Patterns of Chaos


Colin Kapp - 1972
    He wreaks havoc and destruction as surely as a hurricane wherever he goes. Commando Central has planted an electrode transmitter-receiver deep inside his brain and infiltrated him into the Destroyer Spacefleet to prevent it from gaining absolute mastery of the galaxy. But Bron's own brand of chaos is lethally unpredictable. And when whole planets are annihilated by monster hellburner bombs set on course seven hundred million years ago from distant Andromeda, aimed directly at Bron himself, both sides realise that something more colossal, more threatening and infinitely more powerful is taking a hand in Bron's weird destiny...The Patterns of Chaos is SF in the grand style-a mighty tale of galactic intrigue and destruction.

The Outposter


Gordon R. Dickson - 1971
    For Earth was indifferent to her superfluous population and supply lines ran thin. The colonists were considered disposable "garbage."But one young Outposter, Mark Ten Roos, had an old score to settle with the Meda V'Dans. Years ago they had killed his parents and now they had crippled his adopted father.His plan was a daring challenge to the system. But could he change the odds...?

Vertigo


Bob Shaw - 1978
    Humanity takes to the skies in its millions, with huge resultant problems for governments and police. Virtually all aircraft are grounded, because of the risk of collision with a stray flyer. Airborne delinquents and criminals are practically impossible to control and can be lethal. Robert Hasson is a good policeman. But a near-fatal airborne confrontation with a psychopath has left him shattered, both physically and mentally. Sent to Canada to recuperate (and to escape the attentions of a local businessman whose son he has put away), Hasson is a broken man, unable to face human company, haunted by nightmares and certain that he will never again put on an anti-gravity harness. But his Canadian host, police chief Al Werry, has a major problem on his hands in the shape of a towering unfinished hotel, the Chinook, whose upper levels are inaccessible from the ground, and are used as an illegal meeting place by local gangs of flyers. Worse, the hotel's owner, Buck Morlacher, intends to take the law into his own hands to deal with them. The violence that has been simmering in the town threatens to erupt and Werry seems powerless to stop it. Unwillingly, Hasson finds himself drawn into the conflict and forced to face his own problems. "Vertigo" is vintage Bob Shaw, fast-moving, intelligent and immenselyreadable.

The Uncertain Midnight


Edmund Cooper - 1958
     After a devastating atomic holocaust, mankind had now turned to the machine to solve his problems. Which led to the androids - descended from the robot, they were hardly distinguishable from real humans. By the year 2113 they ran society - leaving man to a life of leisure. It was into this world that John Markham emerged after spending 146 years of suspended animation in an underground deep-freeze unit. But his new lease of life was likely to be a short one. A man with his outdated ideas could be very dangerous - a fact the androids realized only too well.

The Daleth Effect


Harry Harrison - 1970
    Other nations (primarily cold war America and Soviet Union) try to acquire this technology, providing much of the tension and the climax of the novel.

Helliconia Spring


Brian W. Aldiss - 1982
    Helliconia is emerging from its centuries-long winter. The tribes of the equatorial continent emerge from their hiding places and are again able to dispute possession of the planet with the ferocious phagors. In Oldorando, love, trade and coinage are being redisovered,This is the first volume of the Helliconia Trilogy -- a monumental saga that goes beyond anything yet created by this master among today's imaginative writers.

Eye among the blind


Robert Holdstock - 1976
    And only one world seems to offer hope of sanctuary - Ree'hdworld, home of the only other intelligent beings in the universe. But Ree'hdworld is not as safe as it seems. For something has been happening to the natives - both the friendly Ree'hd and their more primitive kinsmen, the Rundii. And only three people stand any chance of discovering and surviving the danger that the humans of Ree'hdworld will soon face: Kristina, an Earthwoman who is slowly "going Ree'hd"; Maguire, a blind man who should have died centuries ago and who, living, has seen all the secrets of the universe; and Zeitman, a brilliant scientist who holds the key to salvation on Ree'hdworld in his mind - if only he can discover it in time...

Lifeboat


James White - 1960
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Jack the Bodiless


Julian May - 1991
    Leading humanity was the powerful Remillard family, but somebody--or something--known only as "Fury" wanted them out of the way.Only Rogi Remillard, the chosen tool of the most powerful alien being in the Milieu, and his nephew Marc, the greatest metapsychic yet born on Earth, knew about Fury. But even they were powerless to stop it when it began to kill off Remillards and other metapsychic operants--and all the suspects were Remillards themselves.Meanwhile, a Remillard son was born, a boy who could represent the future of all humanity. His incredible mind was more powerful even than his brother Marc's--but he was destined to be desroyed by his own DNA...unless Fury got to him first!From the Paperback edition.

Deathstalker


Simon R. Green - 1994
    From peasants to masters of the galaxy's most powerful families, all were subject to the queen's unpredictable decrees of "outlawing" and death.Owen Deathstalker, unwilling head of his clan, sought to avoid the perils of the Empire's warring factions but unexpectedly found a price on his head. He fled to Mistworld, where he began to build an unlikely force to topple the throne-- a broken hero, an outlawed Hadenman, a thief, and a bounty hunter. With their help, the Deathstalker took the first step of a far more dangerous journey to claim the role for which he'd been destined since before his birth...

Refugee


Piers Anthony - 1983
    1 RefugeeCALIGULA OF THE STARSThough he was later accused of every crime and sexual perversion in the galaxy, Hope Hubris began as an innocent. Because he defended his older sister against the violent lusts of a wealthy scion, Hope and his peasant family were forced to flee Callisto, one of the moons of Jupiter. Pursued by the bloodthirsty scions across the airless desert, they barely escaped with their lives. The illegal space bubble was overcrowded with refugees, all hoping to reach Jupiter for asylum.But the space travelers had not reckoned on the terrible threat of high space-the pirates, barbaric men who rape, rob, and murder, with no thought but to satisfy their bestial appetites. It will take all Hope's ingenuity to survive, but the atrocities he witnesses will never die. There is only one way he can be rid of them . . . REVENGE

Collision Course


Robert Silverberg - 1961
    But once they brought back the news that they had discovered aliens, they were doomed to another journey--one that could decide between peaceful coexistence or interstellar war!

Assignment in Eternity


Robert A. Heinlein - 1953
    Heinlein: two classic novellas and two short stories with speculation on what makes us human."Gulf": in which the greatest superspy of them all is revealed as the leader of a league of supermen and women who can't decide on quite what to do with the rest of us. The prequel to Heinlein's later New York Times best seller, Friday."Lost Legacy": in which it is proved that we are all members of that league of the superhuman–or would be, if we but had eyes to see.Plus two great short stories: Two of the master's finest: one on the nature of being, the other on what it means to be a Man. The second story, "Jerry Was a Man," was adapted for the TV series Masters of Science Fiction, and is now available on DVD.1 online resource (8 hr., 40 min.), MP3 audiobook in 9 parts

Undersea Quest


Frederik Pohl - 1954
    As soon as he learned that his uncle mysteriously disappeared while mining uranium at the bottom of hazardous Eden Deep, Jim knew what he had to do...and that he had to do it fast.So he headed for the vast dome city -- location of the great mining colony at the bottom of the sea -- to pick up any clues to his uncle's disappearance. But once he had entered the undersea metropolis, the wrong people had his number...and they were determined that Jim would sink forever without a trace.

The Faded Sun Trilogy


C.J. Cherryh - 1978
    For aeons this golden-skinned, golden-eyed race had provided the universe mercenary soldiers of almost unimaginable ability. But now the mri have faced an enemy unlike any other - an enemy whose only way of war is widespread destruction. These "humans" are mass fighters, creatures of the herd, and the mri have been slaughtered like animals.Now, in the aftermath of war, the mri face extinction. It will be up to three individuals to save whatever remains of this devastated race: a warrior - one of the last survivors of his kind; a priestess of this honorable people; and a lone human - a man sworn to aid the enemy of his own kind. Can they retrace the galaxy-wide path of this nomadic race back through millennia to reclaim the ancient world which first gave them life?