Greg Bear's Mariposa, A New Quantico Thriller, Now Available as E-Book

In Greg Bear's new futuristic FBI thriller Mariposa, the world just keeps getting tougher and more complicated. America teeters on the edge of bankruptcy because of crushing foreign debt and an apparent savior, The Talos Corporation, delivers training for soldiers and security forces around the world, logistical support and badly-needed troops economically. But there's a sinister hidden cost. The three rookie FBI agents who survived the challenges portrayed in Quantico are drawn back together in an alliance against a deadly challenge for which no one seems prepared. The code name is "Mariposa", and only a desperate combination of misfits and survivors can combat a threat spelling nothing less than the collapse of American democracy.

E-Reads is happy to bring you the e-book edition of Mariposa. For those who prefer to read the print edition, click here. If you want to read the novel that launched this futuristic FBI thriller series, you can buy the e-book of Quantico here or the print edition here.

And for a menu of eighteen unforgettable novels by this award-winning master of science fiction, visit Greg Bear's page on E-Reads.

RC

About Greg Bear

Greg Bear, author of over 25 books, which have been translated into 17 languages, has won science fiction's highest honors and is considered the natural heir to Arthur C. Clarke. The recipient of two Hugos and four Nebulas for his fiction, he has been called "the best working writer of hard science fiction" by The Science Fiction Encyclopedia. Many of his novels, such as Darwin's Radio, are considered to be this generations' classics. He is married to Astrid Anderson, daughter of science fiction great Poul Anderson, and they are the parents of two children, Erik and Alexandria. His most recent thriller novel, Quantico, was published in 2007. He has since published a new, epic SF novel, City at the End of Time.

A Gooney Bird Soars over Another Planet: People of the Sky by Clare Bell

In People of the Sky by Clare Bell, old technology survives and even thrives on the challenges of a new planet populated by ancient human spirits.

Kesbe Temiya, a freelance flyer, accepts a commission to deliver an ancient-but-restored C-47 (a Gooney Bird in 20th Century parlance, named The Gooney Berg by its new owner) to a collector of rare aircraft on the planet Oneway.

Dropped off by a starship, Temiya gets side-tracked by bad weather, rescued by a mysterious figure riding an alien flying creature and stranded in a long-vanished Pueblo Indian colony which follows the prophecy of the Blue Star Kachina and lives the old ways, isolated from technology and away from the white man. Despite her own Pueblo blood, Kesbe is an outsider and only by adopting the ways of the People of the Sky, including a ritual that may turn her, too, into a throwback and could even kill her, can she find the help she needs to fulfill her mission—and find the life that is right for her.

Click here to see all Clare Bell titles published by E-Reads.

We've Come a Long Way Since "Klaatu Barada Nikto"

Chay' Na'vi Dajatlh HollI'Daq?

Don't just stand there looking dumbfounded. Answer the question. Or don't you speak tlhIngan Hol?

I asked how you say "Na'vi" in the Klingon language. What? You don't speak Na'vi either? Sheesh, this is getting frustrating. How old did you say you are?

Let's start from the beginning. Klingons (such as the fellow at the right, with whom I consulted for this article) are a race of warriors in the fictional universe of Star Trek, and Klingon (pronounced"tlhIngan Hol") is their language. If you can't pronounce "tlhIngan Hol" you may look it up in a Klingon dictionary, and if you are amazed to learn that it is a fully realized language you will be able to study it in any one of a number of guides, websites and published books.

And "Na'vi"? That's another fully articulated albeit fictional language. It was created for Avatar, James Cameron's blockbuster science fiction film due to open this month. Ben Zimmer, writing in the "On Language" column of the New York Times Sunday Magazine, tells us how "Cameron enlisted the help of a linguist to construct a full-fledged language, with its own peculiar phonetics, lexicon and syntax. From the mind of Paul Frommer, a professor at the University of Southern California, was born a Na’vi language, with mellifluous vowel clusters, popping ejectives and a grammatical system elaborate enough to make a polyglot blush." Cameron boasted that Frommer's Na’vi would “out-Klingon Klingon.”

Whether it does or not, Zimmer's description of earlier attempts by science fiction filmmakers to create credible alien language and speech patterns is utterly absorbing, Read On Language: Skxawng!

And "Klaatu barada nikto"? Surely you know what that means! No? Read here.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by The New York Times.

Fritz Leiber's Hugo Award-winning Change War Novel, The BIg Time, Available Once Again

Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) may be best known as a fantasy writer, but he published widely and successfully in the horror and science fiction fields. One of his major SF creations is the Change War, a series of stories and short novels about rival time-traveling forces locked in a bitter, ages-long struggle for control of the human universe where battles alter history and then change it again until there's no certainty about what might once have happened.

The most notable work of the series is the Hugo Award-winning novel The Big Time in which doctors, entertainers, and wounded soldiers find themselves treacherously trapped with an activated atomic bomb inside the Place, a room existing outside of space-time. Leiber creates a tense, claustrophobic SF mystery, and a brilliant, unique locked-room whodunit. In addition to the Hugo, Nebula, Derleth, Lovecraft, and World Fantasy Awards, Fritz Leiber received the Grand Master of Fantasy (Gandalf) Award, the Life Achievement Lovecraft Award, and the Grand Master Nebula Award.

The Big Time may be purchased as an e-book or print volume.

E-Reads publishes many of Leiber's greatest works including Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, which Time Magazine's book editor, Lev Grossman, named as one of the top six fantasy works of all time. View E-Reads' Leiber book list here.

RC

Sean Williams' The Sky Warden and the Sun - Second Book of the Change

The Sky Warden & the Sun is the second novel in Sean Williams' Books of the Change trilogy.

Sal’s life has been thrown into turmoil and he is on the run, from more than one pursuer, it appears. He is accompanied by his new-found friend Shilly and he’s not entirely sure where he wants to go—but Shilly is. She wants to find her teacher Lodo’s old teacher, the Mage Van Haasteren, which means they must head north to the Interior, where Sal’s mother was born. The journey is over rugged, mountainous country on the Old Line and it’s dangerous. The Sky Warden Shom Behenna is after them and they must risk all top reach the Divide and get across to the other side, not even knowing if the Stone Mages will help them

The Sky Warden and the Sun is the second novel in Sean Williams' brilliant Books of the Change trilogy.

For comments by Sean Williams plus a wonderful suite of review, click here.

About Sean Williams

#1 New York Times-bestselling author of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sean Williams has published twenty-nine novels for readers of all ages, seventy short stories across numerous genres, and even the odd poem. He has been called many things in his time, including "the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age", the "Emperor of Sci-Fi", and the "King of Chameleons" for the diversity of his output. Best-known internationally for his award-winning space opera series, he is also the author of ten acclaimed fantasy novels inspired by the landscapes of his childhood: the dry, flat lands of South Australia, where he still lives with his wife and family.

Click here for Sean Williams' website.

Sean Williams' The Storm Weaver and the Sand - Third Book of the Change

The Storm Weaver & the Sand completes Sean Williams amazing Books of the Change trilogy.

Sal and his friend Shilly have been joined by a third refugee, Skendar, by the time the make their way to the remote island that is the home of the famous, feared Haunted City, home of the Sky Wardens. Sal’s great aunt, the Syndic, is also there and she is determined to keep Sal under control, even if she has to imprison him to do it.

But there are greater threats even than that. The ghosts that live behind the ancient glass of the City are restless. No one can say why they are stirred up and no one has any idea what they can do if they act. The golem is determined to make Sal do its bidding and will not stop short of murder to obtain his obedience. It appears that the Weavers have plans as well, yet no one knows, or will admit knowing, if the legendary Weavers even exist or what they are.

Beset on all sides by dangerous powers and controlling agendas, Sal must find a way to choose his own path…or submit to a fate not of his own making.

The Storm Weaver and the Sand is the third and final novel in Sean Williams' brilliant Books of the Change trilogy.

For comments by Sean Williams plus a wonderful suite of review, click here.

About Sean Williams

#1 New York Times-bestselling author of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sean Williams has published twenty-nine novels for readers of all ages, seventy short stories across numerous genres, and even the odd poem. He has been called many things in his time, including "the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age", the "Emperor of Sci-Fi", and the "King of Chameleons" for the diversity of his output. Best-known internationally for his award-winning space opera series, he is also the author of ten acclaimed fantasy novels inspired by the landscapes of his childhood: the dry, flat lands of South Australia, where he still lives with his wife and family.

Click here for Sean Williams' website.

Sean Williams' Stone Mage and the Sea - First Book of Change

E-Reads is happy to reissue Sean Williams' The Stone Mage & the Sea, the First Book of the Change, both in e-book and print formats.

The Stone Mages rule the huge deserts of red sand. The vast coastlines are ruled by Sky Wardens. Magic is everywhere but not all have the power to control and direct it. Any child found to have magical ability is sent to the Haunted City to be trained in the Change.

On the coast of the Strand, Sal and his father arrive in the small, apparently-normal town of Fundelry, where the locals are suspicious of newcomers and of anyone who stands out or appears different. Sal and his father are on the run from an unnamed someone…or something. When a local bully attacks Sal, he is rescued by Shilly and her teacher, Lodo. Lodo is marked with mysterious tattoos and seems to know a lot more about Sal than Sal knows about himself.

Sal’s father wants to stay but the Sky Wardens will be coming and Sal needs to learn what connection Lodo had with his mother and what fate seems to have been chosen for him before he was even born.

The Stone Mage & the Sea, the first novel in Sean Williams' brilliant Books of the Change trilogy, was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2001. Subsequent Books of the Change have gone on to win the same award, been nominated for the Ditmar, and have been recommended by Locus magazine as one of the best young adult fantasies of 2002, alongside work by Clive Barker, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman and Isabel Allende.

”Magical and mesmerizing, The Stone Mage & The Sea is a story to disappear into, whether you’re 15 or 50."
--Kim Wilkins, author of Angel of Ruin.

”Sean Williams’ The Stone Mage & The Sea is an alchemical blend of elemental magic, tragic romance and the coming of age of a young boy. Poised between Earthsea and Mad Max, the magic of fantasy meets the wonder of science fiction.”
--Jonathan Strahan.

For comments by Sean Williams plus a wonderful suite of review, click here.

About Sean Williams

#1 New York Times-bestselling author of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sean Williams has published twenty-nine novels for readers of all ages, seventy short stories across numerous genres, and even the odd poem. He has been called many things in his time, including "the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age", the "Emperor of Sci-Fi", and the "King of Chameleons" for the diversity of his output. Best-known internationally for his award-winning space opera series, he is also the author of ten acclaimed fantasy novels inspired by the landscapes of his childhood: the dry, flat lands of South Australia, where he still lives with his wife and family.

Click here for Sean Williams' website.

A Brash Young Space Patrol Officer Faces the Ultimate Challenge

Hero! by Dave Duncan is space opera at its finest and most action-filled, from the bestselling author of fantasy quests, epic tales and swashbuckling adventures. E-Reads has 21 of them.

Vaun, born a peasant in the stinking mud flats of Ult, a thriving colony planet, claws his way to survival and fame by becoming the toughest young officer in the Space Patrol. A veteran of the brutal training academy, he seizes opportunities as they arise, leading the first ship out against a surprise attack by the mysterious Brotherhood. He returns to a hero's welcome as the Brotherhood ship falls to the surface of his home planet in shattered pieces. The Brotherhood is elsewhere unstoppable, though, as neighboring planets, one by one, fall silent, conquered. And then, the Patrol detects a huge spacecraft launched from one of the now-silent worlds and headed for Ult. Facing a challenge greater than he can truly hope to overcome, Vaun sets out to save Ult - for a second time!

RC

A Pair of Lovers Can't Escape the Gravitational Pull of a Tyrant

In Strings by Dave Duncan, Alya's hunches are so consistently right they're surreal. Naturally, someone wants to use her gifts so they can exploit an offworld colony. But Alya meets the grandson of the brilliant and tyrannical director of the world called 4-I and she begins to doubt her own intuition. Cedric has dreamed of becoming a scout and exploring new worlds and when he meets Alya he is more determined than ever to leave 4-I, with her. His grandmother, the director, needs him on 4-I, though, because she has schemes afoot to protect her planet and to cover up a murder and she does not intend to let him go. However, she has underestimated her grandson--and the young woman whose intuition is so strong and whose destiny is linked to Cedric's.

Strings is another gem in E-Reads treasure chest of 21 Dave Duncans. We urge you to read them all.

RC

A Space Trucker Takes a Wrong Turn and Now Everybody's After Him

In Starrigger by John DeChancie, an independent space trucker picks up a beautiful hitchhiker and a trailer-load of trouble. E-Reads has just reissued it with a beautiful cover by our ace designer and production manager Nathan Fernald.

One of the best of the indie starriggers, Jake knows a few tricks about following the Skyway, which connects dozens, or maybe hundreds, of planets. Nobody knows how many and nobody really knows the full extent of the Skyway and much of it remains unexplored. But, somehow, a rumor gets started that Jake has a map for the whole thing and suddenly everybody wants a piece of him: an alien race called the Reticulans, the human government known as the Colonial Assembly, and a nasty piece-of-work called Corey Wilkes, head of the wildcat trucker union TATOO. No matter what Jake does, no matter how many twists and turns he makes, he can't shake any of the menaces on his tail. The Starrigger series continues with Red Limit Freeway and concludes with Paradox Alley, which we hope to bring to you soon.

By the way, we have two authors writing about starriggers, John DeChancie and Jeffrey Carver, who calls his Star Riggers - two words. And two worlds. Check both series out and see how each approaches the theme.

At any rate, if you love John DeChancie's science fiction, get hooked on his "Castle" fantasy series - eight of 'em.

RC

Surfing for Wars

What would you do if you were rich, bright, vigorous, virtually immortal - and nearly bored to death? You’d invent a thrill sport. You'd surf...wars! You can read about it in War Surf, the Philip K. Dick Award winning science fiction novel by M. M. Buckner, about whom Hugo-winning author Robert Sawyer writes, "M.M. Buckner is the first clear-cut new star of twenty-first century SF."

It's the 23rd century and Nasir Deepra is 248 years old, wealthy, kept young by all-pervasive nanotechnology, a corporate executive and bored with life. To spice things up he has become an Agonist, dipping into war zones--many of them in satellites orbiting the Earth--and filming his daredevil antics. Agonists have a large fan-base who watch them on the Net and they revel in the attention.

A war surf goes badly and the Agonists lose their top ranking amongst surfers, so they decide to up the ante and go to Heaven. Not the kind you're thinking of. Rather, Heaven is a class-10 difficulty war zone, the toughest. Surf it successfully and you're back on top.

"An Innovative and exciting read. A treat."
– C.J. Cherryh

"Buckner hits another homerun...action, character, drama, and great science--it's all here in the latest from the hottest author in this or any other star system."
– Robert J. Sawyer

E-Reads is proud to reissue this extraordinary writer's first three novels. Check them all out.

Jeffrey Carver's First Star Rigger Novel, and the Farthest

Seas of Ernathe was Jeffrey A. Carver's first novel, and the first full-length tale of what was to become his popular Star Rigger Universe. Set farthest into the future of all the Star Rigger stories and thus sixth in the internal time sequence in the series, Seas of Ernathe sets the stage for a new cycle of history. A touching story of love and personal discovery, it leads the way to the rediscovery of the mode of star travel that once knit galactic civilization together.

E-Reads has published a number of Star Rigger titles as well as his Dragon novels. Each book is a complete and satisfying novel in its own right, so you can take them up in any sequence. But here's how the author has ordered them in time:

Panglor (Star Rigger 1)
Dragons in the Stars (Star Rigger 2)
Dragon Rigger (Star Rigger 3)
Star Rigger's Way (Star Rigger 4)
Eternity's End (Star Rigger 5 - free ebook from Starrigger.net)
Seas of Ernathe (Star Rigger 6)

And, to set them all in the context of Carver's grand vision, you'll want to read his e-essay, "Of Consoles and Dragons' Claws".

Subsequent to the Star Rigger and Dragons books Carver launched The Chaos Chronicles for Tor. The latest in the other series is Sunborn, and the author has transformed into the auteur of a beautiful, lilting, mysterious video to promote it. Not only did he take a hand in every aspect of the production but that's his voice narrating it as well. How are we going to keep him at his desk when Hollywood beckons? View the video and you'll see what we mean.



Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about Sunborn:

The long-anticipated fourth entry in Carver's Chaos Chronicles (after 1996's The Infinite Sea) is space opera at its most agreeably and classically science fictional. Someone or something is plotting murder on an interstellar scale, and a small company of exiles led by human John Bandicut may be the galaxy's only chance of salvation. The prospective victims are sentient stars living in the Orion Nebula; half the challenge is simply opening communications. Luckily, Bandicut's allies and sponsors include robots, noncorporeal symbiotes and the incredibly ancient multidimensional entity Deeaab. With such a large cast and a parallel plot involving a threat to Earth itself, character development is necessarily sketched broadly. Some may find the narrative overly stage-managed, but Carver skillfully rotates viewpoints and weaves the choreography directly into the plot. This installment is a cut above the earlier books and will be entirely accessible to any reader who appreciates high-powered stellar and n-dimensional physics blended with old-school space-faring.

Cosmetic Surgery for Your Brain

Hyperthought recounts the adventures of a young man who trusts an unscrupulous doctor to enhance his brain function, and of a young woman who tries to save him. You can read it in this completely absorbing science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick Award winning author M. M. Buckner, about whom Hugo-winning author Robert Sawyer writes, "M.M. Buckner is the first clear-cut new star of twenty-first century SF."

The year is 2125, and the Earth has undergone drastic climate change due to global warming. People crowd in sealed underground habitats to avoid the stormy, toxic surface. Feisty little Jolie Sauvage leads extreme surface adventure tours for rich executives. Her friend, Dr. Judith Merida, is peddling a new cosmetic neurosurgery, which she claims will wake the brain's latent, unconscious senses.

Jolie introduces Dr. Merida to one of her wealthy tour group clients, Jin Sura, an arrogant but troubled young man with a terrible desire for knowledge. That proves to be a disastrous mistake.

E-Reads is proud to reissue this extraordinary writer's first three novels. Check them all out.

Charles Brown, 72

Charles Brown, whose Locus Magazine chronicled and influenced the world's fantasy and science fiction community, passed away peacefully in his sleep on July 12, 2009 according to representatives of the magazine.

A brief obituary prepared by Locus is below. A more extensive one will be published in the next issue of Locus. The magazine will continue under the direction of his executive editor and an experienced staff.

A quick personal note: Charles Brown was my friend. He knew everything about everyone in the field, and though he was a conduit for every piece of gossip confirmed or unconfirmed, he was discreet enough to gain and hold the confidence of all who worked with him. His friendship and generosity were legendary, and so were his love of life and all of its pleasures. He was a scholar, a wit, a world traveler, a writer, a chronicler, a photographer, and gentleman. His publication has been a beacon for all who toil in the genre. Charlie Brown was also my publisher, offering me a forum for a column that ran for twelve years and was the basis for four of my books. For that alone I will be forever grateful to him.

The fantasy and science fiction community mourns his passing.

Richard Curtis

*******************************************
Locus publisher, editor, and co-founder Charles N. Brown, 72, died peacefully in his sleep July 12, 2009 on his way home from Readercon.

Charles Nikki Brown was born June 24, 1937 in Brooklyn NY, where he grew up. He attended the City College of New York, taking time off from 1956-59 to serve in the US Navy, and finished his degree (BS in physics and engineering) at night on the GI Bill while working as a junior engineer in the '60s. He married twice, to Marsha Elkin (1962-69), who helped him start Locus, and to Dena Benatan (1970-77), who co-edited Locus for many years while he worked full time. He moved to San Francisco in 1972, working as a nuclear engineer until becoming a full-time SF editor in 1975. The Locus offices have been in Brown's home in the Oakland hills since 1973.

Brown co-founded Locus with Ed Meskys and Dave Vanderwerf as a one-sheet news fanzine in 1968, originally created to help the Boston Science Fiction Group win its Worldcon bid. Brown enjoyed editing Locus so much that he continued the magazine far beyond its original planned one-year run. Locus was nominated for its first Hugo Award in 1970, and Brown was a best fan writer nominee the same year. Locus won the first of its 29 Hugos in 1971.

During Brown's long and illustrious career he was the first book reviewer for Asimov's; wrote the Best of the Year summary for Terry Carr's annual anthologies (1975-87); wrote numerous magazines and newspapers; edited several SF anthologies; appeared on countless convention panels; was a frequent Guest of Honor, speaker, and judge at writers' seminars; and has been a jury member for various major SF awards.

As per his wishes, Locus will continue to publish, with executive editor Liza Groen Trombi taking over as editor-in-chief with the August 2009 issue.

A Bank Account for Storing Your Mind

What is Neurolink? It's a new kind of bank account for storing a person’s mind. You can read it in Coin-Giver, a striking science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick Award winning author M. M. Buckner, about whom Hugo-winning author Robert Sawyer writes, "M.M. Buckner is the first clear-cut new star of twenty-first century SF."

Richter Jedes, the rich powerful CEO of ZahlenBank, wants to live forever - so he makes two copies of himself. One is an evolved Artificial Intelligence imprinted with his personality. The other is a perfect clone named Dominic, whom he raises as his son. When Richter suddenly dies, his son Dominic is left to deal with a terrible crisis which threatens ZahlenBank. And though Dominic loathes the egotistical A.I. masquerading as his father, they need each other’s help to save the bank.

Which of them is the true copy, and which is fake? Do they have free will, or are their destinies programmed in their source code? And most important of all - does individual identity still have any meaning?

Coin-Giver was originally published under the title Neurolink

E-Reads is proud to reissue this extraordinary writer's first three novels. Check them all out. They're available both as e-books and paperbacks.

RC

Damien Broderick's Quipu Now in Paperback

We're happy to announce that Damien Broderick's Quipu is available in paperback.

In Quipu Caroline is about to go psychotic - and with her family, no surprise. Joseph can't talk to women even if he is a certified high IQ clever dick trying to take snapshots of the end of the universe. Ray and Marj have their own hassles with in-laws, but student terrorists get in the way. Meanwhile Brian, misogynist and wit, appalls everyone in the quipu world. Quipus? They're the scandalous fanzines that hikes traded before blogs were invented. Hikes? High IQ clever dicks, of course.

In Quipu (appearing for the first time as an E-Reads publication), Australian writer Damien Broderick reimagines his prize-winning 1984 novel Transmitters as the surprising saga of a "family" of genius-level one-of-a-kind individuals.

Damien Broderick is Australia's dean of science fiction, with a body of extraordinary work reaching back to the early 1960's. Like the late George Turner, he captures the distinctive flavor of his native country while reaching out to American and European readers. The White Abacus won two year's best awards. His stories and novels, like those of his younger peer Greg Egan, are drenched with bleeding-edge ideas. Distinctively, he blends ideas and poetry like nobody since Roger Zelazny, and a wild silly humor is always ready to bubble out, as in the cosmic comedy Striped Holes. His award-winning novel The Dreaming Dragons is featured in David Pringle's SF: The 100 Best Novels, and was chosen as year's best by Kingsley Amis. It has been revised and updated as The Dreaming. In 1982, his early cyberpunk novel The Judas Mandala coined the term 'virtual reality.' His most recent novels are Godplayers and K-Machines.

With David G. Hartwell, he edited Centaurus: The Best of Australian SF for Tor in 1999.

Like one of his heroes, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, he is also a master of writing about radical new technologies, and The Spike and The Last Mortal Generation have been Australian popular-science best sellers--both books strongly recommended in Clarke's millennial revision of his famous Profiles of the Future.

"Schrödinger's Dog" was chosen for Gardner Dozois's SF: Year's Best 14.

His homepage is The Spike, and you can read a great interview with him in Missions Unknown.

Quipu is also available in all popular e-book formats.

Incidentally, E-Reads publishes another book of Broderick, this one in collaboration with Rory Barnes: The Hunger of Time. Check it out!

Mutant Pirates Test a Space Diplomat's Skills to the Limit

Thousands of years in the future, Paula Mendoza, an adventurous woman diplomat from Earth, takes on mutant space pirates in an effort to bring peace to the solar system. Devious and practical, she plunges herself into the mutant world, where people like her are slaves and brute force is everything, and triumphs by her wits. Cecilia Holland's Floating Worlds, first published in 1976 and heavily influenced by the Cold War, still reads like right now, in the clash of personal ambition and cultural values, the underhanded politics and the threat of a collapsing environment.

RC

When an Alien Says "We're Doing This for You", Start Running

The alien Holn come in peace - and stay for six years. Never leaving their ship, they remain a mystery, communicating only with scientists. Then, as abruptly as they arrived, they depart, leaving behind a wealth of knowledge ... and something more.

Seventeen human adults had entered the Holn vessel. And now they have reemerged as nine-year-old children – their emotions, maturity and memories intact – returning to adult lives irreparably shattered by the aliens' incomprehensible “gift.” Devils or angels, prophets or infiltrators, who are they really and what is their purpose?

Soon the world will know...

And so will you when you read Terry England's Rewind. Now available both as a download and paperback.

"...a fascinating, thought-provoking novel, and certainly one of the more promising debuts I've seen in some time."
--Science Fiction Chronicle

He's Not a Headcase. He Really Can Manipulate Space and Time

E-Reads has just released The Martian Viking, Tim Sullivan's saga of a man with a mighty hallucination.

Hallucination - or time travel? Whichever way you see it, it's one man alone against the cosmos, creating his own reality. Exiled on Mars, Johnsmith Biberkopf escapes from a penal colony on the Red Planet and learns that his hallucinations are real - space and time can be manipulated. Kidnapped by Vikings who've sailed through the continua since ancient times, Johnsmith embarks on an epic adventure, an infinite journey through the multiverse. Facing alien menace, he learns the terrifying truth about the power of illusion!

If you like The Martian Viking, check E-Reads' other Tim Sullivan title, The Parasite War. Both titles are available in e-book and print formats.

Here's One Colloid You Don't Want to Be Suspended In

In Tim Sullivan's The Parasite War, a combat veteran leads a rag-tag group of survivors in an all-out war against invading aliens. The world's cities have been destroyed by a ghastly holocaust from space. The few remaining souls eke out an existence in the ruins, ransacking skyscrapers for food, and living in the city's sewers like vermin. Alex Ward, a man who has lost everything, and a beautiful woman named Jo, unite the survivors to battle the slithering menace of the Colloids, parasites whose seed has drifted through space for millions of years in search of the perfect world for their depredations: Earth. When Alex and Jo discover the Colloids' ultimate biological purpose, the motley band of guerrillas are put to the test in a monstrous battle for the future of mankind!

The Parasite War is available both as a download and paperback.

And check out another Sullivan E-Reads release, The Martian Viking.

Beware of Hikes Trading Quipus: A New Release by Damien Broderick

In Damien Broderick's Quipu Caroline is about to go psychotic - and with her family, no surprise. Joseph can't talk to women even if he is a certified high IQ clever dick trying to take snapshots of the end of the universe. Ray and Marj have their own hassles with in-laws, but student terrorists get in the way. Meanwhile Brian, misogynist and wit, appalls everyone in the quipu world. Quipus? They're the scandalous fanzines that hikes traded before blogs were invented. Hikes? High IQ clever dicks, of course.

In Quipu (appearing for the first time as an E-Reads publication), Australian writer Damien Broderick reimagines his prize-winning 1984 novel Transmitters as the surprising saga of a "family" of genius-level one-of-a-kind individuals.

Damien Broderick is Australia's dean of science fiction, with a body of extraordinary work reaching back to the early 1960's. Like the late George Turner, he captures the distinctive flavor of his native country while reaching out to American and European readers. The White Abacus won two year's best awards. His stories and novels, like those of his younger peer Greg Egan, are drenched with bleeding-edge ideas. Distinctively, he blends ideas and poetry like nobody since Roger Zelazny, and a wild silly humor is always ready to bubble out, as in the cosmic comedy Striped Holes. His award-winning novel The Dreaming Dragons is featured in David Pringle's SF: The 100 Best Novels, and was chosen as year's best by Kingsley Amis. It has been revised and updated as The Dreaming. In 1982, his early cyberpunk novel The Judas Mandala coined the term 'virtual reality.' His most recent novels are Godplayers and K-Machines.

With David G. Hartwell, he edited Centaurus: The Best of Australian SF for Tor in 1999.

Like one of his heroes, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, he is also a master of writing about radical new technologies, and The Spike and The Last Mortal Generation have been Australian popular-science best sellers--both books strongly recommended in Clarke's millennial revision of his famous Profiles of the Future.

"Schrödinger's Dog" was chosen for Gardner Dozois's SF: Year's Best 14.

His homepage is The Spike, and you can read a great interview with him in Missions Unknown.

You can download Quipu now, but if you want to hold a print edition in your hand, watch these pages for updates; the paperback is in the works!

Incidentally, E-Reads publishes another book of Broderick, this one in collaboration with Rory Barnes: The Hunger of Time. Check it out!

SciFi Writers Tell Uncle Sam How to Imagine

Scientists and government officials are commonly invited to brief science fiction writers on recent discoveries and policies. But it's quite a different matter for the writers to brief the scientists and lawmakers. Yet, in the last couple of years, that's just what's happened: the US government has been inviting science fiction writers to Washington DC to do some brainstorming. What's more significant, the government actually listens to what they have to say. Small wonder: many of the officials read science fiction, and some of them write it.

It all started when writer Arlan Andrews founded an organization called Sigma. It sounds black ops but is actually composed of sci-fi and other writers with science credentials and even advanced degrees. They've shared their visions with the US Army, Air Force, NATO "and other agencies they care not to name," writes Washington Post staff writer David Montgomery. Except for travel expenses, the authors provide their services pro bono. As for those travel expenses, journeys through time and space are excluded. Sigma's authors visit the future, Andrews explains, and "we owe it to mankind to come back and report what we've found,"

The most recent convocation took place in May when a delegation of writers writers led by award-winning SF novelist Greg Bear was invited to the Homeland Security Science & Technology Stakeholders Conference to do a little blue-skying. Bear served as master of ceremonies and, as author of Quantico, an adventure projecting a future FBI, he was right at home. (The e-book edition of Quantico is one of seventeen Bear novels published by E-Reads.)

"Rolf Dietrich, Homeland Security's deputy director of research, says the writers help managers think more broadly about projects, especially about potential reactions and unintended consequences," writes Montgomery, quoting Dietrich:''They have a different way of looking at things.'"

Well yes, science fiction writers certainly do, and it's great to know that a federal agency actually appreciates them for it.

You can check out their brainstorms here.

RC

Chaos? Bring It On, Says Jeffrey Carver

Few people love chaos, and even fewer welcome it. Jeffrey A. Carver positively embraces it. His Tor saga, The Chaos Chronicles, is inspired by and built around it. Science Fiction Chronicle named the first volume, Neptune Crossing, one of the best science fiction novels of the year, while Kirkus Reviews called Strange Attractors (Volume 2) "dazzling, thrilling, innovative."

Carver blazed into the science fiction universe with a series of "star rigger" adventures that blended hard-SF concepts and deeply humanistic concerns, and E-Reads is proud to bring many of his classic novels back both to audiences who long to reread them and to a new generation that has not yet had the intense pleasure. He has polished them up for downloaders as well as those who love traditional paperback format. Among the nine gems currently on sale are Infinity Link, Down the Stream of Stars, Seas of Ernathe, Star Rigger's Way, Panglor and The Rapture Effect.

As always, our paperback releases lag behind e-books, so visit his page from time to time to check on the status, or watch these pages for updates.

Travel with Jeffrey Carver from the mysteries of deepest space to the recesses of the human mind and see chaos become coherent. And for a full immersion, do spend some time on his handsome website.

RC

Okay, He Wrote It on a Smartphone With His Thumbs. But Is It Any Good? Del Rey Thinks So

Devin Coldewey in MobileCrunch reports that fantasy author Peter Brett wrote The Warded Man, a 100,000 word fantasy, on his HP iPaq over three years of subway commuting. "I would have thought it an impossible task to thumb out more than, say, 5-10% on something like a smartphone. But this guy seems to actually thrive doing it," Coldewey writes. "If he knew he was going to be doing so much typing, why not get something with a really sweet keypad like a Sidekick or Blackberry?"

For an interview with thumbster Brett, a Scribd glimpse of the book and some entertaining comments, check out Coldewey's blog. The gist of many of the comments is that the Japanese have been writing novels on cell phones for years - we posted about it in fall of 2007. So, not everyone is as impressed as Coldewey about the achievement.

The more germane question is, is the book any good? Well, it's been published by Del Rey/Spectra, the highly respected science fiction and fantasy imprint of Random House, got some nice quotes (such as Terry Brooks) and 16 five-star Amazon reviews out of 21 posted as of this date. A lot of writers would give their thumbs, pinkies or other choice parts to claim as much.

RC

Complete Novels of R. A. MacAvoy Now in Paperback

E-Reads is happy to announce that the complete collection of R. A. MacAvoy's novels is now available both in paperback and e-book formats. Click here for the complete list, including five recent additions: The Book of Kells, The Third Eagle, and the Damiano trilogy.

**************
MacAvoy is the highly acclaimed author of imaginative and original fantasy fiction. Her debut novel, Tea with the Black Dragon, won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She has also written the Damiano trilogy, the chronicles of a wizard’s young son set in an alternate Italian Renaissance; The Book of Kells, Twisting the Rope (the sequel to Tea with the Black Dragon), and the beloved Lens of the World trilogy. The Third Eagle is her only science fiction novel.

RC

Partners in Wonder: Harlan Ellison Buddies Up with Giants

Partners in Wonder is arguably the first collection of collaborative stories ever created. But unlike some Very Important Authors who don't pick on someone their own size when inviting writers to collaborate with them, Harlan Ellison threw his gauntlet at the feet of such giants as Algis Budrys, Samuel R. Delaney, Keith Laumer, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Zelazny and Robert Silverberg. Before each story is one of Ellison's patented intros explaining how it was written (and who gets the blame). Below is his intro to the collection itself. Note his regret that there are no female partners in wonder.

Download this e-book version, but if print on paper is more your speed, watch this space for news of the paperback edition.

RC

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INTRODUCTION: SONS OF JANUS

These are stories I have written with other writers. Collaborations, they're called. They are the products of two minds working together, sometimes in complete harmony, more often in opposition. The former, because the ideas were so right they needed no conflict to produce a coherent whole; the latter, because writers are perverse creatures who enjoy tormenting one another. And also, conscious opposition on the part of one of the collaborators, to the direction a story is taking naturally, may produce a stress that bends it unexpectedly in a totally unpredictable way. And from that can come a toad prince or a toad, depending on whether or not both writers know how to handle a fable run amuck.

The beloved Lester Del Rey--one of my early mentors in the craft of professional lying--told me once: never write a story with someone, that you can do as well by yourself. Well, I believe that.

Did Ellison take Del Rey's advice? Read his complete introduction, and his book.

On a Planet of Slave Herders, One Man Cries "Let These People Go." Ray Aldridge's Emancipator Trilogy

Ruiz Aw, the protagonist of Ray Aldridge's Emancipator trilogy and a former slave himself, starts out as an enforcer sent to investigate the disappearance of several slaves from the planet Pharaoh, a world without hope or freedom, a world of slave poachers. Ruiz must go undercover to find these poachers for the The Art League but unknown to his masters he leads a double life as the Lone Emancipator, a man sworn to bring down the slave trade and destroy the league. He alone is the galaxy's last chance. But if his secret is revealed, a death net planted deep in his brain is programmed to kill him.

The Pharoah Contract launches a gripping trio of novels climaxing in a slave revolt that will put you in mind of Spartacus.

RC

Venus of Dreams by Pam Sargent

Pamela Sargent is the author of several highly praised and prize-winning novels, among them The Shore of Women, Cloned Lives, The Sudden Star, The Golden Space, Watchstar, The Alien Upstairs, and Alien Child. Venus of Dreams, which we are proud to offer to you today, was selected by The Easton Press for its “Masterpieces of Science Fiction” series. And of course you'll want to read Venus of Shadows, the sequel. Gregory Benford described the former as “One of the peaks of recent science fiction.” And James Morrow characterized the sequel as “a masterly piece of world-building.” The third novel in the Venus trilogy, Child of Venus, is making its way to publication on this site.

In Venus of Dreams, a determined and independent woman is determined to make the poison-filled atmosphere of Venus hospitable to humans. As impossible as it may seem she succeeds, supported by only one other soul, and founds a might dynasty.

Read Venus of Dreams and its sequel, and several other compelling and powerful Sargent E-Reads titles as well. Another related pair of her books, Watchstar and its sequel Eye of the Comet, will be completed by Homesmind. Watch this space for news that the trilogy is united once again.

RC

From the Land of Fear by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison describes the eleven stories in his collection From the Land of Fear as "side trips." He is too modest. Ellison's side trips are someone else's extended journey. Listen to what the late Roger Zelazny had to say about some of the tales:

Listen to the sigh in My Brother Paulie, just there at the end, the plaint in A Friend to Man, the deep wailings in Battle Without Banners, the strange tongues in Life Hutch, the horrible outcry of "We Mourn For Anyone ... ", the words of pain in Time of the Eye, the tones of anger in Back to the Drawing Boards and the voices deep and hoarse in The Sky Is Burning. And there are hands moving everywhere, slapping, poking, gesturing hands.

Zelazny was so struck by Harlan Ellison and his work that he had to use metaphysical imagery. Read his complete introduction here, and settle down (if you can, if you dare) with Harlan Ellison's riveting journey into the Land of Fear.

RC

Let's Get Transreal: E-Reads Reissues Two SF Classics by Cyberpunk Pioneer Rudy Rucker

Mathematician, computer scientist, programmer, software designer, teacher, lecturer, artist and pioneer in cellular automata - a perfect resumé for someone destined to become a science fiction writer. This curriculum vitae belongs to Rudy Rucker (for the long version, click on his page on the E-Reads website). Harder to predict from his background is that he would be a founder of the SF subgenre called Cyberpunk.

Rucker wrote his first science fiction novel, called Spacetime Donuts, in the summer of 1976, and E-Reads has the pleasure of bringing it back. Today it's in e-book, but shortly it will show up as a print volume as well. The logline? A seaweed-smoking rebel becomes an incredible shrinking man. Intrigued?

Subsequently he wrote six books, developing cyberpunk themes with such books as Software and Wetware. Each won a Philip K. Dick Award for best paperback SF novel of the year.

But Rucker wasn't finished innovating. He was developing a writing style he called transrealism, defined as writing about one’s real life in fantastic terms. One such book is The Sex Sphere, in which the author turns his time spent in Germany into a tale of higher dimensions and nuclear terrorism. That one too is an E-Reads e-book, and it too will soon be available in paper for those who like hard copy.

Rucker is a brilliant innovator and we're delighted to deliver these two terrific books to you.

RC

The Most Subversive Science Fiction Collection of All Time: Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions Back in Print at Last

In the mid-1960s enfant terrible Harlan Ellison invited - no, dared - cutting-edge science fiction writers to contribute to an anthology he was assembling. In 1967 Dangerous Visions was published; it was like introducing horse-and-buggy riders to a vehicle powered by a ramjet. Aside from its electrifying contents, written by a host of authors well on their way to immortality, the format of the book shattered rules, precedents and icons. For one thing, each contribution was introduced by Ellison and the authors furnished afterwords to their own stories.

The book and individual stories rolled up awards in a way that has not been remotely duplicated since: Philip K. Dick's story was nominated for a Hugo, but was beaten out by one by Fritz Leiber. The same Leiber story, Gonna Roll Them Bones, also won the Nebula that year. Philip José Farmer shared Leiber's Hugo in Best Novella category. Samuel R. Delany copped a Nebula for Best Short Story. Ellison himself was given a special citation at WorldCon. All in all, in this memorable collection of 33 original stories, seven are winners and 13 are nominees for Hugos and Nebulas.

Some other names in this stellar and (to this very day) controversial collection are: Lester Del Rey, Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Philip Jose Farmer, Miriam Allen deFord, Robert Bloch, Brian W. Aldiss, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Carol Emshwiller, Damon Knight, Theodore Sturgeon, R. A. Lafferty, J. G. Ballard, John Brunner, Norman Spinrad, Roger Zelazny and Samuel R. Delany.

Last Dangerous Visions, for the first time ever in e-book format (and soon to be in paperback), is the latest installment in E-Reads' initiative to bring back more than thirty major works by Harlan Ellison. Watch this page for more announcements.

RC

A War to the Death Against an Unknowable Alien

How do you write a sequel to a science fiction novel in which you've destroyed Earth and killed off most of its inhabitants? Greg Bear asked himself that question after completing Forge of God. But he did not shrink, or even hesitate, before the challenge. Not too many authors would have even attempted it; fewer would have triumphed so thoroughly. But behold Anvil of Stars, offered at last in e-book format.

After Earth's devastation by self-replicating robots, a handful of human survivors aided by a benevolent race of aliens sets out to confront the planet-killers. Turning their backs on their sundered mother world, they seek revenge against a race so vast, so technologically advanced and so heartless that the odds of succeeding are infinitesimal.

"A knotty philosophical question--how moral is "eye for an eye" revenge preoccupies Bear in this provocative and entertaining follow-up to Forge of God...Employing plausible new hard-science concepts, Bear fashions an action-packed and often thrilling plot; by using each of the well-depicted alien races to mirror human behavior, he defines what it means to be Homo Sapiens. Bear draws on the full range of his gifts, seamlessly pulling together action and characterization to create a gripping story." -- Publishers Weekly (Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Like Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, this sequel to The Forge of God explores the issues of morality and justice, using children as its vehicle. Bear's treatment differs, however, in that his characters have already lost their innocence and face their destiny with open eyes. As a stylist, Bear writes with a heady brilliance that communicates a sense of immediacy and credibility.” -- Library Journal

Our e-book edition of Forge of God is in production, so watch this space for announcement of its release.

RC

Bear's Magnificent Eon Trilogy United in E-Book Format

In Nebula and Hugo Award winner Greg Bear's Eon, the arrival of a 300-kilometer long stone was the answer to humanity's desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lay the remnants of a human society versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war. Deeper still within the stone is the Way. For some the Way meant salvation from death, for others it was a parallel world where loved ones live again. Here is some of the outpouring of acclaim for Eon:

"Eon may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet."
—The Washington Post

"Sharing aspects of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, its uniqueness arises from Bear's bold imagination. Bear is a writer of passionate vision. Eon is his grandest work yet."
—Locus

"A powerful, imaginative novel."
—Library Journal

"The only word for it really is blockbuster. It is big and breathtaking; the story and the concepts are ambitious to the point of mind boggling."
—Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine

Now, in Eternity, Bear returns to the Earth of Eon and it's clear that the first novel was a prequel to an even grander story. The crew of the asteroid-starship Thistledown has thwarted an attempt to sever the link to the Way, an endless corridor that spans universes. The asteroid had settled into orbit around Earth and discovered that the tunnel snaked away, forming a contained universe of its own. Forty years later, war breaks out to reopen The Way. And humankind is about to discover just how completely it has underestimated its ancient adversaries.

Eternity completes a trilogy that includes the prequel Legacy, and all three titles are now available for download at E-Reads as well more than a dozen other unforgettable works by the author rightfully described as the heir to the late Arthur C. Clarke's mantle.

RC

Greg Bear's Pasts: as Compelling as His Futures

Greg Bear is famous for his award-winning futuristic science fiction, but in Dinosaur Summer he brings us back to a lost world frozen in time for 70,000 years, replete with avisaurs, centrosaurs and ankylosaurs.

A professor mounts a daring expedition to return these Jurassic giants to the wild. Two filmmakers, a circus trainer, a journalist, and a young Peter Belzoni must find a way to take the dinosaurs across oceans, continents, rivers, jungles, and, finally up a mountain.

Read it either as an e-book or trade paperback, and when you're finished with Bear's prehistory, return to the future. E-Reads carries the largest selection of his science fiction of any publisher - seventeen at last count!

RC

This is Not - Repeat Not - A Sci-Fi Cover Painting

Last summer plans were revealed for a Dubai building so spectacular that if someone told you it was a rendering for a fantasy set in the 24th century painted by an artist stoned on ganja, you would nod and say, Of course. In fact, construction of the 80 story Dynamic Tower office/hotel/residence is scheduled to commence in 2009 and completion is slated for 2010.

Who would live there? The very rich, and obviously a few of that breed have survived the current economic horror show. One reporter writes that "Over 140 reservation requests have arrived from the United States, followed by the UK (94) and Australia (57), as well as Italy, China, New Zealand, and other countries throughout the world. More than 50 reservations were submitted specifically for the Dynamic Tower’s luxury villas, with prices starting at 20 million Euros (US $30 million)." There's another tower like this one in the works for Moscow.

And what is it about this building that inspires superlatives? How about, each floor revolves at its own speed? How about, each of the luxury "villas" on the top ten floors has its own parking space and swimming pool? How about, the building is energy efficient thanks to horizontal wind turbines separating each storey from the ones above and below? How about, the building is being prefabricated in Italy? How about, the architect says he never designed a skyscraper before this? One blogger describes it as "the single biggest mindf**k of our time...80 stories of rotating madness."

Check out Eye on Dubai: Spinning Skyscraper Lines Up 140 U.S. Buyers?!. A video is accompanied by Richard Strauss's Also Spracht Zarathustra, the same megapompous theme used in Stanley Kubrick's 2001, but one has to admit that the first glimpse of the tower inspires awe akin to that first breathtaking view of Kubrick's space station.

The structure does raise a few questions: plumbing, for instance. So let me get this straight: my master bedroom toilet starts out over your master bedroom toilet, but in ten minutes it will pass over your kitchen; ten minutes after that over your swimming pool, and ten after that over the Bentley in your garage. All this while the blades of a gigantic wind turbine whirl between my floor and your ceiling. So, when exactly do I flush?

Just asking.

RC

An Award-Winning Story That Comes With Its Own Study Guide

The centerpiece of Women in Deep Time, Greg Bear's trio of stories with a common theme, is the Nebula Award-winning novella Hardfought. The common theme is "the female psyche, multiplied and divided," says Bear in the book's introduction. "There's probably something Jungian in common with all three. At any rate, throughout my writing career (and for whatever reason) I've been fascinated by the feminine voice."

Featured in this special collection are "Sisters," "Scattershot," in which the inhabitants of many universes meet in limbo, and Hardfought, which deserves more than passing mention. In Bear's own words,

"Hardfought tells of a small portion in an eons-long war between humanity and the very ancient species of the Senexi. The narrative focuses on Prufax, a girl barely entering her adolescence, and Aryz, a Senexi whose job is to first understand humans and then, if successful, commit suicide. The violent coming together of these very different beings illustrates how understanding between humans and Senexi might be achieved and how such understanding could lead to peace."

In response to intense fascination with the story, Bear prepared a Study Guide in BookRags, but you will benefit best from it after you read the story and its sisters. "Hardfought is very densely written, intense in action and theme, and it demands that readers think," Bear advises. So, read it and come to your own conclusions before immersing yourself in the Study Guide.

The collection is available at once in paperback, and will soon be online for download, so revisit our site for updates, and check out the other superb works by this master science fiction storyteller for sale on E-Reads.

RC

Update: Greg Bear's Blood Music Ready for Download

Earlier this week we told you that Greg Bear's Blood Music was back in paperback. Now it's available as an e-book as well.

Here's what we wrote about it.

Greg Bear didn't invent the word "Nanotechnology". But he did produce what is arguably the finest novel ever written incorporating the principle. E-Reads is proud to announce the rerelease in paperback of Blood Music.

In Blood Music, a rogue genetic engineer named Vergil Ulam has been freelancing work on a formula he discovered on his job at a research firm. When his employers discover his activities and order him to destroy the formula, he injects himself with it and walks off the job, having no idea of just how the concoction will affect him. What is far more ominous, he has no idea that his formula will have a profound effect on the world. Bear’s tale of scientific hubris takes you far beyond the boundaries of science fiction stories about the evils of uncontrolled science. Indeed, few authors could project their imaginations into the fantastic and exquisitely limned realm where Bear takes his readers.

E-Reads is the leading publisher of Greg Bear's backlist. Check his author page for his novels and story collections. Some formats are still in production, so keep your eye peeled on our home page for updates.

RC

Greg Bear's Blood Music Back in Print

Greg Bear didn't invent the word "Nanotechnology". But he did produce what is arguably the finest novel ever written incorporating the principle. E-Reads is proud to announce the rerelease in paperback of Blood Music.

In Blood Music, a rogue genetic engineer named Vergil Ulam has been freelancing work on a formula he discovered on his job at a research firm. When his employers discover his activities and order him to destroy the formula, he injects himself with it and walks off the job, having no idea of just how the concoction will affect him. What is far more ominous, he has no idea that his formula will have a profound effect on the world. Bear’s tale of scientific hubris takes you far beyond the boundaries of science fiction stories about the evils of uncontrolled science. Indeed, few authors could project their imaginations into the fantastic and exquisitely limned realm where Bear takes his readers.

The paperback is available now. The e-book is in production; watch this page for announcement of its release.

E-Reads is the leading publisher of Greg Bear's backlist. Check his author page for his novels and story collections. Some formats are still in production, so keep your eye peeled on our home page for updates.

RC

Reduced to a Cinder, a Hostile World Smolders with Vengeance

Greg Bear calls George Zebrowski “one of those rare speculators who bases his dreams on science as well as inspiration.” Zebrowski has published more than seventy works of short fiction and more than a hundred and forty articles and essays in every major fantasy and science fiction publication. E-Reads carries a number of his books, and we're happy to say that some of his most visionary works are in production. We'll be announcing them soon. Until we do, The Omega Point Trilogy will keep you well absorbed.

6599 A.D. The war between the Earth Federation and the Herculean Empire has been over for more than three centuries. The planet in the Hercules Globular Cluster is a cinder; the few descendants of the surviving Empire live half a galaxy away in what seems to be a religious commune. But on an unnamed planet deep within the Hercules Cluster, two survivors, father and son, gather their resources and plan a reign of terror against Federation worlds.

Rising to one of the most unusual climaxes in recent fantastic literature, this novel of chase and vengeance depicts a colorful, poetic future struggling to overcome its past. Filled with striking twists and vivid ideas, Omega Point Trilogy is space adventure at its most modern.

When you finish it, check out Sunspacers Trilogy. Then watch this space for news of E-Reads Zebrowski releases.

RC

When the Only Viable Strategy is Denial

Susan Shwartz - Doctor Susan Shwartz if you please, for she received a Ph.D. in medieval English from Harvard University - has been nominated for both the World Fantasy and Nebula Awards. In Heritage of Flight, humanity is inextricably torn by an interplanetary war that could lead to the death of human society. Project Seedcorn is probably the last and best hope for the human race. A small group of refugees, scraping out an existence on the edge of human-occupied territory, has been given orders to live as though everything were ordinary and there were no war. Now, everyone's lives depend on the children.

RC

Greg Bear's City at the End of Time Selected One of Seven Best F&SF Books of 2008

Publishers Weekly, the official trade magazine of the publishing industry, released its list of of "the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry,nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's. In the Fantasy and Science Fiction category, Greg Bear's City at the End of Time (Del Rey) was named among the best, sharing honors with six other titles. Writes PW's Louisa Ermelino, "Bear returns triumphantly to large-scale science fiction with this complex, difficult tale of Seattle drifters sent on a mission to preserve the universe's last vestiges of consciousness."

E-Reads carries nine classic Greg Bear titles with more on the way.

RC

A Megalomaniacal Computer Way Ahead of Its TIme

John Markoff writing in the New York Times (A Robot Network Seeks to Enlist Your Computer) describes the terrifying phenomenon of robot-herding cyberbriminals turning computers loose on other computers to take them over for the purpose of sending out email spam, mine for financial information, or spread viruses. For all you know, your computer might be one of these very "zombies".

Markoff writes,

Botnets remain an Internet scourge. Active zombie networks created by a growing criminal underground peaked last month at more than half a million computers, according to shadowserver.org, an organization that tracks botnets. Even though security experts have diminished the botnets to about 300,000 computers, that is still twice the number detected a year ago.

The actual numbers may be far larger; Microsoft investigators, who say they are tracking about 1,000 botnets at any given time, say the largest network still controls several million PCs.

As I read the Times article bells went off and I remembered a marvelous novel, Lingo by Jim Menick, which I agented a while back and have since reissued in E-Reads. "Lingo" was Brewster Billings pet name for the home computer he programmed with the ability to talk to its owner. In time Lingo's intellectual achievements began to grow exponentially, rapidly exhausting its existing memory. Given the fact that the novel was published in 1991, you can imagine just how limited Lingo's memory was -- four or five megabytes of RAM, maybe?

Then Lingo figures out how to penetrate the memory banks of the military's ultra-secret computer network and ballistic missile launch system, and suddenly this light science fiction romp turns scary dark, especially when US government officials threaten to pull Lingo's plug. The Soviet Union's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile command is on full alert in case Lingo doesn't take kindly to threats.

Read Lingo, then reread Markoff's article and contemplate the power of today's computer's and the possibility that they could do a Lingo of their own and shake hands with their brothers and sisters in the Defense Department. If you don't have enough worries to keep you up all night long, that's definitely a candidate.

The reviews for Lingo were glowing:

“In the end, Lingo turns out to be among the more lighthearted catastrophe thrillers to be conceived since The Mouse That Roared. It makes you think a little, and it makes you smile a lot.”
–-Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in The New York Times

“A witty, ingenious, and thought-provoking gambol with a Frankenstein monster in computer clothing.”
-–Kirkus Reviews

“A delightful romp into a funny but frightening world of high-tech probabilities.”
-–Chicago Tribune

“Wildly comedic...realizes your worst fear of a computer taking over the world.”
-–Los Angeles Times

“Hilarious...entertaining and thought provoking.”
-–The Washington Post

- Richard Curtis

A Peek Behind the Curtain at John Norman's Prize of Gor

"What man, in his deepest heart," asks John Norman, "does not want to own a female, to have her for his own, utterly, as a devoted, passionate, vulnerable, mastered slave, and what woman, in her deepest heart, does not want to be so intensely desired, so unqualifiedly and fiercely desired, that nothing less than her absolute ownership will satisfy a male, her master?"

In a letter about Prize of Gor, the soon to be released 27th novel in his phenomenally popular Gorean Chronicles, Norman reasserts the philosophy that has intoxicated fans and appalled conventional readers. As for the latter, Norman asserts, "Perhaps some people cannot even understand such things, such desire, such passion. Let them then cling to their tepidities. Gor is for those who do understand such things."

If you are among those who have cast off your tepidities, Prize of Gor will be a rewarding if not rapturous read for you. Its protagonist is an older woman taken to Gor and given a drug that restores her youth. What exactly is the prize of the novel's title? "Prize of Gor is a Kajira novel," writes Norman. "The notion of 'prize' is quite Gorean, given the typical Gorean celebration of the intelligence and beauty of the human female, a form of life so remarkable, fascinating, exciting, and desirable to the Gorean male that he is typically content with nothing less than its possession."

Hear John Norman talk about his heroine:

... a college professor specializing in Feminist Studies, and such, whom life, largely due to the constraints of her ideology, self-image, and such, has largely passed by. She has never known love, for instance. Her life is closing, darkening about the edges, a life, as she now suspects, largely misguided, worthless, and wasted. In her youth, however, she was incredibly beautiful, and was so even in her first teaching years. Have we not all seen photos of elderly women as they were in their youth, and marveled at their beauty?...Let us see how her theories hold up, once she is at a man's feet, young, beautiful, and collared. She will learn the ways of Gor, and, in doing so, will learn her lost womanhood and its hitherto neglected possibilities, glories, and riches. She will then find herself, to her astonishment, on this incredible and vibrant world, a prize, one to become no more than a domestic animal which, at the merest word of a male, must kneel, press her lips to a whip, and hope to be found pleasing.

Watch this page for more news about Prize of Gor.

- Richard Curtis

William C. Dietz's Bodyguard Back in Paperback

E-Reads' rerelease of Bodyguard, William C. Dietz's science fiction thriller, is now available in paperback as well as e-book download. Just to refresh your memory...

Max Maxon is an ex-marine who makes his living with a gun. Sasha Casad is a rich teenager trying to catch the next spaceship home. Max's job is to get her there alive. Somebody's trying to stop them - somebody with plenty of money and firepower. That doesn't bother Max. A contract is a contract. Against all odds, he's going to fulfill this one.

And then he's going to make somebody pay.

Check it out along with nine other great reissues by this master storyteller.

- RC

When Microchips Collide: M. M. Buckner's Watermind

In November Tor will be releasing M. M. Buckner's great environmental thriller Watermind and if there's a drop of green in your bloodstream you owe it to yourself to order this breakthrough novel. It's about a brilliant scientist who discovers that castoff electronic chips and computers have not only begun to communicate with one another in pulses, but to combine with algae and other biota to form an intelligent entity with which the heroine is able to communicate. The problem is that not everyone considers the being to be benign. Norman Spinrad, reviewing it for Asimov's, describes it as "...a post-genre novel, a novel that works the interfaces between any number of genres, where the best modern fiction is now evolving."

A minor oversight in his review is that he calls Watermind Buckner's first novel. In fact it's her fourth. Indeed, of her three previous novels one was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick award and another won it in 2006. Visit Buckner's website for details.

E-Reads is proud to announce that it has acquired Buckner's backlist and will be releasing it in the coming year, so watch these pages for news of our releases.

- Richard Curtis