Brian Aldiss
White Mars
Pbk published November 2000 by Warner at £7.99
ISBN: 0-7515-2978-8
Or, The Mind Set Free: A 21st-Century Utopia
In collaboration with Roger Penrose
How can we achieve a better world? A happier future? A new understanding of life?
Towards the end of the twenty-first century, a society of men and women a few thousand strong is marooned on Mars. This is a Mars unspoilt, a Mars unimproved; as the Antarctic has been designated a continent for science, so Mars is preserved as a planet for science - a White Mars. And it is on this ‘Ayers Rock in the sky’ that Tom Jeffries slowly creates his goal: the humanising of science, the improvement of human existence, the freeing of the mind from its dangerous past ... White Mars marks a unique collaboration between the novelist and science fiction writer, Brian Aldiss, and the distinguished mathematician and scientist, Sir Roger Penrose. This startling and authoritative book shows how a new society could be built, in doing so producing a beautiful and grim new myth. Sir Roger Penrose is a leading world authority on many areas of mathematical and theoretical physics. He was recently hailed as ‘one of the greatest living disciples of Albert Einstein’. His is a bold and speculative mind, lecturing with his particular brand of clarity and humour on such topics as quantum gravity and mental workings. Among his many learned books, The Emperor’s New Mind is particularly popular and influential. For many years Sir Roger was Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. ‘This novel is not just a plea for Mars to be kept as an unspoilt wilderness ... it also explores the planet’s utopian possibilities ... like many modern ‘critical utopias’, White Mars teeters intriguingly on the brink of subverting its own stated ideals’ Edward James, TLS
‘Completely absorbing, suffused with common sense and, on occasion, genuinely profound’ Time Out About The Author Brian Aldiss was born in 1925. During WWII he served in the Royal Signals in Burma and Sumatra. In 1948 he was demobilized and started work as an assistant in an Oxford bookshop. His first published SF story was 'Criminal Record' which appeared in Science Fantasy in 1954. His first SF novel was Non?Stop, published in 1958. By 1962 he had already won an award for his series of novellas collectively known as Hothouse. During the 60s he wrote some of his most famous titles: Greybeard (1964), Report on Probability A (1968) and Barefoot in the Head: A European Fantasia (1969). The Saliva Tree (a novella published in 1965) won the Nebula for Novellas that year. By now, Aldiss' stylistic concerns and unconventional themes had much in common with the New Wave movement, and he was instrumental in helping obtain an Arts Council grant for New Worlds, the flagship magazine of the New Wave. He continued his prolific output throughout the 70s but achieved great acclaim in the early 80s for the three massively researched novels Helliconia Spring (1982), Helliconia Summer (1983) and Helliconia Winter (1985), the first of which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1983. More recent writings have been either straight fiction focussing on aspects of Aldiss' own life (such as Forgotten Life (1988)) or autobiography (Bury My Heart at W.H. Smith's: A Writing Life (1990) and The Twinkling of an Eye or My Life as an Englishman (1998)). Throughout his writing career, Aldiss has been both an anthologist and critic, involved both in the Penguin Science Fiction and The Year's Best SF Series. Both Billion Year Spree (1973) and its expanded follow?up Trillion Year Spree (1986 with David Wingrove) are considered classic surveys of SF. The latter won a Hugo in 1987. He has also contributed as a reviewer and essayist, writing for the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, and the Washington Post.
Titles by Brian Aldiss at Amazon.co.uk
Alfred Bester
The Deceivers
Pbk published February 2000 by Ibooks at £9.99
ISBN: 0-671-03889-3
In the tradition of the landmark book The Stars My Destination from the late Grandmaster of Science Fiction. Alfred Bester took readers where none had gone before in his seminal fifties novel, The Stars My Destination - the story of a
young man's desperate journey from adolescence to most-wanted-man of the 25th century.
In The Deceivers, Bester reinvented the space opera for the late 20th century. The hero is Rogue Winter- King of the Maori Commandos… His lover is the beautiful Demi Jeroux, who has been kidnapped by… The villainous, demonic Manchu Duke of Death.
Rogue must search through the entire solar system to find the missing Demi Jeroux, from the Paradise of Carnal Pleasures to the bloody torture chambers of Triton. It is in the subterranean chambers beneath the surface of Triton that the key to the whole adventure lies. Buried here is the sole source of the newly discovered Meta-crystals, which hold the secret to unlimited energy for all mankind.
Demi Jeroux is merely a pawn in the Duke of Death's gambit to seize control of the crystals and place the entire solar system at his mercy. Rogue's final confrontation with the Duke will determine not only the fate of his beloved, but the future of the system and its freedom from the evil Manchu Empire.
You can share your thoughts about Alfred Bester's The Deceivers in the new ibooks virtual readers' group at http://www.ibooksinc.com 'Alfred Bester was, and remains, long after his passing, the pre-eminent class act of imaginative literature. Bester was the mountain, all the rest of us merely climbers toward that peak.' Harlan Ellison
‘Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction.’ Harry Harrison, author of The Stainless Steel Rat
'Bester's two superb books have stood the test of time. For nearly fifty years they have held their place on everybody's list of the ten greatest science-fiction novels." Robert Silverberg
'From the opening nightmare to the nightmarish conclusion, The Demolished Man pulls you along with a runaway freight train of a plot and Bester's trademark classy-yet-crazed prose. Wordgames abound. A cool cop hunts a beguilingly mad bad-guy across the EEG landscape of a psychic twenty-fourth century. Pulp fiction meets literature in a giddying fusion of wonder and excess, and yet, in the Demolition scene towards the end, The Demolished Man also contains what has to be one of the scariest and most haunting passages in all of SF" James Lovegrove
'"It is the pace, the staccato style, the passion and the pyrotechnics that make the novel extraordinary. The future society is evoked in marvellously hard-edged details; the hero is a driven, resourceful man whose obsessions are explained in Freudian terms that might seem too glib if they were given straight, but are evoked with the same New Yorker's painful, ironic scepticism that informs the whole novel.' Encyclopedia of Science Fiction About The Author Alfred Bester was born in New York in 1913. After attending the University of Pennsylvania, he sold several stories to Thrilling Wonder Stories in the early 1940s. He then embarked on a career as a scripter for comics, radio, and television, where he worked on such classic characters as Superman, Batman, Nick Carter, Charlie Chan, Tom Corbett, and the Shadow. In the 1950s, he returned to prose, publishing several short stories and two brilliant, seminal works, The Demolished Man (which was the first winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel) and The Stars My Destination. In the late 1950s, he wrote travel articles for Holiday Magazine, and eventually became their Senior Literary Editor, keeping the position until the magazine folded in the 1970s. In 1974, he once again came back to writing science fiction with the novels The Computer Connection, Golem100, and The Deceivers, and numerous short stories. A collection of his short stories, Virtual Unrealities, was published in 1997, and his final novel, Psychoshop - completed after his death by celebrated author Roger Zelazny - was published in 1998. After being a New Yorker all his life, he died in Pennsylvania in 1987, but not before he was honored by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America with a Grandmaster Award. His work was an inspiration both to the SF New Wave of the 1960s and the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s.
Titles by Alfred Bester at Amazon.co.uk
Ben BovaJupiter
Published November 2000 by Hodder & Stoughton at £16.99
ISBN: 0 340 76764 2
Jupiter is a boundless ocean, ten times wider than the entire planet Earth. Heated from below by the planet’s seething core, it is the widest, deepest, most fearsome ocean in the solar system.
In his spectacular new novel of space exploration - in the tradition of his bestselling novel Mars - Ben Bova follows a small group of scientists who explore the giant planet in the hope of finding not merely living creatures but intelligent living creatures.
Idealistic young American scientist Grant Archer joins a clandestine expedition to this awesome new world. But Grant does not share the ideals of the scientists he accompanies: he has been planted on their expedition by the New Morality, a religious group, to ferret out what the ‘godless humanists’ have discovered. His mission: to reassure the new religious leaders of Earth that Jupiter holds no intelligent life.
But unknown to the New Morality, Grant, though the son of a minister, is both a believer and a man who sees no reason why science and faith cannot co-exist. He has come to the vast, planet-girdling ocean of Jupiter with an open mind, and he is about to tell his masters something that may shatter their conviction. ‘The science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.’ Ray Bradbury Ben Bova Is Also The Author Of Mars
‘A splendid book.. of his many books, Mars must be the most important.’ Arthur C. Clarke
‘Extraordinary ... this kind of story is the reason science fiction exists in the first place.’ Orson Scott Card Death Dream
‘The prophetic vision of one of the world’s great masters of the genre of science fiction.’ Books Brothers
‘Plenty of excitement ... an effective mix of science, politics and family struggle.’ Kirkus Reviews Moonrise
‘Heady oxygen is breathed into old bones as Bova colonises the moon.’ Scotland On Sunday
‘Bova’s picture of life on the moon is highly believable.’ Publishers Weekly Moonwar
‘What happens to Moonbase and its inhabitants is as exciting as the future that could be ours.’ Tampa Tribune and Times
About The Author Ben Bova holds degrees from the State University of New York and Temple University, Philadelphia, and most recently received his Doctor of Education degree from California Coast University. He has taught writing at Harvard University and at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and lectures regularly on topics dealing with high technology and the future. He and his wife live in Florida.
Titles by Ben Bova at Amazon.co.uk
Ben BovaVenus
Pbk published July 2000 by NEL at £6.99
ISBN: 0-340-72847-7
It is the most desolate place in the universe. With a surface blasted by temperatures hotter than any oven and an atmosphere heavy with sulphur, months from Earth by even the fastest spacecraft, Venus remains almost unknown even after a century of space travel.
But Alex Humphries, son of ruthless space tycoon Martin Humphries, disappeared along with his ship Phosphoros into Venus's infernal atmosphere, and now Humphries has offered ten billion dollars to anyone who can bring his son's body home.
Two ships are soon on their way to Venus, seeking not just the money but also their revenge on Humphries, But when they enter the poisonous hurricane winds of the unknown planet they find something so surprising, so unexpected, that it will change the whole course of space exploration. Return to Mars
'A superb story by a first-class writer' Daily Telegraph
'The science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.' Ray Bradbury Mars
'A splendid book... of his many books, Mars must be the most important.' Arthur C Clarke
'Extraordinary... this kind of story is the reason science fiction exists in the first place.' Orson Scott Card
Death Dream
'The prophetic vision of one of the world's great masters of the genre of science fiction.' Books
Brothers
'Plenty of excitement... an effective mix of science, politics and family struggle.' Kirkus Reviews Moonrise
'Heady oxygen is breathed into old bones as Bova colonises the moon.' Scotland on Sunday
'Bova's picture of life on the moon is highly believable.' Publishers Weekly Moonwar
'What happens to Moonbase and its inhabitants is as exciting as the future that could be ours.' Tampa Tribune and Times About The Author Ben Bova holds degrees from the State University of New York and Temple University, Philadelphia, and most recently received his Doctor of Education degree from California Coast University. He has taught writing at Harvard University and at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and lectures regularly on topics dealing with high technology and the future. He and his wife live in Florida.
Titles by Ben Bova at Amazon.co.uk
Eric Brown
New York Nights
Published May 2000 by Millenium at £16.99
ISBN: 0-57506-872-8
Volume One of the Virex Trilogy
2040. New York is crowded with the lost. Refugees from the radioactive eastern seaboard, the splintered remains of a society in freefall, the lonely souls looking for salvation from reality, crowd the streets between buildings that hide their drabness behind gaudy hologram facades.
It's a good time to be working in Missing Persons and for Hal Halliday and Barney Kluger business for their agency has never been better. It's certainly busy enough for them to be able to forget their pasts and hide from the uncomfortable reality of their present lives. For most of the time.
But when Hal is asked to find a missing computer tech called Sissi Nigeria he is pulled into a bizarre world of countercultures intertwined with exotic virtual reality domains. It is a world haunted by ghosts of the past and, more terrifyingly, of the future. And soon Hal must face up to the memory of his two sisters; one he hasn't seen for five years, the other dead in a childhood accident.
Are we all better off leaving the real world behind and seeking a perfect virtual world where we are in control? Eric Brown has written a fast-moving yet thought-provoking SF thriller. It is a novel that examines the real human costs of isolation and escapism in a future that offers wild possibilities. Praise for Eric Brown
‘Prying beneath the shiny surface of worlds to come, Brown explores the darkness lingering in the human heart. Recommended’ Stephen Baxter
'Eric Brown is the name to watch in SF' Peter F. Hamilton
''British writing with a deft, understated touch: wonderful' New Scientist
‘SF infused with a cosmopolitan and literary sensibility ... accomplished and affecting' Paul McAuley, Interzone
'Stories which are the essence of modern science fiction and yet show a passionate concern for the human predicament and human values' Bob Shaw
‘One of the very best of the new generation of British SF writers’ Vector
About The Author Eric Brown lives in Haworth, Yorkshire and is a full-time writer. He is the author of The Time Lapsed Man (1992), Meridian Days (1993), Blue Shifting (1995), Engineman (1994) and Penumbra (1999) as well as two novels for children: Untouchable and Walkabout. He is one of the most popular writers of Science Fiction short stories in the UK. He has been voted as one of the ten best writers of Science Fiction by Vector magazine (the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association). He is a regular contributor to Interzone magazine.
Titles by Eric Brown at Amazon.co.uk
Chris Bunch
Fleet of the Damned: Sten 4
Pbk published December 2000 by Orbit at £5.99
ISBN: 1-84149-010-5
With Allan Cole
The fourth book in the action-packed SF adventure series..
Sten’s luck seems to have deserted him. Having been assigned a tacdivision in the Fringe Worlds, he soon discovers that the Imperial officers are more interested in having fun than honing their fighting skills. The enemy, Than couldn’t have picked a better time or place to launch their long-planned attack against the Empire. Sten and his men are outgunned and outmanned…
But Sten isn’t going to give up without a fight.
About The Author Chris Bunch was part of the first troop commitment into Vietnam. Both Ranger and airborne-qualified, he served as a patrol commander and a combat correspondent for Stars and Stripes. Later, he edited outlaw motorcycle magazines and wrote for everything from the undergound press to Look magazine and Rolling Stone and primetime television. He is now a full-time novelist. Allan Cole was raised as a CIA brat, travelling the world and visiting pretty much every global hot-spot before he was eighteen. Subsequently, he has worked as a chef, a prize-winning newspaperman and a TV screenwriter, He has nineteen novels to his credit and has written more than a hundred episodes for television shows such as Battlestar Galactica, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Magnum, PL, Quincy, The Incredible Hulk, Walker, Texas Ranger, and even The Smurfs. He currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida, with Kathryn, his strongest supporter, and 'Squeak' - the cat who rules all writer elves.
Titles by Chris Bunch at Amazon.co.uk
Chris Bunch
The Wolf Worlds: Sten 2
Pbk published October 2000 by Orbit at £5.99
ISBN: 1-84149-008-3
With Allan Cole Sten 2
The Wolf Worlds
The action-packed SF adventure series continues.
Raised on the factory planet of Vulcan, Sten soon learned about the survival of the toughest. Now he wants more than survival.
The Eternal Emperor rules countless worlds across the galaxy. Vast armies and huge fleets await his command. But when the Emperor needs to pacify the Wolf Worlds, the planets of an insignificant cluster that have raised space piracy to a low art, he turns to Mantis Team and its small band of militant problem-solvers.
Sten's destiny is in his own hands
And people like Sten never give up.
About The Author Chris Bunch was part of the first troop commitment into Vietnam. Both Ranger and airborne-qualified, he served as a patrol commander and a combat correspondent for Stars and Stripes. Later, he edited outlaw motorcycle magazines and wrote for everything from the undergound press to Look magazine and Rolling Stone and primetime television. He is now a full-time novelist. Allan Cole was raised as a CIA brat, travelling the world and visiting pretty much every global hot-spot before he was eighteen. Subsequently, he has worked as a chef, a prize-winning newspaperman and a TV screenwriter, He has nineteen novels to his credit and has written more than a hundred episodes for television shows such as Battlestar Galactica, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Magnum, PL, Quincy, The Incredible Hulk, Walker, Texas Ranger, and even The Smurfs. He currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida, with Kathryn, his strongest supporter, and 'Squeak' - the cat who rules all writer elves.
Titles by Chris Bunch at Amazon.co.uk
Chris Bunch
The Court of a Thousand Suns: Sten 3
Pbk published November 2000 by Orbit at £5.99
ISBN: 1-84149-009-1
With Allan Cole
The third book in the action-packed SF adventure series..
Sten had fought his way up from slave labour on a factory world to commander of the Eternal Emperor’s bodyguard, the Imperial Gurkhas.
But during his first three months on Prime world, the most dangerous weapons Sten had encountered were the well-phrased lies of Court politicians. It seemed no place for an honest fighting man. But when a bomb destroys a local bar, Sten discovers the danger and corruption behind Court intrigue. Only quick work by Sten, Alex Kilgour, and a tough female detective can keep the Empire together and the Emperor alive.
About The Author Chris Bunch was part of the first troop commitment into Vietnam. Both Ranger and airborne-qualified, he served as a patrol commander and a combat correspondent for Stars and Stripes. Later, he edited outlaw motorcycle magazines and wrote for everything from the undergound press to Look magazine and Rolling Stone and primetime television. He is now a full-time novelist. Allan Cole was raised as a CIA brat, travelling the world and visiting pretty much every global hot-spot before he was eighteen. Subsequently, he has worked as a chef, a prize-winning newspaperman and a TV screenwriter, He has nineteen novels to his credit and has written more than a hundred episodes for television shows such as Battlestar Galactica, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Magnum, PL, Quincy, The Incredible Hulk, Walker, Texas Ranger, and even The Smurfs. He currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida, with Kathryn, his strongest supporter, and 'Squeak' - the cat who rules all writer elves.
Titles by Chris Bunch at Amazon.co.uk
Richard Calder
Malignos
Pbk published April 2000 by Earthlight at £6.99
ISBN: 0-671-03720-X
Richard Pike is a hero. Slayer of demons, swordfighter par excellence, philanderer. In the fifty-third century he is banished from his beloved Darkling Isle of England and scrapes a living in the Pilipinas - Far Eastern islands - with his lover, Gala.
Gala is a malignos, and the cause of his exile…
It is said that a cataclysm in a parallel universe, some time late in the twenty-first century, flooded our own universe with particles that perverted men's minds and souls. The ability to invent or maintain technology vanished and a dark age followed. Gradually, those whose minds had been perverted evolved - or were modified - into demon-like beings who sought sanctuary in the earth's depths. These beings are known as goblins in the West, as malignos in the East.
Pike must quest through the vast underground world of the malignos to find an antidote for the poison which has turned his beloved Gala into a vegetable. In doing so, he comes face to face with himself as much as the dangers of the weird, subterranean universe. Richard Calder's latest novel contains his own black humour as well as a welter of fantastical inventiveness which stands head and shoulders above most SF and Fantasy. Praise for Richard Calder
‘Dark, edgy and inflicted with just the right degree of lyricism’ William Gibson
'Stunning' Science Fiction Age
'As rich, dense and intricate as any recent SF’ The New York Review Of Science Fiction
‘Brilliant’ Washington Post Book World About The Author Richard Calder was born in London in 1956. He moved to Thailand in 1990, where he lived in Nongkhai, a border town overlooking Laos. He returned to London in 1996. His short stories and reviews have been published in many science fiction magazines, including Interzone, Science Fiction Eye and Omni, and his work has been translated into Japanese. Malignos is his seventh novel.
Titles by Richard Calder at Amazon.co.uk
Steven Erikson
Gardens of the Moon
Pbk published March 2000 by Bantam at £6.99
ISBN: 0553812173
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Gardens of the Moon introduces a startling and original new voice into the realms of high fantasy. Bringing together grand design, a dark and complex mythology, wild and wayward magic and a host of believable and enduring characters with thrilling, powerful storytelling, Gardens of the Moon is a breathtaking achievement.
The vast Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, its subject states bled dry by decades of interminable warfare, purges, internecine strife and clashes with Anomander Rake, Lord of Moon's Spawn, and his mysterious Tiste Andii. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet the Empress' rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his cynical squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, sole surviving sorceress of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to heal the still living and mourn the many dead. The Empress has other ideas. Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, still holds out against her and it is to this ancient and noble bastion of independence that she turns her predatory gaze.
However, the Empire is not the only player in this great game. A more sinister, shadowbound force is poised to make its first move, as Captain Canoes Paran, aide to the Empress' Adjunct, is about to discover. For he has been chosen for an altogether higher purpose - as harbinger of the gods themselves…
Six years in the writing and set in a brilliantly realised world, Gardens of the Moon is the breathtaking debut fantasy novel by 40 year-old Steven Erikson.
First published in spring 1999, this novel has won acclaim and plaudits from critics - 'An astounding début… has the potential to become a defining work' (Neil Walsh, SF Site) - and booksellers - 'This is the best fantasy novel I’ve read since George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, bar none' (Ariel, Waterstone's, Manchester), fellow writers (Stephen Donaldson and J. V. Jones to name but two) and fans alike, particularly on the Internet. On amazon.co.uk, Gardens of the Moon received the full five star rating and reader reviews such as 'Intelligent, innovative and powerfully engaging. Buy it.'… 'A new fantasy novel that will knock your socks off’… and 'Great. Massive, panoramic and highly intelligent'.
Then last October, Steven Erikson was catapulted into the spotlight when, just prior to the Frankfurt Book Fair and in the face of fast-growing interest from rival publishers equally impressed by the originality, imaginative strength and the pace and power of his storytelling, Transworld concluded an unprecedented nine book deal with the author. Securing the author's proposed 10 book Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence, the deal made the headlines of the national and international press, including The Times, Guardian, Independent, Express and Wall Street Journal 'Steven Erikson is an extraordinary writer. I read Gardens of the Moon with great pleasure. And now that I have read it, I would be hard-pressed to decide what I enjoyed more: the richly and ominously magical world of Malaz and Genabackis; the large cast of sympathetically rendered characters; or the way the story accumulates to a climax that hits like machinegun fire. My advice to anyone who might listen to me is: Treat yourself to Gardens of the Moon. And my entirely selfish advice to Steven Erikson is, write faster' Stephen R. Donaldson, author of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever
'Steven Erikson… has the breadth and detail of imaginative vision, he is able to create a world that is both absorbing on a human level and full of magical sublimity, and, above all, he can write… a wonderfully grand conception… fiendishly readable' Amazon.co.uk
'Erikson's style is no-nonsense, and his military campaigns have a reality to them that's often lacking in fantasy… complex, challenging… Erikson's strengths are his grown-up characters and his ability to create a world every bit as intricate and messy as our own' J.V. Jones
'Steven Erikson… has created a fantasy world as rich and detailed as any you're likely to encounter. It's a world you'll be glad you weren't born into, but one that is so engrossing you'll be hard pressed to set it aside… an astounding debut' SF Site
'Complex and powerful… the best fantasy novel I've read since George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, bar none… Superb stuff' Waterstone's The Alien Has Landed
'One of those rare fantasy books that not only attempts to be huge in scope, but actually succeeds in being so' Vector About The Author Steven Erikson is Canadian by birth but now lives in the UK. He trained as an anthropologist and archaeologist and is also a graduate of the celebrated Iowa Writers' Workshop. The first book in a planned epic 10 volume sequence entitled The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Gardens of the Moon is Steven Erikson's first fantasy novel. The next book,Deadhouse Gates, is coming soon.
Titles by Steven Erikson at Amazon.co.uk
Steven Erikson
Deadhouse Gates
Pbk published September 2000 by Bantam at £10.99
ISBN: 0593046226
Weakened by events in Darujhistan, the Malazan Empire now teeters on the brink of anarchy. In the vast dominions of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik gathers a vast army around her in preparation for the long-prophesied uprising named the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in its size and savagery, it will draw the entire subcontinent into one of the bloodiest conflicts the Empire has ever known. A maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust, it will shape destinies and give birth to legends…
In the Otataral mines, Felsin, youngest daughter of th disgraced House of Paran, dreams of reveng against the sister who sentenced her to this life of slavery. Escape leads her to the mainland, and Raraku, where her soul will be reborn and her future made clear. The now-out-lawed Bridgeburners, Fiddler and the assassin Kalam, are determined to fulfil their vow to return the once god-possessed Apsalar to her homeland and to confront and kill the Empress Laseen, but tumultuous events will overtake them too. Meanwhile Coltaine, the charismatic but untried new commander of the Malaz 7th Army, will lead his battered, war-weary troops in a last valiant running battle to save the lives of thirty thousand refugees and, in so doing, secure an illustrious place in the Empire's chequered history. And into this blighted land where prophecy, sorcery and armies will collide and ascendant powers converge come two ancient wanderers, Mappo the Trell and his half-Jaghut companion, Icarium, bearers of a devastating secret that is about to break free of its chains.
Set in a brilliantly realized world ravaged by anarchy and dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is the thrilling, brutal second chapter in the monumental Malazan Book of the Fallen. A powerful, harrowing novel of war, intrigue and betrayal, it confirms Steven Erikson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality, a new master of epic fantasy. Acclaim for Gardens of the Moon
'Steven Erikson is an extraordinary writer. I read Gardens of the Moon with great pleasure. And now that I have read it, I would be hard-pressed to decide what I enjoyed more: the richly and ominously magical world of Malaz and Genabackis; the large cast of sympathetically rendered characters; or the way the story accumulates to a climax that hits like machinegun fire. My advice to anyone who might listen to me is: Treat yourself to Gardens of the Moon. And my entirely selfish advice to Steven Erikson is, write faster' Stephen R. Donaldson, author of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever
'Erikson's style is no-nonsense, and his military campaigns have a reality to them that's often lacking in fantasy… complex, challenging… Erikson's strengths are his grown-up characters and his ability to create a world every bit as intricate and messy as our own' J.V. Jones
'A fantasy world as rich and detailed as you're likely to encounter… so engrossing you'll be hard-pressed to set it aside… an astounding debut' SF Site About The Author Steven Erikson is Canadian by birth but now lives in the UK. He trained as an anthropologist and archaeologist and is also a graduate of the celebrated Iowa Writers' Workshop. The first book in a planned epic 10 volume sequence entitled The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Gardens of the Moon is Steven Erikson's first fantasy novel. The next book,Deadhouse Gates, is coming soon.
Titles by Steven Erikson at Amazon.co.uk
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Crescent City Rhapsody
Pbk published September 2000 by Millenium at £5.99
ISBN: 1-85798-888-4
It begins with silence. An electromagnetic pulse high in the atmosphere triggers a communication blackout, computers fail the world over. And in that moment of anachronistic quiet an astronomer makes the discovery of a lifetime. The pulse came from space. And it carried a message ...
It begins with murder. In New Orleans, mob boss Marie Laveau - a descendent of a famous voodoo priestess - is gunned down. But her vast wealth ensures her resurrection. Reborn by means of nanotechnology, Marie searches for revenge and finds a conspiracy linked to the mysterious event now known as the Silence.
It is a Silence that will happen again and which will throw the earth into chaos and a nightmare new world order.
Nanotechnology has saved Marie, now it can save the human race or destroy it ... 'Keeps me believing in science fiction as a real literature' Pat Cadigan
'Crescent City Rhapsody is marvellous! Goonan carves out her own future territory with passionate conviction' Greg Bear
'Anyone concerned with how our ideas and our very selves will change, as biology bites deep, should enjoy this swift, smart tale' Gregory Benford
'Kathleen Arm Goonan is an imaginative, intelligent, and humane writer - one of our best' Stephen Donaldson
'A future of miraculous blinding clarity' Joe Haldeman About The Author Kathleen Ann Goonan lives in Lakeland, Florida
Titles by Kathleen Ann Goonan at Amazon.co.uk
Joe Haldeman
Forever Free
Published January 2000 by Gollancz at £16.99
ISBN: 0-57506-853-1
William Mandella and his partner Marygay survived a war which should never have been. They lived long enough to see humanity changed beyond all recognition. The human race has evolved into Man, a group mind similar to the alien Taurans that William and Marygay used to fight.
But Man's society doesn't feel right. The veterans are treated as specimens, a baseline that humanity can return to if Man's continuing evolution goes badly wrong. The old soldiers decide to hijack a spaceship and plot a 40,000 light-year-long journey to nowhere and back: an attempt to escape to the future using relativity in the hope that something, anything will have changed. The Forever War is universally regarded as one of the great science fiction novels, and its thematic companion, Forever Peace, recently repeated its feat of sweeping the major sf awards. Now, at last, Joe Haldeman has written the direct sequel his fans have been anticipating for the last twenty-five years. 'If there was a Fort Knox for the science fiction writers who really matter, we'd have to lock Haldeman up there' Stephen King
'I first read this twenty years ago, and have never forgotten the wonder and fury it kindled at the time. Anyone who talks about the glory of war has obviously never read it. A beautifully detailed and intensely personal account of a conflict which lasts for over a thousand years, as told by the one grunt who lives through it all. Only a writer as skilful as Haldeman could use war's dark glamour to lure the reader in and then deploy that same fascination to show the effect of this orchestrated barbarism on the human soul. A book about corruption, atrocity, hope, stupidity, and triumph. Throw in faultless advanced military technology, fascinating aliens, and a dangerously believable future Earth, and you have a book that's near perfect.' Peter F. Hamilton
'[The Forever War] deserved a Pulitzer, for it is to the Vietnam War what Catch-22 was to World War II, the definitive, bleakly comic satire' Thomas M. Disch
About The Author Joe Haldeman was born in Oklahoma in 1943 and studied physics and astronomy before serving as a combat engineer in Vietnam, where he was severely wounded and won a Purple Heart. The Forever War, his first SF novel, was awarded both the Hugo and the Nebula. He is also the author of, among others, All My Sins Remembered, Forever Peace (also a Hugo and Nebula winner) and the Worlds trilogy, Worlds, Worlds Apart and Worlds Enough and Time. His latest novel is the sequel to The Forever War, Forever Free. Joe Haldeman has served several times as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and is currently an adjunct professor teaching writing at M.l.T.
Titles by Joe Haldeman at Amazon.co.uk
Peter F. HamiltonThe Confederation Handbook
Published October 2000 by Macmillan at £12.99
ISBN: 0-333-78588-6
The Reality Dysfunction … The Neutronium Alchemist… The Naked God
Together with its accompanying short -story collection, A Second Chance At Eden, Peter F. Hamilton's bestselling 'Night's Dawn Trilogy' has been one of the most triumphant works of science fiction to appear in decades. Swiftly gathering a worldwide readership, this masterwork of cosmic imagination and sheer story-telling amounts to over 3,700 pages (or 1,200,000 words) in total, and has brought to life an entire galaxy of diverse planets and astonishing civilizations.
At the core of this magnificent creation is the Confederation itself: an assembly of human and xenoc colony worlds and asteroid settlements whose cultures and conflicts and turmoils are described over a Timeline of nearly six hundred years.
To mark the completion of this awesome trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton has produced The Confederation Handbook as an essential companion guide to the diverse elements of the massive universe he has created. Here we have his personal exposition of Adamist culture, Edenist culture, the starships, the status of the Confederation in 2610, a description of sentient xenoc species, as well as a full list of characters and their roles and, of course, details of the Timeline itself. 'From the outset, Hamilton won over Sci-Fi aficionados with the coherence of his invented universe… Hamilton has reclaimed Britain's dominance of the sci-fi genre' The Times
'Eloquent and ingenious...a host of believable characters deploy amid rich descriptions of worlds and living starships... It all hangs together compulsively' Daily Telegraph
'Hamilton is a compelling storyteller… He hangs on to each and every strand, never losing you in complexity… It is impossible to stop charging on, enthralled… There is nothing better of this ilk around' Guardian
About The Author Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960, and still lives near Rutland Water. He began writing in 1987, and sold his first short story to Fear magazine in 1988. He has also been published in Interzone and the In Dreams and New Worlds anthologies, and several small-press publications. His previous novels are the Greg Mandel series, Mindstar Rising (1993), A Quantum Murder (1994) and The Nano flower (1995); and the first two novels in the bestselling 'Night's Dawn' Trilogy: The Reality dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist. He has also published A Second Chance At Eden, a novella and six short stories set in the same universe as the 'Night's Dawn' Trilogy.
Titles by Peter F. Hamilton at Amazon.co.uk
Peter F. HamiltonThe Naked God
Pbk published October 2000 by Pan at £7.99
ISBN: 0-330-35145-1
The third volume in the Night's Dawn Trilogy
Hell just went quantum...
The Confederation is starting to collapse politically and economically, allowing the possessed to infiltrate more worlds. Quinn Dexter is loose on Earth, destroying the giant arcologies one at a time. As Louise Kavanagh tries to track him down, she manages to acquire some strange and powerful allies whose goal does not quite match her own. The campaign to liberate Mortonridge from the possessed degenerates into a horrendous land battle of the kind which hasn't been seen by humankind for six hundred years. Then some of the protagonists escape in a very unexpected direction...
Joshua Calvert and Syrinx now fly their starships on a mission to find the Sleeping God – which an alien race believes holds the key to finally overthrowing the possessed. Offers a perfect opportunity to look at what's starry in British sci-fi just now ... the Hamilton series is a joy, in the rollicking, whizzbang, cosmic explosions and wonderful weird alien kind of way ... There is nothing better of this ilk around' Guardian
'That, for all its inter-galactic sweep, the narrative is so tightly focused and controlled, and that the author manages to bring the entire narrative to a satisfying and transcendent completion is a monumental achievement ... Peter F. Hamilton has managed to reenergize my sense of wonder, and thus the only fitting word to describe this trilogy must be “masterpiece”’ Interzone
'Unsettling, genuinely original and worthy of comparison to the best hard sci-fi from the likes of Asimov and Clarke, The Naked God is a fittingly brilliant conclusion to one of the major works of British sci-fi' SFX
'The depth and clarity of the future Hamilton envisions is as complex and involving as they come' Publishers Weekly
'Space opera has rarely been dealt with in such majesty... inventive, ambitious... a illustration of the power of science fiction' The Express
'Truly imaginative... the energy and detail of the writing are second to none'
The Bookseller
'Hamilton writes classic space opera... heady stuff, played with verve, imagination and enough of a sense of humour' The Sunday Times
'Well into the millennium I will be telling people how I gobbled the 1,951 pages of The Reality Dysfunction and its sequel The Neutronium Alchemist in just two days' SFX
'Existing fans of the Night's Dawn epic sill snap it up, while for newcomers to Hamilton this is an excellent place to start' The Times About The Author Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960, and still lives near Rutland Water. He began writing in 1987, and sold his first short story to Fear magazine in 1988. He has also been published in Interzone and the In Dreams and New Worlds anthologies, and several small-press publications. His previous novels are the Greg Mandel series, Mindstar Rising (1993), A Quantum Murder (1994) and The Nano flower (1995); and the first two novels in the bestselling 'Night's Dawn' Trilogy: The Reality dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist. He has also published A Second Chance At Eden, a novella and six short stories set in the same universe as the 'Night's Dawn' Trilogy.
Titles by Peter F. Hamilton at Amazon.co.uk
Brian Herbert
Prelude to Dune: House Harkonnen
Published September 2000 by Hodder & Stoughton at £17.99
ISBN: 0-340-75177-0
The international best seller House Atreides began the thrilling saga of the blood feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen: the background to Frank Herbert’s magnificent science fiction epic Dune. Now the story continues as more of the heroes of Dune take their places in the intrigues, the wars and the treacheries that will lead inevitably to the fall of a dynasty.
Duke Leto Atreides is now the skilful and much-loved ruler of Caladan, where two of his most loyal warriors have come to manhood. Duncan Idaho trains to become House Atreides' new Swordmaster. And Gurney Halleck, tortured slave of the Harkonnens, begins the ordeal of loss and pain that will eventually bring him to Duke Leto's side. Leto's heart is at war with his duty, for he must marry for politics and power, not love - despite the charms of Princess Kailea of the fallen House of Ix and Jessica, the exquisite, perfectly trained concubine chosen by the Bene Gesserit to be the mother of Leto's daughter.
At House Harkonnen, arch enemy of House Atreides, Baron Vladimir is slowly being consumed by a loathsome disease. His nephew and heir, Rabban, prepares to take over the Harkonnen empire. At the same time gentle, helpless Abulurd strives to undo his half?brother's cruelty and his own son’s viciousness.
On Dune - planet Arrakis - House Harkonnen ruthlessly harvests the precious, mind-enhancing spice, melange. Planetologist Pardot Kynes' twelve year old son Liet is already a Fremen warrior: learning first-hand of the savage injustices the Harkonnens inflict on his desert people and planning for the day the Fremen defeat them.
Once again, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have built on the notes, outlines and correspondence Frank Herbert left behind at his death, as well as conversations and brainstorming sessions Brian Herbert held with his father, to create an enthralling epic. This is a fitting prelude to Dune - the Hugo and Nebula-award-winning novel which is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, with nearly ten million copies in print. 'House Atreldes is a terrific prequel, but it's also a first?rate adventure on its own. Frank Herbert would surely be delighted and proud of this continuation of his vision’ Dean Koontz
'Those who long to return to the world of desert, spice and sandworms will be amply satisfied.' The Times
'Herbert and Anderson have met the challenge admirably. Within a web of relationships in which no act has simple or predictable consequences, they lay the foundations of the Dune saga ... Even readers new to the saga will be able to follow it easily as the narrative weaves among the many interconnected tales. A terrific read in its own right… Will inspire readers to turn, or return, to its great predecessor.' Publishers Weekly
About The Author Frank Herbert, who created Dune, was born in 1920 and spent most of his early life in the Pacific Northwest of America. He was a professional photographer, journalist and occasional oyster-diver; he also had stints as a radio news commentator and jungle survival instructor.
Though he is best known for Dune, he was also the author of several other important science fiction novels including The Green Brain, The Dragon in the Sea and The White Plague. He was awarded the Nebula and Hugo awards - the highest literary accolades in the world of science fiction for Dune. He died in 1986. Brian Herbert, his son, is a widely published science fiction author in his own right. This is his first novel to call on his father's work: previously, he has created his own worlds, sometimes in collaboration. He has also written Dreamer of Dune, a comprehensive biography of his illustrious father. Kevin J. Anderson is best known for his world-wide best-selling novels based on the universes of Star Wars and The X-Files, and is also the author of several more critically acclaimed original novels. An expert on the US space programme, he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for ten years.
Titles by Brian Herbert at Amazon.co.uk
Brian Herbert
Prelude to Dune: House of Atreides
Pbk published April 2000 by NEL at £6.99
ISBN: 0-340-75176-2
Frank Herbert’s Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, with nearly ten million copies in print. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, it is universally acclaimed as the greatest classic of the field.
Now comes the epic story of what happened in the generation before Dune began, revealing more of the origins of the blood feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen.
It is the year 10,154 of the Imperial Calendar, and for four decades the planet Arrakis - called Dune by its inhabitants has been ruled by the Harkonnen family. Proud of his cruelty and ruthlessness, iron-fisted Baron Vladimir Harkonnen dreams of ever-larger harvests of the precious substance called "spice", the chemical that prolongs life and increases mental powers; the drug that mutated Spacing Guild Navigators use to control starships with their minds.
But the seeds of change have been sown. On the government planet Kaitain, the Emperor's son Shaddam plots to replace his father. On Wallach IX, the Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit prepare for the climax of their programme of genetic manipulation to create the Kwisatz Haderach, a godlike man. On Arrakis, an idealistic young planetologist, Pardot Kynes, goes out into the desert to live among the Fremen, desert nomads who hold the key to the secrets of spice and the giant sandworms who guard it. And on the water and island world of Caladan, young Leto Atreides prepares to travel to the planet Ix, where he will learn to be a ruler.
Drawing on notes, outlines and correspondence Frank Herbert left behind at his death, as well as conversations and brain-storming sessions Brian Herbert held with his father, House Atreides is a breathtaking story of war, treachery and of love, loyalty and steadfastness in the face of overwhelming odds.
About The Author Frank Herbert, who created Dune, was born in 1920 and spent most of his early life in the Pacific Northwest of America. He was a professional photographer, journalist and occasional oyster-diver; he also had stints as a radio news commentator and jungle survival instructor.
Though he is best known for Dune, he was also the author of several other important science fiction novels including The Green Brain, The Dragon in the Sea and The White Plague. He was awarded the Nebula and Hugo awards - the highest literary accolades in the world of science fiction for Dune. He died in 1986. Brian Herbert, his son, is a widely published science fiction author in his own right. This is his first novel to call on his father's work: previously, he has created his own worlds, sometimes in collaboration. He has also written Dreamer of Dune, a comprehensive biography of his illustrious father. Kevin J. Anderson is best known for his world-wide best-selling novels based on the universes of Star Wars and The X-Files, and is also the author of several more critically acclaimed original novels. An expert on the US space programme, he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for ten years.
Titles by Brian Herbert at Amazon.co.uk
K.W. Jeter
Blade Runner 4 - Eye and Talon
Published December 2000 by Gollancz at £16.99
ISBN: 0-575-06865 5
Ridley Scott’s vision of Philip K. Dick’s 2 1st Century Los Angeles was a masterpiece that has become a defining landmark on the SF landscape. And with his Blade Runner novels acclaimed author K.W Jeter has added a body of fiction that is richly resonant of the original vision.
Fully authorised by the estate of Philip K. Dick and written by the author they felt best equipped to take forward the vision of one of the great names in SF, Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon combines the dark imagery, paranoia, tension and pace of Dick’s original novel and the cinematic genius of Ridley Scott in a novel that takes the Blade Runner series into a new millennium. Blade Runner has become one of the most recognisable and well-loved icons of SF and K. W. Jeter has only added to its reputation and impact.
About The Author K.W.Jeter is one of the most respected SF writers working today. He is the author of over twenty novels, including Dr. Adder, The Glass Hammer, Wolf Flow, and Farewell Horizontal. His previous novels, Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human and Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night, achieved international bestseller status.
After residences in England and Spain, he and his wife, Geri, currently make their home in Portland, Oregon. He owns two pairs of Dahlquist DQ-10's, but none of them are wired with human neural tissue--yet.
An essay on the copyright issues raised in his novel NOIR can be located at http:/ /www.europa.com/~jeter/copyrights.html Titles by K.W. Jeter at Amazon.co.uk
Paul Kearney
The Second Empire: The Monarchies of God
Published March 2000 by Gollancz at £16.99
ISBN: 0-57506-574-5
Book Four
And the Beast shall come upon the earth in the days of the Second Empire of the world. And he shall rise up out of the west, the light in his eyes terrible to behold. With him shall come the Age of the Wolf when brother will slay brother. And all men shall fall down and worship him.
Winter lies cold and dark upon the world; it seems that spring will never come. Once dismissed as the ravings of a crazed hermit, the prophecies of Honorius seem at last to be coming true. The Ramusian Church is steadily extending its power over the continent of Normannia, its might beginning to rival that of the long-vanished Fimbrian Empire. But even in the ranks of the Church hierarchy, some are beginning to doubt the morality of their cause. And there are whisperings in the monastery-city of Charibon, of something terrible that stalks the cloisters at night.
In the east, the last Torunnan army stands at bay before the walls of its capital. In the west, King Abelyn strives to maintain control of an unruly and ravaged kingdom. And in the harbour of old Abrusio, the Gabrian Osprey lies docked at last, home from her long voyaging. Only a handful of shocked survivors remain of the proud expedition which set sail almost a year before, but they are not alone: something has come home with them from the uttermost west. Praise for The Monarchies of God series:
'A bold, strong new voice in fantasy' Robert Silverberg
'One of the best fantasy works for ages… tough, muscular realism ... Kearney paints the gore, the sex and the lust for power in vivid colour' SFX
About The Author Paul Kearney was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. He lived for some years in Copenhagen, then spent two years in America before returning to Britain in 1998. He and his wife and a Jack Russell terrier now live in a village near Cambridge.
As well as the first three books in The Monarchies of God saga, Hawkwood's Voyage, The Heretic Kings and The Iron Wars, Paul Kearney is the author of The Way to Babylon, Different Kingdom, and Riding the Unicorn, all published by Victor Gollancz.
Titles by Paul Kearney at Amazon.co.uk
Paul Kearney
The Iron Wars: The Monarchies of God
Pbk published March 2000 by Millenium at £6.99
ISBN: 1-85798-942-2
Book Three
It seemed that the whole world had been picked up and reconfigured... some dreadful engine has begun to turn in the hot darkness of its vitals and could not now be stopped, any more than the sun could be halted in its path.
Heresy and war stalk the continent of Normannia. In the east the great fortress of Onnann Dyke is about to be overthrown by the heathen Merduks, while in the west Hebrion's king lies in a coma, his capital in smouldering ruins... and two scheming women bicker over the throne. A new age is dawning. The Church has become a great temporal empire dedicated to the destruction of the heretic kings of Normannia. For the first time in four centuries the tercios of Fimbria, the old imperial power, are on the march. In the midst of this political and military maelstrom a battered carrack makes landfall in Hebrion. The explorer Richard Hawkwood has finally returned to the Monarchies of God, bearing tidings of a new continent in the uttermost west - and there is something terrible lurking in his ship's hold. Praise for The Monarchies of God series:
"Kearney paints the gore, the sex and the lust for power in vivid colour. " SFX
"Marvellously vivid." Locus
"A bold, strong new voice in fantasy. " Robert Silverberg
"Impressive for its human insights, its unusual take on the use of magic, and its find blending of historical elements with sheer invention. " Locus
"Forever exciting, this marvellous second volume makes even better reading than the first… destruction, religion, a great hero, war, excitement... What more can you people want?' Black Tears Paul Kearney was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. He lived for some years in Copenhagen before moving on to the United States with his wife. As well as the first two books in the acclaimed Monarchies of God saga - Hawkwood's Voyage and The Heretic Kings, he has written The Way to Babylon, A Different Kingdom and Riding the Unicorn, all published by Gollancz. 'One of the best fantasy works for ages' SFX
'Destruction, religion, a great hero, war, excitement… what more can you people want?' Black Tears
'Impressive for its human insights, its unusual take on the use of magic, and its fine blending of historical elements with sheer invention' Locus About The Author Paul Kearney was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. He lived for some years in Copenhagen, then spent two years in America before returning to Britain in 1998. He and his wife and a Jack Russell terrier now live in a village near Cambridge.
As well as the first three books in The Monarchies of God saga, Hawkwood's Voyage, The Heretic Kings and The Iron Wars, Paul Kearney is the author of The Way to Babylon, Different Kingdom, and Riding the Unicorn, all published by Victor Gollancz.
Titles by Paul Kearney at Amazon.co.uk
Katharine Kerr
Polar City Nightmare
Pbk published July 2000 by Gollancz at £9.99
ISBN: 0-57506-860-4
and Kate Daniel
The Republic: a human-run interstellar government caught between the Carli Confederation and the H'Allevae Coreward Alliance, trying to maintain its independence in the face of two huge galactic powers.
A political incident is brewing on Polar City, Hagar, which might cost the Republic its autonomy. A Carli artefact is missing along with a bureaucrat from the Confederation Embassy. And Yosef Mbaye, a troubled athlete from the successful Polar City Bears, is being blackmailed to carry something with him to the Galactic Series on Sarah, the capital planet of the Republic.
When Yosef refuses to let Bobbie Lacey help him find the blackmailer, and the blackmailer turns up dead, Bobbie can't leave it alone. Whatever Yosef is carrying could lose the Bears - and everyone else - a whole lot more than the Galactic series ... Polar City Nightmare is an unputdownable thriller set in a future at once familiar and alien, an intricate setting brought alive by the brilliant combined talents of Katharine Kerr and Kate Daniel
About The Author Katharine Kerr was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944 to a family which considered itself British-in-exile far more than American. In 1962, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and has lived there ever since. After leaving Stanford University she worked in a number of low-paying jobs while she read extensively in the fields of classical archaeology and literature, medieval and Dark Ages history, and modern fiction Eventually she met up with an old friend from school, Howard Kerr, who loved cats, books and baseball as much as she did, they were married in 1973. In 1979 a friend gave Katharine her first fantasy role-playing game. She became so intrigued with gaming and with the fantasy field that she began writing articles for gaming magazines, and for some time was a contributing editor to Dragon magazine, as well as devising gaming modules. Now, however, she is devoting herself exclusively to fiction, for the simple reason that there are only twenty-four hours in a day.
Titles by Katharine Kerr at Amazon.co.uk
Michael,P. Kube-McDowell
Issac Asimov's Robot City
Pbk published January 2000 by Ibooks at £9.99
ISBN: 0671-03893-1
Two novels by Michael P. Kube-McDowell and Michael McQuay
Beyond aurora awaits a brave new world of robots
A man without memory is stranded in a world-enveloping city filled with robots gone wild. At his side is a mysterious young woman who claims to know who he is but refuses to tell him. According to The Three Laws of Robotics, "A robot may not injure a human being," which narrows the suspects dramatically when the robots find a dead human body.
The man calls himself Derec; the woman is known as Katherine. Their real identities, along with that of the murder victim and the murderer, are just a few of the life-and-death mysteries the unlikely pair are forced to solve to survive on the fantastic streets of Isaac Asimov's Robot City.
The Late Isaac Asimov challenged a talented group of science fiction writers to resolve the conundrums he set for them in this complex robot mystery set early in the timeline of his robot and Foundation universes.
The late Michael McQuay began his writing career in 1975 while a production line worker at a factory. Before that he had worked at a variety of jobs, including musician, airplane mechanic, banker, retail story owner, bartender, Club Med salesman, and film pirate. Following the publication of his first novel, Lifekeeper, in 1980, McQuay published over 22 novels and short story collections in a variety of fields: science fiction, children's, horror, mainstream thriller, and adventure.
Cover and interior illustration by Paul Rivoche
You can share your thoughts about Isaac Asimov's Robot City in
the new ibooks virtual readers' group at www.ibooksinc.com.
About The Author Michael P. Kube-McDowell was raised in Camden, New Jersey. He attended Michigan State University as a National Merit Scholar, holds a master's degree in science education, and was honored for teaching excellence by the 1985 White House Commission on Presidential scholars. Kube-McDowell's stories have appeared in such magazines as Analog, Asimov's, Amazing, and Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as in various anthologies published in the U.S. and Europe. Three of his stories were adapted as episodes for the TV series Tales From the Darkside. He is the author of a highly praised future-history trilogy consisting of the novels Emprise, Enigma, and Empery.
Titles by Michael,P. Kube-McDowell at Amazon.co.uk
Roger Levy
Reckless Sleep
Published February 2000 by Gollancz at £16.99
and £10.99
ISBN: 0575068981
and 057506899X
Reckless Sleep presents an apocalyptic, high tech Future twisted by paranoia and false dreams. A future made for Far Warrior Jon Sciler.
After the disastrous failure of the first expedition to Dirangesept, the Far Warriors were sent to take over the planet. They were our last hope. Controlling autoid combat machines from orbit by remote links, the Warriors thought they were invulnerable. They were wrong. As thousands of autoids were destroyed by what appeared to be fabulously beautiful beasts the mental agony suffered by the Warriors tipped their mind over the edge. And now, years later, on an Earth close geological collapse, someone is killing the surviving Far Warriors
As ash from volcanic eruptions drifts in the streets of London and villages disappear overnight into fresh fault lines, the population seeks escape in the addictive gamezones of Virtual Reality. The companies who control the phantom zones stand to make billions if they can develop ever more perfect virtual environments and to do so they need men who have become attuned to the highest military grade virtual software; the Far Warriors. The testers need to be able to keep secrets. Secrets about the gamezones, secrets about what really happened on Dirangesept, secrets about what lies in VR, waiting to get out. Secrets to die for.
About The Author Roger Levy is a dentist who doesn’t use freaky future technology on his patient’s teeth. He lives in Muswell Hill with his wife and children
Titles by Roger Levy at Amazon.co.uk
Ken Macleod
Cosmonaut Keep
Published November 2000 by Orbit at £16.99
ISBN: 1-85723-986-5
Near-future political intrigue spirals around space opera on a truly epic scale in Cosmonaut Keep, the sensational new novel from the most exciting science fiction writer to have emerged in recent years.
After the Ural-Caspian Oil War, the Russians quit stalling. Their troops reached the Atlantic, their cosmonauts reached the asteroids, and now they are claiming first contact. Matt Cairns knows they are being economical with the truth. But even he doesn’t know what’s really out there.
Thousands of light-years from Earth, human colonists have learned to live among other intelligent species. For Gregor and his fellow students of marine biology, the arrival of an interstellar merchant ship sets their research on a new course - where an alien past encounters a human future, at the speed of light. Cosmonaut Keep is the first book in a new sequence that will become a landmark in science fiction. ‘He is writing revolutionary SF ... a nova has appeared in our sky’ Kim Stanley Robinson
‘If there is a last great British SF novel of the millennium this is it’ Guardian
‘This man is going to be a major writer’ Iain M. Banks
‘The wit and thrust are like a needle shower… a joyous tale’ Mail on Sunday
‘Intelligent, witty and politically challenging’ New Scientist
About The Author Ken Macleod graduated with a BSc in Zoology from Glasgow University in 1976. Following research in biomechanics at Brunei University, he worked in a variety of manual and clerical jobs whilst completing an M.Phil thesis. He previously worked as a computer analyst/programmer in Edinburgh, but is now a full-time writer. He is the author of four novels, two of which, The Star Fraction and The Cassini Division, were runners-up for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. His most recent novel, The Sky Road, was winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award for the best novel of 1999. Ken Macleod lives in West Lothian with his wife and children.
Titles by Ken Macleod at Amazon.co.uk
Wil McCarthy
Bloom
Pbk published May 2000 by Millenium at £6.99
ISBN: 1-85798-856-6
'By the time the Response teams began arriving, the bloom was
some ten metres across, and two metres high at the centre a fractal jagged bubble of rainbow fog, Class Two threaded structure almost certainly visible to those unfortunate to be standing within fecund radius when the fruiting bodies swelled and popped. Twenty deaths followed almost immediately …
In a chilling and very believable future BLOOM puts humankind against an enemy of its own creation, grown rampantly out of control…
In the late 21st century, man-made, self-replicating organisms called mycora - smaller than bacteria - mutate and sweep across the globe in a chain reaction so swift and deadly there is no time to do anything but flee from an Earth destroyed by the science created to sustain it.
Now the remnants of humanity, clinging to the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter, are about to face their greatest test. Mycora are incorporating gene sequences to elude human defences, perhaps even to thrive in the harsh environment of the outer system. The only way to counter this is to go to the diseased heart of the Mycosystem Earth.
How can the few surviving members of mankind hope to overcome something which, if it obeys the laws of physics, will overwhelm the cosmos? Reviews for Wil McCarthy
'Exceptionally good...a convincing look at the near future of nanotechnology' Vernor Vinge
'Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy spanning imagination and the solid scientific background to make it all work ' Connie Willis
'Wil McCarthy brings thought and insight to the realm of fastpaced, action science fiction...A bright light on the SF horizon… A terrifyingly vivid view of how technology can rocket out of control' David Brin
'Wil McCarthy makes ideas jump. Bloom grabs you from the very first scene and doesn't let go till the last page. It's irresistible' Walter Jon Williams
'Bloom is one of the most fast-paced and powerfully dark visions of nanotechnology gone awry since Greg Bear's Blood Music. McCarthy succeeds on many levels, combining a unique literary style with complex scientific speculation and political intrigue' Locus About The Author Wil McCarthy has been an engineer for Lockheed Martin Corporation since 1988, designing and testing booster guidance systems for use in orbital and interplanetary launches. He lives in Denver with his family. His writing has appeared in Analog, Interzone, Asimov's and Science Fiction Age. BLOOM is his fifth novel. He maintains a Website at: http://www.sff.net/people/wmccarth.html
Titles by Wil McCarthy at Amazon.co.uk
Wil McCarthy
The Collapsium
Pbk published September 2000 by Gollancz at £10.99
ISBN: 0-57506893-0
In the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three things form the backbone of civilisation. Wellstone: programmable matter of almost magical properties. Collapsium: a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, indispensable for the transmission of matter and information through the solar system. Rivalry: a bitter competition between Her Majesty's two most brilliant scientists.
Bruno de Towaji inventor of collapsium, wishes only to create an instrument that will probe the farthest reaches of spacetime. Marlon Sykes, backed by the Queendom's full faith, has engineered a ring of collapsium encircling the sun.
But when the Ring Collapsiter project attracts a murderous saboteur Bruno and Marlon must work together to save the Ring, civilisation and the sun itself.
Combining rigorous hard science with the lyrical beauty of Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time novels, Wil McCarthy takes us into a mythical realm of physics, court intrigue and stellar catastrophe. 'A galaxy-spanning imagination' Connie Willis
’Heinlein's knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke's thoughtfulness' Booklist
`McCarthy succeeds on many levels, combining a unique literary style with complex scientific speculation and political intrigue' Locus About The Author Wil McCarthy has been an engineer for Lockheed Martin Corporation since 1988, designing and testing booster guidance systems for use in orbital and interplanetary launches. He lives in Denver with his family. His writing has appeared in Analog, Interzone, Asimov's and Science Fiction Age. BLOOM is his fifth novel. He maintains a Website at: http://www.sff.net/people/wmccarth.html
Titles by Wil McCarthy at Amazon.co.uk
Jack McDevitt
Slow Lightning
Pbk published September 2000 by Voyager at £6.99
ISBN: 0-00-648396-8
First contact, last chance
We are alone in the universe. After 1,000 years of searching humankind believes there is simply nothing out there. Space is a magnificent, but sterile, wilderness. That's the received wisdom, anyway. But a new expedition investigating a mysteriously aborted mission 27 years earlier, is about to turn that wisdom on its head. 'Jack McDevitt is that splendid rarity a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second. In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, it seems to me that he is the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. If you've never read McDevitt before, you couldn't find a better book to start with than Slow Lightning, a nail-biting neo Gothic tale that blends mystery, horror, and a fascinating look at how first contact with an utterly alien species might happen. I simply couldn’t put it down -I was up until past midnight and Ioving every minute of it. Kim Brandywine is one of McDevitt 's most engaging characters, both real and appealing. Snatch this baby up, all right? You're going to love it even if you think you don't like science fiction. You might even want to drop me a thank-you note for the tip before racing out to your local bookstore to pick up the Jack McDevitt backlist' Stephen King About The Author Jack McDevitt is the multi-award winning author of
The Engines of God, Ancient Shorer and Eternity Road. He has served as an officer in the US Navy, taught English and literature and worked for the US Customs Service in North Dakota and Georgia.
Titles by Jack McDevitt at Amazon.co.uk
John Meaney
Paradox
Published June 2000 by Bantam at £17.99
ISBN: 0-593-04573-4
Centuries of self-imposed isolation have transformed Nulapeiron into a world unlike any other - a world of vast subterranean cities maintained by extraordinary organic technologies. For the majority of its peoples, however such wonders have little meaning. Denied their democratic rights and restricted to the impoverished lower levels, they are subjected to the brutal law of the Logic Lords and the Oracles, supra-human beings whose ability to truecast the future maintains the status quo.
But all this is about to change.
In a crowded marketplace a mysterious, beautiful woman is brutally cut down by a militia squad's graser fire. Amongst the horrified onlookers is young Tom Corcorigan. He recognizes her. Only the previous day she had presented him with a small, seemingly insignificant infocrystal. And only now, as the fire in the dying stranger's obsidian eyes fades, does he comprehend who - or what - she really was: a figure from legend, one of the fabled Pilots.
What Tom has still to discover is that his crystal holds the key to understanding mu-space, and so to freedom itself. He doesn't know it yet, but he has been given a destiny to fulfil - nothing less than the rewriting of
his future, and that of his world…
Spectacularly staged, thrillingly written and set in a visionary future, Paradox places John Meaney at the forefront of science fiction in this new century. Praise for To Hold Infinity
'John Meaney has rewired SF. Everything is different now' Stephen Baxter
'Brilliant… a tour de force of inventiveness, lyricism and pizzaz.' Ian Watson, Daily Telegraph 'Books of the Year’
'Ground-breakingily good.' SFX
'Daring and ambitious… a shocking first novel – in the best sense of the term.' Interzone
'Has all the authentic flash and dazzle of cutting-edge SF… glows with biological and nanotechnological wonders, strange weapons and surprising perspectives.' David Langford
'Excellent… does my heart good to see a new writer prepared to take as many risks and play with as many ideas as Meaney does.' Vector
'Ambitious and daring.’ Irish Times
About The Author John Meaney has a degree in physics and computer science, is a black belt in Shotokan karate and works in IT. He has been hooked on science fiction since the age of eight, and his short fiction has appeared in Interzone and in a number of anthologies. His debut novel, To Hold Infinity was published to great acclaim in 1998, shortlisted for the BSFA Award and subsequently selected as one of the Daily Telegraph’s ‘Books of the Year’. Paradox is John Meaney's second novel.
Titles by John Meaney at Amazon.co.uk
Linda Nagata
Vast
Published March 2000 by Gollancz at £16.99
ISBN: 0-57506-902-3
First Time In Hardback
Gradually, Lot became aware of a spot of darkness, a patch of emptiness stamped upon the starfield. He stared at it, until the his mind resolved it into the long; cylindrical silhouette of a Chenzeme courser. 'By the Unknown God,' he whispered.
In its blackness it seemed to be extinguishing the light of the stars, 'It's something isn't it?' Urban said. 'A Chenzeme ship, this close, and we're still alive.
Aboard Null Boundary, a giant starship thousands of years old, four survivors of an ancient alien war are making a desperate journey: Lot, son of a fiery prophet and carrier of an insidious virus that spreads religious mania among those it infects; Urban, Lot's boyhood friend from the city of Silk, and a man in search of challenge and adventure; Clemantine, cast adrift when her world was destroyed, and yearning for revenge; and Nikko, sometimes a living man, but always the ship's disembodied mind.
They are bound for unknown territory. Ahead of them loom vast, lightless clouds of dust and gas where stars are born, and where the alien Chenzeme are believed to live. Behind them a courser, one of the Chenzeme's lethal automated worships that have ravaged the living worlds of the galaxy's Orion arm for millions of years. Why are the Chenreme destroying everything they can? Null Boundary's crew must find out before humanity is wiped from the face of the universe.
And in their quest to learn about the Chenzeme, they must also explore the terrible truth of their own past, the meaning of revenge, and the price each one of them is willing to pay for survival 'Linda Nagata is at the vanguard of a new and brilliant generation of writers combining hard science with stirring adventure' David Brin
'Superb ultra-a-high-tech adventure. Nobody blends the landscape like Linda Nagata' Jack McDevitt
'One of the most satisfying SF novels of the decade' Wil McCarthy
'Highly recommended' Greg Bear
About The Author Linda Nagata is the author of Then Bohr Maker, a nanotech thriller that won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Her next two books, Tech-Heaven, and Deception Well, firmly established her reputation as a writer of cutting-edge SF. She maintains a website at
http://www.maui.net/~nagata/
Titles by Linda Nagata at Amazon.co.uk
Adam Nichols
The Songster
Pbk published April 2000 by Millenium at £5.99
ISBN: 1-85798-572-9
Book Two of the Whiteblade Saga
Forced out of the only home he has known with nothing but the clothes on his back, Ziftkin is alone in the wild mountains when he is assailed by a strange apparition. When he wakes, confused, on the point of starvation, he is clutching a bone flute that makes the most beautiful music. A gift from the Fey, the flute opens up a world of new horizons, a world of talking animals, a world in which for the first time Ziftkin is listened to, a world in which he has to face up to the potential of his gift for harm as well as good.
Ziftkin's rise to power culminates in a tumultuous battle of magics as the vengeful leader of the Brotherhood sets him against the notorious Elinor Whiteblade, rebel leader and reputed sorceress.
Only one of them will prevail... 'Adam Nichols is the best of the new British fantasy authors of the nineties' Locus About The Author Adam Nichols is a wanderer. He has lived and worked in the UK, Canada, China, Australia, Germany, the USA, Norway and Iceland. In recent years much of his time has been spent in the North European countries whose classic landscapes so characterise large areas of modern fantasy. He is currently living and working in Canada.
Titles by Adam Nichols at Amazon.co.uk
Paul Preuss
Arthur C.Clarke's Venus Prime Vol 2
Pbk published January 2000 by Ibooks at £9.99
ISBN: 0-671-03899-0
Introduction by Arthur C. Clarke
The second volume of the spectacular science fiction thriller evolving from the works of Arthur C. Clarke, grandmaster of science fiction and author of 2001: a space odyssey.
Her code name is Sparta. Her beauty veils a mysterious past and abilities of superhuman dimension - the product of advanced biotech engineering.
When a team of scientists is trapped in the gaseous inferno of Venus, Sparta must risk her Life to save them, unaware that her actions will help recover a mysterious artifact: irrefutable evidence of life on another planet.
As the secrets of the artifact are revealed, Sparta uncovers a mystery which may lead her to the truth of her own identity. This gripping saga brings together the genius of Arthur C. Clarke and the talents of distinguished science fiction writer Paul Preuss.
Cover art by Jim Burns, with a special section of computer-generated tech specs and blueprints of the spacecraft and hardware from Venus prime by Darrel Anderson. ‘A combination of mystery and science fiction almost reaching the level of Isaac Asimov’s classic Lije Baley-R. Daneel Olivaw novels.’ Chicago Sun Times About The Author Paul Preuss began his successful writing career after years of producing documentary and television films and writing screenplays. He is the author of thirteen novels, including Secret Passages and the near-future thrillers Core and Starfire. His non-fiction has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Besides writing, he has been a science consultant for several film companies. He lives near San Francisco, California.
Titles by Paul Preuss at Amazon.co.uk
Paul Preuss
Arthur C.Clarke's Venus Prime Vol 1
Pbk published January 2000 by Ibooks at £9.99
ISBN: 0671038885
Introduction by Arthur C. Clarke
A science fiction thriller evolving from the works of Arthur C. Clarke, grandmaster of science fiction and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Her code name is Sparta. Her beauty veils a mysterious past and abilities far surpassing those of a normal human. For she is more than human: Sparta is the first product of advanced biotech engineering. But now she is little more than a cipher to herself-crucial memories of the past three years are locked away in the dark recesses of her brain.
Who is she, really? Why is she here on Earth now? What had she been doing in space? What was her job at Venus Station, and what did a crippled space freighter called Star Queen have to do with her current condition? As Sparta desperately searches for answers, she realizes she must unlock the mystery of who she is before she can solve the greater mysteries of what she has done, what has been done to her, and why!
This tautly paced story brings together the genius of Arthur C. Clarke and the talents of distinguished science-fiction writer Paul Preuss, whose work has been described by The New York Times as ‘Lively, intelligent… hard-driving.’ Arthur C. Clarke is the world-renowned author of such science fiction classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey, for which he shared an Oscar nomination with director Stanley Kubrick, and its popular sequels, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: Final Odyssey; the highly acclaimed The Songs of Distant Earth; the bestselling collection of original short stories, The Sentinel; and over two dozen other books of fiction and non-fiction. He received the Marconi International Fellowship in 1982. He resides in Sri Lanka, where he continues to write and consult on issues of science, technology, and the future.
Cover art by Jim Burns, with a special section of computer-generated blueprints of the vehicles and robots from Venus Prime by Darrel Anderson. ‘A combination of mystery and science fiction almost reaching the level of Isaac Asimov’s classic Lije Baley-R. Daneel Olivaw novels.’ Chicago Sun Times About The Author Paul Preuss began his successful writing career after years of producing documentary and television films and writing screenplays. He is the author of thirteen novels, including Secret Passages and the near-future thrillers Core and Starfire. His non-fiction has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Besides writing, he has been a science consultant for several film companies. He lives near San Francisco, California.
Titles by Paul Preuss at Amazon.co.uk
Mickey Zucker ReichertSpirit Fox
Pbk published May 2000 by Millenium at £6.99
ISBN: 1-85798-925-2
and Jennifer Wingert
In a magic-laced land, the art of warfare is forbidden and it seems that peace is assured for all eternity. But even in peace, there is peril, and the arrival of a well-trained foreign army, complete with Mages who practise the forbidden sixth magic of destruction threatens extermination of an entire civilisation.
Kiarda was destined to be spirit-linked to a fox, sharing thought, emotion and even physical sensation, but when the cub was destroyed at the moment both it and Kiarda were being born, its spirit had nowhere to go but into the infant girl's own body.
And now, though all the dwellers of the Marchlands are at risk, the Mages have singled out for total annihilation the magic-gifted healers and the spirit-linked.
Targeted for destruction, what chance does Kiarda have?
About The Author Mickey Zucker Reichert has worked with Vietnam veterans and as a paediatrician. She keeps horses on a forty acre farm in Iowa, where she lives with her husband and three children. As well as the Renshai series, she is also the author, with Jennifer Wingert, of Spirit Fox.
Titles by Mickey Zucker Reichert at Amazon.co.uk
Alastair Reynolds
Revelation Space
Published March 2000 by Gollancz at £17.99
ISBN: 0-57506-876-0
Revelation Space is set to break the barriers established by previous SF novels and become the book everyone is talking about. This is a massive genre-breaking work, shaped by Alastair Reynolds's professional experience as an astro-physicist for the European Space Agency:
'I am confronted day-in and day-out with the sheer size of the cosmos. I wanted Revelation Space to have a sense that the size of the universe was not something to be skirted around, but which was an unavoidable fact of life that would actually shape the plot… I was also concerned to think about the plausibility of having any kind of intelligent aliens. The old Fermi paradox asks: if they're out there, why aren't they here? After all, the universe is apparently very old, and it would only take a fraction of our galaxy's age
for a single culture to colonise every single solar system.
Brimming with vast ideas, Revelation Space, sets a whole new standard of SF writing, with sentient oceans, intelligent neutron stars and a plot that uses the immensity of space. But most importantly it embarks on a mission to answer the biggest question of all: if there are aliens out there then why do they not contact us? Revelation Space: a quest for the secrets of the universe. Step into Infinity and join the ride of the century.
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something wiped out the Amarantin. Maybe it was pure bad luck that their star chose to flare just when they were on the verge of discovering space flight… or maybe luck had nothing to do with it.
For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld Resurgam, it's of little more than academic interest, even after the discovery of a long-hidden, almost perfect Amarantin city and a colossal statue of a winged Amarantin.
For brilliant but ruthless scientist Dan Sylveste, it's more than merely intellectual curiosity - and he will stop at nothing to get at the truth. Even if it costs him everything.
The Amarantin were wiped out for a reason. And danger is closer and greater than even Sylveste imagines…
Revelation Space is a huge, magnificent space opera that ranges across vast gulfs of time and space… towards the most terrifying of destinations. ‘A terrific treat. I was hooked from page one. Billion-year-gone alien wars, killer intelligences - and perhaps the most stunning and original alien artefact in modern science fiction - and all rendered with the authentic voice of a working scientist. Ferociously intelligent and imbued with a chilling logic - it may really be like this Out There’ Stephen Baxter
'Intensely compelling; darkly intelligent; hugely ambitious' Paul J. McAuley
About The Author Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St. Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. Since 1991 he has lived in the Netherlands, near Leiden, where he works as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency.
Alastair Reynolds is a regular contributor to Interzone and has been published in New Worlds. This is his first novel.
Titles by Alastair Reynolds at Amazon.co.uk
Adam Roberts
Salt
Pbk published July 2000 by Gollancz at £9.99
ISBN: 0-57506-897-3
Salt is classic SF by a debut writer.
Salt is a crystal compound of Sodium and Chlorine; faceted and transparent. Simple and pure. What life could there be without salt? It is known as God's diamond, by which we should be aware of the infinite variability of scale for the divine perspective. Every grain is a landscape, a world.
And us? We are fragile. We dissolve in immensity like salt water.
And after thirty-seven years of travel through the vastness of space we arrived on the planet Salt. And we took Heaven and Hell with us.
Told by two people, Petja and Barlei, Salt is the story of a planetary colonisation that slips into a tragedy of Biblical proportions. The two communities who went to Salt were united by the dream of a new beginning and, isolated in a landscape of cruel majesty, torn apart by ancient enmities. Salt is a novel of remarkable power, intense beauty and profound insight, In its evocation of an alien world it compares to nothing less than Dune.
‘A fascinating concept, deftly executed… Adam Roberts has got what it takes’ Peter F.Hamilton Titles by Adam Roberts at Amazon.co.uk
Orson Scott Card
Ender's Shadow
Pbk published August 2000 by Orbit at £5.99
ISBN: 1-85723-998-9
At Battle School, fighting is compulsory
With all the dazzling inventiveness, heart-stopping entertainment and storytelling genius of his classic, award-winning Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card has written a new science fiction masterpiece to stand alongside the genre’s greatest achievements.
Ender Wiggin was not the only young general trained to defend Earth from a terrifying alien threat. Many others had a part to play. But for one of them, it was to prove crucial.
No one knew his real name, but they called him Bean. His early life was a fight just to survive. Even living on the streets, however, his extraordinary talents did not escape the attention of the Battle School recruiters. For in him they recognised a master strategist. Someone who could become Ender's right hand. This is the story of the boy who became Ender's Shadow. 'The emotional punch is as powerful as ever. Excellent' SFX Praise for the Ender saga
'Every volume of the Ender saga comprises some of the most hauntingly brilliant writing of the decade' Interzone
'One of the most gripping, exciting science fiction novels of recent times' SFX
'Almost impossible to put down' Locus About The Author Orson Scott Card is one of the world’s best-loved authors. In addition to the Ender series, he is the author of the acclaimed Homecoming series and The Tales of Alvin Maker, as well as many other stand-alone novels. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina
Titles by Orson Scott Card at Amazon.co.uk
Neal Stephenson
Cryptonomicon
Pbk published May 2000 by Arrow at £7.99
ISBN: 0-09-941067-2
Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that have shaped the past century. Weaving together the cracking of the Axis codes during WWII and the quest to establish a free South East Asian 'data haven' for digital information in the present, Cryptonomicon explores themes of power, information, secrecy and war in the twentieth century in a gripping and page-turning thriller. 'Pynchon meets Gibson in the biggest novel of the season' Time Out
'The Gravity's Rainbow of the information age… an astonishing, monumental performance; and if the rumours of a sequel are true, I can hardly wait.' Independent
'Mixes history and fiction in the way that Don DeLillo did in Underworld. Stephenson's book is more successful than DeLillo's, and much funnier.' TLS 'Books Of The Year'
'What cyberculture needs right now is not another science-fiction novel but its first great historical novel, and Cryptonomicon is it' Village Voice
'Proves that [Stephenson] is the rarest of geniuses, capable of appreciating math, cultural traditions, free markets, computer programming and the human psyche... without ignoring the subtleties involved in any of them' New York Post About The Author Neal Town Stephenson is the author of Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Zodiac. Born on Halloween 1959 in Fort Meade, Maryland – home of the National Security Agency – he grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and Ames, Iowa, before attending college in Boston. Since 1984 he has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and has made a living out of writing novels and the occasional magazine article.
Titles by Neal Stephenson at Amazon.co.uk
Bruce Sterling
Distraction
Pbk published September 2000 by Millenium at £6.99
ISBN: 1-85798-928-7
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award
Sex, science and spin… it’s your future and welcome to it.
2044, and the US is coming apart at the seams. The people live nomadic lives fuelled by cheap transport and oven cheaper communications. The new cold war is with the Dutch and mostly fought over the Net. The notion of central government is almost meaningless.
This is your future, Oscar Valparaiso's too - or it would be if he wasn't only half human and could sort out his love life . . . 'Sterling, our former cyberpunk Svengali, is back with a bang with this uproarious, provocative, thoughtful, often hilarious, sometimes inspired medium-future deconstruction of politics, science, economics, and the American Dream' Kirkus
'Distraction is Sterling's best novel to date' Analog
'Sterling hacks the future, and an elegant hack it is… this is a very smart, very funny book' Locus
'The world must and will develop into what Sterling has predicted' Science Fiction Age Titles by Bruce Sterling at Amazon.co.uk
David Weber
The Honour of the Queen
Pbk published July 2000 by Earthlight at £5.99
ISBN: 0 7434 0823 3
The kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the ‘Republic’ of Haven – who consider war and conquest the natural state of affairs in the universe. The planet Grayson is in just the right strategic place to make a very good ally indeed, but Her Majesty’s Foreign Office overlooked one matter when they appointed Honor Harrington to carry the flag: women on Grayson are without rights or rank, and Honor’s presence will be an intolerable affront to every male on the planet.
The treatment Honor receives from the Graysonites becomes wearing over time, and she would withdraw if she could. But then the plant’s twin attacks without warning and she must stay and prevail – not simply for herself, but also for…
The Honor of the Queen 'The Honor of the Queen... is worth shouting about. It is the second of a series of a female Hornblower in space and this time she has to deal with allies who think women are less than equal. I want more!' Weekly Press (Philadelphia)
‘This is the first book in a new series, and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for more from author David Weber. Weber has created a Commanding Officer that I want to serve under...’ Terry Callendrillo, New York Harbor Watch
'In terms of space combat, I think David Weber may be the best writer around today... a top-notch read.' FosFax
'… here's a daring woman spaceship commander waiting to claim a place in readers' hearts.' School Library Journal
'Old-fashioned space opera is alive and well. David Weber's The Honor of the Queen continues the story of Honor Hanington ... a fully fleshed-out character. ... very exciting space opera battles…’ Science Fiction Age
'Star Wars as it might have been written by C.S. Forester... fast-paced entertainment' Booklist
'Fast-paced adventure... fun' Science Fiction Chronicle
'Entertaining space opera... with subtle humor... and a truly gripping final battle... for fans of space opera this new series is definitely one to check out' Locus Titles by David Weber at Amazon.co.uk
David Weber
On Basilisk Station
Pbk published June 2000 by Earthlight at £5.99
ISBN: 0-7434-0822-5
Introducing Honor Harrington
Commander Honor Harrington of the Royal Manticoran Navy has been exiled by a superior officer who she made look foolish. Now, she is in charge of an overage light cruiser patrolling a godforsaken quadrant, blamed by her crew for their exile. And the local system's aborigines smoke homicide-inducing hallucinogens.
Her troubles don't stop there - the local industry is smuggling, so the merchants’ cartel want her head when she starts investigating. And the ever-greedy 'Republic’ of Haven has plans of its own for the area. Harrington’s head is on the block…
On Basilisk Station is the first volume of a major space opera series, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the USA. Compared to C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels: it and its author are major names in the SF field. ‘This remarkable story [On Basilisk Station] will appeal to readers interested in warfare, science, and technology of the future or just in interpersonal relationships, an important part of the story. Gratifying, especially to female readers, is the total equality of the sexes!’ Kliatt
‘... there are fun characters and a truly gripping final battle... for fans of space opera this new series is definitely one to check out.' Carolyn Cushman, Locus Titles by David Weber at Amazon.co.uk
Robert Charles Wilson
Bios
Pbk published August 2000 by Millenium at £5.99
ISBN: 1-85798-737-3
It is the 22nd century Interstellar travel is possible, but colossally expensive, so humankind's efforts are focused on the only nearby Earth-like world. Isis is rich with plant and animal life, but every molecule of it is spectacularly toxic to humans. The whole planet is a permanent Hot Zone.
Zoe Fisher was born to explore Isis. Literally. She has been cloned and genetically engineered to face its terrors. But there are secrets implanted within her that not even she suspects - and the planet itself contain revelations that will change our understanding of life in the universe. Praise for Darwinia, winner of the SF Chronicle Award as Best SF Novel of 1998
‘A remarkable book, worthy of the highest honours. Don't miss it’ Locus
‘Rich, lucid and literate . . . Comparable to Philip K. Dick' Publishers Weekly Titles by Robert Charles Wilson at Amazon.co.uk
Jack Womack
Going, Going, Gone
Pbk published December 2000 by HarperCollins at £6.99
ISBN: 0-00-651105-8
New York, New York…
Walter Bullitt’s New York, 1968. Part-time U.S. government provocateur and full-time hepcat, Waiter isn’t keen on the assignment his employers ore trying to toss him - no need to mix with the Kennedys if you don’t have to. …So good, they made it twice
He also hopes the ghosts he’s been talking to lately are only a side-effect of the recreational drugs. Then two women from a different New York show up and tell him they aren’t. Now, Walter saw When Worlds Collide but he never thought he’d be starring in the road show, especially when one world is his and the other is invisible – at the moment.
Altered states, dodgy times, warped futures, weirder posts. It must be Jack Womack World. ‘Womack performs feats of brilliance on many levels. He succeeds in balancing blistering social commentary with shrewd literary experimentation’ Entertainment Weekly
‘His aim is utterly merciless, and the central strength of his arsenal is an ability to fracture the language of the late 20th Century into vicious shards that wound us in unexpected ways ... Womack knows his way around the compost of violence and death’ Vanity Fair
‘Womack, simply the coolest writer of his generation’ Northern Echo About The Author Jack Womack is the author of the widely acclaimed Random Acts of Senseless Violence. His short fiction has appeared in Omni as well as various anthologies, and his journalism has appeared in Spin. He lives in New York City.
Titles by Jack Womack at Amazon.co.uk
Janine Ellen Young
The Bridge
Pbk published November 2000 by Earthlight at £6.99
ISBN: 0 7434 04157
When the Ring aliens first thought to contact other worlds, they gave no consideration to the fact that other species might be constructed differently from them. Deep-space dwellers, more like large and complex bundles of genetic information than physical entities, they sent their probes off into the night hoping to build a bridge between their dark and beautiful society and others. Most probes vanished into the infinite ways of space, but one found Earth. And one was all it took to utterly disrupt life as we know it for all time. Because the Ring dwellers sent their information coded in the form of a virus, a virus that would prove deadly to ninety percent of humanity.
The society that rose from the rubble was one unlike any that had ever come before. Earth's survivors had visions, deep, dark, disturbing visions - some of building a vast, superphysical bridge between universes, others of navigational instructions. But no one had all of the Ring dwellers' information. And so the new, fragmented, half-mad society had to build the bridge of cooperation before they could embark on humanity's greatest-ever enterprise... The Bridge is a novel of vast scope yet deeply personal narrative. Comparable to Greg Bear and David Brin, Peter F. Hamilton and Stephen Baxter, it introduces a new, epic voice to the genre. 'An excellent novel, well-written and professional… with characters you care about. A whole cosmos beckons, but what dangers lurk before we cross over? The Bridge looks past our near horizon, boldly exploring wonders just beyond' David Brin, bestselling author of Startide Rising Titles by Janine Ellen Young at Amazon.co.uk
Brian Aldiss
White Mars
