Six Scifi Stories Volume One


Book Description

Welcome to six of the most amazing science fiction stories you'll ever read. This volume includes five full-length scifi e-book stories plus an exclusive bonus short story for one low price. In these pages, Star Trek and Doctor Who author Robert T. Jeschonek will take you on a tour of the wildest places and people you've never imagined. You've never met anyone quite like Luther Paraclete, the serial killer who brings murder to a peace-loving alien world...Dr. Hildegarde Medici, the mad scientist worshipped from afar by her assistant, Glugor...Smidgen the snack cake, a high tech pastry with murder in his ultrachocolatey heart...Nevada, the computer-generated sergeant-at-arms of the electronic House of Representatives of tomorrow...or Manny the Ration, an edible man who feeds more than empty stomachs in an alien landscape gone berserk. This volume includes the following six scifi stories: "The Greatest Serial Killer in the Universe": The alien Ectozoids can't bear to kill, and their enemies are out for blood. Who better than Earth's top serial killer to awaken their killer instincts? "The Love Quest of Smidgen the Snack Cake": Beware the snack cake from Hell! Junk food genius Smidgen meets the woman of his dreams at a twisted supermarket of the future. "Playing Doctor": Can a gnarly lab assistant find love with his smoking hot mad scientist boss? "Serial Killer vs. E-Merica": Virtual reality e-representatives form a more perfect union, until someone reaches into the computerized Congress and murders them one by one. "My Cannibal Lover": As Lupe and her men close in on their target on an alien world, the fugitive killer strikes back brutally. What will she do when her only chance for survival lies in eating the edible man she loves? "Zinzizinzizinzic": A violent alien invasion rages across the world, conquering the dominant force of life and power on Earth—the shadows.




Six Science Fiction Plays


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The road to science fiction. 6. Around the world


Book Description

In its first four volumes, this much-praised historical anthology series traced how the earliest forms of fantastic fiction developed into what is now known as science fiction. Volume Six looks at sci-fi in a dozen foreign countries and offers a rich variety of stories from around the world.




Robotics Through Science Fiction


Book Description

Six classic science fiction stories and commentary that illustrate and explain key algorithms or principles of artificial intelligence. This book presents six classic science fiction stories and commentary that illustrate and explain key algorithms or principles of artificial intelligence. Even though all the stories were originally published before 1973, they help readers grapple with two questions that stir debate even today: how are intelligent robots programmed? and what are the limits of autonomous robots? The stories—by Isaac Asimov, Vernor Vinge, Brian Aldiss, and Philip K. Dick—cover telepresence, behavior-based robotics, deliberation, testing, human-robot interaction, the “uncanny valley,” natural language understanding, machine learning, and ethics. Each story is preceded by an introductory note, “As You Read the Story,” and followed by a discussion of its implications, “After You Have Read the Story.” Together with the commentary, the stories offer a nontechnical introduction to robotics. The stories can also be considered as a set of—admittedly fanciful—case studies to be read in conjunction with more serious study. Contents “Stranger in Paradise” by Isaac Asimov, 1973 “Runaround” by Isaac Asimov, 1942 “Long Shot” by Vernor Vinge, 1972 “Catch That Rabbit” by Isaac Asimov, 1944 “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss, 1969 “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick, 1953




The Road to Science Fiction


Book Description

Now in paperback! Cloth edition previously published in 1979. Volume 2: From Wells to Heinlein, samples the science fiction from a wide variety of authors that paved the way for the Golden Age.




Pump Six and Other Stories


Book Description

Paolo Bacigalupi's debut collection demonstrates the power and reach of the science fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning, and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience. The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best Paolo's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the nebula and Hugo nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man."




Six Fantasy Stories Volume One


Book Description

Welcome to six of the most amazing fantasy stories you'll ever read. This volume includes five full-length fantasy e-book stories plus an exclusive bonus short story for one low price. The lineup includes the following fantastic tales: "Forced Retirement": What if Alzheimer's struck the World's Mightiest Hero? His daughter, heroic Hericane, finds out the hard way. Gripped by dementia, godlike Epitome tears apart a city, and no one can stop him. Will his madness destroy the entire world? Not if Hericane recruits the one big gun who stands a chance in Hell of stopping her father in his tracks. "Blazing Bodices": Hardcore adventurer Sir Algernon Hogshead takes down badass steampunks in Victorian London. But the case of a lifetime might just ruin his winning streak and his life. When his wife starts keeping mysterious secrets and bad company, Sir Hogshead craves a peek behind the velvet curtain. But he can't possibly break through the world of women...or can he? "Fear of Rain": Thanks to the sorcerous Mr. Flood, Johnstown, Pennsylvania has drowned three times...and the fourth time will be the charm. By the time he gets done flooding Johnstown, the city will vanish beneath the waves forever...unless his flood-making apprentice, Dee, has anything to say about it. "The Genie's Secret": A sexy genie held captive by a brutal master has no choice: she must obey his twisted wishes at all costs. When a federal agent with a flair for the supernatural comes to the rescue, the genie must obey her master's orders to capture and torture him. But the agent knows the genie's deepest secret, a passion so powerful it could free her forever from servitude. "Rose Head": In a world where everyone has a flower for a head, who can stop the serial killer called the Pruner? Enter Inspector Glisten, a hard-boiled, two-fisted, rose-headed cop who'll stop at nothing to cut down the Pruner. But when the trail leads to a seedy underworld he never imagined, Glisten gets in way over his rose-head. "The Duck Lover": In this special bonus story, which you won't find anywhere else, a duck fights to save the man she loves from the heartless woman who uses and abuses him. Will his broken heart drive him to destruction, or will the ducks' ultimate secret lead to his salvation in the most amazing journey of all time?




A Matter of Matter (Stories from the Golden Age)


Book Description

Chuck Lambert is taken advantage of by an unsavory real estate swindler of a galactic economy that sells unwary customers like him a planet where they can't sit down, because there's something the matter with its matter. But even though swindled, Chuck may just end up getting the last laugh....




The Space Between Worlds


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens the very fabric of the multiverse in this stunning debut, a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging. WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD • “Gorgeous writing, mind-bending world-building, razor-sharp social commentary, and a main character who demands your attention—and your allegiance.”—Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—NPR, Library Journal, Book Riot Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total. On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security. But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world but the entire multiverse. “Clever characters, surprise twists, plenty of action, and a plot that highlights social and racial inequities in astute prose.”—Library Journal (starred review)




The Dream Master


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