Maxima Library

THE UNIVERSE MAY NOT BE A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD . . .

“The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown,” the grand master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft, once wrote. And the greatest unknown is the vast universe, shrouded in eternal cosmic night. What things might be on other planets—or in the dark gulfs between the stars? 

Giving very unsettling answers to that question are such writers as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Sheckley, Philip K. Dick, James. H. Schmitz, Clark Ashton Smith, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Asher, Sarah A. Hoyt, and more, all equally masters of science fiction and of terror. 

One might hope that in the void beyond the earth will be found friendly aliens, benevolent and possibly wiser than humanity, but don’t be surprised if other worlds have unpleasant surprises in store for future visitors. And in vacuum, no one will be able to hear your screams—as if it would do any good if they could . . .

All alone: an idiot boy, a runaway girl, a severely retarded baby and twin girls with a vocabulary of two words between them. Yet, once they are mysteriously drawn together, this collection of misfits becomes something very, very different from the rest of humanity.

Mai troppo rimpianto, Theodore Sturgeon era uno dei pochi autori di cui la sf potesse essere davvero orgogliosa: scrittore maturo, intelligente, letterariamente raffinato, Sturgeon riusciva a trasportare nelle sue storie tutta la sua possente sensibilità interiore e a coinvolgere emotivamente il lettore con una intensità unica. Questa deliziosa «novella» è un tipico esempio delle sue enormi qualità: una piccola gemma finalmente ripescata dall’oblio e dai tempi d’oro di «Galaxy».

An anthology of stories

The Devil is known by many names: Serpent, Tempter, Beast, Adversary, Wanderer, Dragon, Rebel. His traps and machinations are the stuff of legends. His faces are legion. No matter what face the devil wears, Sympathy for the Devil has them all. Edited by Tim Pratt, Sympathy for the Devil collects the best Satanic short stories by Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Stephen King, Kage Baker, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Kelly Link, China Mieville, Michael Chabon, and many others, revealing His Grand Infernal Majesty, in all his forms. Thirty-five stories, from classics to the cutting edge, exploring the many sides of Satan, Lucifer, the Lord of the Flies, the Father of Lies, the Prince of the Powers of the Air and Darkness, the First of the Fallen… and a Man of Wealth and Taste. Sit down and spend a little time with the Devil.

Everything your rulers never wanted you to know and you were afraid to ask…

Ten classic stories from the birth of modern science fiction writing

The Golden Age of Science Fiction, from the early 1940s through the 1950s, saw an explosion of talent in SF writing including authors such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke.

Their writing helped science fiction gained wide public attention, and left a lasting impression upon society. The same writers formed the mould for the next three decades of science fiction, and much of their writing remains as fresh today as it was then.

Collected in one giant volume, here is the very best of the golden era. The stories include:

• A.E. van Vogt, ‘The Weapons Shop’

• Isaac Asimov, ‘The Big and the Little’

• Lester del Rey, ‘Nerves’

• Fredric Brown, ‘Daymare’

• Theodore Sturgeon, ‘Killdozer!’

• C.L. Moore, ‘No Woman Born’

• A. Bertram Chandler, ‘Giant Killer’.

Un mondo completamente diverso dal nostro; la civiltà dei ledom, enigmatiche creature ermafrodite, che hanno osato rivoluzionare sesso e religione per ottenere quello che l’homo sapiens non ha mai avuto. Charlie Johns, un uomo come tanti altri, uno di, noi, scaraventato d’improvviso in una situazione estranea, costretto ad osservare e giudicare questa civiltà alternativa. Da questi elementi Theodore Sturgeon, uno dei massimi autori americani di science-fiction, ha tratto una storia sublime e impegnativa; ha costruito un’opera che scava ’nelle nostre coscienze, indagando senza pietà sino al fondo della storia umana. Un romanzo che non è semplicemente un romanzo: una stupefacente lezione di libertà, un canto corale sul futuro del nostro pianeta. E i bambini diventano divinità, il tempo perde le dimensioni consuete, il cielo è una cupola d’energia. Attraverso una trama magicamente semplice, ricca di simbolismi e d’inventiva, Sturgeon tiene avvinto il lettore fino all’agghiacciante conclusione. Come ha scritto Frederik Pohl: “Forse questo non e il romanzo più strano di Sturgeon, ma e senz’altro il più bello.”

Nominate per il premio Hugo per il miglior romanzo in 1961.

Een hedendaagse man bevindt zich opeens in de wereld van de toekomst (?), bevolkt door eigenaardige wezens. Een wereld met een vreemde, onveranderlijk grijze lucht en eigenaardige bouwwerken Tussen de gebouwen zijn verbindingen die je niet kan zien zodat het lijkt of je in de lucht wandelt. Maar zoveel is zeker, de wereld is de Aarde en de wezens zijn mensen. Maar hoever in de toekomst is hij? En het ergste is: het zijn wel mensen die hem omringen, maar het zijn geen mannen of vrouwen.Zijn gastheren/vrouwen zijn beide. Hermafroditische mensen met de kenmerken van beide geslachten. De man uit onze tijd heeft vooral moeite om dit te verwerken. Hij probeert te achterhalen wat er van zijn wereld is geworden en hoe deze wereld is ontstaan. De ontknoping is een overweldigende verrassing. Sturgeon is een van de weinige sf-auteurs die (zoals Philip José Farmer, sf 8 en sf 30) de seksuele moraal ter discussie stellen.