Maxima Library

First published in the anthology

Dante’s Disciples

, edited by Peter Crowther and Edward E. Kramer (White Wolf, February 1996). In 2008 was included in 

Iterations And Other Stories

collection (1st edition Quarry Press, January 2002).

Winner of the CompuServe Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum’s Sixth Annual HOMer Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

Un esperimento scientifico induce un temporaneo spostamento della percezione collettiva. Improvvisamente tutti gli abitanti della Terra vanno avanti nel tempo di ventun anni, e possono così vedere alcuni minuti del loro futuro mentre i loro corpi rimangono in stato d’incoscienza.

Quando il mondo si risveglia c’è chi ha osservato eventi devastanti o deprimenti, chi ha visto realizzare i suoi sogni e desideri, chi non ha trovato assolutamente nulla…

Un romanzo che affronta con sicurezza e profondità molte questioni di interesse scientifico e filosofico sulla responsabilità morale, sulla causalità degli eventi e sulla natura umana, rinnovando la tradizione della fantascienza classica di Isaac Asimov e Robert Heinlein.

An anthology of stories edited by John Joseph Adams.

From

Dracula

to

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

; from

Castlevania

to

Tru Blood

, the romance between popular culture and vampires hearkens back to humanity’s darkest, deepest fears, flowing through our very blood, fears of death, and life, and insatiable hunger. And yet, there is an attraction, undeniable, to the vampire archetype, whether the pale European count, impeccably dressed and coldly masculine, yet strangely ambiguous, ready to sink his sharp teeth deep into his victims’ necks, draining or converting them, or the vamp, the count’s feminine counterpart, villain and victim in one, using her wiles and icy sexuality to corrupt man and woman alike… Edited by John Joseph Adams (

Wastelands

,

The Living Dead

),

By Blood We Live

gathers together the best vampire literature of the last three decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror.

When aliens land in Toronto, they present astounding evidence that their planet and Earth have experienced the same cataclysmic events — evidence that they claim proves the existence of God.

El cincuenta por ciento de posibilidades de haber desarrollado una enfermedad degenerativa incurable era ya bastante malo, pero Pierre Tradivel, investigador del Proyecto Genoma humano, descubrió que todo podía empeorar… Con la amenaza de ujn grupo de nazis, por ejemplo, o tratando de conseguir un seguro médico para descubrir que la seguradora está tomando muestras genéticas de sus clientes, o, cuando prosigue sus pesquisas, encontrando una cadena de asesinatos sin resolver cuyas víctimas son personas aseguradas por la compañía.

La conclusión puede ser terrible. ¿Acaso los adelantos científicos que el mismo Pierre está haciendo son empleados para incrementar los beneficios de las compañías aseguradoras? Y todo puede empearar.

Finding a real congregation on Mars wasn’t going to be easy — in fact he had to admit it would be a miracle if it ever happened…

Aby sprawdzić swe teorie odnoszące się do nieśmiertelności i życia pozagrobowego, stworzył trzy komputerowe symulacje własnej osobowości.

Z pierwszej kopii usunięto wszelkie wspomnienia powiązane z fizyczną egzystencją — to symulacja życia po śmierci.

Drugą kopię pozbawiono wiedzy o starzeniu się i śmierci — to symulacja nieśmiertelności.

Trzeciej osobowości nie poddano modyfikacjom — to kopia kontrolna.

Trzy wirtualne osobowości Hobsona uciekają z laboratoryjnego komputera do obejmującej cały świat elektronicznej pajęczyny. Jedna z nich jest mordercą.

Una lanzadera espacial alienígena aterriza delante de un museo de la ciencia. Las compuertas de la nave se abren y de ésta desciende un ser con forma de araña gigantesca que, bajo la atónita mirada de los presentes solicita si puede ver a un paleontólogo. Así empieza una insólita investigación alienígena que pretende demostrar la existencia de Dios, pese a los recelos de Tom D. Jericho, un paleontólogo que, como tantos científicos racionalistas, parece no necesitar en absoluto la hipótesis de la existencia de un Dios creador. Pero tom no sólo se enfrentará a un dilema científico sino también a su propia e irremediable finitud, cuando le diagnostiquen un cáncer terminal. ¿Será entonces capaz de poner en cuestión sus teorías racionalistas acerca de la inexistencia del Creador?

El doctor Hobson ha creado un monstruo. O mejor dicho, tres. Para probar sus teorías sobre la inmortalidad y la posible existencia de vida tras la muerte, Hobson ha ideado tres simulaciones informáticas de su propia personalidad. Con la primera, de la que se ha eliminado toda referencia a la existencia física, intenta analizar como sería una posible vida tras la muerte. Con la segunda, de la que se elimina toda referencia al envejecimiento y a la muerte, Hobson pretende estudiar la inmortalidad. La tercera, sin alteraciones, es el control de referencia del experimento. Sin embargo, las tres simulaciones escapan del ordenador de Hobson, huyen a la red informática mundial y viven su propia vida. Una de ellas es un asesino y comete crímenes que tal vez Hobson ha imaginado…

Finalista del Premio HUGO 1996.

Archaeologist Brandon Thackery and his rival Miles ‘Klicks’ Jordan fulfill a dinosaur lover’s dream with history’s first time-travel jaunt to the late Mesozoic. Hoping to solve the extinction mystery, they find Earth’s gravity is only half its 21st century value and dinosaurs that behave very strangely. Could the slimy blue creatures from Mars have something to do with both?

En el año 2007 se detecta una señal procedente del espacio profundo. Misteriosos e ininteligibles flujos de datos son recibidos durante diez años. Entonces la señal se detiene.

Heather Davis, profesora de la Universidad de Toronto, ha dedicado toda su carrera a descifrar el mensaje. Mientras, su vida personal ha sucumbido: una hija suicida, un matrimonio destrozado. Pero es ella quien finalmente descifra el mensaje. Descubre una sorprendente tecnología nueva que puede abrirse paso a través de las barreras del espacio y el tiempo, con la promesa de una nueva etapa en la evolución humana. Parecen cercanos una capacidad de exploración ilimitada... o el final de la raza humana.

Factor de humanidad

es una novela de implicaciones morales, técnicas y sociológicas. Describe una forma de comuni-cación con una civilización que supera hasta límites insospecha-dos a la nuestra, pero también es la historia de cómo se puede destruir una pareja por una mentira, y lo difícil que puede ser reconstruirla.

El canadiense Robert J. Sawyer ganador del Premio Nebula y nominado al Premio Hugo por

Factor de humanidad

, habiendo sido finalista los cuatro últimos años, es uno de los autores más aclamados y respetados del momento en Estados Unidos.

It’s the personal implications of first contact that Sawyer (Illegal Alien) dramatizes in his disturbing and uneven new novel. Set in Canada, circa 2017, the story focuses on Heather and her computer-scientist husband, Kyle, who have separated following the suicide of their daughter Mary. When younger daughter Rebecca confronts her parents and accuses her father of molesting her, the family starts to shake apart. Redemption comes in the unlikely form of alien altruism: the messages from Alpha Centauri that psychologist Heather has studied for years prove to be blueprints for a "psychospace" device that enables her to see into the overmind of humanity, and to know anyones deepest thoughts. In a flash, Kyle is exonerated, Rebecca apologizes, and her nasty, manipulative therapist is blamed for the false accusation. Although the novel ends with Heather greeting the first starship from Alpha Centauri, the bulk of the plot centers around the family’s own mystery, and so the conclusion comes off as anti-climactic. Sawyer also includes too many digressions about the cultural significance of Seinfeld, Star Trek bloopers and quantum physics, delivering a tale that ultimately works more as a study of the human heart than as believable story of alien encounter. 

(Publishers Weekly)

From

Star Trek

to

Star Wars

, from

Dune

to

Foundation

, science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in

Federations

will continue that tradition. What are the social/religious/environmental/technological implications of living in such a vast society? What happens when expansionist tendencies on a galactic scale come into conflict with the indigenous peoples of other planets, of other races? And what of the issue of communicating across such distances, or the problems caused by relativistic travel? These are just some of the questions and issues that the stories in Federations will take on.

L’espace de quelques minutes, l’humanité a perdu conscience.

Durant ce laps de temps, chacun a eu un aperçu fugitif de son avenir vingt ans plus tard.

Quand le monde s’éveille de nouveau, plus rien n’est comme avant : le black-out a causé des milliers de morts et de blessés.

Plus encore : ces visions ont bouleversé les esprits à jamais.

What would you do if you got a glimpse of your own personal future and it looked bleak? Try to change things, or accept that the future is unchangeable and make the best of it? In Flashforward, Nobel-hungry physicists conducting an unimaginably high-energy experiment accidentally induce a global consciousness shift. In an instant, everyone on Earth is "flashed forward" 21 years, experiencing several minutes of the future. But while everyone is, literally, out of their minds, their bodies drop unconscious; when the world reawakens, car wrecks, botched surgeries, falls, and other mishaps add up to massive death and destruction. Slowly, as recovery efforts continue, people realize that during the Flashforward (as it comes to be called) they experienced a vision of the future. The range of visions is astounding--those who would be asleep in the future saw psychedelic dream landscapes, while others saw nothing at all (presumably they'd be dead). But those who saw everyday life 20 years hence have to come to grips with evidence of dreams forsaken (or realized). Soon, the physicists who caused the Flashforward are struggling to help the world decide whether the future is changeable--and whether the experiment is worth repeating. Robert J. Sawyer has captured a truly compelling idea with Flashforward, and he fully explores what such an event might mean to humanity. Fans will find this to be his best work to date, although the ending seems rushed after a detailed buildup.

Pierre Tardivel, a French Canadian geneticist, works on identifying junk DNA for the Human Genome Project. There is a 50 percent chance that Pierre is carrying the gene for Huntington’s disease, a fatal disorder. That knowledge drives Pierre to succeed in a race against time to complete his research. But a strange set of circumstances — including a knife attack, the in vitro fertilization of his wife, and an insurance company plot to use DNA samples to weed out clients predisposed to early deaths — draw Tardivel into a story that will ultimately involve the hunt for a Nazi death camp doctor.

Aboard Argo, a colonization ship bound for Eta Cephei IV, people are very close—there’s no other choice. So when Aaron Rossman’s ex-wife dies in what seems to be a bizarre accident, everyone offers their sympathy, politely keeping their suspicions of suicide to themselves. But Aaron cannot simply accept her death. He must know the truth: Was it an accident, or did she commit suicide? When Aaron discovers the truth behind her death, he is faced with a terrible secret—a secret that could cost him his life.

Sawyer’s four most recent novels were nominated for the Hugo Award. He has won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, as well as the major Canadian awards for best science fiction and best mystery fiction. Here is the novel that began his career.

Ascoltare messaggi che vengono dalle stelle è un compito che i radioastronomi eseguono da anni nella speranza che possano arrivarci rivelazioni in grado di cambiare la nostra visione dell’universo. Ed è probabile che un giorno queste comunicazioni arrivino davvero, e che oltre a cambiare tutto ciò che sapevamo di là fuori mettano in discussione ciò che noi stessi siamo (o credevamo di essere). Quando questo avverrà, è probabile che non ci sia più posto per le illusioni dell’homo sapiens. E comincerà la lotta per consentire, o stroncare sul nascere, l’evoluzione di una nuova specie di uomini.

An all-original collection of twenty-seven stories by some of today’s most inventive authors about alien encounters with humans-from the aliens’ perspective.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novella in 2005

This new collection by the man Anne McCaffrey calls “an absolutely marvelous writer” includes Hugo Award nominee “Shed Skin,” Nebula Award nominee “Identity Theft,” and Aurora Award winner “Ineluctable.” In these pages, you’ll discover the dark secret of the only priest on Mars, revisit H.G. Wells’s Morlocks, and learn what really happens when aliens beam us the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Aliens, Tosoks, have finally made contact with Earth, but there are only seven of them, and they’ve arrived in a disabled spaceship. The Tosoks are intelligent and surprisingly easy to communicate with, and are happy to tour Earth and see what humans have to offer. But during a stop in Los Angeles, one of the human scientists traveling with the Tosoks is gruesomely murdered, and all evidence points to the alien Hask. The Los Angeles Police Department is determined to indict Hask for the crime, even though the aliens have little concept of laws or crime as we understand them. The only thing the U.S. government can do is secretly procure the services of Dale Rice, a leading civil rights lawyer, and hope he can clear Hask of the charges. But as the trial progresses, evidence indicates a cover-up by one or more of the aliens. Humanity’s survival—not just Hask’s fate—might hinge on the jury’s verdict.

This first collection of short stories by the man The Ottawa Citizen calls “the dean of Canadian science fiction” includes Hugo Award nominee “The Hand You’re Dealt,” Bram Stoker Award finalist “Fallen Angel,” Aurora Award winner “Peking Man,” and Arthur Ellis Award winner “Just Like Old Times.” In these pages, you’ll inhabit the mind of a Tyrannosaurus rex, join Sherlock Holmes as he solves the mystery of the missing aliens, and find out why Pope Mary resigned.

Commissioned for the anthology

Dinosaur Fantastic

, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW, 1993); first published in On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of Speculative Writing, Summer 1993.

 Later it was reprinted in several anthologies including On Spec:

The First Five Years

,

Dinosaurs II

, and

Northern Stars

. In 2008 it was included in 

Iterations And Other Stories

collection (1st edition Quarry Press, January 2002).

Winner of both the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (“the Aurora”) for Best English-Language Short Story of 1993 and the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story of 1993.

Peter Hobson è un esperto in ingegneria biomedica, quarantenne, affascinato dai problemi della vita dopo la morte e dalle possibilità di sopravvivenza che la tecnologia offre alla personalità umana. E infatti tutto comincia quando Hobson realizza un coraggioso esperimento per verificare le sue teorie sull’immortalità, creando tre simulazioni elettroniche di se stesso. Al primo alter ego di Hobson è stata cancellata la memoria della sua esistenza fisica: è una simulazione dell’anima. Al secondo è stata tolta la consapevolezza di invecchiare e di morire: è una simulazione dell’immortalità. Il terzo invece è un alter ego normale, non modificato. Ma i tre simulacri di Hobson non si accontentano di vivere nei ristretti confini della memoria di un computer e sono già fuggiti nell’universo sconfinato delle reti informatiche globali. Ma anche un’esistenza virtuale può non bastare, se la prospettiva è quella di interagire con il mondo vero e proprio… Anzi, uno di loro ha già scoperto la propria vocazione: diventare un killer.

Jake Sullivan consigue engañar a la muerte. Amenazado por una cruel y fatal enfermedad circulatoria, logra copiar su conciencia en un nuevo cuerpo androide que le ha de proporcionar la inmortalidad. La nueva vida parece sin problemas hasta que se plantea un problema de derechos legales y morales con la personalidad... ¿de quién? ¿Qué le ocurre a la persona biológica original cuando el contenido de su mente se ha transferido a un cuerpo androide? Personas y copias: ¿quién debe ser el titular de los derechos legales antes propios de un único individuo?

Un drama jurídico, personal, y una interesante especulación en torno a un futuro tal vez no demasiado lejano...

Jake Sullivan watched his father, suffering from a rare condition, collapse and linger in a vegetative state, and he's incredibly paranoid because he inherited that condition. When mindscanning technology becomes available, he has himself scanned, which involves dispatching his biological body to the moon and assuming an android body. In possession of everything the biological Jake Sullivan had on Earth, android Jake finds love with Karen, who has also been mindscanned. Meanwhile, biological Jake discovers there is finally another, brand-new cure for his condition. Moreover, Karen's son sues her, declaring that his mother is dead, and android Karen has no right to deprive him of his considerable inheritance. Biological Jake, unable to leave the moon because of the contract he signed, becomes steadily more unstable, until finally, in a fit of paranoia, he takes hostages. Sawyer's treatment of identity issues — of what copying consciousness may mean and how consciousness is defined — finds expression in a good story that is a new meditation on an old SF theme, the meaning of being human.

(Amazon.com)

Won John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2006

Un uomo che ha buone probabilità di morire per una malattia ereditaria del sistema nervoso. Uno scienziato premio Nobel che è forse un ex-torturatore nazista. Una società di assicurazioni interessata ai clienti con difetti genetici. Ce n’è quanto basta per capovolgere il mondo normale di Pierre Tardivel e il suo lavoro al Progetto Genoma Umano. E il figlio che Pierre sta per avere sarà il primo, concreto annuncio dell’incubo biologico... Ritorna Robert J. Sawyer, l’acclamato autore di Starplex, con un romanzo di straordinaria suspense.

Quando un'astronave entra nell'atmosfera terrestre alla paura iniziale si sostituisce subito la meraviglia. Con il primo contatto fra terrestri e alieni, sette membri della razza dei Tosok, di incredibile intelligenza, vengono accolti a braccia aperte dal mondo intero. Ma un noto scienziato umano in contatto con il gruppo viene improvvisamente trovato morto, mutilato da un'arma misteriosa, e tutte le prove sembrano condannare uno di loro. Cercando di evitare un incidente planetario, gli Stati Uniti assegnano agli alieni il miglior avvocato della nazione: ne seguirà un processo drammatico e inconsueto, in cui culture diverse, aliene e terrestri, si scontreranno per sancire la verità.

Experimental psychologist Jim Marchuk has developed a flawless technique for identifying the previously undetected psychopaths lurking everywhere in society. But while being cross-examined about his breakthrough in court, Jim is shocked to discover that he has lost his memories of six months of his life from twenty years previously—a dark time during which he himself committed heinous acts.

Jim is reunited with Kayla Huron, his forgotten girlfriend from his lost period and now a quantum physicist who has made a stunning discovery about the nature of human consciousness. As a rising tide of violence and hate sweeps across the globe, the psychologist and the physicist combine forces in a race against time to see if they can do the impossible—change human nature—before the entire world descends into darkness. 

Recuerdos del futuro es la historia de un asombroso descubrimiento en las instalaciones del CERN en Suiza. El equipo de investigación de Lloyd Simcoe y Theo Procopides está empleando el acelerador de partículas del laboratorio para buscar el esquivo bosón de Higgs, una partícula subatómica teórica. Pero su experimento sale terriblemente mal y, durante unos instantes, la conciencia de toda la raza humana es arrojada veinte años hacia el futuro.

Mientras la humanidad debe restañar los catastróficos efectos inmediatos del experimento (miles resultan muertos o heridos cuando el cuerpo de todos los hombres y mujeres queda inconsciente en el presente), las implicaciones más serias tardan algo en aparecer. Aquellos que no recibieron visión del porvenir tratan de descubrir cómo morirán, mientras que otros buscan a sus futuros amantes. Lloyd deberá superar la culpabilidad de haber provocado accidentalmente la muerte de la hija de su prometida, mientras Theo se ve atrapado en la investigación de su propio asesinato.

A medida que las verdaderas consecuencias de lo sucedido comienzan a hacerse claras, la presión para repetir el experimento aumenta sin cesar. Todos quieren un destello del futuro, una oportunidad para saltar y ser testigo de su éxito... o para aprender a evitar sus errores.

Alex Lomax is the one and only private eye working the mean streets of New Klondike, the Martian frontier town that sprang up forty years ago after Simon Weingarten and Denny O’Reilly discovered fossils on the Red Planet. Back on Earth, where anything can be synthesized, the remains of alien life are the most valuable of all collectibles, so shiploads of desperate treasure hunters stampeded to Mars in the Great Martian Fossil Rush.

Trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest world, Lomax tracks down killers and kidnappers among the failed prospectors, corrupt cops, and a growing population of —lucky stiffs who, after striking paleontological gold, upload their minds into immortal android bodies. But when he uncovers clues to solving the decades-old murders of Weingarten and O’Reilly, along with a journal that may lead to their legendary mother lode of Martian fossils, God only knows what he’ll dig up…

Canadian author Robert Sawyer once again presents likable characters facing big ethical dilemmas in this smoothly readable near-future SF novel. Astronomer Sarah Halifax, who translated the first message from aliens and helped prepare humanity’s response, is 87 when the second, encrypted message arrives 38 years later. To aid the decoding, a tycoon buys rejuvenation treatment for Sarah and Don, her husband of 60 years; however, only Don becomes young again. While coping with the physical indignities of old age, Sarah tries to figure out the puzzle of the second message. The bond between Don and Sarah continues, even while Don is joyfully and guiltily discovering the pleasures of living in a young body again. They want to do what’s right for each other and the rest of humanity—for the aliens, too—if they can figure out what “right” could be. By its nature, a story about moral choices tends to get talky, but the talk is intelligent and performed by sympathetic and believable people.

En 2010, le premier message venu d'une autre étoile est capté. Il a été émis depuis Sigma Draconis, distante de dix-huit années-lumière. Et, non sans mal, l'astronome Sarah Halifax l'a déchiffré. Ce qui a permis de lui donner une réponse. Trente-huit ans plus tard, en 2048, un second message est capté. Crypté. Et deux fois plutôt qu'une.

Qui pourra le décoder, sinon Sarah Halifax ? Seul problème : elle a désormais quatre-vingt sept-ans.

Un multimilliardaire qui a fait fortune dans l’industrie des robots lui propose un *rollback*, un traitement de rajeunissement extraordinairement coûteux, qu lui rendra ses vingt-cinq ans. Sarah n’accepte que si Don, son époux du même âge, bénéficie de la même chance.

Mais il y a un risque. C'est que sur l'un ou sur l'autre le traitement échoue. Que deviendra leur amour si longtemps partagé s'ils se trouvent séparés par soixante ans d'âge apparent ?

Et que veulent donc nous dire les habitants de Sigma Draconis ?

Croisant les deux thèmes du contact avec une autre civilisation et du rajeunissement intégral, Robert J. Sawyer, déjà couronné par le prix Hugo, nous donne ici un roman passionnant, intelligent et émouvant.

Vieną dieną svetimeivių erdvėlaivis nusileido Toronto mieste greta Paleontologijos muziejaus. Iš kosminio aparato išlindęs šešiakojis, dvirankis padaras, vardu Holusas, pareiškė norą pasikalbėti su žymiausiu paleontologu. Iš pokalbio paaiškėja, kad ir Žemė, ir Holuso planeta, ir dar vienas protingų būtybių pasaulis per kelis milijardus metų patyrė penkias grandiozines katastrofas TUO PAČIU METU.

Vadinasi, kažas itin galingas (gal net visagalis) akivaizdžiai reguliuoja evoliuciją mūsų Galaktikoje. Holusas mano, kad galima pamėginti jį surasti...

Need a Job, Go to Mars… or the nearest space station or colony world. But what kind of career opportunities will you find on the ever-expanding frontiers of space? And how many alien beings will be vying for the same positions? To discover some of the possibilities, check out Space, Inc., and such entertaining and original tales as:

“Attached Please Find My Novel” — Sometimes you found tomorrow’s best-sellers in the most unexpected places…

“The Siren Stone” — Their mission was to blow up an asteroid before it could destroy a space station and its entire population, but nothing could prepare them for what they discovered when they rendezvoused with this giant piece of rock…

“Come All Ye Faithful” — Finding a real congregation on Mars wasn’t going to be easy — in fact he had to admit it would be a miracle if it ever happened…

15 all-new stories of tomorrow from 15 of the best sci-fi writers of today

The challenge and lure of space exploration has long been fertile ground for some of the finest science fiction stories. Here, fifteen of the best chroniclers of the day after tomorrow present unique tales of space stations both in our own solar system and far beyond.

This neat little theme anthology contains a satisfying mixture of old hands’ and newcomers’ stories. In the opener, Timothy Zahn’s “The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson,” a space fort that is crumbling into disrepair as an unpopular tourist destination wins its first battle—finally—though only by means of the vagaries of decaying equipment. In Jean Rabe’s “Auriga’s Streetcar,” a gem of a piece, an old “spacer” finds herself on the way to a distant star in the belly of an even older space observatory towed by unknown aliens. Robert J. Sawyer’s “Mikeys” relates the work of those who go almost to the target and the unexpected event that brings them to the forefront. The closer, Gregory Benford’s “Station Spaces,” is a doozy about what happens when human merges with machine, and the building of human habitation on Luna. Despite, or possibly as a result of, a literally (i.e., spacially) limited topic, these stories cover a lot of ground.

La missione dell’astronave è indagare sui scorciatoie, misteriose anomalie del cosmo che permettono di viaggiare sia nello spazio che nel tempo. Ma durante l’esplorazione il comandante keith Lansing e la sua nave si trovano di fronte a una stella tanto vecchia da risuktare più antica dell’universo stesso! Non è l’unica scoperta “impossibile”: una razza sconosciuta viene identificata in quell’assurda regione della galassia, e la è attaccata da nemici sconosciuti. Lansing sa che c’è un solo mezzo per uscire dalla situazione critica: entrare nel scorciatoia e varcare la soglia di parecchi miliardi di anni per scoprire il segreto della stella verde.

Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer offers an epic hard-science space adventure full of technical descriptions of starships and physics tempered by human concerns. In the twenty-first century, the human race has both developed faster-than-light travel and contacted nonhuman intelligent races. Starplex, under the command of Keith Lansing, is one of the contact makers. Lansing faces hostile crew members, the personal and cultural idiosyncracies of nonhumans, the problems of first contact, and a marriage that may be deteriorating. Scientists on the Starplex study the mysterious artificial wormholes that make space travel routine and convenient. Then the wormholes’ creators appear, and the scientists must understand and communicate with them to save the galaxy.

Starplex es una nave exploradora tripulada por humanos y delfines de la Tierra, waldahuds del planeta Rehbollo e ibs (Integración de Bioentidades) del planeta Flatland. La nave utiliza los misteriosos atajos o portales dejados por una desconocida especie alienígena. Con dichos atajos ha podido establecerse la primera civilización galáctica en la Vía Láctea.

De manera inesperada, empiezan a llegar por los atajos enormes estrellas cuyos átomos parecen ser más viejos que el mismo universo. ¿Representan un peligro? ¿Vienen del futuro? ¿Quién las envía? ¿Por qué?

Y, mientras tanto, Keith Lansing, el capitán de la Starplex, ha de enfrentarse a la peculiar ambición de Jag, el físico waldahud, y a las sorpresas de todo tipo que el universo encierra y que tal vez sólo un físico altamente cualificado como Jag puede desentrañar.

Ciencia ficción de temática clásica con el envoltorio más moderno: ciencia y tecnología revolucionarias, nuevas relaciones sociales, nuevas preguntas sobre el universo, y las siempre complejas relaciones humanas entre personajes sentientes de una o de distintas especies.

Od ponad dwudziestu lat eksploracja kosmosu przebiega w oszałamiającym tempie, głównie za sprawą sztucznych międzygwiezdnych skrótów. Nikt nie wie, kto je zbudował, lecz właśnie dzięki nim najodleglejsze zakątki wszechświata znalazły się w zasięgu ręki. Zdaniem Keitha Lansinga, szefa statku „Starplex”, jest to stanowczo zbyt blisko. gdy z nowego skrótu wyłania się zagadkowy obiekt bez okien, spoin czy jakichkolwiek widocznych urządzeń napędowych, „Starplex” może stac sie zarzewiem międzygalaktycznej wojny.

First published in the anthology

Free Space

, edited by Brad Linaweaver and Edward E. Kramer (Tor, 1997). This is the author’s preferred text as published in the anthology

Crossing the Line: Canadian Mystery Fiction With A Twist

, edited by Robert J. Sawyer David Skene-Melvin (Pottersfield, 1999)

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1998.

Nominated for Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award in 1998

An anthology of stories

Sherlock Holmes is back!

Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first-and most famous-consulting detective, came to the world’s attention more than 120 years ago through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels and stories. But Conan Doyle didn’t reveal all of the Great Detective’s adventures…

Here are some of the best Holmes pastiches of the last 30 years, twenty-eight tales of mystery and the imagination detailing Holmes’s further exploits, as told by many of today’s greatest storytellers, including Stephen King, Anne Perry, Anthony Burgess, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and many more.

These are the improbable adventures of Sherlock Holmes, where nothing is impossible, and nothing can be ruled out. In these cases, Holmes investigates ghosts, curses, aliens, dinosaurs, shapeshifters, and evil gods. But is it the supernatural, or is there a perfectly rational explanation?

You won’t be sure, and neither will Holmes and Watson as they match wits with pirates, assassins, con artists, and criminal masterminds of all stripes, including some familiar foes, such as their old nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

In these pages you’ll also find our heroes crossing paths with H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and even Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and you’ll be astounded to learn the truth behind cases previously alluded to by Watson but never before documented until now. These are tales that take us from the familiar quarters at 221B Baker Street to alternate realities, from the gaslit streets of London to the far future and beyond.

Whether it’s mystery, fantasy, horror, or science fiction, no puzzle is too challenging for the Great Detective. The game is afoot!