Maxima Library

This is the story of the initial contact between the larls, a predator native to another world, and the human settlers, as recounted by a memory damaged soldier from a tale he heard as a youth. Brief and to the point, the contact is costly but highly useful to both sides.

"Ancient Engines" is a science fiction short story published in 1999 by Michael Swanwick. It was nominated for the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Short Story as well as the 1999 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. The story begins when a drunken human insults a mech in a bar. The resulting fight nearly kills the human, who is saved only by the mech's kindness. As the mech starts to leave he is invited to sit and talk with an old man and his granddaughter. They have a discussion about what it would really take to build a machine that would last forever.

Paleontologist Richard Leyster has achieved professional nirvana: a position with the Smithsonian Museum plus a groundbreaking dinosaur fossil site he can research, publish on, and learn from for years to come. There is nothing that could lure him away—until a disturbingly secretive stranger named Griffin enters Leysters office with an ice cooler and a job offer. In the cooler is the head of a freshly killed Stegosaurus.

Griffin has been entrusted with an extraordinary gift, an impossible technology on loan to humanity from unknown beings for an undisclosed purpose. Time travel has become a reality millions of years before it rationally could be. With it, Richard Leyster and his colleagues can make their most cherished fantasy come true. They can study the dinosaurs up close, in their own time and milieu.

Now, suddenly, individual lives can turn back on themselves. People can meet, shake hands, and converse with their younger versions at various crossroads in time. One wrong word, a single misguided act, could be disastrous to the project and to the world. But Griffin must make sure everything that is supposed to happen does happen—no matter who is destined to be hurt… or die.

And then there’s Dr. Gertrude Salley—passionate, fearless, and brutally ambitious—a genius rebel in the tight community of “bone men” and women. Alternately both Leyster’s and Griffin’s chief rival, trusted colleague, despised nemesis, and inscrutable lover at various junctures throughout time, Salley is relentlessly driven to screw with the working mechanisms of natural law, audaciously trespassing in forbidden areas, pushing paradox to the edge no matter what the consequences may be. And, when they concern the largest, most savage creatures that ever lived, the consequences may be terrifying indeed.

Domani il mondo cambierà è un romanzo affascinante e ricco d’azione, ma che si presta a molte letture. Siamo su un pianeta distante anni-luce dalla Terra, in un’epoca in cui l’umanità si è ormai stabilita fra le stelle: ma la grandiosa tecnologia che permette all’uomo di imbrigliare le forze dell’universo qui non è mai arrivata. Non è un caso: il pianeta è tenuto in isolamento artificiale, una specie di “quarantena” tecnologica che potrà essere spezzata solo con un gesto disperato, un furto di sapore prometeico… L’avvincente storia raccontata da Swanwick è quella di tale furto, della caccia all’uomo che ne segue e di un mondo intero sull’orlo di un cambiamento epocale: quello promesso dalla nuova scienza e quello a cui il pianeta va periodicamente incontro a causa delle sue insolite caratteristiche climatiche. Un libro d’avventura con una storia diversa, per scoprire uno dei migliori romanzieri americani affacciatisi alla scena negli anni Ottanta. Anche pubblicato come Stazioni delle maree. Vincitore del premio Nebula in 1991. Nominato per i premi Hugo e Campbell in 1992. Nominato per il premio di Arthur Clarke in 1993.

Griffin's Egg, while very short (75 pages) "has the multiplex attack of a true novel" (John Clute). This is Swanwick at his hard-SF best, in a setting that's a prequel to "Trojan Horse" and Vacuum Flowers. Radical neuroengineering bears its first fruit - an aerosol schizomimetic war gas. Which gets it first use inside the lunar habitat. It's a horrifying vision - Swanwick is disturbingly good at those - etched in literally hallucinatory clarity. Breughel and Bosch come to mind, with a nod to Shakespeare's Ophelia. Griffin's Egg is one of the most brilliant and compelling of modern-day Moon-colony stories.

Mankind comes face to face with extraterrestrial life in this short fiction reprint anthology from Clarkesworld publisher Neil Clarke.

They Are Strangers from Far Lands…

Science fiction writers have been using aliens as a metaphor for the other for over one hundred years. Superman has otherworldly origins, and his struggles to blend in on our planet are a clear metaphor for immigration. Earth’s adopted son is just one example of this “Alien Among Us” narrative.

There are stories of assimilation, or the failure to do so. Stories of resistance to the forces of naturalization. Stories told from the alien viewpoint. Stories that use aliens as a manifestation of the fears and worries of specific places and eras. Stories that transcend location and time, speaking to universal issues of group identity and its relationship to the Other.

Nearly thirty authors in this reprint anthology grapple both the best and worst aspects of human nature, and they do so in utterly compelling and entertaining ways. Not One of Us is a collection of stories that aren’t afraid to tackle thorny and often controversial issues of race, nationalism, religion, political ideology, and other ways in which humanity divides itself.

What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any

possible

world?

We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From

The Wizard of Oz

to

The Dark Tower

, from Philip Pullman’s

The Golden Compass

to C. S. Lewis’s

The Chronicles of Narnia

, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.

Review

“Anthologist Adams presents readers with a wide variety of alternate Earths, some only slightly askew and others completely unfamiliar. […] Adams’s selections are mirrors reflecting one other with the best images of alternate realities. Readers will greatly enjoy this exploration of our world's foremost and ascendant speculative authors.”

—

Publishers Weekly

(Starred Review)

“Reminds longtime readers of fantasy and sci-fi what we love about the genre, while also and aptly demonstrating to newcomers that these stories are about so much more than dragons and multitentacled monsters. It comes highly recommended to both and all.”

—

Bookgasm

“Radiant Doors” follows Virginia, a woman who works for the aid organization helping millions of refugees from a future Earth. They have traveled to the present through time portals called “radiant doors,” and are fleeing the horrors of the future leaders of Earth – the Owners. As the refugees arrive they are interviewed in an effort to glean as much information about the Owners as possible. It is during one such interview that a woman gives Virginia a small, humming, multi-colored device she brought with her from the future. It was supposedly used to control people’s actions, but Viginia isn’t about to turn it over to the government. She hangs on to it, and in the process becomes Golem-like obsessed with it! It turns out to be a pretty important doo-hickey, and a lot of people eventually come looking for it.

"A stunning collection from one of science fiction's very best writers. Pay in blood, if necessary, but don't miss these stories." —Nancy Kress

Cyberpunk is dead

The revolution has been co-opted by half-assed heroes, overclocked CGI, and tricked-out sunglasses. Once radical, cyberpunk is nothing more than a brand.

Time to stop flipping the channel

These sixteen extreme stories reveal a government ninja routed by a bicycle repairman, the inventor of digitized paper hijacked by his college crush, a dead boy trapped in a warped storybook paradise, and the Queen of England attacked with the deadliest of forbidden technology: a working modem. You'll meet Manfred Macx, renegade meme-broker, Red Sonja, virtual reality sex-goddess, and Felix, humble sysadmin and post-apocalyptic hero.

Editors James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel (Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology) have united cyberpunk visionaries William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Pat Cadigan with the new post-cyberpunk vanguard including Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, and Jonathan Lethem. Including a canon-establishing introduction and excerpts from a hotly-contested online debate, Rewired is the first anthology to define and capture the crackling excitement of the post-cyberpunks.

From the grittiness of Mirrorshades to the Singularity and beyond, it's time to revive the revolution.

Are you ready?

“Scherzo with Tyrannosaur” is an award winning 1999 science fiction short story by Michael Swanwick. It is about the director of a dinosaur research center who holds a time-line-polluting fund raiser.

Prepare to be seduced by powerful magic — the sorcery of lust, need, and sensuality. Multiple award-winners Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have gathered together twenty-two tales of unearthly temptations wickedly concocted by some of today's most potent literary conjurers — including Neil Gaiman, Jan Yolen, Michael Swanwick, and Joyce Carol Oates. Here are stories of incubi and succubi, of forbidden fruits harvested in erotic gardens, of pleasures that persist beyond death. So heed the sirens' song. Lie back, relax, and submit to the darkest delights you have ever experienced.

“Slow Life” is a 2002 science fiction novelette by Michael Swanwick. It is about an astronaut on Titan who believes she is in communication with a newfound life form.

As the planet Miranda slowly drowns under the weight of its own tides, a bureaucrat from the Division of Technology Transfer conducts an investigation into the life of a local celebrity, a “magician” who possesses proscribed technology and whose personal powers hold much of the dying planet in thrall.

Won Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1992.

Nominated for Hugo and Campbell awards in 1992.

Nominated for Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1993.

Hugo Best Short Story winner (2002).

A fantasy masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner!

A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the idyllic fields of a post-industrialized Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes young Will his lieutenant. Nightly, he crawls inside the young fey's brain to get a measure of what his subjects think.

Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, witnesses the violent clash of giants, and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal. Evacuated to the Tower of Babel -- infinitely high, infinitely vulgar, very much like New York City -- Will meets the confidence trickster Nat Whilk. Inside the Dread Tower, Will becomes a hero to the homeless living in the tunnels under the city, rises as an underling to a politician, and meets his one true love - a high-elven woman he dare not aspire to.

You've heard of hard SF: This is hard fantasy from a master of the form.

The vast and mysterious universe is explored in this reprint anthology from award-winning editor and anthologist Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld magazine, The Best Science Fiction of the Year).

The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them.

Generations of writers have explored these new frontiers and the endless possibilities they present in great detail. With galaxy-spanning adventures of discovery and adventure, from generations ships to warp drives, exploring new worlds to first contacts, science fiction writers have given readers increasingly new and alien ways to look out into our broad and sprawling universe.

The Final Frontier delivers stories from across this literary spectrum, a reminder that the universe is far large and brimming with possibilities than we could ever imagine, as hard as we may try.

[Contains tables.]

The changeling's decision to steal a dragon and escape was born, though she did not know it then, the night the children met to plot the death of their supervisor…

With these words, author Michael Swanwick ushers us into a remarkable realm of darkest fantasy, erotic dreams and industrial magicks—equaling the undiluted power and uniqueness of vision of his Nebula award-winning masterwork

STATIONS OF THE TIDE.

Jane is a human changeling child coming of age in a world of violence and monsters. An abused outcast, she toils unceasingly alongside trolls, dwarves, shifters and feys in the dank, stygian bowels of a steam dragon plant—helping to construct the massive, black iron flying machines the elvan rulers use for waging war. Young Jane's days are bleak and her future seems hopeless—until a cold yet tantalizing inner voice whispers to her of high lakes, autumn stars…and freedom.

The voice leads her to a junkyard dragon—old and broken, kept alive by hatred and a still-unsatisfied thirst for blood. And he promises to help Jane escape, if she will, in turn, help him to fly again. But untold wonders and terrors both lie beyond the factory gates—where a true name is a weapon…and erotic temptations wait to corrupt a young girl already hardened by life's cruel inequities.

A quick mind and a taste and talent for thievery will sustain Jane, however, on her strange and arduous journey from slave to student, from alchemist to avenger—while drugs and dreams transport her Elsewhere, on fleeting trips to a stolen reality. And through it all, the dragon lurks in the shadows—filling her head with violent visions, drawing her into a web of unknown plots and unseen forces. And, ultimately, at his controls, the changeling will confront the powers that have always ruled her life—seeking impossible answers through the obliteration of history…and the end of all things.

World Fantasy (nominee)

Arthur C. Clarke Award (nominee)

“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth!”

From White Zombie to Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil to World War Z, zombies have invaded popular culture, becoming the monsters that best express the fears and anxieties of the modern west. Gathering together the best zombie literature of the last three decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale, The Living Dead covers the broad spectrum of zombie fiction.

Женщина-космонавт, застрявшая на спутнике Юпитера с мертвой напарницей на руках и запасом кислорода на сорок часов, отправляется в последнее путешествие, пытаясь выжить и не сойти с ума. Один из самых сильных рассказов Суэнвика, который после бесконечных номинаций получил за него свою первую премию Хьюго. Пронзительное повествование об усталости и одиночестве, о тонкой грани между здоровым человеком и безумцем. © plat0n, fantlab.ru

The multiple Locus Award-winning annual collection of the year’s best science fiction stories.

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self-evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the field. With an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.

"Trojan Horse" is about a woman named Elin; she seems to be recovering from an accident or something, and now she has a new man in her life named Tory. But what do Tory's feelings for her really mean? The story also has an interesting Jesuit character named Landis; she is a great comfort to Elin, but she may be having doubts of her own about faith and what it means to be human.

«Вакуумные цветы» Майкла Суэнвика – один из лучших американских романов в жанре «киберпанк». Солнечная Система превратилась в один огромный мегалополис, где могущественные транспланетные корпорации соседствуют с орбитальными «трущобами», где одни люди программируют себя по облику и подобию популярных героев, а другие добровольно становятся ячейками глобального искусственного разума. Но и в этом столь необычном мире находится место для чистых и светлых человеческих чувств...

Ever since finishing his acclaimed new novel, Jack Faust (Avon), Michael Swanwick has had an outpouring of short fiction. We’ve been lucky to be c the receiving end for most of these stories. In his latest tale, he reveals the high cost of serenity and the even higher cost of freedom.