Download or read book Roadside Picnic written by Arkady Strugatsky and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a &“full empty,&” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel's publication in Russia.
Download or read book The Inhabited Island written by Arkady Strugatsky and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Maxim Kammerer, a young space explorer from twenty-second-century Earth, crash-lands on an uncharted world, he thinks of himself as a latter-day Robinson Crusoe. Eager to establish first contact with the planet's humanlike inhabitants, he finds himself increasingly entangled in their primitive way of life. After his experiences in their nightmarish military, criminal justice, and mental health systems, Maxim begins to realize that his sojourn on this radioactive and war-scarred world will not be a walk in the park. The Inhabited Island is one of the Strugatsky brothers' most popular and acclaimed novels, yet the only previous English-language edition (Prisoners of Power) was based on a version heavily censored by Soviet authorities. Now, in a sparkling new edition by award-winning translator Andrew Bromfield, this land-mark novel can be newly appreciated by both longtime Strugatsky fans and new explorers of the Russian science fiction masters' astonishingly rich body of work.
Download or read book Definitely Maybe written by Arkady Strugatsky and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its first-ever unexpurgated edition, a sci-fi landmark that's a comic and suspenseful tour-de-force, and puts distraction in a whole new light: It's not you, it's the universe! Boris and Arkady Strugatsky were the greatest science fiction writers of the Soviet era: their books were intellectually provocative and riotously funny, full of boldly imagined scenarios and veiled—but clear—social criticism. Which may be why Definitely Maybe has never before been available in an uncensored edition, let alone in English. It tells the story of astrophysicist Dmitri Malianov, who has sent his wife and son off to her mother’s house in Odessa so that he can work, free from distractions, on the project he’s sure will win him the Nobel Prize. But he’d have an easier time making progress if he wasn’t being interrupted all the time: First, it’s the unexpected delivery of a crate of vodka and caviar. Then a beautiful young woman in an unnervingly short skirt shows up at his door. Then several of his friends—also scientists—drop by, saying they all felt they were on the verge of a major discovery when they got . . . distracted . . . Is there an ominous force that doesn’t want knowledge to progress? Or could it be something more . . . natural? In this nail-bitingly suspenseful book, the Strugatsky brothers bravely and brilliantly question authority: an authority that starts with crates of vodka, but has lightning bolts in store for humans who refuse to be cowed.
Download or read book Hard to Be a God written by Arkady Strugatsky and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely known as the greatest Russian writers of science fiction, and their 1964 novel Hard to Be a God is considered one of the greatest of their works. It tells the story of Don Rumata, who is sent from Earth to the medieval kingdom of Arkanar with instructions to observe and to influence, but never to directly interfere. Masquerading as an arrogant nobleman, a dueler and a brawler, Don Rumata is never defeated but can never kill. With his doubt and compassion, and his deep love for a local girl named Kira, Rumata wants to save the kingdom from the machinations of Don Reba, the First Minister to the king. But given his orders, what role can he play? Hard to Be a God has inspired a computer role-playing game and two movies, including Aleksei German's long-awaited swan song. Yet until now the only English version (out of print for over thirty years) was based on a German translation, and was full of errors, infelicities, and misunderstandings. This new edition—translated by Olena Bormashenko, whose translation of the authors' Roadside Picnic has received widespread acclaim, and supplemented with a new foreword by Hari Kunzru and an afterword by Boris Strugatsky, both of which supply much-needed context—reintroduces one of the most profound Soviet-era novels to an eager audience.
Download or read book The Crimson Queen written by Alec Hutson and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-28 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long ago the world fell into twilight, when the great empires of old consumed each other in sorcerous cataclysms. In the south the Star Towers fell, swallowed by the sea, while the black glaciers descended upon the northern holdfasts, entombing the cities of Min-Ceruth in ice and sorcery. Then from the ancient empire of Menekar the paladins of Ama came, putting every surviving sorcerer to the sword and cleansing their taint from the land for the radiant glory of their lord. The pulse of magic slowed, fading like the heartbeat of a dying man. But after a thousand years it has begun to quicken again. In a small fishing village a boy with strange powers comes of age . . . A young queen rises in the west, fanning the long-smoldering embers of magic into a blaze once more . . . Something of great importance is stolen - or freed - from the mysterious Empire of Swords and Flowers . . . And the immortals who survived the ancient cataclysms bestir themselves, casting about for why the world is suddenly changing . . .
Download or read book Otherside Picnic Volume 5 written by Iori Miyazawa and published by J-Novel Club. This book was released on 2021-08-19 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having succeeded in their goal of spending a night on the Otherside, Sorawo and Toriko can now take their expeditions deeper. The two spend their days surrounded by the supernatural, going back and forth between their normal and abnormal daily lives. A chaotic love hotel girls' party in Shinjuku vanishes from Sorawo's memory. Toriko's university life and inner thoughts become clear. A mysterious lady lives in a mansion in the other world. As they search for clues as to the whereabouts of the missing man, Abarato, Hasshaku-sama appears before the pair once again. Otherside Picnic is back for its 5th volume!
Download or read book The President and the Frog written by Carolina De Robertis and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A "sublime and gripping novel ... about hope: that within the world's messy pain there is still room for transformation and healing" (Madeline Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Circe), from the acclaimed author of Cantoras. “In the president’s excruciating (and sometimes humorous) encounters with his strangely healing frog ... De Robertis daringly invites us to imagine a man’s Promethean struggle to wrest control of his broken psyche under the most dire circumstances possible.” —The New York Times Book Review At his modest home on the edge of town, the former president of an unnamed Latin American country receives a journalist in his famed gardens to discuss his legacy and the dire circumstances that threaten democracy around the globe. Once known as the Poorest President in the World, his reputation is the stuff of myth: a former guerilla who was jailed for inciting revolution before becoming the face of justice, human rights, and selflessness for his nation. Now, as he talks to the journalist, he wonders if he should reveal the strange secret of his imprisonment: while held in brutal solitary confinement, he survived, in part, by discussing revolution, the quest for dignity, and what it means to love a country, with the only creature who ever spoke back—a loud-mouth frog. As engrossing as it is innovative, vivid, moving, and full of wit and humor, The President and the Frog explores the resilience of the human spirit and what is possible when danger looms. Ferrying us between a grim jail cell and the president's lush gardens, the tale reaches beyond all borders and invites us to reimagine what it means to lead, to dare, and to dream.
Download or read book The Dead Mountaineer s Inn written by Arkady Strugatsky and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious spoof on the classic country-house murder mystery, from the Russian masters of sci-fi—never before translated When Inspector Peter Glebsky arrives at the remote ski chalet on vacation, the last thing he intends to do is get involved in any police work. He’s there to ski, drink brandy, and loaf around in blissful solitude. But he hadn’t counted on the other vacationers, an eccentric bunch including a famous hypnotist, a physicist with a penchant for gymnastic feats, a sulky teenager of indeterminate gender, and the mysterious Mr. and Mrs. Moses. And as the chalet fills up, strange things start happening—things that seem to indicate the presence of another, unseen guest. Is there a ghost on the premises? A prankster? Something more sinister? And then an avalanche blocks the mountain pass, and they’re stuck. Which is just about when they find the corpse. Meaning that Glebksy’s vacation is over and he’s embarked on the most unusual investigation he’s ever been involved with. In fact, the further he looks into it, the more Glebsky realizes that the victim may not even be human. In this late novel from the legendary Russian sci-fi duo—here in its first-ever English translation—the Strugatskys gleefully upend the plot of many a Hercule Poirot mystery—and the result is much funnier, and much stranger, than anything Agatha Christie ever wrote.
Download or read book Farewell Earth s Bliss written by D G Compton and published by Gateway. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On board an obsolete ship, nine weeks out from home, the latest batch of colonists arrive at their destination. A grim penal settlement in a wilderness worlds away from the homes they will never see again. TASMANIA? BOTANY BAY? No. For this is tomorrow, not yesterday. The dumping ground for social outcasts and political deportees is Mars, barren, unproductive, but invaluable as a convict settlement. What kind of welcome will the twenty-four deportees receive when the reception party from the Settlement reaches their stranded ship? And how will they survive in a primitive environment, an alien system?
Download or read book Burning Midnight written by Will McIntosh and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of The Maze Runner and The Fifth Wave, this debut YA novel from Hugo Award winner Will McIntosh pits four underprivileged teens against an evil billionaire in the race of a lifetime. No one knows where the brilliant-colored spheres came from. One day they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better: an inch taller, skilled at math, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the greater the improvement—and the more expensive the sphere. Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It doesn’t pay much—Alex Holliday’s stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers—but it helps him and his mom make the rent. When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. One day they find a Gold—a color no one has ever seen. There’s no question the Gold is priceless, but what does it actually do? None of them is aware of it yet, but the fate of the world rests on this little golden orb. Because all the world fights over the spheres, but no one knows where they come from, what their powers are, or why they’re here. PRAISE: “Burning Midnight is for (1) adrenaline junkies and gamers, (2) obsessive collectors, and (3) people who can’t get enough of crazy endings. I’m all of these things, and I loved it.” —Margaret Stohl, New York Times bestselling author of Black Widow: Forever Red and coauthor of the internationally bestselling Beautiful Creatures series
Download or read book Perihelion Summer written by Greg Egan and published by Tor.com. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greg Egan's Perihelion Summer is a story of people struggling to adapt to a suddenly alien environment, and the friendships and alliances they forge as they try to find their way in a world where the old maps have lost their meaning. Taraxippus is coming: a black hole one tenth the mass of the sun is about to enter the solar system. Matt and his friends are taking no chances. They board a mobile aquaculture rig, the Mandjet, self-sustaining in food, power and fresh water, and decide to sit out the encounter off-shore. As Taraxippus draws nearer, new observations throw the original predictions for its trajectory into doubt, and by the time it leaves the solar system, the conditions of life across the globe will be changed forever. Praise for Perihelion Summer “Egan here doubles down on climate change with his typically rigorous exploration of a cosmic accident’s effect on Earth and all its people. His characters are sharp and funny and their courageous response to the massive challenge they face works as a spur to cause us to think—why couldn’t we do as well with our own great challenge? This is what the best science fiction can do that no other genre can, and we need it now more than ever. Bravo!” — Kim Stanley Robinson At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book Lives of the Later Caesars written by Anthony Birley and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-02-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most controversial of all works to survive from ancient Rome, the Augustan History is our main source of information about the Roman emperors from 117 to 284 AD. Written in the late fourth century by an anonymous author, it is an enigmatic combination of truth, invention and humour. This volume contains the first half of the History, and includes biographies of every emperor from Hadrian to Heliogabalus - among them the godlike Marcus Antonius and his grotesquely corrupt son Commodus. The History contains many fictitious (but highly entertaining) anecdotes about the depravity of the emperors, as the author blends historical fact and faked documents to present our most complete - albeit unreliable - account of the later Roman Caesars.
Download or read book Rogue Moon written by Algis Budrys and published by Gollancz. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All his life, Al Barker has toyed with death. So when the US lunar programme needs a volunteer to penetrate a murderous labyrinth, alien to all human comprehension, Barker's the man to do it. But what is required of Barker is that he withstand the trauma of dying, not just once, but time and time and time again.
Download or read book Seaton s aunt written by Walter De La Mare and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walter de la Mare was a 20th century writer whose most famous work was actually a kid's book, which is ironic because most of his works consisted of psychological horror stories, most notably "Seaton's Aunt" and "Out of the Deep".
Download or read book The New B C Roadside Naturalist written by Richard Cannings and published by Greystone Books. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fascinating guide to the roadside ecology of the major highways in B.C., you'll discover a whole new dimension to taking a car trip. This new edition has been updated and expanded to cover northern British Columbia and southern Yukon, giving readers a unique perspective on the northern wildlife and vegetation. Southern travellers "may find that this journey will redefine what 'northern British Columbia' means to them, or even what 'north' means." Sidebars tell stories about various species, such as the huge, endangered sturgeon and the Great Basin spadefoot toad, which spends most of the year underground. Full-colour photographs and black-and-white drawings illustrate numerous plants and animals that make their homes along the roadsides of British Columbia, and maps show the route of each highway discussed. In addition, the book offers suggestions for where to stop and look for crayfish, enjoy a swim in summer, or have a picnic lunch during your travels. An appendix provides a brief field guide of tree silhouettes and hints for identifying trees and shrubs. Whether you're taking a day trip or a two-week holiday, your drive along the highways of B.C. will be enriched by the storehouse of information in this facinating and informative guide.
Download or read book The Ugly Swans written by Аркадий Стругацкий and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book User Not Found written by Felicity Fenton and published by . This book was released on 2018-12-06 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. Lyric Essay. Prompted by a sequence of discouraging internet encounters, Felicity Fenton attempts to free herself from the tendrils of an online world we know, but struggle to look away from. She evaluates the endless distractions of being tethered to her device and all that comes with it: email, spam, texting, taking pictures, and social media (aka "the walls"). In lyrical prose that swerves into dream-like mirage, hilarious thoughts, social observations, and unwavering sadness, USER NOT FOUND is a powerful essay that is all too relatable.
