Isaac ​Asimov's Inferno

Isaac Asimov - Robot ​Dreams
Robot ​Dreams collects 21 of Isaac Asimov's short stories spanning the body of his fiction from the 1940s to the 1980s----exploring not only the future of technology, but the future of humanity's maturity and growth.

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...

Larry Niven - Edward M. Lerner - Fate ​of Worlds
This ​is the fifth and last novel in Larry Niven's "Ringworld" series. This series began in 1970, with the publication of Ringworld, now, in conjunction with Edward M. Lerner, Niven brings the series to its conclusion. For decades, the spacefaring species of Known Space have battled over the largest artifact—and grandest prize—in the galaxy: the all-but-limitless resources and technology of the Ringworld, but without warning the Ringworld has vanished, leaving behind three rival war fleets. Something must justify the blood and treasure that have been spent. If the fallen civilization of the Ringworld can no longer be despoiled of its secrets, the nearby advanced, but pacifistic species known as "Puppeteers" will be forced to surrender theirs. Yet, the danger to the Puppeteers goes far beyond mere invasion fleets, the survival of their planet is at stake, plus political intrigue, deadly rivalries, risk and danger at every turn.

Mickey Zucker Reichert - Isaac ​Asimov's I, Robot - To Protect
_First ​in an all-new trilogy inspired by Isaac Asimov's legendary science fiction collection I, Robot._ 2035: Susan Calvin is beginning her residency at a Manhattan teaching hospital, where a select group of patients is receiving the latest in diagnostic advancements: tiny nanobots, injected into the spinal fluid, that can unlock and map the human mind. Soon, Susan begins to notice an ominous chain of events surrounding the patients. When she tries to alert her superiors, she is ignored by those who want to keep the project far from any scrutiny for the sake of their own agenda. But what no one knows is that the very technology to which they have given life is now under the control of those who seek to spread only death...

Philip K. Dick - A ​Scanner Darkly
Substance ​D - otherwise known as Death - is the most dangerous drug ever to find its way onto the black market. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, leading first to disorentation and then to complete and irreversible brain damage. Bob Arctor, undercover narcotics agent, is trying to find a lead to the source of supply, but to pass as an addict he must become a user, and soon, without knowing what is happening to him, he is as dependent as any of the addicts he is monitoring.

Alexander C. Irvine - Isaac ​Asimov's Have Robot, Will Travel
_From ​Alexander C. Irvine, the Locus Award-winning author of A Scattering of Jades, comes a thrilling new robot mystery set in the world of the late SF Grand Master and beloved author, Isaac Asimov._ Exiled to the colony Nova Levis, roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess have tried to make their best of their situation, after exposing an anti-robot conspiracy on Earth five years before that cost them their jobs and their freedom. But all that is about to change... A human has been murdered on Kopernik, a space station orbiting the Earth, and all the clues point toward a robot as the killer. But how can that be, when robots are programmed to never bring harm to humans? It's a familiar situation for Derec and Ariel-the sort of mystery that led to their current status as political pariahs. Still, not even an exiled robot expert can turn down an opportunity to add his expertise to the investigation, and before too long, Derec is on his way to Kopernik. Ariel, meanwhile, has a mystery of her own to unravel. With the help of old friends-and potentially new enemies-Derec searches for the identity of a killer, unaware that Ariel is walking directly into the center of the web of intrigue....

Mark W. Tiedemann - Isaac ​Asimov's Aurora
The ​Third Law of Robotics states that a robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws... In Mirage and Chimera, Mark W. Tiedemann explored the fear and hatred toward robots -- and their offworld owners -- held by the people of Earth, and the animosity toward Terrans expressed by all Spacers. Now, all the plot threads of Tiedemann's epic story come together in this exciting conclusion to the Isaac Asimov's Robot Mysteries cycle. After the diplomatic failures of the Spacer mission on Earth -- which began with the assassinations of key diplomats and politicians, and culminated with the uncovering of a vast plot to create cyborgs from terminally-handicapped human infants -- Ambassador Ariel Burgess and roboticist Derec Avery are recalled to their home planet, Aurora. Unfortunately, their situation only worsens when they arrive, as they become suspects in yet another murder -- one that, based on the evidence, could only have been committed by a non-human. On a world with a 20-to-1 robot-to-human population, is it possible a robot could have violated the Three Laws governing its behavior -- and if so, why? Or is something far more sinister at work...?

Mark W. Tiedemann - Isaac ​Asimov's Chimera
Coren ​Lanra is the head of security for DyNan Manual Industries. A former Special Service agent, he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy, or deception. Lanra's troubles begin when Nyom Looms, daughter of DyNan president Rega Looms, is murdered during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis. The question is, why? The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victim, but it has been deactivated, and Lanra is denied access to its memories. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, Lanra searches for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost.

Philip K. Dick - Ray Faraday Nelson - The ​Ganymede Takeover
First ​published, in paperback, in 1967, this is one of two novels Dick wrote in collaboration. Stylistically, it is typical Dick, but it lacks the gravity and conviction of most of his other novels. It's set in the 21st century when the Earth has been conquered by a race of alien, telepathic, wormlike creatures, one of whom, Mekkis, is attracted to the theories of the psychologist Rudolph Balkani. Although ostensibly a ``wik'' or worm-kisser (i.e., one who freely serves the Ganymedians), Balkani is a complex man whose allegiances and motives are not easily discerned; indeed, Mekkis's attraction to his ideas leads to the worms' undoing. Other characters include the musicologist Joan Hiashi, whom Balkani unsuccessfully pursues, and Percy X, the black revolutionary who represents the ony overt resistance to the worms. Characterizations are unusually weak for Dick, and the ultimate instrument of the alien downfall--Dr. Balkani's ``hell-machine,'' which distorts reality--cannot summon up in the reader the ontological confusion and terror that drives Dick's best work.

Larry Niven - A ​Hole in Space
The ​Perfect Crime: The invention of displacement booths produced one hell of a crime wave. If a man in, say, Hawaii could commit murder in, say, Chicago and be back in the time it would take him to visit the men's room, he would have a perfect alibi. And the police would have a problem. But that's only one of the problems found in Larry Niven's universe, in this collection of stories all about teleportation, deep space, black holes, artificial worlds and Louis Wu--our old friend from the "Known Space" cycle--Niven once again proves he's a master builder of fantastic worlds!

Alfred Bester - Starburst
Time, ​Space and the Future. Here is your passport into the fascinating world of science fiction...eleven dazzling, jet-propelled, rocket-paced tales of tomorrow by one of today's leading writers.

Karl Schroeder - Ashes ​of Candesce
A ​world of endless sky, with no land, no gravity: this is Virga. Beginning in the seminal science fiction novel _Sun of Suns_, the saga of this striking world has introduced us to the people of stubborn pride and resilience who have made Virga their home; but also, always lurking beyond the walls of the world, to the mysterious threat known only as Artificial Nature. In _The Sunless Countries_, history tutor Leal Hieronyma Maspeth became the first human in centuries to learn the true nature of this threat. Her reward was exile, but now, in _Ashes of Candesce_, Artificial Nature makes its final bid to destroy Virga, and it is up to Leal to unite the quarrelling clans of her world to fight the threat. _Ashes of Candesce_ brings together all the heroes of the Virga series, and draws the diverse threads of the previous storylines together into one climactic conflict. Blending steampunk styling with a far-future setting and meditations on the posthuman condition, _Ashes of Candesce_ mixes high adventure and cutting-edge ideas in a fitting climax to one of science fiction’s most innovative series.

Mickey Zucker Reichert - Isaac ​Asimov's I, Robot - To Obey
2. ​A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. _2036: Robotic technology has evolved into the realm of self-aware, sentient mechanical entities. But even as humanity contends with the consequences of its most brilliant creation, there are those who have their own designs for the robots: enslavement…or annihilation._ Susan Calvin is about to enter her second year as a psych resident at the Manhattan Hasbro teaching hospital when a violent crime strikes her very close to home. When she was young, Susan lost her mother in a terrible car wreck that also badly injured her father. She now believes the accident was an attempted murder by government powers who wanted her parents dead. Susan has always known that there was a faction of the U.S. government that wanted to hijack her father’s work for military use. Now, it seems that faction is back. As she struggles to overcome her pain and confusion as well as deal with her studies, Susan finds herself hunted by violent anti-tech vigilantes who would revert mankind to the dark ages—and at the same time watched very closely by extremists who want high-tech genocide. Somehow she must find a way to stop them both.

Mark W. Tiedemann - Isaac ​Asimov's Mirage
From ​a new and exciting talent, Mark W. Tiedemann, comes a fantastic new robot mystery set in the world of the late SF Grand Master and beloved author, Isaac Asimov. The First Law of Robotics states that a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human to come to harm. At a crucial conference uniting the Spacers, the Settlers, and representatives of Earth, Senator Clar Eliton of Earth and Senior Space Ambassador Galiel Humadros of Aurora are advocating the restoration of positronic robots on Earth, repudiating years of fear and resentment. It is a dangerous stance to take. As the Spacer delegates arrive on Earth, conspirators assassinate Sentor Eliton. Ambassador Humadros is cut down, too. Both are failed by their robot protectors. Special Agent Mia Daventri -- part of the security force assigned to protect Eliton -- is the only member of her team to survive the attack, and is rushed to the hospital. Derec Avery -- a survivor of the Robot City epic -- is called in to investigate what may have caused the robot bodyguards to fail at the most critical hour. But his inquiries are stone-walled, and an attempt is made on Mia's life. Derec and Mia join forces with Calvin Instititute attache Ariel Burgess to penetrate a vast conspiracy that sprawls across Terran, Spacer, and Settler worlds and threatens to bring all three to the brink of war.

Jack Finney - The ​Body Snatchers
Originally ​published in 1955 Jack Finney's sinister SF tale has outgrown the initial debate about whether it satirized Communism or the conformity of US society at the time, to become a classic of paranoia; an examination of our fear of 'the other'. Most people know the story from seeing THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, the classic 1978 remake (one of the few Hollwood remakes said to better than the original, made in 1956) starring Donald Sutherland. Here's your chance to read the original source; a story that has resonated with readers and viewers for more than 50 years.

Isaac Asimov - The ​Robots of Dawn
A ​puzzling case of roboticide sends New York Detective Elijah Baley on an intense search for a murderer. Armed with his own instincts, his quirky logic, and the immutable Three Laws of Robotics, Baley is determined to solve the case. But can anything prepare a simple Earthman for the psychological complexities of a world where a beautiful woman can easily have fallen in love with an all-too-human robot...?

Philip K. Dick - The ​Transmigration of Timothy Archer
Loosely ​based on the story of Bishop James Pike, Dick's last novel tells of an erudite man of the cloth whose faith is shaken by the suicides of his son and mistress, and then transformed by his bizarre quest for the identity of Christ.

Philip K. Dick - The ​World Jones Made
Floyd ​Jones is sullen, ungainly, and quite possibly mad, but in a very short time he will rise from telling fortunes at a mutant carnival to convulsing an entire planet. For although Jones has the power to see the future -- a power that makes his life a torment -- his real gift lies elsewhere: in his ability to make people dream again in a world where dreaming has been made illegal, even when the dream is indistinguishable from a nightmare. In Philip K. Dick's unsettling chronicle of the rise and fall of a postnuclear messiah, readers will find a novel that is as minutely realistic as it is prophetic. For along with its engineered mutants, hermaphroditic sex performers, and protoplasmic drifters from the stars, The World Jones Made gives us nothing less than a deadly accurate reading of our own hunger for belief.

Larry Niven - Jerry Pournelle - The ​Moat Around Murcheson's Eye
Humankind ​has spent years agonizing over the deadly threat posed by the only aliens they have ever encountered, the Moties. A race divided into distinct biological forms, each serving a different function. Now the Moties are isolated - until the empire is threatened. By the authors of "Footfall".

Karl Schroeder - Sun ​of Suns
It ​is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and "towns" that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity. Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He's come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago. His target is Admiral Chaison Fanning, head of the fleet of Slipstream, which conquered Hayden's nation of Aerie years ago. And the fact that Hayden's spent his adolescence living with pirates doesn't bode well for Fanning's chances . . .