The ​Testimony

Iain Banks - The ​Bridge
The ​man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn't seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality. Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn't be much fun, you'd think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you've left behind. Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, _The Bridge_ is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities.

Koji Suzuki - Edge
_Edge_ ​begins with a massive and catastrophic shifting of the San Andreas fault. The fears of California someday tumbling into the sea--that have become the stuff of parody--become real. But even the terror resulting from this catastrophe pales in comparison to the understanding behind its happening, a cataclysm extending beyond mankind's understanding of horror as it had previously been known. The world is falling apart because things are out of joint at the quantum level, about which of course there's never been any guarantee that everything has to remain stable. Koji Suzuki returns to the genre he's most famous for after many years of "not wanting to write any more horror." As expected from Suzuki, the chills are of a more cerebral, psychological sort, arguably more unsettling and scary than the slice-and-dice gore fests that horror has become known in the U.S. Never content to simply do "Suzuki"--as it were--but rather push the envelope on what horror is in general and for which readers have come to know him, _Edge_ borders on being cutting-edge science fiction. The author himself terms this novel, which he has worked on for some years, a work of "quantum horror."

M. John Harrison - Empty ​Space: A Haunting
EMPTY ​SPACE is a space adventure. We begin with the following dream: An alien research tool the size of a brown dwarf star hangs in the middle of nowhere, as a result of an attempt to place it equidistant from everything else in every possible universe. Somewhere in the fractal labyrinth beneath its surface, a woman lies on an allotropic carbon deck, a white paste of nanomachines oozing from the corner of her mouth. She is neither conscious nor unconscious, dead nor alive. There is something wrong with her cheekbones. At first you think she is changing from one thing into another -- perhaps it's a cat, perhaps it's something that only looks like one -- then you see that she is actually trying to be both things at once. She is waiting for you, she has been waiting for you for perhaps 10,000 years. She comes from the past, she comes from the future. She is about to speak-- EMPTY SPACE is a sequel to LIGHT and NOVA SWING, three strands presented in alternating chapters which will work their way separately back to this image of frozen transformation.

Terry Pratchett - Strata
The ​Company builds planets. Kin Arad is a high-ranking official of the Company. After twenty-one decades of living, and with the help of memory surgery, she is at the top of her profession. Discovering two of her employees have placed a fossilized plesiosaur in the wrong stratum, not to mention the fact it is holding a placard which reads, 'End Nuclear Testing Now', doesn't dismay the woman who built a mountain range in the shape of her initials during her own high-spirited youth. But then came a discovery of something which _did_ intrigue Kin Arad. A flat earth was something new...

David Mitchell - Felhőatlasz
MINDEN ​ÖSSZEFÜGG Egy zaklatott életű ifjú zeneszerző az ihlet pillanatában ráérez az örökkévalóságra. Sorsszerű viszonyok, cinikus érzelmek és látnoki szerelmek motívumaiból hat történet rajzolódik ki, melyek mindegyike túlmutat önmagán – egy leírhatatlan harmónia felé. Ez az átkozottul tökéletes összhang szólal meg a Felhőatlasz olvasóiban. David Mitchell bravúros felépítésű, virtuóz nyelvezetű művében az összefonódó életek minden időbeli és térbeli határt átlépve hatnak egymásra. A lelkek korokon és kontinenseken át vándorolnak, akár az égbolton átvonuló felhők. De ki irányítja sorsunkat: mi magunk vagy valamilyen külső erő? Képesek vagyunk-e tanulni a múltból, az előző életekből, vagy az emberiség újra és újra elköveti ugyanazokat a hibákat? A regényből a Mátrix-trilógia és A parfüm rendezői forgattak vibrálóan szellemes filmet. „Az eddigi legmerészebb vállalkozás… egyedi teljesítmény egy rendkívül tehetséges és nagyratörő író tollából.” – Matt Thorne, Independent on Sunday „David Mitchell egy hullámvasútra csábítja olvasóit, akik először vonakodva szállnak fel, de miután belevágtak a kalandba, nem akarják, hogy véget érjen az út. Velem legalábbis ez történt.” – A.S. Byatt, Guardian „A jövőbe látás, az elmélkedés és a szórakoztatás ragyogó, elégikus egyvelege.” – Neel Mukherjee, The Times „A mód, ahogy Mitchell a Felhőatlasz történetét elmeséli, valósággal rabul ejtett.” – Lawrence Norfolk,

Ernest Cline - Ready ​Player One (angol)
At ​once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut - part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed. It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune - and remarkable power - to whoever can unlock them. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved - that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt - among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life - and love - in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

Hannu Rajaniemi - The ​Quantum Thief
Jean ​le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Michel Faber - A ​felszín alatt
Isserley, ​aki egy másik világból érkezett földünkre néhány társával, fáradhatatlanul járja Skócia útjait, "megfelelő" stopposokra vadászva. Faber lépésről lépésre bontja ki a jellemeket, a helyzetet, s mire teljes képet kapunk Isserleyről, már el is pusztult. A stopposok kidolgozott, tipikusnak nevezhető jellemek, pszichológiailag megalapozott önálló kis történetet képvisel mindegyik. A Felszín alatt nem igazán horror, nem igazán sci-fi, mégis mind a kettő. Örök irodalmi témát fejt ki: az emberi lét paradoxonját. Felveti a kérdést, mi is teszi igazán emberré az embert? Attól vagyunk emberek, hogy embernek nevezzük magunkat? Vagy attól, hogy le tudunk győzni más fajokat? Attól, hogy otthont teremtünk magunknak? Vagy attól, hogy a természet gyermekei maradunk? Esetleg attól, hogy kommunikálunk? Ezek alapján sem a földi emberek, sem a regényben szereplő idegen, magukat embernek nevező lények nem felelnek meg igazán az ember-képnek: egyik sem "emberebb" a másiknál. Az idegenek társadalma felsőbbrendűnek tartja magát, lenézi az embereket (akiket vodseleknek neveznek), ugyanakkor az ő társadalmuk a legszörnyűbb, legigazságtalanabb társadalmi berendezkedés.

Douglas Adams - Dirk ​Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
There ​is a long tradition of Great Detectives, and Dirk Gently does not belong to it. But his search for a missing cat uncovers a ghost, a time traveler, AND the devastating secret of humankind! Detective Gently's bill for saving the human race from extinction: NO CHARGE.

Arthur C. Clarke - The ​Ghost from the Grand Banks
It ​is 2010. In just two years' time it will be the centennial of an event that has haunted the world: the sinking of the Titanic. The remains of what was once the world's greatest ocean liner lie four kilometres down on the Grand Banks of the Atlantic Ocean, an endless reminder of the frailty of man's technology in the face of natural perils. But, a hundred years on, the urge to raise the wreck is irresistible. From the West comes one solution; from the East another. Both are marvels of technological imagination; both can succeed. But there are other powers at work, and the wreck on the Grand Banks may still hold a surprice or two for those who would return her to the eyes of the world...

Ismeretlen szerző - Circus
Introducing ​stories of circuses traditional and bizarre, futuristic and steeped in tradition, joyful and heart-breaking! And among the actors you will find old friends, be they sad clowns or free-spirited gymnasts, as well as new ones - mammoths, mechanical piano men, and things best not described at all. Come in, come all, and enjoy the literary show unfolding!

Rick Yancey - The ​Infinite Sea
The ​riveting follow-up to the New York Times bestselling The 5th Wave, hailed by Justin Cronin as “wildly entertaining.” How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity. Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race. Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

Amie Kaufman - Meagan Spooner - These ​Broken Stars
Lilac ​LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen never should have met. She’s the socialite daughter of the richest man in the galaxy, and he’s a decorated soldier fighting back rebellions on newly terraformed planets. But when the vast luxury spaceliner they’re both traveling on crashes, they find themselves thrown together as the two sole survivors on an unknown planet. As they survive harsh conditions and dwindling supplies—not to mention each other—the two begin to uncover a mystery surrounding the abandoned planet that neither of them could have guessed. The first in a trilogy, THESE BROKEN STARS sets into motion a series of timeless, standalone love stories that span galaxies—and are linked by their shared worlds and one mysterious enemy.

Robert J. Sawyer - Red ​Planet Blues
_Incorporating ​the Hugo & Nebula award–nominated novella “Identity Theft”_ The name’s Lomax—Alex Lomax. I’m the one and only private eye working the mean streets of New Klondike, the Martian frontier town that sprang up forty years ago after Simon Weingarten and Denny O’Reilly discovered fossils on the Red Planet. Back on Earth, where anything can be synthesized, the remains of alien life are the most valuable of all collectibles, so shiploads of desperate treasure hunters stampeded here in the Great Martian Fossil Rush. I’m trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest world, tracking down killers and kidnappers among the failed prospectors, the corrupt cops, and a growing population of transfers—lucky stiffs who, after striking paleontological gold, upload their minds into immortal android bodies. But when I uncover clues to solving the decades-old murders of Weingarten and O’Reilly, along with a journal that may lead to their legendary mother lode of Martian fossils, God only knows what I’ll dig up...

Arthur C. Clarke - The ​Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
The ​Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, (ISBN 0-575-07065-X), first published in 2001, is a collection of almost every science fiction story shorter than novel length that Arthur C. Clarke has ever published: more than 100 in all arranged in order of publication, from "Travel by Wire!" in 1937 through to "Improving the Neighbourhood" in 1999. The story "Improving The Neighbourhood" has the distinction of being the first fiction published in the journal Nature.

Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix ​Plus
Schismatrix ​Plus, is Bruce Sterling's new trade paperback. For the first time in one volume: every word Bruce Sterling has ever written on the Shapers-Mechanists Universe. In the last decade, Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction. Now Ace Books is proud to offer Sterling's stunning world of the Schismatrix--where Shaper revolutionaries struggle against aristocratic Mechanists for ultimate control of man's destiny. This volume includes the classic full-length novel, Schismatrix, plus thousands of words of mind-bending short fiction.

Douglas Adams - The ​Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - A Trilogy in Five Parts
First ​a legendary radio series, then a bestselling book, now a blockbusting movie, the immensely successful Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy needs no introduction. Reissued to coincide with the films release, this hardback omnibus edition include all five parts of the trilogy, incorporating for the first time, Mostly Harmless, along with a guide to the guide and essential notes on how to leave the planet. This single hardback edition is indispensable for any would-be galactic traveller and for old and new Douglas Adams fans everywhere.

George R. Stewart - Earth ​Abides
In ​this profound ecological fable, a mysterious plague has destroyed the vast majority of the human race. Isherwood Williams, one of the few survivors, returns from a wilderness field trip to discover that civilization has vanished during his absence. Eventually he returns to San Francisco and encounters a female survivor who becomes his wife. Around them and their children a small community develops, living like their pioneer ancestors, but rebuilding civilization is beyond their resources, and gradually they return to a simpler way of life.

Kate Wilhelm - Where ​Late the Sweet Birds Sang
The ​Sumner family can read the signs: the droughts and floods, the blighted crops, the shortages, the rampant diseases and plagues, and, above all, the increasing sterility all point to one thing. Their isolated farm in the Appalachian Mountains gives them the ideal place to survive the coming breakdown, and their wealth and know-how gives them the means. Men and women must clone themselves for humanity to survive. But what then?

Philip K. Dick - Roger Zelazny - Deus ​Irae
In ​the years following World War III, a new and powerful faith has arisen from a scorched and poisoned Earth, a faith that embraces the architect of world wide devastation. The Servants of Wrath have deified Carlton Lufteufel and re-christened him the Deus Irae. In the small community of Charlottesville, Utah, Tibor McMasters, born without arms or legs, has, through an array of prostheses, established a far-reaching reputation as an inspired painter. When the new church commissions a grand mural depicting the Deus Irae, it falls upon Tibor to make a treacherous journey to find the man, to find the god, and capture his terrible visage for posterity.