Download or read book The Hard SF Renaissance written by David G. Hartwell and published by Tordotcom. This book was released on 2003-10-01 with total page 962 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major anthology of the "hard SF" subgenre-arguing that it's not only the genre's core, but also its future. Something exciting has been happening in modern science fiction. After decades of confusion, many of the field's best writers have been returning to the subgenre called, roughly, "hard SF"--science fiction focused on science and technology, often with strong adventure plots. Now, World Fantasy Award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present an immense, authoritative anthology that maps the development and modern-day resurgence of this form, argues for its special virtues and present preeminence-and entertains us with some spectacular storytelling along the way. Included are major stories by contemporary and classic names such as Poul Anderson, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Paul McAuley, Frederik Pohl, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, Charles Sheffield, Brian Stableford, Allen Steele, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, and Vernor Vinge. The Hard SF Renaissance is an anthology that SF readers will return to for years to come. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book The Hard SF Renaissance written by David G. Hartwell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-10 with total page 964 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An anthology celebrating hard science fiction presents a series of stories that emphasize science and technology, in a collection featuring such authors as Poul Anderson, Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, and Nancy Kress."--Worldcat.

Download or read book The Space Opera Renaissance written by David G. Hartwell and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-07-10 with total page 958 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best-ever anthology of one of science fiction's most vigorous subgenres

Download or read book The Ascent of Wonder written by David G. Hartwell and published by Orb Books. This book was released on 1997-08-15 with total page 992 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring more than sixty groundbreaking short stories by modern science fiction's most important and influential writers, The Ascent of Wonder offers a definitive and incisive exploration of the SF genre's visionary core. From Poe to Pohl, Wells to Wolfe, and Verne to Vinge, this hefty anthology fully charts the themes, trends, thoughts, and traditions that comprise the challenging yet rich literary form known as "hard SF."

Download or read book Year s Best SF 10 written by David G. Hartwell and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A banner year for speculative fiction has yielded a crop of superb short form SF. Now the very best to appear over the past twelve months has been amassed into one extraordinary volume by acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, offering bold visions of days to come that are bright, triumphant, breathtaking, and strikingly unique. Once more, celebrated masters of the field join with exciting new voices to sing of explorations and invasions, grand technological accomplishments, amazing flights into the unknown, horrors and miracles, and the human condition. Welcome to amazing worlds that could be -- and, perhaps, sooner than you have ever dared to imagine. New tales from: Gregory Benford Terry Bisson James Patrick Kelly Pamela Sargent Jack McDevitt Gene Wolfe and more

Download or read book Year s Best Fantasy 2 written by David G. Hartwell and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Undreamed-Of Wonders From The Farthest Reaches Of Imagination In this second volume of the previous year's finest short fantastic fiction, acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell showcases new works by stellar literary artists -- acknowledged masters of the genre and exceptionally talented newcomers alike. Astonishing worlds come alive in these pages -- realms of strange creatures and remarkable sorceries, as well as twisted shadow versions of our inhabited earthly plain. A bold and breathtaking compendium of tales -- including a new Earthsea story from the incomparable Ursula K. Le Guin -- Years's Best Fantasy 2 is the state-of-the-art of a unique and winning genre, offering unforgettable excursions into new realities wondrous, bizarre, enchanting...and terrifying.

Download or read book Redemption Ark written by Alastair Reynolds and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-05-25 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alastair Reynolds pushes the boundaries of science fiction and “confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance” (Publishers Weekly) in this novel in his Revelation Space universe. Late in the twenty-sixth century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors—alien killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons—and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own purposes—and the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether...

Download or read book Renaissance Faire written by Andre Norton and published by D A W Books, Incorporated. This book was released on 2005 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen original tales of magic and mayhem by fantasy's finest set in and around Renaissance Faires.

Download or read book Twenty First Century Science Fiction written by David G. Hartwell and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Publishers Weekly's Best Science Fiction Books of 2013 Twenty-First Century Science Fiction is an enormous anthology of short stories—close to 250,000 words—edited by two of the most prestigious and award-winning editors in the SF field and featuring recent stories from some of science fiction's greatest up-and-coming authors. David Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden have long been recognized as two of the most skilled and trusted arbiters of the field, but Twenty-First Century Science Fiction presents fans' first opportunities to see what their considerable talents come up with together, and also to get a unique perspective on what's coming next in the science fiction field. The anthology includes authors ranging from bestselling and established favorites to incandescent new talents including Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Catherynne M. Valente, John Scalzi, Jo Walton, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, and Peter Watts, and the stories selected include winners and nominees of all of the science fiction field's major awards. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book The Sword Sorcery Anthology written by Robert E Howard and published by Tachyon Publications. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blood will flow, heads will roll, dragons will soar, and the dead shall rise. Journey to ancient cities ruled by sinister mages, storm-tossed seas where monsters dwell, mysterious towers full of ancient secrets, and dark dungeons with untold treasures. From Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian to George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, join the legendary heroes and villains in nineteen epic adventures that are sure to bring out the barbarian in you. Anti-hero Elric infiltrates a band of mercenaries to match wits with a powerful sorcerer. With her trio of dragons, Daenerys Stormbringer makes a fool’s bargain with slave traders. A mage’s apprentice, the young Grey Mouser uses newfound power to battle an evil duke. Conan breaks into the Tower of the Elephant to steal a spectacular jewel with a dark secret. Despite her drunkard’s ways, Malmury slays an old sea troll before facing his powerful daughter.

Download or read book The New Space Opera 2 written by Gardner Dozois and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the most beloved names in science fiction spin all-new tales of interstellar adventure and wonder Neal Asher John Barnes Cory Doctorow John Kessel Jay Lake John Meaney Elizabeth Moon Garth Nix Mike Resnick Justina Robson Kristine Kathryn Rusch John Scalzi Bruce Sterling Peter Watts Sean Williams Tad Williams Bill Willingham Robert Charles Wilson John C. Wright

Download or read book Greg Egan written by Karen Burnham and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greg Egan (1961- ) publishes works that challenge readers with rigorous, deeply-informed scientific speculation. He unapologetically delves into mathematics, physics, and other disciplines in his prose, putting him in the vanguard of the hard science fiction renaissance of the 1990s. A working physicist and engineer, Karen Burnham is uniquely positioned to provide an in-depth study of Egan's science-heavy oeuvre. Her survey of the author's career covers novels like Permutation City and Schild's Ladder and the Hugo Award-winning novella "Oceanic," analyzing how Egan used cutting-edge scientific theory to explore ethical questions and the nature of humanity. As Burnham shows, Egan's collected works constitute a bold artistic statement: that narratives of science are equal to those of poetry and drama, and that science holds a place in the human condition as exalted as religion or art. The volume includes a rare interview with the famously press-shy Egan covering his works, themes, intellectual interests, and thought processes.

Download or read book Iain M Banks written by Paul Kincaid and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1987 publication of Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas helped trigger the British renaissance of radical hard science fiction and influenced a generation of New Space Opera masters. The thirteen SF novels that followed inspired an avid fandom and intense intellectual engagement while Banks's mainstream books vaulted him to the top of the Scottish literary scene. Paul Kincaid has written the first study of Iain M. Banks to explore the confluence of his SF and literary techniques and sensibilities. As Kincaid shows, the two powerful aspects of Banks's work flowed into each other, blurring a line that critics too often treat as clear-cut. Banks's gift for black humor and a honed skepticism regarding politics and religion found expression even as he orchestrated the vast, galaxy-spanning vistas in his novels of the Culture. In examining Banks's entire SF oeuvre, Kincaid unlocks the set of ideas Banks drew upon, ideas that spoke to an unusually varied readership that praised him as a visionary and reveled in the distinctive character of his works. Entertaining and broad in scope, Iain M. Banks offers new insights on one of the most admired figures in contemporary science fiction.

Download or read book Eifelheim written by Michael Flynn and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-10-17 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Carl Sagan meets Umberto Eco. . . . Bursting with pungent historical detail . . . this dense, provocative novel offers big rewards to patient readers.” —Entertainment Weekly The alien world of medieval Europe lives again, transformed by the physics of the future, by a winner of the Heinlein Award. Over the centuries, one small town in Germany has disappeared and never been resettled. Tom, a historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived. What’s so special about Eifelheim? Father Dietrich is the village priest of Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength but is still not nearby. Dietrich is an educated man, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact person between humanity and an alien race from a distant star, when their ship crashes in the nearby forest. It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of the plague. Tom and Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange destiny of tragedy and triumph in Eifelheim, the brilliant science fiction novel by Michael Flynn. “Heartbreaking. . . . Flynn masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and [alien] characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “Meticulously researched, intense, mesmerizing novel . . . for readers seeking thoughtful science fiction of the highest order.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Eifelheim may turn out to be the best science fiction novel this year.” —Orson Scott Card, Hugo Award–winning author of Ender’s Game

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction written by Edward James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-11-20 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Table of contents

Download or read book The Stars Are Also Fire written by Poul Anderson and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humans and their genetically altered descendants struggle to find their place in a universe controlled by a benevolent artificial intelligence in this brilliant classic of future speculation On a far-future Earth, a linked system of artificial intelligences called the cybercosm runs the planet and the universe far more efficiently than any flesh and blood ruler ever could, in essence rendering the human race obsolete. On the Earth’s moon, genetically engineered Lunarians carrying the DNA of Dagney Beynac—a descendant of the legendary Anton Guthrie, founder of the powerful and visionary Fireball Enterprises—struggle to preserve their lives, their freedom, and their satellite’s resources in the face of threats posed by encroaching humans and controlling machines. Over a span of five centuries, tensions have increased in the wake of the political and technological revolutions that reshaped their universe. And suddenly radical change is in the offing once more, as a secret kept hidden since the earliest days of Lunar colonization is about to be revealed—one that could effectively shut down the cybercosm and plunge the universe into chaos. Poul Anderson advances the worlds-shattering circumstances he so brilliantly introduced in Harvest of Stars, creating a vision of the future that is at once astonishing, provocative, and troubling. A true science fiction classic, The Stars Are Also Fire explores deep questions about the nature, complexity, and worth of humankind in an unforgettable novel considered by many to be Anderson’s masterpiece.

Download or read book Grimspace written by Ann Aguirre and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-02-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the carrier of a rare gene, Sirantha Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace-a talent which makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. Then a crash landing kills everyone on board, leaving Jax in a jail cell with no memory of the crash. But her fun's not over. A group of rogue fighters frees her...for a price: her help in overthrowing the established order.