His talent is a gift and a curse that has earned him a place in the Castle Circle as Messenger to the Emperor San -- soaring high and free above the bloody battlefields of his world, carrying word back to his master of progress and regress in the ever-escalating conflict between man and the awful armies of giant, flesh-devouring insects.But while Jant's duty is to remain neutral in the petty squabbles and power plays of the fifty who will neither age nor die naturally, bitter rivalries that have festered for centuries now threaten to incite a savage civil war. And Jant may be the only being alive capable of stemming the onrushing tide of destruction and the unstoppable insect infestation. For only he can gain entrance -- through extreme doses of the narcotic that owns his soul -- into a place of darkest wonders and revelations; a strange and horrific alternate reality that none but Jant Comet believes exists.A literary triumph of the first water -- bold, stylish, and breathtakingly original -- Steph Swainston's The Year of Our War ascends like a rocket to the upper reaches of the imagination and loudly heralds the arrival of a true modern master of the fantastic.

    When industrialist Palmer Eldritch returns from an interstellar trip, he brings with him a new drug, Chew-Z. It is far more potent than Can-D, but threatens to plunge the world into a permanent state of drugged illusion controlled by the mysterious Eldritch.Cover illustration: Chris Moore

    He's doing the best work of his career and can guarantee that the system will be, without a question, the most counterintuitive, user-hostile piece of software ever pushed forth onto the world.Why? Because Art is an industrial saboteur. He may live in London and work for an EU telecommunications megacorp, but Art's real home is the Eastern Standard Tribe.Instant wireless communication puts everyone in touch with everyone else, twenty-four hours a day. But one thing hasn't changed: the need for sleep. The world is slowly splintering into Tribes held together by a common time zone, less than family and more than nations. Art is working to humiliate the Greenwich Mean Tribe to the benefit of his own people. But in a world without boundaries, nothing can be taken for granted-not happiness, not money, and most certainly not love.Which might explain why Art finds himself stranded on the roof of an insane asylum outside Boston, debating whether to push a pencil into his brain....

    Once he was outbound, where the Society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core, where the unimaginable energies of the Universe wrenched the fabric of time and space and promised final escape from his captors.Then he returned to an Earth eons older than the one he'd left...a planet that had had 3,000,000 years to develop perils he had never dreamed of -- perils that became nightmares that he had to escape...somehow!

    In the near future, when medical nanotechnology has made it possible to map a model of the living human brain, radical psychologist Natalie Armstrong sees her work suddenly become crucial to a cutting-edge military project for creating comprehensive mind-control. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Jude Westhorpe, FBI specialist, is tracking a cold war defector long involved in everything from gene sequencing to mind-mapping. But his investigation has begun to affect matters of national security-throwing Jude and Natalie together as partners in trouble-deep trouble from every direction. This fascinating novel explores the nature of humanity in the near future, when the power and potential of developing technologies demand that we adapt ourselves to their existence-whatever the price.

    As the Old Empire crumbles into barbarism throughout the million worlds of the galaxy, Hari Seldon and his band of psychologists must create a new entity, the Foundation-dedicated to art, science, and technology-as the beginning of a new empire. FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE describes the mighty struggle for power amid the chaos of the stars in which man stands at the threshold of a new enlightened life which could easily be destroyed by the old forces of barbarism. SECOND FOUNDATION follows the Seldon Plan after the First Empire's defeat and describes its greatest threat-a dangerous mutant strain gone wild, which produces a mind capable of bending men's wills, directing their thoughts, reshaping their desires, and destroying the universe.

    Lee and his crew travel to a distant planetary system with a habitable moon (named Coyote) with the dream of starting a colony free from governmental and social oppression.The trip lasts 226 years, but while everyone is in biostasis, one of the crew members is accidentally awakened. With his cell permanently deactivated by the ship's AI, communications officer Leslie Gillis is doomed to a solitary life (and death) aboard the starship. When the rest of the crew is eventually reawakened as the ship reaches its destination, what they find is extraordinary. Once the small colony is established on Coyote, they realize just how different their new world is from Earth. Exploration begins, and although a few colonists are killed by predators, the colony survives and even begins to thrive that is, until a strange comet appears in the sky.

    

    But, because the ship will accelerate to close to the speed of light, for those on board subjective time will slow and the journey will be of only a few years' duration.Then a buffeting by an interstellar dustcloud changes everything. The ship's deceleration system is damaged irreperably and soon she is gaining velocity. When she attains light-speed, tau zero itself, the disparity between ship-time and external time becomes almost impossibly great. Eons and galaxies hurtle by, and the crew of the Leonora Christine speeds into the unknown.

    One of the most acclaimed writers in the field, Zelazny's rare ability to mix fantastical dream imagery with the real-life hardware of science fiction has won him more than a score of Hugo and Nebula nominations. He creates characters who live to haunt the reader beyond the page and who inhabit worlds both enchanting and disturbing--dazzling and memorable.7 • Introduction (The Last Defender of Camelot) • essay by Robert Siverberg11 • Comes Now the Power • (1966) • short story by Roger Zelazny18 • For a Breath I Tarry • (1966) • novelette by Roger Zelazny65 • The Engine at Heartspring's Center • (1974) • short story by Roger Zelazny76 • Halfjack • (1979) • short story by Roger Zelazny83 • Home is the Hangman • [Nemo] • (1975) • novella by Roger Zelazny165 • Permafrost • (1986) • novelette by Roger Zelazny195 • LOKI 7281 • (1984) • short story by Roger Zelazny204 • Mana from Heaven • [Magic Goes Away] • (1983) • novelette by Roger Zelazny250 • 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1985) • novella by Roger Zelazny329 • Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love • [Kalifriki] • (1992) • novella by Roger Zelazny388 • The Last Defender of Camelot • (1979) • novelette by Roger Zelazny

    Dick AwardSamuil Petrovitch is a survivor.He survived the nuclear fallout in St. Petersburg and hid in the London Metrozone – the last city in England. He’s lived this long because he’s a man of rules and logic.For example, getting involved = a bad idea.But when he stumbles into a kidnapping in progress, he acts without even thinking. Before he can stop himself, he’s saved the daughter of the most dangerous man in London.And clearly saving the girl = getting involved.Now, the equation of Petrovitch’s life is looking increasingly complex.Russian mobsters + Yakuza + something called the New Machine Jihad = one dead Petrovitch.But Petrovitch has a plan – he always has a plan – he’s just not sure it’s a good one.

    But she's young and a little careless; she'd rather mix drinks and play jazz. Azamat Marcsson is a colorless statistician: middle-aged, boring, and obsessed with microorganisms. A first-class nonentity--until one of his Dreams implodes, taking Kalypso with it.Now Ganesh is crashing, and nothing could be worse. For on the planet T'nane, it is the AI alone that keeps the colonists alive, eking out a grim existence in an environment inimical to human life. To save the colony, Kalypso must persuade Marcsson to finish the Dream that is destroying Ganesh. But Marcsson has gone mad, and T'nane itself has plans for them both that will alter their minds--and their world--forever.

    As Riddley steps outside the confines of his small world, he finds himself caught up in intrigue and a frantic quest for power, desperately trying to make sense of things.

    controlling Mother Nature! THE WEATHERMAKERS is a novel about climate change--literally. By the award-winning hard SF author of the THE EXILES TRILOGY, the Watchmen series, and the Grand Tour series. Excerpt: "I want an explanation of what happened Friday night," Rossman said. "Simple," Ted said. "We proved that weather control works." "Don't say we," Marrett!" Rossman snapped. "It's you; keep your friends out of it." Rossman shuffled through his papers. "Do you know what this is? It's an estimate of the cost to the Department of that plane's flight over the ocean. "And this," he pulled out a paper, "is a formal complaint from the Air Force about unauthorized persons being involved in their highly secret laser operations. Unauthorized. That's you, Marrett!" Rossman glowered at Ted. "And do you realize that you ruined Dr. Barneveldt's experiment?" "When are you going to realize," Ted demanded, "that we proved we can change the weather! Are you going to open your eyes or stand there blocking the way?" Rossman nearly turned purple and snapped, "Marrett, I will not have people sneaking be hind my back. And I will not tolerate insubordination. I'll expect your resignation on my desk by the end of the day. You're finished, Marrett. Finished!"Ben Bova is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award and many other awards, including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year (2006, for Titan) and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. He is the former editor of Analog and Omni magazines, and the author of over a hundred books, both fiction and non-fiction. Bova has served as president of both Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. and the National Space Society. He lives in Florida.Don't let a little hurricane or two ruin your plans -- read THE WEATHERMAKERS today!

    But Geoffrey's family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey's grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked - well, blackmailed, really - to go up there and make sure the family's name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise - or anyone else in the family, for that matter - what he's about to unravel.Eunice's ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything.Or shatter this near-utopia into shards...