Maxima Library

In this first collaboration by science fiction masters Larry Niven (

Ringworld

) and Gregory Benford (

Timescape

), the limits of wonder are redrawn once again as a human expedition to another star system is jeopardized by an encounter with an astonishingly immense artifact in interstellar space: a bowl-shaped structure half-englobing a star, with a habitable area equivalent to many millions of Earths…and it’s on a direct path heading for the same system as the human ship.

A landing party is sent to investigate the Bowl, but when the explorers are separated — one group captured by the gigantic structure’s alien inhabitants, the other pursued across its strange and dangerous landscape — the mystery of the Bowl’s origins and purpose propel the human voyagers toward discoveries that will transform their understanding of their place in the universe.

An anthology of stories edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H Greenberg and Charles G Waugh

Gedurende het Tweede Imperium van het grote Aardse ruimterijk wordt plotseling een ruimteschip van onbekende herkomst ontdekt dat, aan de koers te zien, afkomstig is uit de richting van ‘Murchisons Oog’. Dit betekent het allereerste contact met ‘buitenaardsen’. Murchisons Oog is de enige ster in de Kolenzaknevel die op grote afstand nog te zien is. Het is een grote, rode ster, met in een hoek een klein wit lichtend puntje, dat De Splinter in Gods Oog wordt genoemd.

Een kleine expiditie van twee schepen wordt derwaarts gestuurd en men maakt al snel contact met de vreemde Splinterbeschaving. Door gesprekken en bezichtigingen probeert de expeditie zich een betrouwbaar beeld te vormen van dit volk. maar waarom houden de vreemdelingen een aantal zaken uit alle macht verborgen? En wat is de betekenis van de vreemde Fyunch(klik)s, die de expiditieleden overal volgen? Eén ding is overduidelijk: de Splinters hopen binnenkort de mogelijkheid tot emigratie te verwerven. En dat is voor het Imperium onder deze omstandigheden een bijzonder moeilijke beslissing…

In ferner Zukunft: Die menschliche Rasse hat einen Teil der Galaxis besiedelt, hat Großreiche gegründet, die wieder zerfielen, hat Bürgerkriege ausgefochten und neue Imperien aufgebaut, ist in interstellares Neuland vorgedrungen — auf eine andere intelligente Rasse ist sie nie gestoßen. Da naht aus dem Bereich des Kohlensack-Nebels, aus einem System, dessen Zentralgestirn Splitter im Auge Gottes genannt wird, ein rätselhaftes Flugobjekt — eine Sonde, die von einem Lichtsegel angetrieben wird. Ein Schiff der Raumflotte fängt das Objekt ab, bevor es in eine Sonne stürzt. Das seltsame Lebewesen, das sich an Bord befindet, kommt bei dem riskanten Bergungsmanöver ums Leben. Es war der Abgesandte einer völlig andersartigen, offensichtlich uralten und technologisch hochentwickelten Rasse. Hatte er die Möglichkeit, vor seinem Tod eine Botschaft an seine Heimatwelt abzusetzen? Hat er die Begegnung mit den Menschen als Angriff auf sich und sein Schiff interpretiert? Es gibt nur eine Möglichkeit, der potentiellen Gefahr zu begegnen und guten Willen zu beweisen: das Heimatsystem der Fremden aufzusuchen. Ein Wettlauf mit der Zeit beginnt.

Der Splitter ist ein Werk über die Begegnung von Menschen mit einer anderen hochentwickelten Spezies. Niven und Pournelle haben dafür ein schlüssiges Universum generiert und sich weitgehend an die Erkenntnisse der Physik und Astronomie gehalten.

Cuando EL MARTILLO DE LUCIFER, el cometa gigante, chocó contra la Tierra, hizo pedazos la civilización. Los días felices habían terminado. Estaban viviendo el fin del mundo. Los terremotos eran tan fuertes que no podían medirse con la escala de Ritcher. Las olas marinas alcanzaban alturas incalculables. Las ciudades se convirtieron en océanos, y los océanos en nubes. Era el principio de la nueva Edad del Hielo. Y el final de los gobiernos, los planes, los hospitales y el derecho. Y sobre ellos, igual que otro martillo del demonio, la más terrible selección del hombre hecha por el hombre que jamás se había producido.

Having been shot down over the North Dakota glacier, two Space Habs astronauts find themselves paralyzed by the Earth's gravity and at the center of a ruthless manhunt by the United States government..

For decades, the spacefaring species of Known Space have battled over the largest artifact — and grandest prize — in the galaxy: the all-but-limitless resources and technology of the Ringworld. But without warning, the Ringworld has vanished, leaving behind three rival war fleets.

Something must justify the blood and treasure that have been spent. If the fallen civilization of the Ringworld can no longer be despoiled of its secrets, the Puppeteers will be forced to surrender theirs. Everyone knows that the Puppeteers are cowards.

But the crises converging upon the trillion Puppeteers of the Fleet of Worlds go far beyond even the onrushing armadas:

Adventurer Louis Wu and the exiled Puppeteer known only as Hindmost, marooned together for more than a decade, escaped from the Ringworld before it disappeared. And throughout those years, as he studied Ringworld technology, Hindmost has plotted to reclaim his power ...

Ol''t''ro, the Gw''oth ensemble mind — and the Fleet of Worlds'' unsuspected puppet master for a century — is deviously brilliant. And increasingly unbalanced ...

Proteus, the artificial intelligence on which, in desperation, the Puppeteers rely to manage their defenses, is outgrowing its programming — and the supposed constraints on its initiative ...

Sigmund Ausfaller, paranoid and disgraced hero of the lost human colony of New Terra, knows that something threatens his adopted home world — and that it must be stopped ...

Achilles, the megalomaniac Puppeteer — twice banished, and twice rehabilitated — sees the Fleet of Worlds'' existential crisis as a new opportunity to reclaim supreme power. Whatever the risks ...

One way or another, the fabled race of Puppeteers may have come to the end of their days.

"Flash Crowd" is a 1973 novella by science fiction author Larry Niven, one of a series about the social consequence of inventing an instantaneous, practically free transfer booth that could take one anywhere on Earth in milliseconds.

One consequence not foreseen by the builders of the system was that with the almost instantaneous reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide — along with criminals — would flock to the scene of anything interesting, hoping to experience or exploit the instant disorder and confusion so created.

In various other books, for example 

Ringworld

, Niven suggests that easy transportation might be disruptive to traditional behavior and open the way for new forms of parties, spontaneous congregations, or shopping trips around the world. The central character in Ringworld, celebrating his birthday, teleports across time-zones to «lengthen» his birthday multiple times (particularly notable since the hardcover first edition had the error of the character heading the wrong direction, increasing that edition's value).

from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Crowd

The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to our solar system from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft. The aliens are intent on taking over the Earth.

Physically, the Fithp resemble man-sized, quadrupedal elephants with multiple trunks. They possess more advanced technology than humans, but have developed none of it themselves. In the distant past on their planet, another species was dominant, with the Fithp existing as animals, perhaps even as pets. This predecessor species badly damaged the environment, rendering themselves and many other species extinct, but left behind their knowledge inscribed on large stone cubes (called

Thuktunthp

, plural of

Thuktun

in the Fithp language), from which the Fithp have gained their technology. The study of Thuktun is the only science the Fithp possess. The Fithp are armed with a technology that is superior rather than incomprehensible: laser cannon, projectile rifles, controlled meteorite strikes to bombard surface targets, lightcraft surface-to-orbit shuttles the size of warships, etc.

Nominated for Hugo and Locus awards in 1986.

What would you do if this were your last night on earth?

The story won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1972.

Año 3017 d.C. Aunque el Segundo Imperio del Hombre abarca cientos de sistemas solares, todavía no se ha contactado con otros seres inteligentes. El hallazgo de una insólita nave espacial con el cuerpo exánime de un alienígena en el interior conducirá a los humanos hasta una lejana estrella inmersa en una densa nube de polvo estelar: la Paja. Una expedición descubrirá allí una antiquísima civilización, amable y hospitalaria, pero que rehúye tratar de ciertos aspectos de su sociedad. Y es que bajo las sonrisas tranquilizadoras, los pajeños ocultan un secreto planetario de impacto universal y devastador. Compuesta a cuatro manos en perfecta sintonía, esta novela conjuga acción, drama, suspense, tecnología y alienígenas verosímiles, política y violencia. Su extraordinario poder de entretenimiento y sorpresa la ha convertido en una auténtica obra de culto.

D’un trou noir dans les profondeurs de l’espace a jailli un rayon de lumière rubis cent fois plus brillant que la Lune.

Était-ce l’Œil dans le Visage de Dieu ou le soleil sanglant de nos premiers visiteurs intergalactiques ?

La mission de l’astronef Mac Arthur est difficile. il doit rechercher et affronter un monde extra-terrestre où des êtres étranges et peu communicatifs défient toute biologie connue... où des créatures minuscules, à la fois savantes et idiotes, sont utilisées en guise d’armes redoutables... où des sourires rassurants dissimulent un secret planétaire dont l’utilisation aurait un effet dévastateur dans l’Univers.

« Surtout, en dit Frank Herbert, l’auteur célèbre de Dune et La Ruche d’Hellstrom, ce roman présente une approche nouvelle et brillante du problème fascinant de la première rencontre avec des extra-terrestres. »

« C’est peut-être, le meilleur roman de science-fiction que j’ai jamais lu », renchérit Robert Heinlein, l’un des maîtres les plus fameux du genre.

The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival — a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known…

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978.

La vie d’un Pak passait par trois phases : jeune, reproducteur, et enfin protecteur. Phssthpok était un protecteur. Il voyageait depuis près de 32 000 ans. Sa mission était de rechercher, sauver, développer et protéger le groupe de Paks reproducteurs envoyé dans l’espace quelque deux millions et demi d’années auparavant…

Brennan était un Zonier, le produit d’une société indépendante, plutôt anarchique qui vivait dans la Zone des Astéroïdes. Les Zoniers étaient tous des rebelles et Brennan était un contrebandier.

Les mondes de la Zone avaient repéré et pistaient le vaisseau Pak depuis des jours. Brennan comptait l’atteindre le premier…

On ne le revit jamais… du moins, sous la forme humaine.

Anche pubblicato come “Stella al neutronio”.

Explore fascinating, often chilling “what if” accounts of the world that could have existed–and still might yet…Science fiction’s most illustrious and visionary authors hold forth the ultimate alternate history collection. Here you’ll experience mind-bending tales that challenge your views of the past, present, and future, including:

• “The Lucky Strike”: When The Lucky Strike is chosen over The Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb, fate takes an unexpected turn in Kim Stanley Robinson’s gripping tale.

• “Bring the Jubilee”: Ward Moore’s novella masterpiece offers a rebel victory at Gettysburg which changes the course of the Civil War… and all of American history.

• “Through Road No Wither”: After Hitler’s victory in World War II, two Nazi officers confront their destiny in Greg Bear’s apocalyptic vision of the future.

• “All the Myriad Ways”: Murder or suicide, Ambrose Harmon’s death leads the police down an infinite number of pathways in Larry Niven’s brilliant and defining tale of alternatives and consequences.

• “Mozart in Mirrorshades”: Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner explore a terrifying era as the future crashes into the past–with disastrous results.

…as well as works by Poul Anderson • Gregory Benford • Jack L. Chalker • Nicholas A. DiChario • Brad Linaweaver • William Sanders • Susan Shwartz • Allen Steele • and Harry Turtledove himself!

The definitive collection: fourteen seminal alternate history tales drawing readers into a universe of dramatic possibility and endless wonder

Shoogar was on the warpath. The villagers wondered uneasily if they should pack. The last time their protector had done this he had blown the whole village to hell and they had all had to trek to find a new area. Still, he had proved his point. Shoogar was indeed a mighty witch doctor — and his flock took a kind of resigned pride in his power. After all, who knew what the new invader could do? Better the protector you know than the one you don’t. Had they but known the marvels and monstrosities that Shoogar in his rage would bring about they would have fled shrieking. Which of course they did — for a while. But Shoogar drew them back, for his power was great. And they didn’t really have any place else to go. No place, that is, that had as many interesting possibilities as Shoogar’s wild and woolly mind could conceive …

Nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1972.

Some things have to be done personally!