Because mankind has all but destroyed Earth's ecosystem, we are forced to find homes on new worlds. Seven colony ships have already been launched to new planets. Six of them have been colonized, and ship seven is still on the way to its new home world.We are the eighth colony ship to be launched from Earth toward another star system. In our case we're being sent to SAO 85632, some 94 light years from Earth. We launch tomorrow, Thursday, February 29, 2424, through a man-made directe...

Jack Phylbin and Ted Rankin begin an unexpected adventure when they go spelunking in an old water well on Jack's ranch that suddenly went dry.Their lives are forever changed.What they find when they enter the well, will affect them, and all of mankind, as some of what they discover is revealed to the world. The age-old question of "Are we alone?" is finally answered.But there are those who would use the discoveries for their own gain & power, and those who would kee...

Fredric Brown (1906-1972) is perhaps best remembered for his use of humor and his mastery of the "short-short" form (these days called flash fiction) -- stories of one to three pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. (He also wrote excellent short stories and novels.) This volume contains 27 of his stories, including the classics "The Waveries," "Honeymoon in Hell," "Cartoonist," and many more!Included are:THE WAVERIESOBEDIENCEALL G...

**The second novel from the "hottest science fiction writer in America" and New York Times–bestselling author of Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon ( Details).Meet Sangamon Taylor, a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil—all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places....

Gil “The Arm” Hamilton was one of the top operatives of ARM, the elite UN police force. His intuition was unfailingly accurate; his detective skills second to none; and his psychic powers—esper sense and telekinesis—were awesome.Tough and deadly, Gil Hamilton could reach right into a person's brain for the truth . . . or for the kill!Read all the stories of the legendary ARM operative, collected here in one volume for the very first time:• Organleggers aren't stoppi...

“A breath of fresh air . . . the vision is deeply imagined, very complete and controlled . . . Gibson is truly brilliant.”—Washington Times magazineFrom a true master of science fiction comes a cyberpunk collection of short stories that show how, no matter the length, Gibson is one of the greatest writers working today.Known for his seminal science fiction novel Neuromancer, and for the acclaimed books Pattern Recognit...

With hundreds of police officers lining the street across from the cemetery on one side, and 3,000 Hells Angels attending a funeral and a shooting at the same service inside the cemetery, the resulting traffic jam between the two sides made for an interesting Saturday afternoon on October 15, 2011.This essay IS NOT an account of the funeral for Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew and the subsequent shooting that took place inside the cemetery. This is about what happened outside the cemeter...

A thrilling tale of a futuristic space odyssey, with a stellar plot set in an intriguing time. The story begins when a young astrophysicist fi nds an anomaly in the solar system that could signal the beginning of the end of the world. Dr. Dia Vu is stricken with a brain aneurysm while in the process of trying to warn mankind of the impending disaster and is put into a cryogenic state to protect her until she can be treated and served. Her preservation allows her to be a part of the quest f...

It Eats Planets. And It's Here.It starts when Venus explodes into a brilliant cloud of dust and debris, showering Earth with radiation and bizarre particles that wipe out all the crops and half the life in the oceans, and fry the ozone layer. Days later, a few specks of moon rock kicked up from the last Apollo mission fall upon a lava crag in Scotland. That's all it takes . . .Suddenly, the ground itself begins melting into pools of dust that grow larger ev...

Here are 25 stories of science fiction that push the envelope, by the biggest names in an emerging new crop of high-tech futuristic SF - including Charles Stross, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton and Neal Asher. High-tech SF has made a significant comeback in the last decade, as bestselling authors successfully blend the super-science of 'hard science fiction' with real characters in an understandable scenario. It is perhaps a reflection of how technologically controlled our ...

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the fie...

Clandestine chemistry and the L.A. underworld provide the atmosphere for this tale of painful lost memories and the heartbreak of finding them.Eric Ashworth awakens in jail, unable to remember how he got there or why. His only memory is a woman’s name: Desiree.Bailed out and holed up in a low-rent motel, Eric finds the solution to his amnesia in a strange new hallucinogen. By synthesizing the sense of touch, the drug produces a disjointed series of sensations that slowly al...