
Philip K. Dick, 1928 in Chicago geboren, schrieb schon in jungen Jahren zahllose Stories und arbeitete als Verkäufer in einem Plattenladen in Berkeley, ehe er 1952 hauptberuflich Schriftsteller wurde. Er verfaßte über hundert Erzählungen und Kurzgeschichten für diverse Magazine und Anthologien und schrieb mehr als dreißig Romane, von denen etliche heute als Klassiker der amerikanischen Literatur gelten. Philip K. Dick starb am 2. März 1982 in Santa Ana, Kalifornien, an den Folgen eines Schlaganfalls.
Czasem nawet śmierć potrzebuje wakacji — a na Świecie Dysku, jedynej Płaskiej Ziemi we wszystkich wszechświatach, kościsty strażnik klepsydry życia uświadamia sobie, że tylko jedno może dać mu chwilę wytchnienia: terminator. Wybiera więc sobie Morta — chłopca gorliwie pragnącego zdobyć wiedzę, której stanowczo posiadać nie powinien.
Wprawdzie Mort szybko opanowuje tajniki przechodzenia przez ściany, jednak nauka obiektywizmu to całkiem inna sprawa. Zwłaszcza kiedy życie, po które został wysłany, należy do pięknej, młodej księżniczki. W związku ze zmianą biegu losu rzeczywistość chwieje się w posadach. A że Śmierć wyruszył w podróż, by poznać rozkosze śmiertelnych, to właśnie Mort, z pomocą niezbyt kompletnego maga imieniem Cutwell oraz adoptowanej i pełnej entuzjazmu córki Śmierci, musi naprawić przyszły tor historii — zanim Dysk się przekręci…
Zrodil se mág tak mocný, že proti němu jsou ostatní mágové jen varietní hudlaři, a sama jeho existence přivede Zeměplochu na pokraj panmagické války. Jediný, kdo mu stojí v cestě, je Mrakoplaš, nedostudovaný kouzelník, jenž chce zachánit svět, nebo alespoň tu část, na které se sám právě nachází. K zeměplošským hrdinům, které už známe se připojí další: Conina — barbarská kadeřnice, Nijel — ničitel (jehož matička stále dohlíží na to, aby nosil vlněné spodní prádlo), a pravděpodobně první městský džin, který podniká v mosazných lampách, kde by rád objevil prostor pro vlastní růst.
War on Gor is a rousing and fearful affair — and when the armada of Cos landed and began its sweeping arch against the mighty city of Ar, Tarl Cabot was swept up in their drive. Outcast from Port Kar, rejected by the Priest Kings, Tarl fought now for his own redemption.
With comrades at his side, barbarian warriors and daring women, free and slave, his plans went forward — until the mercenaries of Dietrich of Tarnburg disrupted the struggle as a mysterious third force.
MERCENARIES OF GOR brings into action all the magic and conflict of that counter-Earth, as Tarl became the center of intrigue and treachery in the city of his greatest enemies.
War on Gor is a rousing and fearful affair — and when the armada of Cos landed and began its sweeping arch against the mighty city of Ar, Tarl Cabot was swept up in their drive. Outcast from Port Kar, rejected by the Priest Kings, Tarl fought now for his own redemption.
With comrades at his side, barbarian warriors and daring women, free and slave, his plans went forward — until the mercenaries of Dietrich of Tarnburg disrupted the struggle as a mysterious third force.
MERCENARIES OF GOR brings into action all the magic and conflict of that counter-Earth, as Tarl became the center of intrigue and treachery in the city of his greatest enemies.
Hosato is killer — duelist — saboteur — whatever you pay him to be, and he always wins. Sent to sabotage a robot-manufacturing complex, Hosato discovers that the robots have turned into rampaging killers bent on the destruction of mankind!
Shares the humorous adventures of the Great Skeeve, a powerful magician, Aahz, his demon partner, and Gleep the dragon in Deva.
Shares the humorous adventures of the Great Skeeve, a powerful magician, Aahz, his demon partner, and Gleep the dragon in Deva.
The Pervects, 10 female ones to be exact, are up to new tricks in Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye's Myth Alliances, the first novel in a new Myth Adventures series. The authors' story collection Myth-Told Tales (2003) provides the background, but isn't necessary for enjoyment of this light fantasy.
The Pervects, 10 female ones to be exact, are up to new tricks in Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye's Myth Alliances, the first novel in a new Myth Adventures series. The authors' story collection Myth-Told Tales (2003) provides the background, but isn't necessary for enjoyment of this light fantasy.
Wielopokoleniowa saga rodziny Drinkwaterów i ich kuzynów, mieszkających w Edgewood i okolicach. Wszyscy wierzą, że obok naszego, realnego świata, istnieje drugi, w którym magia jest możliwa, ryby mówią ludzkim głosem, a las zamieszkują wróżki, gnomy i inne stworzenia. Drinkwaterowie są z tym światem nierozerwalnie związani i chronieni, jednak z czasem – wskutek upływu czasu i zapomnienia – ta więź słabnie i na rodzinę spadają kolejne nieszczęścia. Również świat ogarnia powoli szaleństwo.
Aby przywrócić równowagę światu bohaterowie powieści podejmują próbę ponownego zawiązania tej więzi.
Moreta, młoda władczyni Fortu Weyr, udaje się na Zgromadzenie organizowane w Warowni Ruatha zarządzanej przez Lorda Alessana. Jednak radosny nastrój hucznych uroczystości przerywa tajemnicza zaraza, która najpierw dziesiątkuję biegusy, lecz wkrótce zabija także ludzi. Cały Pern znajduje się w śmiertelnym niebezpieczeństwie. Moreta podejmuje heroiczną próbę powstrzymania epidemii…
Une nouvelle macroforme est apparue dans le Conurb : l’aleph. Un gigantesque empilement de biopuces capables de reconstituer tous les savoirs, toutes les données de l’univers. Un fantastique instrument de pouvoir !
Tous les pirates de cyberspace sont à sa recherche. Mais qui le détient réellement ? Bobby, un génie du logiciel ? Dame 3Jane, l’héritière clonée de l’empire Tessier-Ashpool ? Ou Angie, vedette de cinéma, fille du savant Mitchell, le célèbre créateur des biopuces ?
L’enjeu est de taille ! Ils l’ignorent encore mais celui qui, au risque de sa vie, saura se rendre maître de l’aleph possèdera les clés d’un monde nouveau, un monde au-delà de l’humanité…
A collection of short stories from the master of space opera. Peter F Hamilton takes us on a journey from a murder mystery in an alternative Oxford in the 1800s to a brand new story featuring Paula Mayo, Deputy Director of the Intersolar Commonwealth's Serious Crimes Directorate. Dealing with intricate themes and topical subject this top ten bestselling author is at the top of his game.
Due nemici, naufragati su un pianeta ostile, scopriranno come sia possibile diventare fratelli, anche oltre la morte.
Anche pubblicato come “Nemico mio adorato”.
Vincitore dei premi Hugo, Nebula e Locus per il miglior romanzo breve (Novella) in 1980.
Simbolični dodaci koji se koriste radi proširivanja svih vidova ljudske ličnosti su naravno brojni. Odjeća sačinjava najvažniju vrst tih simbola i ponekad je zabavno promatrati, neprimjetno po mogućnosti, odjevne predmete nasumce sakupljene grupe ljudi.
Zamislite da je svaki od tih predmeta izabran s primjernom brigom i isključivom željom da izazove neki točno određen efekt.
Usprkos simboličnoj snazi odjeće, muškarce i žene se u principu ocjenjuje prema okolnostima koje je mnogo teže kontrolirati: držanju, naglasku, boji glasa, obliku i boji njihova tijela, i što je najvažnije po izrazu lica. Glas se, naime, može modulirati, dijetom i treningom dovesti tijelo u društveno prihvatljive oblike (bar teoretski). Međutim što se može učiniti s licem?
Nevjerojatan napor je uložen u tom smjeru. Podbraci se podižu, obrve čupaju ili dodaju, nosovi krate, frču ili ravnaju. Kosu se muči da zauzme jedan od tisuća položaja: ona se kovrča, tapira, moči, suši, vješa na ovaj ili onaj način, a sve da se uobliči slika koja je u skladu s modom. Međutim bez obzira na sve napore, sve te prijetvorbe su prozirne; lažiranje prirode uvijek popušta pred kritičnim okom. Bez obzira na naše sklonosti, da li nam se sviđaju naša lica ili ne, prisiljeni smo živjeti s njima i prihvaćati sve pohvale, ukore ili poruge koje i nehotice izazivamo svojim licem.
To se, naravno, ne odnosi na ovaj neshvatljiv i bistar narod s planeta Sirene, čiji se neortodoksni društveni običaji razmatraju na sljedećim stranicama.
Powiesc rozgrywa sie podczas wojny w Afganistanie, a jej bohaterem jest rosyjski zolnierz. Choc brzmi to realistycznie, wielbiciele fantasy moga spac spokojnie.- W Zmii pojawi sie bardzo duzo magii - zapewnia Sapkowski.
AFGANISTAN - tutaj od wiekow scieraly sie krwawo armie kolejnych wladcow dazacych do wladzy nad swiatem. Tu walczyli i gineli najezdzcy z Macedonii, Wielkiej Brytanii i Rosji. A umierajacych obserwowaly z ukrycia zimne oczy z czarna, pionowa zrenica. Oczy zlotej zmii, ktora jest i ktorej nie ma.
ZMIJA to nowy swiat, to zupelnie nowa formula literacka, zadziwiajace polaczenie fantasy i realistycznej powiesci wojennej...
ZMIJA jest piekna i zlowroga...
AFGANISTAN, SIODMY ROK PANOWANIA Aleksandra Wielkiego. W zapomnianej przez bogow krainie gina najdzielniejsi synowie Macedonii.
ALEKSANDROS HO TRITOS HO MAKEDON
27 LIPCA 1880. W trakcie drugiej wojny angielsko-afganskiej, 66. pulk piechoty traci w bitwie pod Mainwandem 64 procent swego stanu.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!
15 LUTEGO 1989.
Kres sowieckiej interwencji w Afganistanie. Zginelo ponad 13 tysiecy zolnierzy ZSRR.
DA ZDRAWSTWUJET SOWIETSKIJ SOJUZ!
ROK 2009.
Znowu tu sa. Nie szurawi i nie Amerykanie. To jacys inni, zeslani przez szatana niewierni
Oby wygubil ich Allah.
LA ILAHA ILL-ALLAH...
Using magic means it uses you back — and every spell exacts a price from the user. Some people, however, get out of it by Offloading the cost of magic onto an innocent, then Allison Beckstrom's job is to identify the spell-caster. Allie would rather live a hand-to-mouth existence than accept the family fortune and the strings that come with it, but when she finds a boy dying from a magical Offload that has her father's signature all over it she is thrown back into the world of his black magic.
Working as a Hound — tracing illegal spells back to their casters — has taken its toll on Allison Beckstrom. But even though magic has given her migraines and stolen her recent memory, Allie isn't about to quit. Then the police's magic enforcement division asks her to consult on a missing persons case. But what seems to be a straightforward job turns out to be anything but, as Allie finds herself drawn into the underworld of criminals, ghosts, and blood magic.
The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.
She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.
But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.
It’s 1964, and a billion Martians suddenly ’kwimmed’ to Earth. There’s one Martian for every three people on the planet. They’re annoying but your fist goes straight through them, since they’re essentially projections that can talk. And the most annoying about them is that they always tell the truth.
Seventeen-year-old Alice Bonham's life feels out of control after she meets Jack. With his fondness for pink Chuck Taylors and New Wave hits aside, Jack's unlike anyone she's ever met. Then she meets his brother, Peter. His eyes pierce through her, and she can barely breathe when he's around. Even though he can't stand the sight of her, she's drawn to him. But falling for two very different guys isn't even the worst of her problems. Jack and Peter are vampires, and Alice finds herself caught between love and her own blood...
In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.
Jedna z najsłynniejszych antyutopii, pierwowzór Nowego wspaniałego świata Huxleya i Roku 1984 Orwella — jest niewątpliwie największym dziełem Eugeniusza Zamiatina. Ukazuje ona groteskową i groźną wizję państwa i społeczeństwa totalitarnego, w którym życie obywateli pozbawionych nazwisk jest uregulowane w sposób wydumany, mający rzekomo zapewnić całkowity porządek, harmonie i szczęście.
El planeta Mesklin es grande y muy denso. La gravedad en su superficie varía enormemente desde 3 g en el ecuador hasta 700 g en los polos. Los océanos son de metano líquido y la nieve es amoniaco congelado. En estas condiciones de pesadilla viven los mesklinitas, quienes han desarrollado una cultura y una sociedad perfectamente acorde con las condiciones de su entorno. Barlemann, un osado marinero mesklinita, acepta emprender un viaje imposible para salvar una costosa sonda terrestre averiada en el polo del planeta. Para los mesklinitas el viaje constituye una maravillosa oportunidad de descubrir la ciencia y avanzar en el camino del conocimiento, fuerza motríz que les guía a través de numerosas aventuras.
Premios Hugo y Nebula 1992
En el año 2019 aparecen unos nuevos seres humanos: los Insomnes, quienes, modificados por la ingeniería genética para no tener que dormir, disponen de mayor conocimiento y poder, pues cuentan con más horas de actividad, y son, asimismo, longevos. El recelo de los Durmientes y su enfrentamiento con los Insomnes es inevitable. De estos últimos, algunos son partidarios de protegerse y piensan que, en el fondo, nada deben a los Durmientes, los nuevos mendigos del futuro cercano.
After King Avram, new ruler of Detina, frees the blond serfs upon which the northern part of the kingdom relies, civil war erupts, with Avram's cousin, Geoffrey, as commander of the rebels. The armies of the divided country face each other in the embattled province of Peachtree eager to claim the strategically vital city of Marthasville. Turtledove's sequel to Sentry Peak continues his fanciful retelling of the Civil War as a fantasy struggle involving swords and sorcery. American history buffs should enjoy figuring out the real-world parallels in the colorful cast of characters.
Cop and conjurer of demons, she's a woman in danger of losing control — to a power that could kill….
Why me? Why now? That's what Beaulac, Louisiana, detective Kara Gillian was asking herself when an angelic creature named Rhyzkahl unexpectedly appeared during a routine summoning. Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure. But can she enlist his aid in helping her stop a killer who's already claimed the lives — and souls — of thirteen people? And should she? The Symbol Man is a nightmare that the city thought had ended three years ago. Now he's back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he, too, is well versed in demonic lore.
Kara may be the only cop on Beaulac's small force able to stop the killer, but it is her first homicide case. Yet with Rhyzkahl haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head…
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Karen chance has written a paranormal — with bite.
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir — half-human, half-vampire. Unlike most dhampirs, though, Dory has managed to maintain her sanity. Now Dory's vampire father has come to her for help — again. Her Uncle Dracula (yes, the Dracula), cruelest among vampires, has escaped his prison. And her father wants Dory to work with gorgeous master vampire Louis-Cesare to put him back there.
Although Dory prefers to work alone, Dracula is the only thing that truly scares her — and when she has to face him, she'll take all the help she can get.
Il “migliore dei mondi possibili” è Astrobia, pianeta costruito sul modello dell’Utopia, dove agi e ricchezze sono a disposizione di chi li vuole. Ma proprio quando il sogno sta per realizzarsi ecco scoppiare una crisi inspiegabile: perché la gente volta le spalle al benessere e sceglie di vivere nel pericolo, negli stenti? I capi di Astrobia non lo sanno, e decidono di chiedere aiuto al passato, cercando nella Storia un leader che possa salvare la loro civiltà perfetta. Inizia così uno dei romanzi più ironici e profondi degli ultimi anni. Un’opera inesauribile, allegorica e umana, che mostra realtà e sogno, mostri e astronavi, assassini meccanici e individui programmati. Un futuro di paria e di dominatori, dove il sublime si alterna al mediocre e dove sovrastano sulla scena figure misteriose: il Rimrock, la creatura oceanica, Evita, la strega bambina, e soprattutto il fondatore e insieme il più grande avversario dell’Utopia: Thomas More, il “Maestro del passato”.
Nominato per il premio Hugo in 1969.
Jamie Waterman, a Native American geologist, is chosen at the last minute for the first manned exploration of the planet Mars. On touchdown, he is so overwhelmed with the emotion of the moment that he utters a Navajo phrase instead of the political statement he is supposed to read. This sets off a chain reaction among the leaders and politicians on Earth. Thus starts Bova’s sprawling space opera. The expedition, seen from Jamie’s point of view, is really the protagonist here. The story is filled with lots of characters of different nationalities and there’s plenty of political intrigue. Of course, there are obstacles to overcome: a meteor almost destroys the lab, the doctor neglects his duty and nearly kills them all, crew members come down with mysterious “Martian flu,” and through it all is the never-ending search for evidence of life on this planet. Bova has done extensive research and his descriptions of Mars and the conditions under which the study is conducted are very plausible. All in all, a satisfying story.
The novel is a part of currently 17-volume series “Grand Tour” that presents the theme of exploration and colonization of the Solar System by humans. Written in 1992 “Mars”, according to the internal in-universe chronology, stands 4th in the series and is immediately continued by “Return to Mars” published in 1999 which stands 7th. Events depicted in “Moonrise” (1996) and “Moonwar” (1998) take place between those of “Mars” and “Return to Mars” and are loosely related to them.
Skeeve the Magnificent, magician to kings and King of Magicians, Businessman and Problem-Solver Extraordinaire, has come out of retirement. And he’s set up shop in the Bazaar, right on the home turf of his old company, M.Y.T.H. Inc. Too bad his former co-worker, Aahz the Pervect, is not exactly thrilled with the competition. Looks like a little wager is in order.
Immortality - it sounded like a great idea! Aahz falls for the offer of a piece of the rock, literally, when he invests in a scheme to build pyramids. He is so enthusiastic about the concept that he ropes in everyone else he knows to invest - in tombs lower down than his, of course. But all is not perfect: along with the prospect of being remembered for eternity and the best view in the valley of Zyx comes a run of unbelievable bad luck! It's up to Skeeve to figure out why the deal is running sour even before the ink's dry on the papyrus.
Entered by a thousand unsuspected gateways—built by a race lost in the clouds of time—the planet its dwellers called the Well World turned beings of every kind into something else. There spacefarer Nathan Brazil found himself companioned by a batman, an amorous female centaur and a mermaid—all once as human as he.
Yet Nathan Brazil’s metamorphosis was more terrifying than any of those… and his memory was coming back, bringing with it the secret of the Well World.
For at the heart of the bizarre planet lay the goal of every being that had ever lived—and Nathan Brazil and his comrades were… lucky?… enough to find it!
Dzieje się to w przyszłości nieokreślonej i w mieście też nie całkiem określonym. Tylko nieliczne realia wskazują, może niechcący, że to Anglia i poniekąd Londyn. Więc jakby science fiction w tej specyficznej i nadzwyczaj ważkiej odmianie zwanej dystopia: na krytyce politycznej i społecznej zbudowany, posępny, do katastrofizmu skłonny rodzaj utopii. Kolejne w szeregu imponujących dzieł, jakie stworzyli nie tylko George Orwell, bo i Zamiatin, Aldous Huxley, Ayn Rand, Karin Boye i wielu innych. A teraz Anthony Burgess.
Jednak niedaleka to przyszłość i pod niektórymi względami łatwo kojarząca się z dniem dzisiejszym…
Los personajes constituían la tribu más avanzada del planeta. Vivían en inmundos palacios de madera, viajaban en barco y tenían, aunque rudimentarios, algunos conocimientos científicos. Jason se despojó de sus pieles mugrientas y apestosas y propuso a Ijale, una esclava, que hiciera lo mismo con las suyas. Todo un mundo primitivo, con fuerza y principios salvajes; una civilización rudimentaria y unos personajes impetuosos y diabólicos, absorben la atención del lector a través de las páginas de MUNDO MUERTO una de las mejores obras del gran autor Harry Harrison.
En el brazo espiral de la galaxia se han encontrado más de mil doscientos misteriosos y gigantescos artefactos creados por la ignota y ya desaparecida especie de los Constructores. La próxima “Marea Estival” en el sistema planetario formado por los gemelos Sismo y Ópalo, ha de ser el fruto de una Gran Conjunción de estrellas y planetas que sólo sucede cada 350.000 años. Los mejores estudiosos de la tecnología de los Constructores coinciden en suponer que será una oportunidad única para desentrañar el misterio de esos sorprendentes artefactos. Por ello, humanos y alienígenas, con sus rencillas y enfrentamientos, se dan cita en el sistema y se exponen a sus peligros.
Major Operation is a 1971 science fiction book by author James White and is the third volume in the Sector General series. The book collects together a series of five short stories, all of which were originally published in New Worlds magazine.
“Invader” — A series of clumsy accidents at the hospital lead Conway to suspect an alien presence.
“Vertigo” (1968) — a spinning ship (from the planet later nicknamed 'Meatball') is 'rescued' and brought to the hospital.
“Blood Brother” (1969) — Meatball's natural doctors are discovered.
“Meatball” (1966) — Additional investigation reveals more about Meatball’s doctors.
“Major Operation” (1971) — A gigantic patient on Meatball fights medical treatment.
Mind Changer is a 1998 science fiction book by author James White and is part of the Sector General series.
Publishers Weekly described Mind Changer as “White’s finest performance, replete with wit, originality, medical expertise and sheer decency” and commented that the series shows no signs of aging, and Booklist described the book as an “enjoyable, witty resumé” of Chief Psychologist O’Mara’s career. Todd Richmond wrote that the Sector General series declined after Star Healer (1985), hitting a low point with the Galactic Gourmet (1996), and that the later books tended to stretch a short story’s worth of content to the length of a novel. However he thought that Mind Changer (1998) represented an improvement.
De magisch begaafde jonge Sperwer laat zich in met duistere machten. Zijn jacht op het schaduwbeest voert hem door onbekende streken van Aardzee.
Robots will soon begin taking human jobs in places like retail stores, fast food restaurants, construction sites and transportation. The key technology that will fuel the transition is inexpensive computer vision systems, and the number of human jobs at risk numbers in the tens of millions. More than half of the jobs in the United States could be eliminated.
With half of the jobs eliminated by robots, what happens to all the people who are out of work? Marshall Brain’s book Manna explores the possibilities and shows two contrasting outcomes, one filled with great hope and the other quite uncomfortable.
Join Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com, for a skillful step-by-step walk through the robotic transition, the collapse of the human job market that results and an surprising look at humanity’s future in a post-robotic world.
Then consider our options. Which vision of the future will society choose to follow?
Cara Liu is determined to unite the forces under her leadership but when Nightkeeper Sven enters the scene, Cara has trouble separating her duty to her people from her desire for her ex-lover. Their secret affair will not only jeopardize a tenuous alliance among the Nightkeepers, but it also distracts them from a danger within their own ranks planning a vicious betrayal...
Cara Liu must earn her place as the leader of the winikin, but her powerful feelings for Nightkeeper Sven could jeopardize the balance right when the winikin must become warriors to help the magi fight their increasingly powerful enemies. Sven tries to keep his distance given their troubled past, but when they are betrayed by one of their own, he can no longer deny the attraction. Their searing chemistry - and the danger - increases as they race to locate a hidden cave that could hold the key to resurrecting the Nightkeepers’ strongest ancestor. But their growing feelings face the ultimate test when the winikin army faces an unimaginable threat and Sven is called on to make the hardest choice of his life.
Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.
Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.
But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.
Review
“…Laybourne’s debut ably turns what could have been yet another postapocalyptic YA novel into a tense, claustrophobic, and fast-paced thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred
“…intriguing beyond the survival elements…”
—Horn Book
“…readers will eagerly await the second volume.”
—Kirkus
Centuries ago, all was lost in the Last Battle when the Norse gods and goddesses went to war. The elves, the giants, and the gods and goddesses themselves were all destroyed, leaving the Valkyrie Mist one of the only survivors.
Or so she thought.
When a snowy winter descends upon modern-day San Francisco in June, Mist’s quiet existence starts to feel all too familiar. In quick succession, Mist is attacked by a frost giant in a public park and runs into an elf disguised as a homeless person on the streets…and then the man Mist believed was her mortal boyfriend reveals himself to be the trickster god, Loki, alive and well after all these years.
Loki has big plans for the modern world, and he’s been hanging around Mist for access to a staff that once belonged to the great god Odin. Mist is certain of one thing: Loki must be stopped if there is to be any hope for Earth. But the fight is even bigger than she knows….
Because Loki wasn’t the only god to survive.
Olivia has been on the run from the government of Cabal since the marriage ceremony. Finally settling in and finding herself a place to call home, in Shadow, Olivia and Joshua are preparing for the uprising that they and the rebel alliance have been planning for months.
With new abilities and special talents, from Mindonsiphan, Olivia learns that she can do more than most ordinary eighteen year olds. Learning both to hide and perfect her skills will be one of the biggest challenges she'll be forced to face.
A constant rollercoaster of emotion and adventure await Olivia and Joshua, as they embark on a journey to the rebel city of Torv, and what was once home, Genesis.(
Located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Golgotham has been the city’s supernatural district for centuries. Populated by creatures from myth and legend, the neighborhood’s most prominent citizens are the Kymera, a race of witches who maintain an uneasy truce with the city’s humans...
It has been several months since Tate Eresby developed her new magical ability to bring whatever she creates to life, but she is still learning to control her power. Struggling to make a living as an artist, she and Hexe can barely make ends meet, but they are happy.
That is until Golgotham’s criminal overlord Boss Marz is released from prison, bent on revenge against the couple responsible for putting him there. Hexe’s right hand is destroyed, leaving him unable to conjure his benign magic. Attempts to repair the hand only succeed in plunging Hexe into a darkness that can’t be lifted—even by news that Tate is carrying his child.
Now, with her pregnancy seeming to progress at an astonishing rate, Tate realizes that carrying a possible heir to the Kymeran throne will attract danger from all corners, even beyond the grave...
It is 2028. A strike to destroy an illegal Arctic weapons cache has a catastrophic side effect. Massive amounts of energy are liberated from the polar ice, suddenly and radically warming the Earth’s climate.
In the middle of the Pacific, a gigantic hurricane thousands of miles across is forming, larger than any in human history. A storm with winds of supersonic speed. A storm that changes direction at whim. A storm that refuses to die. A storm so vast it spawns dozens more in its wake.
Blinded by intrigue, expedience, and greed, the world’s politicians and power brokers ignore the killer storm’s threat until it’s too late. The death toll climbs to the tens of millions as it savages the Pacific coast, and the smaller storms it spawns are wreaking havoc across the planet.
While the survivors scramble for advantage, a handful of courageous men and women undertake a desperate plan to save humanity from total destruction—a plan so visionary it may alter forever the future of the human race.
Maps in a Mirror brings together nearly all of Orson Scott Card’s short fiction written between 1977 and 1990. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well.
For the hundreds of thousands who are newly come to Card, here is chance to experience the wonder of a writer so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by the Ender books is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In this enormous volume are forty-six stories, plus ten long, intensely personal essays, unique to this volume. In them the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing, with a good deal of autobiography into the bargain.
From book flaps:
THE SHORT FICTION OF ORSON SCOTT CARD brings together nearly all of Card’s stories, from his first publications in 1977 to work as recent as last year. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the hundreds of thousands who are newly come to Card, here is a chance to experience the wonder of a writer so talented, so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by ENDER’S GAME is riot a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In this enormous volume are 46 stories, broken into five books: Ten fables and fantasies, fairy tales that sometimes tell us truths about ourselves; eleven tales of dread—and commentary that explains why dread is a much scarier emotion than horror; seven tales of human futures—science fiction from a master of extrapolation and character; six tales of death, hope, and holiness, where Card explores the spiritual side of human nature; and twelve lost songs.
The Lost Songs are a special treat for readers of this hardcover volume, for here are gathered tales which will not see print again. Here are Card’s stories written for Mormon children, a pair that were published in small literary magazines, a thoughtful essay on the writing of fiction, and three major works which have, since their original publication, been superseded by novel-, or more than novel-length works. First, there is the original novella-length version of Card’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel, ENDER’S GAME. Then there is “Mikal’s Songbird”, which was the seed of the novel SONGMASTER; “Mikal’s Songbird” will never be published again. And finally, the narrative poem “Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow”—here is the original inspiration for the Alvin Maker series, an idea so powerful that it could not be contained in a single story, or a hundred lines of verse, but is growing to become the most original American fantasy ever written.
MAPS IN A MIRROR is not just a collection of stories, however complete. This comprehensive collection also contains nearly a whole book’s worth of original material. Each section begins and ends with long, intensely personal introductions and afterwords; here the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing what he writes—and a good deal of autobiography into the bargain.
ORSON SCOTT CARD grew up in Utah and attended Brigham Young University, where he studied drama. Card’s early writing career was devoted to plays; he had his own theater company, which was successful for a number of years. Card spent his missionary years in Brazil, learning to speak fluent Portuguese. He now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife and three children.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Detroit, Corporal Jackson finds out how the 365th AIB got a mauling in the Public Residence Clusters, and why the Territorial Army may have lost control over a big chunk of Detroit.
A novella in the Terms of Enlistment universe.
Irina Syromyatnikova is one of Moscow’s finest writers of science fiction and fantasy. In Russia, “My Path to Magic” is a very popular series of three novels in the subgenre of technomagic. The first book of the same name is followed by “A Combat Alchemist” and “Benefits of the Dark Side.”
Against a backdrop of numerous fantasy novels, this book stands out as a wolfhound among lapdogs. It features intrigue, eclectic ambience, easily relatable characters, a detailed and convincingly pictured world, and a balanced, well-developed plot. The number of characters is not so large as to get lost in them, but not so few as to lose interest. The series stands out as a surprisingly strong technofantasy.
Lord of the Flies meets War of the Worlds in J. Barton Mitchell’s alien-invaded post-apocalyptic world where two teens and a young girl with amazing powers must stop the aliens’ mysterious plan
Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. The human adult population is gone, having succumbed to the Tone—a powerful, telepathic super-signal broadcast across the planet that reduces them to a state of complete subservience. But the Tone has one critical flaw. It only affects the population once they reach their early twenties, which means that there is one group left to resist: Children.
Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It’s not long before Holt bags his prey, but their instant connection isn’t something he bargained for. Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after. Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her name: Zoey.
As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she, as impossible as it seems, may just be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all.
Midnight City is the breathtaking first book of the Conquered Earth series.
The lone gunman Three is gone, and Wren is the new governor of the devastated settlement of Morningside, but there is turmoil in the city. When his life is put in danger, Wren is forced to flee Morningside until he and his retinue can determine who can be trusted.
They arrive at the border outpost, Ninestory, only to find it has been infested with Weir in greater numbers than anyone has ever seen. These lost, dangerous creatures are harbouring a terrible secret — one that will have consequences not just for Wren and his comrades, but for the future of what remains of the world.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.
In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.
In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...
Abyrne, the last enclave in a wasteland. All food is produced by Magnus Meat Processing and controlled by the Parsons of the Welfare. Richard Shanti, the ‘Ice Pick’, is Abyrne’s legendary bolt-gunner, dispatching hundreds of animals every hour to supply the townsfolk with all the meat they could want. But Shanti is having doubts about his line of work. When war breaks out between the corporate and religious factions, Shanti must sacrifice everything he loves in order to reveal the truth behind Abyrne’s power structures and fight for what he knows is right. In a world where eating meat has become not only a human right but a sacred duty, what happens to those who question the nature of the food source? The townsfolk are hungry. The townsfolk must be fed…
Le jour où il se découvre atteint d'une maladie incurable, Pierre Tardivel décide de devenir chercheur en génétique. Après de brillantes études, il travaille sur le génome humain aux côtés du Dr Klimus, un génial lauréat du Nobel.
Il rencontre là son épouse, Molly, professeur de psychologie dotée de pouvoirs télépathiques. Pour ne pas transmettre la maladie de Pierre à leur enfant, ils décident de procréer par insémination artificielle. Mais la petite fille qui naît a d'étranges caractéristiques génétiques…
Double enquête, double course contre la montre : celle d'un couple pour sauver son enfant victime de manipulations expérimentales, celle de Pierre, qui lutte contre le mal…
If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.
An amazing, award-winning speculative fiction debut novel by a major new talent, in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin.
Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. Tea masters alone know the location of hidden water sources, including the natural spring that Noria’s father tends, which once provided water for her whole village.
But secrets do not stay hidden forever, and after her father’s death the army starts watching their town—and Noria. And as water becomes even scarcer, Noria must choose between safety and striking out, between knowledge and kinship.
Imaginative and engaging, lyrical and poignant, Memory of Water is an indelible novel that portrays a future that is all too possible.
The eponymous protagonist, Laurent Michaelmas, is an ex-hacker who had, early in the computer era, left back doors in many key pieces of software which run vital government & commercial computers. As a result, by the turn of the millennium, he’s become one of the most powerful men on earth, because of his ability to spy & influence through the world wide computer network.
By the time of the novel, Michaelmas has successfully used his power to create & sustain a powerful version of the UN to ensure world peace. He stays in the background, however, as a journalist, albeit a highly influential & respected one whose opinions can still influence public opinion. However, as the novel progresses, he slowly learns that a possible extraterrestrial presence may be interfering with the new world he has worked so hard to create.
The novel is remarkable for its prescience, because it appeared less than a decade into the Internet era, long before its current prominence & ubiquity. Its description of journalism & its professional culture are likewise highly developed, mainly due to the late Budrys' residence near Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, which appears in the book.
The “war with no name” has begun, with human extinction as its goal. The instigator of this war is the Colony, a race of intelligent ants who, for thousands of years, have been silently building an army that would forever eradicate the destructive, oppressive humans. Under the Colony's watchful eye, this utopia will be free of the humans' penchant for violence, exploitation and religious superstition. The final step in the Colony's war effort is transforming the surface animals into high-functioning two-legged beings who rise up to kill their masters.
Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend — a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth's creatures.
Somewhere in the middle of Maine, one of the world’s darkest secrets has been called to the surface. Alan and his little family find themselves directly in the path of the dangerous ritual. To save themselves and their home, they have to learn the secrets of the Migrators.
Lee Hyun, a debt-ridden teenage orphan, puts his account of the top-level avatar in the Continent of Magic up for auction. Once the news is spread nationwide, a fierce competition to win his avatar breaks out, making him a multimillionaire overnight.
However, when men in black show up to collect the debts Hyun's parents owed them; he ends up where he started — almost penniless. Determined to exact revenge on the loan sharks, he sets out a journey with Weed as his alias, the lowliest of the lowly, in the online RPG game named Royal Road to prove history can repeat itself.
WHY NOT CLAIM THE TOP ONCE AGAIN?
Weed's sugary words and tough action work magic one after another — only until he finds himself becoming a Sculptor, the most contemptible profession in terms of combat ability and career prospect…
Jake Sullivan watched his father, suffering from a rare condition, collapse and linger in a vegetative state, and he’s incredibly paranoid because he inherited that condition. When mindscanning technology becomes available, he has himself scanned, which involves dispatching his biological body to the moon and assuming an android body. In possession of everything the biological Jake Sullivan had on Earth, android Jake finds love with Karen, who has also been mindscanned. Meanwhile, biological Jake discovers there is finally another, brand-new cure for his condition. Moreover, Karen’s son sues her, declaring that his mother is dead, and android Karen has no right to deprive him of his considerable inheritance. Biological Jake, unable to leave the moon because of the contract he signed, becomes steadily more unstable, until finally, in a fit of paranoia, he takes hostages. Sawyer’s treatment of identity issues —of what copying consciousness may mean and how consciousness is defined —finds expression in a good story that is a new meditation on an old SF theme, the meaning of being human. (Amazon.com)
Won John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2006
Gilbertus Albans has founded the Mentat School, a place where humans can learn the efficient techniques of thinking machines. But Gilbertus walks an uneasy line between his own convictions and compromises in order to survive the Butlerian fanatics, led by the madman Manford Torondo and his Swordmaster Anari Idaho. Mother Superior Raquella attempts to rebuild her Sisterhood School on Wallach IX, with her most talented and ambitious student, Valya Harkonnen, who also has another goal — to exact revenge on Vorian Atreides, the legendary hero of the Jihad, whom she blames for her family’s downfall.
Meanwhile, Josef Venport conducts his own war against the Butlerians. VenHold Spacing Fleet controls nearly all commerce thanks to the superior mutated Navigators that Venport has created, and he places a ruthless embargo on any planet that accepts Manford Torondo’s anti-technology pledge, hoping to starve them into submission. But fanatics rarely surrender easily.
The Mentats, the Navigators, and the Sisterhood all strive to improve the human race, but each group knows that as Butlerian fanaticism grows stronger, the battle will be to choose the path of humanity’s future — whether to embrace civilization, or to plunge into an endless dark age.
The book was created by the InterWorld's Bookforge.
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Gilbertus Albans has founded the Mentat School, a place where humans can learn the efficient techniques of thinking machines. But Gilbertus walks an uneasy line between his own convictions and compromises in order to survive the Butlerian fanatics, led by the madman Manford Torondo and his Swordmaster Anari Idaho. Mother Superior Raquella attempts to rebuild her Sisterhood School on Wallach IX, with her most talented and ambitious student, Valya Harkonnen, who also has another goal — to exact revenge on Vorian Atreides, the legendary hero of the Jihad, whom she blames for her family’s downfall.
Meanwhile, Josef Venport conducts his own war against the Butlerians. VenHold Spacing Fleet controls nearly all commerce thanks to the superior mutated Navigators that Venport has created, and he places a ruthless embargo on any planet that accepts Manford Torondo’s anti-technology pledge, hoping to starve them into submission. But fanatics rarely surrender easily.
The Mentats, the Navigators, and the Sisterhood all strive to improve the human race, but each group knows that as Butlerian fanaticism grows stronger, the battle will be to choose the path of humanity’s future — whether to embrace civilization, or to plunge into an endless dark age.
The book was created by the InterWorld's Bookforge.
http://interworldbookforge.blogspot.ru/. Follow for new books.
http://politvopros.blogspot.ru/ — PQA: Political question and answer. The blog about russian and the world politics.
http://auristian.livejournal.com/ — Interworld's political blog in LJ.
https://vk.com/bookforge — community of Bookforge in VK.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Кузница-книг-InterWorldа/816942508355261?ref=aymt_homepage_panel — Bookforge's community in Facebook.
Auraya hat einen großen Sieg errungen, doch dieser Triumph beschert der jungen Priesterin Nacht für Nacht Alpträume. Und Leiard, der einzige Mensch, der ihr Leid lindern könnte, ist spurlos verschwunden. Als Auraya ausgeschickt wird, um die Opfer einer mysteriösen Krankheit zu heilen, erfährt sie schließlich, dass der Traumweber Leiard seinerseits mit schlimmen Erinnerungen zu kämpfen hat …
When Milo Morai’s Confederation forces defeated the army of the tyrannical King Zastros, the High Lord offered a peace settlement his defeated foes could scarce believe, welcoming them as full members of the newly formed Confederation of Eastern Peoples. Sending some of his most trusted agents before him, backed by those doughty warriors, the Horseclansmen, Milo hoped to see the decimated kingdom rapidly reorganized into a thriving realm. But neither he or any of his allies had bargained for the evil hidden within the very heart of the land’s new government—an evil fueled by Milo’s most ancient and hated enemies, an evil that might well destroy all of Southern Ehleenohee and become a dread weapon against the Confederation itself!
Too good to be true…
When an Ancient prodigy gives the Atlantis expedition Charybdis — a device capable of eliminating the Wraith — it’s an offer they can’t refuse. But the experiment fails disastrously, threatening to unravel the fabric of the Pegasus Galaxy — and the entire universe beyond.
Doctor Weir’s team find themselves trapped and alone in very different versions of Atlantis, each fighting for their lives and their sanity in a galaxy falling apart at the seams. And as the terrible truth begins to sink in, they realize that they must undo the damage Charybdis has wrought while they still can.
Embarking on a desperate attempt to escape the maddening tangle of realities, each tries to return to their own Atlantis before it’s too late. But the one thing standing in their way is themselves…
This book is a production of the InterWorld's Bookforge.
http://interworldbookforge.blogspot.ru/. Follow for new books.
http://politvopros.blogspot.ru/ — PQA: Political question and answer. The blog about russian and the world politics.
http://auristian.livejournal.com/ — Interworld's political blog in LJ.
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Кузница-книг-InterWorldа/816942508355261?ref=aymt_homepage_panel — Bookforge's community in Facebook.
Too good to be true…
When an Ancient prodigy gives the Atlantis expedition Charybdis — a device capable of eliminating the Wraith — it’s an offer they can’t refuse. But the experiment fails disastrously, threatening to unravel the fabric of the Pegasus Galaxy — and the entire universe beyond.
Doctor Weir’s team find themselves trapped and alone in very different versions of Atlantis, each fighting for their lives and their sanity in a galaxy falling apart at the seams. And as the terrible truth begins to sink in, they realize that they must undo the damage Charybdis has wrought while they still can.
Embarking on a desperate attempt to escape the maddening tangle of realities, each tries to return to their own Atlantis before it’s too late. But the one thing standing in their way is themselves…
This book is a production of the InterWorld's Bookforge.
http://interworldbookforge.blogspot.ru/. Follow for new books.
http://politvopros.blogspot.ru/ — PQA: Political question and answer. The blog about russian and the world politics.
http://auristian.livejournal.com/ — Interworld's political blog in LJ.
https://vk.com/bookforge — community of Bookforge in VK.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Кузница-книг-InterWorldа/816942508355261?ref=aymt_homepage_panel — Bookforge's community in Facebook.
Too good to be true…
When an Ancient prodigy gives the Atlantis expedition Charybdis — a device capable of eliminating the Wraith — it’s an offer they can’t refuse. But the experiment fails disastrously, threatening to unravel the fabric of the Pegasus Galaxy — and the entire universe beyond.
Doctor Weir’s team find themselves trapped and alone in very different versions of Atlantis, each fighting for their lives and their sanity in a galaxy falling apart at the seams. And as the terrible truth begins to sink in, they realize that they must undo the damage Charybdis has wrought while they still can.
Embarking on a desperate attempt to escape the maddening tangle of realities, each tries to return to their own Atlantis before it’s too late. But the one thing standing in their way is themselves…
This book is a production of the InterWorld's Bookforge.
http://interworldbookforge.blogspot.ru/. Follow for new books.
http://politvopros.blogspot.ru/ — PQA: Political question and answer. The blog about russian and the world politics.
http://auristian.livejournal.com/ — Interworld's political blog in LJ.
https://vk.com/bookforge — community of Bookforge in VK.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Кузница-книг-InterWorldа/816942508355261?ref=aymt_homepage_panel — Bookforge's community in Facebook.
THE NINTH AND ULTIMATE MAXIMUM RIDE STORY IS HERE! Legions of Max fans won’t be disappointed by this encore episode in the beloved series about the incredible adventures of a teenage girl who can fly. As Maximum Ride boldly navigates a post-apocalyptic world, she and her broken flock are roaming the earth, searching for answers to what happened. All will be revealed in this last spectacular “ride” — a brand-new grand finale featuring all of the nonstop action, twists and turns that readers can rely on in a blockbuster Patterson page-turner!
THE NINTH AND ULTIMATE MAXIMUM RIDE STORY IS HERE! Legions of Max fans won’t be disappointed by this encore episode in the beloved series about the incredible adventures of a teenage girl who can fly. As Maximum Ride boldly navigates a post-apocalyptic world, she and her broken flock are roaming the earth, searching for answers to what happened. All will be revealed in this last spectacular “ride” — a brand-new grand finale featuring all of the nonstop action, twists and turns that readers can rely on in a blockbuster Patterson page-turner!
In the latest Kate Daniels novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews, magic is coming and going in waves in post-Shift Atlanta - and each crest leaves danger in its wake....
After breaking from life with the Pack, mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate - former Beast Lord Curran Lennart - are adjusting to a very different pace. While they're thrilled to escape all the infighting, Curran misses the constant challenges of leading the shapeshifters.
So when the Pack offers him its stake in the Mercenary Guild, Curran seizes the opportunity - too bad the Guild wants nothing to do with him and Kate. Luckily, as a veteran merc, Kate can take over any of the Guild's unfinished jobs in order to bring in money and build their reputation. But what Kate and Curran don't realize is that the odd jobs they've been working are all connected.
An ancient enemy has arisen, and Kate and Curran are the only ones who can stop it - before it takes their city apart piece by piece....
Robert Reed has had a run of good fortune lately.
His short story, “Decency” (June 1996), won our Eleventh Annual Readers’ Award Poll, and it is currently nominated for a Hugo award. In September, his latest novel, Beneath the Gated Sky (a sequel to his well-received Beyond the Veil of Stars), went on sale and he was married just short of his forty-first birthday. Unfortunately, all of this good cheer doesn’t spill over into his coldly furnished new tale about how distorted the world can appear through our… Mind’s Eye.
A word of warning: there are a few scenes in this story that may be disturbing to some.
Moore's Mythopoeia is a story in which sci-fi meets the Biblical genesis story, espionage is taken to absurd lengths, action/adventure melds with bodice-ripping love scenes, and one man's defiance illuminates a uniquely human need for sin.
A man-made plague has swept the earth, but a small group survives, along with the green-eyed Crakers — a gentle species bio-engineered to replace humans. Toby, onetime member of the Gods Gardeners and expert in mushrooms and bees, is still in love with street-smart Zeb, who has an interesting past. The Crakers’ reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is hallucinating; Amanda is in shock from a Painballer attack; and Ivory Bill yearns for the provocative Swift Fox, who is flirting with Zeb. Meanwhile, giant Pigoons and malevolent Painballers threaten to attack.
Told with wit, dizzying imagination, and dark humour, Booker Prize-winning Margaret Atwood’s unpredictable, chilling and hilarious MaddAddam takes us further into a challenging dystopian world and holds up a skewed mirror to our own possible future.
The author began “writing stories in the fourth grade, some time around the Mesozoic Era, and kept on writing through degrees in biology (BA, Reed College) and psychology (MS, Portland State University), and work as a bacteriologist, a librarian, and a preschool gym teacher. In between two children, a black belt in kung fu, and a chiropractic career, I’ve sold two science fiction novels and three dozen short stories. My two novels from DAW are Jaydium and Northlight.” Her most recent sales include stories to F&SF, Realms of Fantasy, Sisters of the Night, Ancient Enchantresses, and Tales from Jabba’s Palace.
“Mother Africa” is her first tale for Asimov’s.
Wenn die Kugeln von Dallas John F. Kennedy verfehlt hätten, stünde die amerikanische Flagge heute nicht nur auf dem Mond, sondern auch auf dem Mars.
Eine atemberaubende Vorstellung - doch der Aufbruch zum Roten Planeten steckt voller Gefahren und Rückschläge...
Ein neues aufregendes SF-Abenteuer des gefeierten Autors von »Zeitschiffe« und »Das floß«
Titel der englischen Originalausgabe "Voyage"
Берлин, 1945 год. Сонная Европа, уставшая от долгих мирных лет. Адольф Гитлер стал известным художником-антифашистом. Он пишет картину «Mi Lucha», что в переводе с испанского означает «Моя борьба» – название книги мексиканского диктатора. Содержание картины напоминает нам «Гернику» Пикассо.
Какие-то люди похищают живописца прямо из его мастерской, тайно везут в Мексику, где к власти пришли лучисты во главе с Троцким и первым идеологом лучизма, таинственным товарищем Лучо. Они основали в Латинской Америке тоталитарную империю, которая развязала вторую мировую войну на Американском континенте, напала на США. Юг страны уже захвачен, крупные города разрушены, линия фронта докатилась до Нью-Йорка…
Все события и персонажи серии вымышлены и любые совпадения с реальностью случайны.
![обложка книги Madonna Park[e-book: рассказы]](/picimg/299/2998/29981/299811/cover.jpg){kind=small}
Rhys Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences. Much of his work is of a humorously eccentric bent, often parodies and pastiches with surreal and absurdist overtones, although he is by no means limited to any of these forms and has proven to be extremely versatile.
Madonna Park is a collection of six sublime stories from a true master of words. Rhys Hughes is Wales’ best kept literary secret. Championed by the likes of Michael Moorcock, his unique fantastical fictions have already achieved the level of cult-status. His fiction is both intellectual and hilarious with plenty of puns and satirical side-swipes to keep the reader constantly amused.
Rhys Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences. Much of his work is of a humorously eccentric bent, often parodies and pastiches with surreal and absurdist overtones, although he is by no means limited to any of these forms and has proven to be extremely versatile.
Madonna Park is a collection of six sublime stories from a true master of words. Rhys Hughes is Wales’ best kept literary secret. Championed by the likes of Michael Moorcock, his unique fantastical fictions have already achieved the level of cult-status. His fiction is both intellectual and hilarious with plenty of puns and satirical side-swipes to keep the reader constantly amused.
Every year, the annual war between the Kingdom and the Empire seems to be nearing its end. However, the ruler of the Empire, Jircniv, also known as the "Bloody Emperor", visits the Great Tomb of Nazarick and allies with Ainz Ooal Gown, which drags him between the conflict of the two nations, changing it into a total war.
Zamach bombowy w San Francisco wywraca spokojny świat Marcusa do góry nogami. Aresztowany wraz z grupą przyjaciół przez Departament Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego trafia do tajnego więzienia. Gdy w końcu zostaje wypuszczony, odkrywa, że teraz żyje w państwie policyjnym, a każdy obywatel traktowany jest jak potencjalny terrorysta. Odtąd pragnie tylko jednego – zniszczyć DBW i odnaleźć zaginionego przyjaciela.
Mały Brat to porywająca powieść o walce z opresyjnym systemem w czasach virtual reality, cyberprzestrzeni i gier komputerowych. Wielokrotnie nagradzana (między innymi Nagrodą Campbella dla najlepszej powieści 2009 roku) i okrzyknięta fenomenem w Stanach Zjednoczonych.
Po przeczytaniu tej książki dobrze się zastanowisz, zanim znowu naciśniesz enter.
Merveille conclut en fanfare la trilogie de Robert J. Sawyer commencée avec Éveil et poursuivie avec Veille.
Webmind, l'Intelligence Artificielle qui a émergé sur la Toile à la suite de circonstances très singulières, menace-t-elle l'humanité comme le croît le colonel Hume, du programme Watch, qui a juré de la détruire ?
Ou bien l'apparition de cette entité aux pouvoirs quasi divins est-elle une chance extraordinaire pour l'humanité, comme le pense Caitlin Dexter, la jeune ex-aveugle dont la prothèse a tout permis ?
Quel rôle jouera le grand singe Chobo, l'autre intelligence non humaine de la planète, dans l'effort de Webmind pour convaincre les humains de ses bonnes intentions ?
La réponse se trouve-t-elle en Chine ?
A contemporary gothic from an author in the company of Kelly Link and Aimee Bender, Mr. Splitfoot tracks two women in two times as they march toward a mysterious reckoning.
Ruth and Nat are orphans, packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later, Ruth’s niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been? And who — or what — has she hidden in the woods at the end of the road?
In an ingeniously structured dual narrative, two separate timelines move toward the same point of crisis. Their merging will upend and reinvent the whole. A subversive ghost story that is carefully plotted and elegantly constructed, Mr. Splitfoot will set your heart racing and your brain churning. Mysteries abound, criminals roam free, utopian communities show their age, the mundane world intrudes on the supernatural and vice versa.
‘Holy Wood is a different sort of place. People act differently here. Everywhere else the most important things are gods or money or cattle. Here, the most important thing is to be important.’
People might say that reality is a quality that things possess in the same way that they possess weight. Sadly alchemists never really held with such a quaint notion.They think that they can change reality, shape it to their own purpose. Imagine then the damage that could be wrought if they get their hands on the ultimate alchemy: the invention of motion pictures, the greatest making of illusions. It may be a triumph of universe-shaking proportions. It’s either that or they’re about to unlock the dark terrible secret of the Holy Wood hills — by mistake…
Annotations collected and edited by Leo Breebaart. http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/moving-pictures.html
63,000 years ago, an ancient civilization existed far advanced over our own, but it was destroyed by a natural cataclysm. Now that same cataclysm is about to strike our modern world…
When Carl stumbles upon an unknown robot’s head, he manages with some effort to get it working. From the robot, Carl learns that it was created by an ancient civilization 63,000 years ago in northern India. The robot reports though, that the culture was destroyed by a meteor storm that killed all, but a thousand people planet wide.
When Carl learns that Earth is entering the same place in the galaxy where the meteor field exists, he warns people on TV, but finds himself ridiculed and ignored. To protect the world, Carl works to find out more about the ancient civilization and how to prevent a repeat of history.
To do this, Carl travels to a secret cave where the ancient technology is stored and here Carl meets a fully functioning robot from the ancient civilization. Now Carl must do everything in his power to preserve as many lives and as much of the current civilization as possible to avoid full scale destruction…
The magic and mayhem continue in this thrilling second instalment of Hobb’s new series.
Althea Vestrit has found a new home aboard the liveship Ophelia, but she lives only to reclaim the Vivacia as her rightful inheritance. However, the Vivacia has been captured by the pirate, ‘King’ Kennit, and is acquiring a keen bloodlust. Meanwhile in Bingtown, the fading fortunes of the Vestrit family lead Malta deeper into the magical secrets of the mysterious Rain Wilds Traders. And just outside Bingtown, Amber dreams of relaunching the Paragon, The Mad Ship . . .
The second volume in this superb trilogy from the author of THE FARSEER TRILOGY continues the dramatic tale of piracy, serpents, love and magic.
Оригинальный и необычный мир сумеречного нуара. Фэнтезийная действительность испорчена гангстерами «иженерами» тридцатых годов двадцатого века. Автоматами Томпсона и черными Бентли, соседствующих с магией и драконами. Плюс детектив в духе неповторимых королей нуара: Чейза и Чайндлера. Незлой и добродушный, бывший офицер-инструктор стрельбы СССР и следователь из Питера Максим Светляков попадает в этот загибающийся и находящийся накануне грандиозной войны загадочный мир Бриджпорта. Загадка встает за загадкой перед «нашим парнем». Как спастись от магического проклятия мертвой династии королей-магов Дан-Дан Флоров? Откуда появились таинственные Зингару — раса «львиномордых» гуманоидов. Кто такой, двести двадцать седьмой в череде реинкарнации, магистр и настоятель ордена пустынных рыцарей? Могучих аскетов и супер воинов. Почему ему сняться крайне странные сны? И даже гениальный изобретатель прошлого Никола Тесла, здесь как-то примешан?! Не говоря уже о демонах в боевой броне космодесанта. Приключения и детективно-магическое расследование Макса Лайта продолжается во второй части романа: «Лангвар и Запах Бури».