A Gift from Earth


Larry Niven - 1968
    The organ banks are the centre of this world. To them the subservient colonists contribute living limbs, and from them the overlords obtain the vital parts that keep them alive.

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

The Dream Master


Roger Zelazny - 1966
    A Shaper. In a warm womb of metal, his patients dream their neuroses, while Render, intricately connected to their brains, dreams with them, makes delicate adjustments, and ultimately explains and heals. Her name is Eileen Shallot, a resident in psychiatry. She wants desperately to become a Shaper, though she has been blind from birth. Together, they will explore the depths of the human mind -- and the terrors that lurk therein

Between The Strokes Of Night


Charles Sheffield - 1985
    To these new worlds come the Immortals, beings with strange ties to ancient Earth who seem to live forever, who can travel light years in days -- and who use their strange powers to control the existence of ordinary mortals. On the planet Pentecost, a small group sets out to find and challenge the Immortals. But in the search they themselves are changed: as Immortals, they discover a new threat, not just to themselves, but to the galaxy itself.

Queen of Angels


Greg Bear - 1990
    "One is ultimately awed... it may be the most ambitious novel I've ever read." -- Washington Post Book World

The Pastel City


M. John Harrison - 1971
    Armored knights ride their horses across dunes of rust, battling for the honor of the Queen. But the knights find more to menace them than mere swords and lances. A brave quest leads them face to face with the awesome power of a complex, lethal technology that has been erased from the face of the Earth--but lives on, underground.

A for Andromeda


Fred Hoyle - 1962
    After the computer is built it begins to relay information from Andromeda. Scientists find themselves possessing knowledge previously unknown to mankind, knowledge that could threaten the security of human life itself.

The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story


Stephen R. Donaldson - 1990
    Donaldson returns with this exciting and long-awaited new series that takes us into a stunningly imagined future to tell a timeless story of adventure and the implacable conflict of good and evil within each of us.Angus Thermopyle was an ore pirate and a murderer; even the most disreputable asteroid pilots of Delta Sector stayed locked out of his way.  Those who didn't ended up in the lockup--or dead.  But when Thermopyle arrived at Mallory's Bar & Sleep with a gorgeous woman by his side the regulars had to take notice.  Her name was Morn Hyland, and she had been a police officer--until she met up with Thermopyle.But one person in Mallory's Bar wasn't intimidated.  Nick Succorso had his own reputation as a bold pirate and he had a sleek frigate fitted for deep space.  Everyone knew that Thermopyle and Succorso were on a collision course.  What nobody expected was how quickly it would be over--or how devastating victory would be.  It was common enough example of rivalry and revenge--or so everyone thought.  The REAL story was something entirely different.In The Real Story, Stephen R. Donaldson takes us to a remarkably detailed world of faster-than-light travel, politics, betrayal, and a shadowy presence just outside our view to tell the fiercest, most profound story he has ever written.

Araminta Station


Jack Vance - 1987
    But this system has been complicated by the passing centuries, and has become a byzantine culture where every place in the Houses of Cadwal is the object of savage competition. In Araminta Station, the first volume of The Cadwal Chronicles, Jack Vance has constructed a brilliant, complex tale of revenge and murder, of love and alien intrigue, and set it glittering among the stars of the Purple Rose System.

Dayworld


Philip José Farmer - 1985
    The other six days they're in suspended animation. The focus is on Jeff Caird, a daybreaker living more than a day a week. He's not like most daybreakers. He belongs to the radical Immer group working to create a better government. Not all Immers are daybreakers, but send information from one day to the next they've daybreakers like Jeff. Immer daybreakers assume seven different personalities & jobs, slipping from culture to culture in seven different worlds. While Jeff & the other six go day to day, they run into problems while working as Immer daybreakers. They must cover their tracks while trying to keep up with seven different lives, families & jobs. It could drive a man crazy. It does & the Immers must dispose of Jeff to keep the rest safe. Jeff, wanting to live, tries to escape, but they have undercover Immers in every job & government level. Jeff is caught & put in an asylum, classified with multiple personality disorder. If considered incurable he'll be killed. But Jeff has an escape plan. The sequels are Dayworld Rebel, '87 & Dayworld Breakup, '90.

The Coming of the Quantum Cats


Frederik Pohl - 1986
    History is in chaos as billions of possible futures collide. As a conquering army mounts an invasion of neighboring realities, a handful of men and women from a dozen different timelines risk their lives to safeguard an infinity of worlds.Blending thrilling suspense with brilliant scientific speculation, Frederik Pohl's The Coming of the Quantum Cats is a triumph of the imagination by a Hugo and Nebula-winning master of science fiction."A powerful novel of parallel worlds and might-have-beens, with an eerie, amazing finish!"--David Brin

Hestia


C.J. Cherryh - 1979
    An early (1979) Cherryh novel about colonists on an alien world and their interactions with the catlike natives, centering on a young engineer sent to solve the colonists' problems, and his relationship with one of the natives. Major themes in this novel include sexual liberation, sexual aberration, hypocrisy of social mores, and responsibility toward indigenous peoples.

There Are Doors


Gene Wolfe - 1988
    She flees him, but he pursues her through doorways-interdimensional gateways-to the other place, determined to sacrifice his life, if necessary, for her love. For in her world, to be her mate . . . is to die.

Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy


Ellen DatlowBruce McAllister - 1990
    Some of the genre's greatest writers contemplate the planet-moving encounters between humans and aliens while pondering the eternal question--what kind of relationship are humans really looking for?

Crashcourse


Wilhelmina Baird - 1993
    Dosh has sold his good looks once too often to rough customers. He's so desperate to get off the planet and start a new life that he persuades friends Moke and Cass to sign a cybercinema contract--a decision that proves to be as dangerous as it is lucrative.