Book picks similar to
The Stone That Never Came Down by John Brunner
science-fiction
sci-fi
sf
fiction
Cretaceous Sea
Will Hubbell - 2002
Now paleontologist Rick Clements and a select group of tourists have arrived—unfortunately, just in time to witness the meteor that once laid waste to earth 65,000,000 years ago.
Android at Arms
Andre Norton - 1971
Awaking from a mind-frozen state, Andas Kastor must discover if he is the rightful human Emperor of Inyanga or an evil android double.
The Heirs of Hammerfell
Marion Zimmer Bradley - 1989
Focusing on a devastating clan feud between two of these realms—Hammerfell and Storn—a feud which has seen the land soaked red with blood for countless generations. But now Storn has struck what may prove Hammerfell’s death stroke, setting the ancestral castle ablaze, slaying its lord, and sending its lady fleeing into the night with her twin infant sons, Alastair and Conn.Conn is separated from his mother and lost to her on that fateful night, but she and Alastair find sanctuary in Thendara City, among the wealthy and the laran-gifted, keeping the memory of Hammerfell alive with them in exile. Yet Conn, too, survives, rescued by a loyal servant and raised in secret among those who would see the might of Storn overthrown and the banner of Hammerfell flying proudly high once again.But it is not until Conn’s laran manifests that the fates of the twins are finally, inextricably linked in a pattern which could bring a new beginning or total ruin to Hammerfell and its heirs…
The Planet Buyer
Cordwainer Smith - 1964
There, Underpeople are slave humanoids genetically designed from animals. On Earth, Rod joins C'Mell and Underpeople to bring back freedom. Second half of "Norstrilia".
Interception / The New Space Race
Kevin George - 2011
has learned of the secret and begins to make plans for his own massive shelter, this one to be in the ocean depths instead of the heavens...The president exchanges information about the comet with Russia for help on the station and Russia plans for their own safe haven deep in the mountains...A new American leader emerges who does not seem to share the Inner Circle's passion for constructing the space station...Another country enters the race to build a space station unlike anything humankind has ever seen...
Some Will Not Die
Algis Budrys - 1961
Those who survived tried to maintain some sort of civilization...which meant more killing, as it turned out. But bit by bit, generation by generation, people began to succeed. With occasional setbacks.
Dawn for a Distant Earth
L.E. Modesitt Jr. - 1987
E. Modesitt, Jr's first major work was The Forever Hero trilogy of SF adventure novels published as paperback originals in the 1980s, of which Dawn for a Distant Earth was the first title in the series. Thousands of years in the future, Earth is a desolate ruin. The first human ship to return in millennia discovers an abandoned wasteland inhabited only by a few degenerate or mutated human outcasts. But among them is a boy of immense native intelligence and determination who is captured, taken in, and educated, and disappears--to grow up to become the force behind a plan to make Earth flower again. He is, if not immortal, at least very long-lived, and he plans to build an independent power base out in the galaxy and force the galactic empire to devote centuries and immense resources to the restoration of the ecology of Earth.
Cities in Flight
James Blish - 1970
Named after the migrant workers of America's Dust Bowl, these novels convey Blish's "history of the future," a brilliant and bleak look at a world where cities roam the Galaxy looking for work and a sustainable way of life.In the first novel, They Shall Have Stars, man has thoroughly explored the Solar System, yet the dream of going even further seems to have died in all but one man. His battle to realize his dream results in two momentous discoveries anti-gravity and the secret of immortality. In A Life for the Stars, it is centuries later and anti-gravity generations have enabled whole cities to lift off the surface of the earth to become galactic wanderers. In Earthman, Come Home, the nomadic cities revert to barbarism and marauding rogue cities begin to pose a threat to all civilized worlds. In the final novel, The Triumph of Time, history repeats itself as the cities once again journey back in to space making a terrifying discovery which could destroy the entire Universe. A serious and haunting vision of our world and its limits, Cities in Flight marks the return to print of one of science fiction's most inimitable writers.A Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club
Dying of the Light
George R.R. Martin - 1977
But Worlorn isn’t the world Dirk imagined, and Gwen Delvano is no longer the woman he once knew. She is bound to another man, and to a dying planet that is trapped in twilight. Gwen needs Dirk’s protection, and he will do anything to keep her safe, even if it means challenging the barbaric man who has claimed her. But an impenetrable veil of secrecy surrounds them all, and it’s becoming impossible for Dirk to distinguish between his allies and his enemies. In this dangerous triangle, one is hurtling toward escape, another toward revenge, and the last toward a brutal, untimely demise.
The Harvest
Robert Charles Wilson - 1992
Their ship had been in orbit around the earth for a year, but their only communication came one night via an enigmatic dream of immortality. And the next day everything was changed. Most of the world prepared to put away their earthly lives as children put away their toys. And the few who remained fully human began to know fear.In coastal Buchanan, Oregon, physician Matt Wheeler is one of only ten who said no to eternity. As he watches his friends, his colleagues, even his beloved daughter transform into something more—or less—than human, he finds that his concepts of life and death, good and evil, god and mortal must undergo a similar change if he is to retain his bittersweet hold on life.Others, however, find such introspection to be self-defeating—perhaps even treasonous. If we’ve been invaded by aliens, reasons Col. John Tyler, we’ve got to fight back. Even if they are in human form. And sifting through the remnants of the United States, he finds those who agree with him.And so, at the end of the world, it is like it was at the beginning. There are those who choose heaven, those who choose earth, and those who choose hell. And as these three groups move toward their fates, humanity finds itself on the bring of a destiny that may forever change the face of the universe itself.
Spares
Michael Marshall Smith - 1996
An eye for an eye, but some people are doing all the taking.Spares - the story of Jack Randall: burnt-out, dropped out, and with a zero credit rating at the luck bank. After five years lying low on a Spares farm, looking after inmates that can't even spell luck, he is finally faced with a chance at redemption....if he, and the spares, can run fast enough.Spares - a breathless race through strange, disturbing territories in a world all too close to our own.Spares - it's fiction. But only just...
Awakening
Jeremy Laszlo - 2013
But he never came back. With supplies running out and vital life support systems failing, Jack, Samantha, and Will have no choice but to ignore their father’s warnings and leave the vault. With no knowledge of what befell the world outside, or what they might expect once the door is opened, they find themselves in a world they do not recognize. Thrust into the remains of the world they remember, how will they survive on their own, not knowing what or who else remains amongst the ruins?
Hammered
Elizabeth Bear - 2004
Once she was somebody’s enemy. Now the former Canadian special forces warrior lives on the hellish streets of Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 2062. Racked with pain, hiding from the government she served, running with a crime lord so she can save a life or two, Jenny is a month shy of fifty, and her artificially reconstructed body has started to unravel. But she is far from forgotten. A government scientist needs the perfect subject for a high-stakes project and has Jenny in his sights. Suddenly Jenny Casey is a pawn in a furious battle, waged in the corridors of the Internet, on the streets of battered cities, and in the complex wirings of her half-man-made nervous system. And she needs to gain control of the game before a brave new future spins completely out of control.
High Justice
Jerry Pournelle - 1977
Here we see, with all the vivid detail for which Pournelle is known, the Fall of the West, and how in its death throes it gave birth to a society that would conquer the stars themselves, as real people battle desperate odds, both for their own survival and for something more - for High Justice.