Download or read book Brontomek written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-02-18 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The planet Arcadia was on the verge of economic collapse. Its human colony had been decimated by the strange Relay Effect; in the aftermath, still more colonists were leaving for other worlds. The Hetherington Organisation promised to change that. If the remaining colonists put themselves entirely in their hands for a five-year period, they would transform Arcadia into the most prosperous planet settled by mankind, while preserving its great natural beauty. It was an offer the Arcadians could not possibly refuse, for the alternative, after all, was an accelerating slide into poverty and, eventually, savagery. Only when the Hetherington Organisation's first cargo ships arrived, unloading a huge stream of brontomeks - huge robot agricultural machines, heavily armoured - and an army of amorphs, aliens who were capable of moulding themselves into human form, did the colony begin to realise what it had committed itself to. Brontomek! is a sequel to two earlier books, Syzygy and Mirror Image. Like it's predecessors it is an ingenious, adventurous tale of the type which has rapidly made Coney one of SF's foremost entertainers. Brontomek! won the 1977 BSFA award for best novel.
Download or read book Brontomek written by Michael G. Coney and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-02-18 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The planet Arcadia was on the verge of economic collapse. Its human colony had been decimated by the strange Relay Effect; in the aftermath, still more colonists were leaving for other worlds. The Hetherington Organisation promised to change that. If the remaining colonists put themselves entirely in their hands for a five-year period, they would transform Arcadia into the most prosperous planet settled by mankind, while preserving its great natural beauty. It was an offer the Arcadians could not possibly refuse, for the alternative, after all, was an accelerating slide into poverty and, eventually, savagery. Only when the Hetherington Organisation's first cargo ships arrived, unloading a huge stream of brontomeks - huge robot agricultural machines, heavily armoured - and an army of amorphs, aliens who were capable of moulding themselves into human form, did the colony begin to realise what it had committed itself to. Brontomek! is a sequel to two earlier books, Syzygy and Mirror Image. Like it's predecessors it is an ingenious, adventurous tale of the type which has rapidly made Coney one of SF's foremost entertainers. Brontomek! won the 1977 BSFA award for best novel.
Download or read book Michael G Coney SF Gateway Omnibus written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Greatrex Coney was a British-born author who spent the last three decades of his life in Canada - including 16 years in the British Colombia Forest Service. His early work carried a sense of Cold War-inspired paranoia, but his repertoire was wide and perhaps his best novel, HELLO SUMMER, GOODBYE, is a wistful story of adolescent love on a far-distant planet. The titles collected in this omnibus come from the fertile beginning of his career and include his debut novel MIRROR IMAGE, CHARISMA and the BSFA AWARD-winning BRONTOMEK!
Download or read book St James Guide to Science Fiction Writers written by Jay P. Pederson and published by Detroit, MI : St. James Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 1204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concise discussions of the lives and principal works of prominent science-fiction authors, written by subject experts.
Download or read book Solar Flares written by Andrew M. Butler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The politics of science fiction books, films and television in the 1970s.
Download or read book Twentieth century Science fiction Writers written by Curtis C. Smith and published by Saint James Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 960 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mirror Image written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-05-20 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If an alien creature can so perfectly imitate a human being that not only is it physically and mentally indistinguishable from a man but it actually believes itself to be one, what do you do with it? Is it human? This is the question which confronts Alex Stordahl, supervisor of the harsh planet Marilyn. Initially nobody had suspected anything unusual about the largely reptilian animal life. Then Stordahl discovered the amorphs - shapeless in their natural state, but possessing a unique defence mechanism: when closely approached by a possible aggressor, they could adopt the form least likely to be attacked by the creature. When it transpires that the creatures are harmless they are quickly absorbed into the colony to provide extra labour. The the ruthless owner of the development corporation arrives from Earth. He wants to test the amorphs, and brings with him a group of four brilliant, but totally egotistical men. And trouble soon starts...
Download or read book Syzygy written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-05-20 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once every fifty-two years Arcadia's six erratic moons come together in a constellation that plays havoc with the ecological balance of the planet. As a marine biologist at Riverside Research Centre, Mark Swindon is chiefly concerned about the effect of catastrophic tides on his precious fish pens. Then, without warning, a wave of seemingly motiveless violence sweeps through the normally sleepy colony - and Mark too feels himself drawn against his will into a mysterious cycle of death and rebirth.
Download or read book Friends Come in Boxes written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Conversationalist sat among the boxes, trying to interest the friends in history. "The Compulsory Transfer Act was passed in 2056," he was saying, "with the dual object of reducing the birthrate and preventing the wastage of valuable minds through death. It might fairly be said to have changed the face of civilisation." "I'll say!" rasped one of the friends. "If it wasn't for the Act, I'd have been in a physical body now, instead of being in this damned box!" "If it wasn't for the Act, you'd have been dead this last hundred and fifty years," pointed out the Conversationalist. "You've probably has four physical bodies by now, a total of one hundred and sixty years of active life. And just twenty years in a box. That's not bad!" The problem of immortality had been solved in the 21st century: when you reached forty, your brain was transferred to the head of a six-month-old infant. In that way, you obtained another forty years of life, until you could do it all over again. But nobody could have foreseen the dramatic manner in which the birthrate would fall - resulting in a growing waiting list for host bodies, and the creation of Friendship Boxes to house the brains of those who waited. The Friendship Boxes proliferated: a grumbling section of the community, a constant source of embarrassment to every politician...Until the day it all came to a head.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature written by Brian M. Stableford and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference tracks the development of speculative fiction influenced by the advancement of science and the idea of progress from the eighteenth century to the present day. The major authors and publications of the genre and significant subgenres are covered. Additionally there are entries on fields of science and technology which have been particularly prolific in provoking such speculation. The list of acronyms and abbreviations, the chronology covering the literature from the 1700s through the present, the introductory essay, and the dictionary entries provide science fiction novices and enthusiasts as well as serious writers and critics with a wonderful foundation for understanding the realm of science fiction literature. The extensive bibliography that includes books, journals, fanzines, and websites demonstrates that science fiction literature commands a massive following.
Download or read book King of the Scepter d Isle written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beautiful Dedo Nyneve's innocent tales of a land called Camelot have spawned a real-life cast determined to choose their own fates, yet each move draws them closer to catastrophe. And as the many happentracks of the universe narrow to a dangerous few, the actions of every sorcerer, man, and living creature will determine whether the great god Starquin lives or dies. For the first time in remembered history, humans and gnomes find themselves sharing the same Earth happentrack. But King Arthur has larger concerns as he watches the society he rules spiralling toward ultimate destruction. Little does he know that the evil Mogan Le Fay has been working her treacherous magic to split the happentracks wide open - a deadly betrayal that could spell the end of Camelot. With the ma possible futures swiftly shrinking to one last destiny too awful to contemplate, courageous Fang the gnome joins forces with Arthur and Nyneve to manipulate history in a final confrontation of wills and worlds. The last move is Fang's, as he unravels the strands of time to keep his clan from the brutal vision of Starquin's end.
Download or read book The Ultimate Jungle written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mankind will cease to exist at 6pm GMT on 28th March 3256". A computer prediction which threw the world into panic. What to do? Build a starship and take the chosen few to a new home in the stars. Or search for an alternative timestream where mankind goes on forever. Matt Helm is to captain the last space shuttle carrying passengers to the starship, but his irrepressible desire for Fern Angelus corrupts his sense of duty. He agrees to take part in her time experiments. Set against a background of passion and longing, Matt's uncanny success with mind projection meets unforseen complications. He projects his mind to a future Earth: a world of shallow, extensive seas, mutated trees growing in layers on each other's branches, and strangely evolved animals like snappersnouts, humpers and energy creatures. Matt's strange visions eventually meet reality when he discovers that the last load of passengers for the starship has been left behind; and he is one of them.
Download or read book Winter s Children written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2012-12-21 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The countryside is hundreds of feet deep in snow, and a small community is managing to exist in the bell-tower of a church, just above the snow level. For sustenance they make journeys to the shops of the village far below by tunnels. They also stay alive by hunting the ferocious and telepathic bear-like animals known as Pals. The individuals in the small group are brilliantly portrayed, in turn defeatist, boastful, querulous, selfish and generous. They are obsessive, they argue; but when danger threatens, as it often does, they immediately band together in their common fight for survival.
Download or read book Cat Karina written by Michael Coney and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On an earth inhabited by a cat-like race of women, one felina stands alone—from the award-winning author. “His tales have heart” (Strange Horizons). Few true humans remain on the future Earth, where caimen, shrugleggers, and felinas dominate. The peoples are descendents of crocodiles, alien races, and jaguars, and they are much different than the humans--they are products of genetic experiments, created to perform specific functions. Some work in the swampy lands, others are the strong burden-bearers, but none are as beautiful as the felines-- not even the humans. And no one is worthy enough to win over the most attractive felina, Karina. She is a rare beauty of great prowess, with a tempting sculpted physique that could lure anyone to her.
Download or read book The Girl With a Symphony in Her Fingers written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Call them the spare parts of people. They chose the risk - jail for convicted crimes or semi-freedom as someone's bonded servant for the same term. The price was that they were body insurance. If their master lost a leg or an internal organ, they would have to supply the missing part. That was the risk. Sagar used bondsmen in his other-world farm where he raised exotic alien pelts to sell to the rich. He had no thoughts on the bondsmen problem, pro or con. But when Carioca Jones, 3-V star, visited him he met her bonded companion, the lovely girl with the musical talent. It's dangerous to fall in love with a bondsmaiden. Doubly so when her mistress is in love with you. Triply so when it might set off the social explosion that had been smouldering beneath the delicately balanced surface of their post-cataclysmic Peninsula.
Download or read book The Hero of Downways written by Michael G. Coney and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2013-05-20 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once there was a Hero who confronted the dreaded Daggertooth and slew it. Unfortunately he was also slain by it - but the legend persisted. If it could be done once, then another Hero could be raised to do it again. Because the Daggertooth was dangerous to hibernating humanity. All people - all that anyone knew of - lived far underground in tunnels built for safety and hibernation. The Daggertooth was a mass killer - more so even than the hideous Oddlies, the outcasts of the darker tunnels. So this is the story of John-A, the "vatkid" who was trained to be a second Hero. And the story of "trukid" Shirl who taught John-A what to do. And Threesum, the Oddlies' leader, who scoffed at heroes. And the Elders who frowned at all the risky goings-on. This is the story of a mighty strange world and a mighty strange future...
