Book picks similar to
The Alien Condition by Stephen Goldin
short-stories
science-fiction
fiction
sci-fi
The Future of Work: Compulsory
NOT A BOOK - 2018
“My risk-assessment module predicts a 53 percent chance of a human-on-human massacre before the end of the contract.”A short story published in Wired.com magazine as part of a series "The Future of Work" on December 17, 2018.
Binti
Nnedi Okorafor - 2015
K. JemisinHer name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive.The Binti SeriesBook 1: BintiBook 2: Binti: HomeBook 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade
Enemy Mine
Barry B. Longyear - 1979
Enemy Mine--The Nebula and Hugo Award winner that inspired the 20th Century Fox motion picture starring Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett, Jr.The story of a man, incomplete in himself, taught to be a human by his sworn enemy, an alien being who leaves with the human its most important possession: its future.
The Crystal Spheres
David Brin - 1984
Instead of being late-comers -- might humanity have come upon the scene too early? This haunting tale was voted one of the "most beautiful of the eighties." Winner of the 1985 Hugo Award.
Time in Advance
William Tenn - 1956
A collection of four short stories by William Tenn, comprising 'Firewater', 'The Sickness', 'Time in Advance' and 'Winthrop was Stubborn'.
Stranger Things Happen
Kelly Link - 2001
The girl detective must go to the underworld to solve the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers. A librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses. A dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Two women named Louise begin a series of consecutive love affairs with a string of cellists. A newly married couple become participants in an apocalyptic beauty pageant. Sexy blond aliens invade New York City. A young girl learns how to make herself disappear.These eleven extraordinary stories are quirky, spooky, and smart. They all have happy endings. Every story contains a secret prize. Each story was written especially for you.Stories from Stranger Things Happen have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Award. Stranger Things Happen was a Salon Book of the Year, one of the Village Voice's 25 Favorite Books of 2001, and was nominated for the Firecracker Alternative Book Award.Contents:- Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1998)- Water Off a Black Dog's Back (1995)- The Specialist's Hat (1998)- Flying Lessons (1995)- Travels with the Snow Queen (1996/1997)- Vanishing Act (1996)- Survivor's Ball, or, The Donner Party (1998)- Shoe and Marriage (2000)- Most of My Friends Are Two-Thirds Water (2001)- Louise's Ghost (2001)- The Girl Detective (1999)Cover painting by Shelley Jackson
The Cybernetic Tea Shop
Meredith Katz - 2016
Her childhood in a migrant worker family has left her uncomfortable with lingering in any one place, so she sticks around just long enough to replenish her funds before she moves on, her only constant companion Joanie, a fierce, energetic Raise hummingbird.Sal is a fully autonomous robot, the creation of which was declared illegal ages earlier due to ethical concerns. She is older than the law, however, at best out of place in society and at worst hated. Her old master is long dead, but she continues to run the tea shop her master had owned, lost in memories of the past, slowly breaking down, and aiming to fulfill her master's dream for the shop.When Clara stops by Sal's shop for lunch, she doesn't expect to find a real robot there, let alone one who might need her help. But as they begin to spend time together and learn more about each other, they both start to wrestle with the concept of moving on…
Fountain of Age
Nancy Kress - 2012
In many of these stories gene sculpting is illegal yet commonplace and the effects range between slow catastrophe (“End Game”), cosmic (“First Rites”), and tragic (“Safeguard”). Then there’s the morning when Rochester disappears and Jenny has to rely on “The Kindness of Strangers.” There’s Jill, who is kidnapped by aliens and trying to learn the “Laws of Survival.” And there’s Hope, whose Grandma is regretting the world built “By Fools Like Me.”
Uncanny Magazine Issue 2: January/February 2015
Lynne M. ThomasAmal El-Mohtar - 2008
Featuring new fiction by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu), Sam J. Miller, Amal El-Mohtar, Richard Bowes, and Sunny Moraine, classic fiction by Ann Leckie, essays by Jim C. Hines, Erika McGillivray, Michi Trota, and Keidra Chaney, poetry by Isabel Yap, Mari Ness, and Rose Lemberg, interviews with Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) and Ann Leckie, by Deborah Stanish, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editoral by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. Contents:FictionThe Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History by Sam J. MillerFolding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken LiuLove Letters to Things Lost and Gained by Sunny MoraineAnyone With a Care for Their Image by Richard BowesPockets by Amal El–MohtarThe Nalendar by Ann LeckiePoetryAfter the Moon Princess Leaves by Isabel YapAfter the Dance by Mari Nessarchival testimony fragments / minersong by Rose LembergEditorialsThe Uncanny Valley by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian ThomasEssaysThank You, Again, Kickstarter Backers!The Politics of Comfort by Jim C. HinesAge of the Geek, Baby by Michi TrotaThe Evolution of Nerd Rock by Keidra ChaneyThe Future’s Been Here Since 1939: Female Fans, Cosplay, and Conventions by Erica McGillivrayInterviewsInterview: Hao Jingfang by Deborah Stanish, translated by Ken LiuInterview: Ann Leckie by Deborah Stanish
Earthmen Bearing Gifts
Fredric Brown - 1954
Something really and truly terrible is about to happen. Like, maybe the end of the world. Or worse!
Finna
Nino Cipri - 2020
Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but our two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.Can friendship blossom from the ashes of a relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.
Prayers to Broken Stones
Dan Simmons - 1990
An old-fashioned barbershop is the site of a medieval ritual of bloody terror.... During a post-apocalyptic Christmas celebration, a messenger from the South brings tidings of great horror.... From a ghostly Civil War battlefield to a combat theme park in Vietnam, from the omnipotent brain of an autistic boy to a shocking story of psychic vampires, journey into a world of fear and mystery, a chilling twilight zone of the mind.
K-Pax
Gene Brewer - 1995
One that looks human and exemplifies the ideal world he comes from, a world free from human nature's greed and cruelty. That creature would be "prot", as he calls himself, the newest patient at the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute.Prot seems to know more than he should about faster-than-the-speed-of-light-travel. And besides drawing constellations as viewed from K-PAX, the name of his home planet, "prot" can describe its orbit around double suns in unpublished detail. Who is "prot" and where did he really come from? Why does he have the ability to cure severe mental cases? And to disappear at will? And to charm everyone he comes into contact with?Bizarre delusion or reality? Listen in as a psychiatrist who specializes in delusional behavior documents his sessions with the man from K-PAX.(P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Hardfought
Greg Bear - 1983
Humans are engaged in a long war against an advanced alien race, the Senexi, but the possibility for peace may exist thanks to a young girl who learns the enemy's larger role and humanity's opportunity to evolve.