The ​Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke - The ​Songs of Distant Earth
Just ​a few islands in a planetwide ocean, Thalassa was a veritable paradise-home to one of the small colonies founded centuries before by robot Mother Ships when the Sun had gone nova and mankind had fled Earth. Mesmerized by the beauty of Thalassa and overwhelmed by its vast resources, the colonists lived an idyllic existence, unaware of the monumental evolutionary event slowly taking place beneath their seas... Then the Magellan arrived in orbit carrying one million refugees from the last, mad days on Earth. And suddenly uncertainty and change had come to the placid paradise that was Thalassa.

Arthur C. Clarke - Arthur ​C. Clarke teljes Űrodisszeia univerzuma
Honnan ​származik az emberi értelem? Közreműködhetett-e idegen intelligencia a Homo sapiens kialakulásában? Megismétlődhetett-e az értelem magvainak elültetése más bolygókon is? Megismétlődhet-e a jövőben is? E kérdések foglalkoztatják Arthur C. Clarke-ot világhírű regényében, a 2001. Űrodisszeiában és folytatásaiban. Jelen kötetben egységes magyar terminológiával ellátva, a regények közti ellentmondások gyűjteményével és kronológiával kiegészítve nyújtjuk át az Olvasónak Clarke négy Űrodisszeiáját: a 2001-et, a 2010-et, a 2061-et és a 3001-et. Külön meglepetésként elhelyeztük a könyvben a magyarul mindezidáig kiadatlan 2001 elveszett világai című kötetet is, mely számos érdekesség mellett a 2001-ből hiányzó regényfejezeteket is tartalmazza.

Ursula K. Le Guin - The ​Lathe of Heaven
George ​Orr is a mild and unremarkable man who finds the world a less than pleasant place to live: seven billion people jostle for living space and food. But George dreams dreams which do in fact change reality - and he has no means of controlling this extraordinary power. Psychiatrist Dr William Haber offers to help. At first sceptical of George's powers, he comes to astonished belief. When he allows ambition to get the better of ethics, George finds himself caught up in a situation of alarming peril.

Arthur C. Clarke - Stephen Baxter - Napvihar
„Újabb ​fergeteges kaland, már alig vártuk.” − New York Times Book Rewiew „Azoknak, akik a fantasztikus regényekben is szeretik a jól megalapozott tudományt és a problémamegoldásra kész embereket.” − Publisher Weekly 2037. június 9. Bisesa Dutt, az ENSZ békefenntartó erőinek hadnagya felbukkan Londonban, öt évvel azután, hogy átzuhant egy párhuzamos világba. Csakhogy a Földön eközben mindössze egyetlen nap telt el, és látszólag senki nem tud arról a jelenségről, amely a bolygó körül darabjaira törte a téridőt. Aztán egy rekordméretű napkitörés szinte megbénítja az emberi civilizációt, és a csillagászok közlik, ez még csak előfutára volt a fenyegető igazi katasztrófának. Megakadályozható-e a világégés, különösen ha kiderül, hogy egy idegen értelem mozgatja a háttérből a szálakat? Az SF két élő klasszikusa tovább szövi lebilincselő meséjét az emberi faj újabb Odisszeiájáról, amelyben régről ismert, emlékezetes fordulatok váltogatják egymást kiszámíthatatlanul sorjázó, eredeti ötletekkel.

Dan Simmons - Hyperion ​(angol)
On ​the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits them all. On the eve of Armageddon with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope - and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable new science fiction epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man.

Dan Simmons - The ​Fall of Hyperion
Dan ​Simmons is a phenomenal talent. Since the triumphant publication of his first novel, the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man has demonstrated equal facility for writing horror; thoughtful, literary fiction; and a powerful, world-building science fiction in the best tradition of Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, and David Brin.

Dan Simmons - The ​Endymion Omnibus
The ​triumphant concluding novels to the Hyperion Quartet, together in one volume for the first time. ENDYMION Two hundred and seventy-four years after the fall of the WorldWeb in Fall of Hyperion, Raoul Endymion is sent on a quest. Retrieving Aenea from the Sphinx before the Church troops reach her is only the beginning. With help from a blue-skinned android named A. Bettik, Raoul and Aenea travel the river Tethys, pursued by Father Captain Frederico DeSoya, an influential warrior-priest and his troops. The shrike continues to make enigmatic appearances, and while many questions were raised in Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, still more are raised here. Raoul's quest will continue. THE RISE OF ENDYMION The time of reckoning has arrived. As a final genocidal Crusade threatens to enslave humanity forever, a new messiah has come of age. She is Aenea and she has undergone a strange apprenticeship to those known as the Others. Now her protector, Raul Endymion, one-time shepherd and convicted murderer, must help her deliver her startling message to her growing army of disciples. But first they must embark on a final spectacular mission to discover the underlying meaning of the universe itself. They have been followed on their journey by the mysterious Shrike--monster, angel, killing machine--who is about to reveal the long-held secret of its origin and purpose. And on the planet of Hyperion, where the story first began, the final revelation will be delivered--an apocalyptic message that unlocks the secrets of existence and the fate of humankind in the galaxy.

Iain M. Banks - The ​Player of Games
The ​Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game... a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.

Arthur C. Clarke - A ​város és a csillagok
A ​történelem tele van nagyszerű városokkal, de Diasparhoz egy sem fogható. Évmilliók óta zárkózik védelmező kupolája mögé, hogy elszigetelje magát a széthulló külvilág veszélyeitől. Valamikor olyan hatalommal rendelkezett, ami előtt még a csillagok is meghódoltak, de aztán − a legendák szerint − a bolygón kívülről érkező támadók visszaűzték az emberiség utolsó maradékát a város biztonságot nyújtó falai közé. Diaspar lakói örök életűek, de a halhatatlanságért nagy árat fizettek: sosem hagyhatják el tökéletesen szervezett, minden kényelemmel ellátott otthonukat. Ebbe a változatlanságba dermedt világba születik bele Alvin, a Kiválasztott, aki merőben más vágyakkal rendelkezik, mint a többi ember. Ő meg akarja tudni, mi van a város falain kívül. Mivel erre senkitől, még a Központi Komputertől sem kap választ, maga indul el rejtett föld alatti folyosókon, hogy utánajárjon a legendáknak, és megfejtse Diaspar elzárkózásának igazi titkát. A Clarke legjobb műveit csokorba gyűjtő sorozatunk második darabja örök érvényű, filozofikus mese az SF hőskorából, tele hihetetlen kalandokkal és technikai csodákkal. Az új kiadást mintegy keretbe foglalja a szerző magyarul először olvasható előszava, valamint a neves ausztrál írónak, Damien Brodericknek külön a mi kötetünk számára készített utószava. „Clarke legtökéletesebb műve.” − The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Galaktika Fantasztikus Könyvek sorozatban megjelent kiadás.

Douglas Adams - A ​lélek hosszú, sötét teadélutánja
Ő ​a világ első és egyben egyetlen holisztikus magánnyomozója, aki a maga érthetetlen módján fényt derít minden rejtélyre. Sőt, ha kell, napjában többször is megmenti a világot. Amikor a Heathrow repülőtér kettes terminálján az egyik utasfelvételi pult a tetőn át kilőtt a magasba, narancsszínű lángtengert hagyva maga mögött, a szokásos csoportok igyekeztek magukra vállalni a felelősséget. Először az IRA, aztán a PFSZ, majd a Gázművek. Még a Brit Nukleáris Üzemanyagok Gyára is gyorsan kiadott egy nyilatkozatot, miszerint tökéletesen urai a helyzetnek, hogy az ilyesminek egy a millióhoz az esélye, hogy szinte egyáltalán nem tapasztalható radioaktív szivárgás, és hogy a robbanás helyszínén remek kis pikniket lehet csapni a gyerekekkel, végül azonban beismerték, hogy abszolút semmi közük a történtekhez. Semmiféle racionális magyarázatot nem találtak a robbanásra – egyszerűen ráfogták, hogy Isten műve volt. Igen ám, gondolta Dirk Gently, de melyiké? És mi volt vele a célja? Miféle Isten téblábolna a Heathrow repülőtér kettes terminálján, hogy megpróbálja elérni a 15:37-es oslói járatot?

Arthur C. Clarke - The ​Space Trilogy - Islands of the Sky / Earthlight / The Sands of Mars
Islands ​in the Sky, first published in 1954, sees Roy Malcolm winning a trip to the Inner Station, a space station rotating 500 miles from Earth. The Sands of Mars, set in the 21st century, has a group of pioneers struggling to change the face of this inhospitable planet. In Earthlight, two centuries hence, man has colonised the planets and the inhabitants of the Moon owe no allegiance to any nation on Earth - or to Earth itself . . . This omnibus edition of three of Arthur C. Clarke's early novels shows the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey exploring space and time in adventurous and thoughtful ways.

Kurt Vonnegut - The ​Sirens of Titan
When ​Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spaceship into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum he is converted into pure energy and only materializes when his waveforms intercept Earth or some other planet. As a result, he only gets home to Newport, Rhode Island, once every fifty-nine days and then only for an hour. But at least, as a consolation, he now knows everything that has ever happened and everything that ever will be. He knows, for instance, that his wife is going to Mars to mate with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. He also knows that on Titan - one of Saturn's moons - is an alien from the planet Tralfamadore, who has been waiting 200,000 years for a spare part for his grounded spacecraft...

Arthur C. Clarke - The ​City and the Stars
Men ​had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shutout the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rules the stars. But then, as legend had it, The invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, A Unique to break through Diaspar's stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.

John Scalzi - The ​Human Division
Following ​the events of The Last Colony, John Scalzi tells the story of the fight to maintain the unity of the human race. The people of Earth now know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the dangerous universe around them. For generations the CU had defended humanity against hostile aliens, deliberately keeping Earth an ignorant backwater and a source of military recruits. Now the CU’s secrets are known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new alliance—an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they’ve invited the people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the choice isn't obvious or easy. Against such possibilities, managing the survival of the Colonial Union won’t be easy, either. It will take diplomatic finesse, political cunning…and a brilliant “B Team,” centered on the resourceful Lieutenant Harry Wilson, that can be deployed to deal with the unpredictable and unexpected things the universe throws at you when you’re struggling to preserve the unity of the human race. Being published online from January to April 2013 as a three-month digital serial, The Human Division will appear as a full-length novel of the Old Man’s War universe, plus—for the first time in print—the first tale of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, and a coda that wasn’t part of the digital serialization.

Isaac Asimov - The ​Caves of Steel
A ​millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the "R" stood for robot - and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!

Olaf Stapledon - Star ​Maker
One ​moment a man sits on a suburban hill, gazing curiously at the stars. The next, he is whirling through the firmament, and perhaps the most remarkable of all science fiction journeys has begun. Even Stapledon's other great work, LAST AND FIRST MEN, pales in ambition next to STAR MAKER, which presents nothing less than an entire imagined history of life in the universe, encompassing billions of years.

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.

Philip K. Dick - Do ​Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
World ​War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted...

Cormac McCarthy - The ​Road
Cormac ​McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work. McCarthy's Gnostic impressions of mankind have left very little place for love. In fact that greatest love affair in any of his novels, I would argue, occurs between the Billy Parham and the wolf in The Crossing. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else. McCarthy has always written about the battle between light and darkness; the darkness usually comprises 99.9% of the world, while any illumination is the weak shaft thrown by a penlight running low on batteries. In The Road, those batteries are almost out--the entire world is, quite literally, dying--so the final affirmation of hope in the novel's closing pages is all the more shocking and maybe all the more enduring as the boy takes all of his father's (and McCarthy's) rage at the hopeless folly of man and lays it down, lifting up, in its place, the oddest of all things: faith. --Dennis Lehane

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.