Maxima Library

After the Nuclear Spasm in the 21st century,

Homo sapiens

was extinct, save for a tiny remnant scattered in small, primitive space colonies. At first Solar Humanity had only one goal: survival. But when the battle for existence was won, humankind began moving outward in slow, multi-generation space ships, and as then millennia passed, planet-based civilizations emerged in many star systems. In the year 27,698 A.D, 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.

2010 D.C.

Sólo unos pocos seres humanos que habitan en las primitivas colonias en órbita en torno a la Tierra logran escapar a la hecatombe Nuclear. Deben iniciar el éxodo en busca de nuevos mundos lejos de la Tierra destruida.

27.698 D.C.

A estos mundos llegan los inmortales, seres con extraños lazos con la vieja tierra, que parecen vivir eternamente, que pueden recorres años luz en sólo unos días, y que utilizan sus extraños poderes apara controlar la existencia de los simples mortales. En el planeta Pentecostes, un pequeño grupo se prepara para encontrar a los Inmortales y enfrentarse a ellos. Pero en la búsqueda deberán transformase ellos mismos en inmortales y descubrirán una nueva amenaza que se cierne no sólo sobre ellos mismos sino sobre toda la galaxia.

To the citizens of the planet Erin, the Godspeed Drive is a legendary device from a lost age before the isolation of the Forty Worlds. To teenager Jay Hara, however, it is his one chance to claim his future in deep space—if he can find it. The author of Cold as Ice sets this coming-of-age adventure against the backdrop of a planet struggling in quiet desperation to hold onto the remnants of a dying technology. Despite the high-action content of his plot, Sheffield never slights his characters or his science. A good choice for most sf collections.

Una inteligencia artifical escapa al control de sus creadores y elabora sus propios planes sobre lo que quiere hacer, sin imporrtarle para ello el ser violenta para conseguirlo. Los humanos se unen a un grupo de razas alienígenas para trabajar juntas en la solución del problema, pero tienen muy diferentes ideas sobre cómo abordar el asunto.

El excepcional músico Drake Merlin se hace congelar junto a su esposa moribunda, Ana, con la esperanza de que el interés por sus estudios haga que le despierten en el futuro y pueda encontrar una cura para su amada. Cuando esto sucede, cinco siglos más tarde, Drake descubre que Ana aún no puede ser sanada, y emprende una apasionante carrera hacia el futuro despertando y congelándose en busca de la salvación de su esposa, atravesando el tiempo y hasta el espacio, desafiando las leyes físicas. Una emotiva y monumental historia escrita con una concisión y una garra pasmosas, repleta de ideas brillantes.

Charles Sheffield es uno de esos escritores de ciencia ficción que hace que el resto de nosotros piense seriamente en hacer carrera como vendedores de saldos. De hecho, la única razón por la que le permitimos vivir es que también somos lectores de ciencia ficción. Tiene la base científica de un Clarke, la capacidad narrativa de un Heinlein, la aguda ironía de un Pohl o un Kornbluth y la habilidad como constructor de universos de un Niven.

Spider Robinson

Como Newton en el siglo XVII o Eintein en el XX, McAndrew es el genio indiscutido de la física del siglo XXII. Los

kernels

, minúsculos agujeros negros cargados y en rotación, no tienen secretos para quien ha descubierto la forma de usarlos como fuente de energía. Su dominio de la ciencia y un sin par sentido práctico le llevan a inventar los más sorprendentes artilugios como la primera nave interestelar sin efectos de inercia. La pilota su compañera, la capitana Jeanie Roker y juntos explorarán a fondo el sistema solar interior, el Halo de cometas que le rodea y llegarán a viajar a Alfa Centauro, en medio de las más sorprendentes situaciones.

Seguir a McAndrew en sus aventuras es adentrarse con gran amenidad en un mundo de brillante especulación y saborear las delicias de la inteligencia.

Solo una minima parte dell’umanità riuscì a sfuggire alla catastrofe nucleare che nel 21° secolo devastò la Terra, rifugiandosi in primitive colonie orbitali attorno al pianeta. Ma una volta vinta la battaglia per la sopravvivenza, cominciò il grande esodo verso nuovi mondi nelle zone più remote dello spazio.

Dopo vari millenni ecco incombere su questi mondi la presenza degli Immortali, esseri che possiedono strani legami con la vecchia Terra, apparentemente in grado di estendere la propria vita all’infinito e di superare distanze di anni luce in pochi giorni. Sul pianeta Pentecoste, alcuni lontanissimi discendenti dell’umanità cercano di scoprire la vera natura degli Immortali, intuendo appena che il contatto con tali creature li porterà ad acquisire conoscenze inimmaginabili, tra cui il segreto dell’S-spazio normale. Ma si tratta solo del principio, perché seguono altre rivelazioni sull’intera storia dell’umanità, dall’origine alla distruzione della Terra e alla secolare diaspora nello spazio, che scatenano nuove inquietudini e rilanciano appassionanti interrogativi. Qual è infatti il segreto dell’enigmatico Punto di Convergenza, una zona lontanissima da ogni stella conosciuta? E fino a dove si estendono i poteri degli Immortali e la loro conoscenza del passato e del futuro dell’umanità? E quali sono, infine, le loro reali intenzioni?

Un epico e illuminante viaggio che interroga il destino dell’uomo nella vastità del cosmo, tra grandiose intuizioni ed ipotesi inedite che esaltano le virtù della miglior fantascienza.

Внимание! Английский оригинал состоит из четырёх частей (33 главы); в итальянском переводе только 29 глав — по непонятной причине отсутствует вся четвёртая часть.

Attention! The English original consists of four parts (33 chapters); the Italian translation includes only 29 chapters — for the reason yet unknown the entire fourth part is not present.

Attenzione! L’originale inglese è composto di quattro parti (33 capitoli); la traduzione italiano include soltanto 29 capitoli — per la raggione per adesso ignoto tutta la quarta parte non è presenta.

Lionel Salkind was a rising musical star. His twin brother, Leo Foss, was a researcher in government work that he couldn’t talk about. Then the helicopter they were flying crashed. When he woke up, Lionel learned that both he and Leo had sustained fatal injuries, and he was only alive because the surgeon had used organs from Leo to repair Lionel’s slightly less damaged body. More than half of Lionel’s brain was gone, and had been replaced with Leo’s. Lionel, in fact, had become His Brother’s Keeper. The book was written in 1982 and revised in 1998.

18th Century Europe: It is an age when superstition is beginning to give way to the force of human reason, and no man so fully embodies the spirit of the times as Dr. Erasmus Darwin. Thinker, healer, and explorer of the bizarre and the seemingly supernatural, no mystery can stand for long against Darwin’s enlightened analysis. And there are far more mysteries than history knows…

For Erasmus Darwin’s world is filled with oddities that most cannot believe: from unknown beings lurking just outside the boundaries of civilization, to anomalies that even the greatest natural philosophers will be hard-pressed to explain, to mysterious deaths that give rise to fears of malevolent sorcery.

And when the renowned Dr. Darwin is called upon to heal a man dying of an ailment that seems impossible, he has no idea that it is the beginning of a quest that will lead him to the darkest corners of Europe, and a stunning encounter with the most famous inhabitant of a certain Scottish loch…

An anthology of stories edited by Esther M. Freisner and Martin Harry Greenberg

In a collection of fantasy stories, warrior women take on pirates invading a charity ball, bring an obnoxious loremaster to justice, protect children from magically-summoned barbarian hordes, and rescue Tokyo from destructive reptiles.

Presenting the space adventures of Arthur Morton McAndrew, space-time expert and scientist extraordinaire, and his long-suffering companion, spaceship skipper Jeanie Roker. Jeanie first met McAndrew on a routine run to Titan and quickly learned he was a genius of the caliber of Newton or Einstein. When McAndrew invented a space drive that let frail humans survive hundreds of gravities of acceleration, he disappeared while testing it, and Jeanie had to find him, using a trail of cryptic messages he had left behind.

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, in spite of the gray hairs that Jeanie began accumulating as a result of McAndrew’s impractical nature and his talent for getting himself into trouble with much more practical villains, such as…

Rob Merlin was the best engineer who had ever lived. That was why "The King of Space" had to have him for the most spectacular construction project ever — even though Rob was a potentially fatal threat to his power… Thus begins a breakthrough novel by the former President of the American Astronautical Society, about an idea whose time has come: a shimmering bridge between Earth and space that mankind will climb to the stars! Sound like fantasy? The concept has been in the literature of physics for over three decades, but only a writer with the scientific background of a Sheffield or a Clarke could bring the idea to life.

They gave new meaning the phrase “nagging uncertainty…”