Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 20. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Cyberiad (Polish: ) is a series of short stories by Stanisaw Lem. The Polish version was first published in 1967, with an English translation appearing in 1974. The main protagonists of the series are Trurl and Klapaucius, the "constructors." The vast majority of characters are either robots, or intelligent machines. The stories focus on problems of the individual and society, as well as on the vain search for human happiness through technological means. Two of these stories were included in the book The Mind's I. Trurl and Klapaucius are brilliant (robotic) engineers, called "constructors" (because they can construct practically anything at will), capable of almost God-like exploits. For instance, on one occasion Trurl creates an entity capable of extracting accurate information from the random motion of gas particles, which he calls a "Demon of the Second Kind." He describes the "Demon of the First Kind" as a Maxwell's demon. On another, the two constructors re-arrange stars near their home planet in order to advertise. The duo are best friends and rivals. When they are not busy constructing revolutionary mechanisms at home, they travel the universe, aiding those in need. Although the characters are firmly established as good and righteous, they take no shame in accepting handsome rewards for their services. If rewards were promised and not delivered, the constructors may even severely punish those who deceived them. The universe of The Cyberiad is pseudo-Medieval. There are kingdoms, knights, princesses, and even dragons in abundance. Robots are usually anthropomorphic, to the point of being divided into sexes. Love and marriage are possibl...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=59380

    There, among an assortment of literary rarities, he discovers a manuscript in verse, an Ace Double Novel, and a scattering of very old cigarette butts. These commonplace objects serve as catalysts for an extraordinary - and unpredictable - adventure.Without warning, Blanzac finds himself traversing a "circle of discontinuity" that leads from the present day to the San Francisco of 1957. Caught up in that circle are an ancient Sumerian deity, a forgotten Beat-era poet named Sophie Greenwald, and an apocalyptic cult in search of the key to absolute nonexistence. With unobtrusive artistry, Powers weaves these elements into something strange and utterly compelling. The resulting story is at once a romance, a thriller, and the kind of intricately constructed time travel story that only the author of The Anubis Gates - that quintessential time travel classic - could have written. Ingenious, affecting, and endlessly inventive, Salvage and Demolition is a compact gem from the pen of a modern master, a man whose singular creations never fail to dazzle and delight.

     Meet the Blackjacks, a renegade mercenary group led by Jacques ‘Jack’ Noire. When they take a job to deliver state-of-the-art terraforming components to one of the outer stations, they realize the simple delivery mission isn’t so simple.The components are really a weapon and someone wants them dead. Now, with bounties on their heads, and Conglom Industrial hunting them, Jack and his crew must pilot his sentient ship, the Warlock, through some of the most dangerous parts of space. Outgunned and outnumbered, Jack has one secret weapon his enemies didn’t count on-magic. Jump onboard the Warlock and into a deep space adventure with the Blackjacks, as they face off against overwhelming odds and discover that when it looks too good to be true…it usually is!

    Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.Amor Towles’s You Have Arrived at Your Destination is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house—unless human ingenuity isn’t entirely a thing of the past.Andy Weir’s Randomize is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    The senders, calling themselves the Ankor, claim a colossal gamma ray burst from a supernova will engulf the Earth in less than a year, sterilising all life. But they provide no proof … only demands that all countries must prepare to build an enormous shield in orbit around the Earth. Francis MacKenzie, industrialist and private owner of the UK’s only satellite launch facility, says there’s no alternative but to accept the Ankor position and mobilise immediately. Tim Boston is not convinced the Ankor can be trusted but as a divisional head in MacKenzie’s flagship bioengineering company, he won’t risk biting the hand that feeds him. Samantha Turner may do though, despite her ongoing commitment to Tim not to cause trouble. Scroll Up And Buy It Today

    A soldier and a pilot are tasked to deliver a package. A messenger and a refugee decide to work together on a dying alien planet. A love letter is lost that could be the key to a new future. A dark comedy about the messages we carry in our bones.

    It is the responsibility of the Xenocriminology and Alien Relations department of the Military Crimes Investigation Division to keep a firm leash on the hundreds of thousands of xenos residing on-planet. Assassinations, revolutions, civil wars, and attempted planetary genocides are all in a day's work for Chief Warrant Officer Graven Tower, MCID-XAR. In addition to a missile-armed aerovar, his trusty Sphinx CPB-18, and MCID's extremely liberal policies concerning collateral damage and civilian casualties, Chief Tower is assisted by his extreme xenophobia as well as a military-grade augmented machine intelligence that believes it has found God. So when the disintegrated remnants of the heir apparent of an alien royal house are discovered on the streets of Trans Paradis, the question is not so much whether the killers will eventually be found, but if it is the criminals or the crime investigators who will contribute more to the final body count. QUANTUM MORTIS is the new action-packed Mil-SF mystery series from Vox Day, author of the epic fantasy series The Arts of Dark and Light. Written with Steve Rzasa, author of The Word Reclaimed, QUANTUM MORTIS A Man Disrupted is the first novel in the series featuring Graven Tower, MCID. Print Length: 326 pages

    Smart, dedicated, gorgeous, and, thanks to her last movie before she hung up on Hollywood, rich, she's a pleasure to oblige when she says Rob has to witness this channeler Ariaura's act--on her, not the Eye's, nickel--despite channelers being so last year. It's quite a show, all right, for in the midst of Ariaura's particular ancient wise guy's basso spiel, a gravelly baritone interrupts (both voices emanate from the channeler's female mouth) to berate the audience as "yaps" and the act as "claptrap." Why is Ariaura undermining herself? Or is she? After all, she angrily accuses Rob and Kildy of scheming to destroy her. Could the baritone belong to a genuine channeled spirit? Willis, one of sf's most spirited writers, rounds on the New Age; pays tribute to a great, skeptical journalist; and affectionately parodies pulp fiction at its best in this irresistible entertainment.

    This science fiction adventure blends magic and technology with the adventures of Ruth, a normal human, pushed into extraordinary situations. Ruth’s transformation takes her from Earth to worlds and situations of which she never dreamed.

     In the near future, humanity builds a colony on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. They tunnel into the ice to explore the dark oceans beneath the moon's surface, searching for signs of extraterrestrial life. What they find will change them forever, setting humanity on a path to the stars. But the old conflicts and hatreds of Earth are not so easily escaped. Will human colonists on distant planets and moons create a paradise or a horrifying dystopia?

    Finally. he will be able to feel the warm sand beneath his feet again, or so the doctor promises.Lying on a table, Warren is told by the doctor that everything is going to be okay. He's going to have a brand new leg...and a much better life.Too bad it was all a lie.The next time Warren opens his eyes, four centuries have passed. Somehow, he's standing in the middle of a battlefield, stuck on a distant alien planet, far away from home.To make matters worse, his body appears to be entirely synthetic. He's a cyborg, nearly indestructible and enhanced for extreme combat.Now, with centuries of time missing from his memory and no idea how to get home, Warren is left with no choice but to fight against those who would see him enslaved... and free as many of his brothers as possible along the way.

    All you have is the disconnected voice of an attentive caretaker. Dr. Kuhn is there to help you—physically, emotionally, and psychologically. She’ll help you remember everything. She’ll make sure you reclaim your lost identity. Now answer one question: Are you sure you want to?Paul Tremblay’s The Last Conversationis part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    So begins the story of Sonia MacTaggert. An engineer by education with dreams of actually earning a living as one, she is stuck in a dead-end maintenance job servicing the engines of starships that put into port at Tammuz. When she finally lands an engineering position on the starship Night Searcher, she finds herself thrust into the unfamiliar world of interstellar exploration on a ship with a classified mission. Has her quest for a new life and career gotten Sonia more than she bargained for? The voyage of the Night Searcher tests not only the technical savvy of the fledgling engineer, but her character and leadership, as she's faced with challenges she could never have seen coming.

    The Mems exist as mirror-images of their source ― zombie-like creatures destined to experience that singular memory over and over, until they expire in the cavernous Vault where they are kept. And then there is Dolores Extract #1, the first Mem capable of creating her own memories. An ageless beauty shrouded in mystery, she is allowed to live on her own, and create her own existence, until one day she is summoned back to the Vault.