Venus on the Half-Shell


Book Description

Simon Wagstaff narrowly escapes the Deluge that destroys Earth when he happens upon an abandoned spaceship. A man without a planet, he gains immortality from an elixir drunk during an interlude with a cat-like alien queen. Now Simon must chart a 3,000-year course to the most distant corners of the multiverse, to seek out the answers to the questions no one can seem to answer.




LIFE Science Fiction


Book Description

Explore the rise of science fiction - the land of time machines, space travel, and lost worlds - and how we became so enraptured by the mystery, wonder, and thrill of a genre. Discover the historical inspiration, creative strategy, and the behind-the-scenes scoop of classics including Star Wars, ET, Jurassic Park and Avatar in an all-new special edition from LIFE, Science Fiction: 100 Years of Great Movies. Included in this special edition is a detailed chronicle of the 20 most iconic movies that helped forge a new identity for a new genre. Through its evolution over the years - beginning in 1902 with George Méliès's Le Voyage dans la Lune to most recent years in films such as Avatar (2009) and The Martian (2015) - Science Fiction has not only endured a changing landscape thanks to the invention of new technology, but has grown a passionate and devoted following. In this celebration of the most iconic Science Fiction films, adventure through the geniuses of Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, and George Lucas and delve into worlds of possibility and the future.




Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction


Book Description

Science fiction legend Jack Williamson's classic autobiography is much more than the story of a single man's life and work; it is an amazing look at the entire 20th century from the perspective of a man on a "long search for endurable compromise with society." Born in 1908, Williamson often felt at odds with the world around him and began writing science fiction as a method of escape. His tentative entrance into the field - his first story was published in 1928 in Hugo Gernsbach's legendary Amazing Stories - soon transformed him from a pulp writer into one of the Grand Masters of science fiction.




James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction


Book Description

This companion to the AMC’s mini-series features the full interviews plus essays by sci-fi insiders and rare concept art from Cameron’s archives. For the show, James Cameron personally interviewed six of the biggest names in science fiction filmmaking—Guillermo del Toro, George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ridley Scott, and Steven Spielberg—to get their perspectives on the importance of the genre. This book reproduces the interviews in full as the greatest minds in the genre discuss key topics including alien life, time travel, outer space, dark futures, monsters, and intelligent machines. An in-depth interview with Cameron is also featured, plus essays by experts in the science fiction field on the main themes covered in the show. Illustrated with rare and previously unseen concept art from Cameron’s personal archives, plus imagery from iconic sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books, James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction offers a sweeping examination of a genre that continues to ask questions, push limits, and thrill audiences around the world.




Project Hail Mary


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.




The Mote in God's Eye


Book Description

Science fiction-roman.




Man of Two Worlds:


Book Description

Before there was Superman or Batman, before Ray Bradbury or Harlan Ellison ever picked up a pen, before there were science-fiction fans and conventions, there was Julius Schwartz -- a man who would have an indelible effect on all this and more. One of the inventors of science-fiction fandom in the thirties and publisher of the first SF "fanzine" (one of its early subscribers was Superman's cocreator Jerry Siegel), Julius Schwartz became the world's first SF specialty literary agent while still in his teens. During the "Golden Age" of science fiction, he represented a distinguished roster of authors, including H. P. Lovecraft, Alfred Bester, Robert Bloch, and Ray Bradbury. But that was only the first chapter in Schwartzs amazing career, for he is also one of the most influential editors in comic-book history. Besides working on both the Superman and Batman character she created much of the mythology we now take for granted. Schwartz was also responsible for revitalizing nearly every important DC Comics character, highlighted by the mighty Justice League of America, in what has since become known as comics' beloved "Silver Age." Over more than forty years, Schwartz captained such blazing talents of the comics industry as Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, Alan Moore, and many others. Here, in "Julie's" own words, is a behind-the-scenes look at a life spent having fun and making sure readers did, too -- the incredible story of a true hero of American pop culture.




Damocles


Book Description

Loul Pell is a middle class government functionary resigned to the loss of his ambitious dreams. Meg Dupris is a traveler from a distant galaxy, haunted by tragedy and committed to a lifelong journey of discovery. Their chance meeting will be the first step toward life-changing history: contact with an extraterrestrial race.




Essays on Life Sciences, with Related Science Fiction Stories


Book Description

This collection of essays highlights, in a new, critical fashion, some of the classic questions in life science. These include “what is life?”; “what is death?”; “what is consciousness?”; “why is life cellular?”; and “why are enzymes macromolecules?”. It also explores whether evolution is pre-determined, whether science and spirituality can harmonize with each other, whether artificial intelligence is at odds with the human spirit, and whether, and to what extent, we are genetically determined. In this text, some of the main conceptual tools used to tackle life’s many aspects are necessarily reviewed, such as the systems view of life, the notion of contingency, and the concept of autopoiesis. Each of the three chapters of the book contains a number of short science fiction stories which discuss aspects of the present-day development of artificial intelligence.




The Science of Science Fiction


Book Description

We are the first generation to live in a science fiction world. Media headlines declare this the age of automation. The TV talks about the coming revolution of the robot, tweets tell tales of jets that will ferry travelers to the edge of space, and social media reports that the first human to live for a thousand years has already been born. The science we do, the movies we watch, and the culture we consume is the stuff of fiction that became fact, the future imagined in our past—the future we now inhabit. The Science of Science Fiction is the story of how science fiction shaped our world. No longer a subculture, science fiction has moved into the mainstream with the advent of the information age it helped realize. Explore how science fiction has driven science, with topics that include: Guardians of the Galaxy: Is Space Full of Extraterrestrials? Jacking In: Will the Future Be Like Ready Player One? Mad Max: Is Society Running down into Chaos? The Internet: Will Humans Tire of Mere Reality? Blade Runner 2049: When Will We Engineer Human Lookalikes? And many more! This book will open your eyes to the way science fiction helped us dream of things to come, forced us to explore the nature and limits of our own reality, and aided us in building the future we now inhabit.