Dying Inside


Robert Silverberg - 1972
    With reckless abandon, he used his talent in the pursuit of pleasure. Then, one day, his power began to die... Universally acclaimed as Robert Silverberg's masterwork, Dying Inside is a vivid, harrowing portrait of a man who squandered a remarkable gift, of a superman who had to learn what it was to be human.

Macroscope


Piers Anthony - 1969
    But although they may have longed for it, not even the most brilliant minds could conceive of a device as infinitely powerful or as immeasurably precise as the macroscope, until the twenty-first century. By analyzing information carried on macrons, this unbelievable tool brought the whole universe of wonders to man's doorstep. The macroscope was seen by many as the salvation of the human race. But in the hands of the wrong man, the macroscope could be immensely destructive-infinitely more dangerous than the nuclear bomb. By searching to know too much, man could destroy the very essence of his mind. This is the powerful story of man's struggle with technology, and also the story of his human struggle with himself. This novel takes us across the breathtaking ranges of space as well as through the most touching places in the human heart. It is a story of coming of age, of sacrifice, and of love. It is the story of man's desperate search for a compromise between his mind and his heart, between knowledge and humanity.

Again, Dangerous Visions 1


Harlan EllisonH.H. Hollis - 1973
    46 original stories edited with introductions by Harlan Ellison. Contents: Again, Dangerous Visions • (1972) • interior artwork by Ed Emshwillerix • An Assault of New Dreamers • (1972) • essay by Harlan Ellison1 • The Counterpoint of View • (1972) • shortstory by John Heidenry7 • Ching Witch! • (1972) • shortstory by Ross Rocklynne31 • The Word for World Is Forest • [Hainish] • (1972) • novella by Ursula K. Le Guin127 • For Value Received • (1972) • shortstory by Andrew J. Offutt145 • Mathoms from the Time Closet • (1972) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe157 • Time Travel for Pedestrians • (1972) • shortstory by Ray Nelson188 • Christ, Old Student in a New School • (1972) • poem by Ray Bradbury197 • King of the Hill • (1972) • shortstory by Chad Oliver217 • The 10:00 Report is Brought to You By ... • (1972) • shortstory by Edward Bryant233 • The Funeral • (1972) • novelette by Kate Wilhelm261 • Harry the Hare • (1972) • shortstory by James B. Hemesath266 • When It Changed • (1972) • shortstory by Joanna Russ282 • The Big Space Fuck • (1972) • shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.293 • Bounty • (1972) • shortstory by T. L. Sherred300 • Still-Life • (1972) • shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell ]315 • Stoned Counsel • (1972) • shortstory by H. H. Hollis331 • Monitored Dreams and Strategic Cremations • (1972) • shortfiction by Bernard Wolfe398 • With a Finger in My I • (1972) • shortstory by David Gerrold413 • In the Barn • (1972) • novelette by Piers Anthony

Burning Chrome


William Gibson - 1986
    Johnny Mnemonic (1981)The Gernsback Continuum (1981)Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)The Belonging Kind (1981) with John ShirleyHinterlands (1981)Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce SterlingNew Rose Hotel (1984)The Winter Market (1985)Dogfight (1985) with Michael SwanwickBurning Chrome (1982)

Sun of Suns


Karl Schroeder - 2006
    The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and "towns" that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity.Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He's come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago. His target is Admiral Chaison Fanning, head of the fleet of Slipstream, which conquered Hayden's nation of Aerie years ago. And the fact that Hayden's spent his adolescence living with pirates doesn't bode well for Fanning's chances...

The Spell Sword


Marion Zimmer Bradley - 1974
    Most of the planet's wild terrain was unexplored...and many of its peoples seclusive and secretive.But for Andrew Carr there was an attraction he could not evade. Darkover drew him, Darkover haunted him--and when his mapping plane crashed in unknown heights, Darkover prepared to destroy him.Until the planet's magic asserted itself--and his destiny began to unfold along lines predicted only by phantoms and wonder workers of the kind Terran science could never acknowledge.THE SPELL SWORD is a Darkover novel to stand with the great ones of the series.

Foreigner


C.J. Cherryh - 1994
    Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race.From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

The Skylark of Space


E.E. "Doc" Smith - 1928
    Richard Seaton acquires rights to his discovery from the government and commercializes it with the aid of his friend, millionaire inventor Martin Crane. When a former colleague tries to steal the invention, not only the future of Dr. Seaton and his allies, but ultimately the entire world hangs in the balance!The first of the great "space opera" science fiction novels, The Skylark of Space remains a thrilling tale more than 80 years after its creation."With the exception of the works of H. G. Wells, possibly those of Jules Verne -- and almost no other writer -- it has inspired more imitators and done more to change the nature of all the science fiction written after it than almost any other single work." -- Frederik Pohl

Idlewild


Nick Sagan - 2003
    It is the late twenty-first century and a deadly virus has seeped into human kind's genetic make-up. In only a few generations this plague will have wiped us off the face of the planet, but we're not going down without a fight. Teams of scientists, geneticists and programmers race to find a cure, but time is not on our side and our only hope lies in one last, desperate gamble...Eighteen years later and ten individuals are about to come of age. One of them, a young man, is suddenly startled awake. He has no memory. His surroundings mean nothing to him. All he knows for certain is that someone is trying to kill him. Unsure who he can trust, he is reacquainted with his companions, all of whom are being trained at a special establishment run by the elusive Maestro. As he tries to uncover the identity of his would-be killer, it becomes clear that more - so much more - than just his life is at stake...Smart, stylish, terrifying and thrilling in equal measure, Idlewild fuses the fierce imagination of The Matrix with the chilling social vision of Minority Report, and introduces a singular new literary voice.

Grass


Sheri S. Tepper - 1989
    But before humanity arrived, another species had already claimed Grass for its own. It too had developed a culture...... Now a deadly plague is spreading across the stars, leaving no planet untouched, save for Grass. But the secret of the planet's immunity hides a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself.