Maxima Library

Im Jahr 2044 hat Amerika seine ökonomische Vormachtstellung in der Welt verloren und präsentiert sich als instabiler Staatenriese, dessen innerer Zusammenhalt nur über allgemeine Notstandsgesetze realisiert wird. Technisch hoch entwickelte Überwachungsmethoden spiegeln sich in einer allgegenwärtigen Medienrealität wider, die Maß und Instrument der Elite ist. In dieser Atmosphäre gerät der Wahlkampfexperte Oscar Valparaiso aus einer Gouverneurswahl immer tiefer in die Machtstrukturen der auseinander brechenden USA, bis er Teil und Initiator eines neuen amerikanischen Traums wird.

Nel 2044 gli Stati Uniti stanno andando in pezzi. I fondi federali per le basi militari sono ridotti al punto che l’aeronautica americana deruba gli automobilisti sulle autostrade. L’ingegneria genetica si evolve senza alcuna regola, e vaste fasce di popolazione sono diventate tribù nomadi che vagano su mezzi di trasporto a basso costo, supportate da una tecnologia in totale decadenza. I cinesi hanno superato gli USA nel controllo delle reti globali e hanno messo on line i software americani dichiarandoli liberi e a disposizione di tutti. L’effetto serra ha scaldato il clima, i poli si stanno sciogliendo e la guerra fredda è ricominciata contro un’Olanda minacciata dalle acque. Su questo sfondo si muove Oscar Valparaiso, un improbabile eroe con un grosso scheletro nell’armadio. Oscar è un professionista della politica, e con l’aiuto della neuroIoga Greta Penninger cercherà di ostacolare i piani di un senatore ossessionato dalla manipolazione genetica. Assieme i due vogliono scatenare la nuova Rivoluzione, ricordando all’America le neglette utopie di libertà e uguaglianza.

This collection gathers twelve tales by one of the leading new voices in science fiction. The stories are divided into three groups: Five fall into Sterling's "Shaper/Mechanist" coterie of tales; three are science fiction of a more generic type; and four tales are labeled as fantasy. The Shaper/Mechanist stories center on a future world in which two opposing sects have developed: the "Shapers" have evolved themselves through genetic tinkering; the "Mechanists" through computerized prosthetics. Sterling explores the consequences of both approaches, painting neither side as necessarily good nor evil, and stories are related Erom both points of view. Among the other tales, "20 Evocations" effectively links anecdotal episodes of Nikolai Leng's life to create a coherent picture of Leng's gradual transformation from young innocent to cornipt elder. In "Spook," the earth has suffered a "brain drain" through mass emigrations to space leaving a world populated mainly with "undesirables." The powers-diat-be have their hands full trying to maintain a semblance of order and control; faced with a potential uprising in Central America, they contract the services of a futuristic secret agent-the "spook" of the title-to quell the insurgency. The denouement to this space-age thriller is devasting. "Green Days in Brunei" is set in the tiny nation of Brunei on the island of Borneo to which Canadian engineer Turner Choi has been dispatched to help introduce a bit of twenty-first-century technology to a society that has previously rejected high tech to the point of outlawing telephones. Choi eventually becomes romantically involved with the royal princess of Brunei in this, what may well be Sterling's best story. The fantasy-oriented tales which close out the collection largely feature a tongue-in-cheek tone and are, unfortunately, not as interesting as the preceding works.

It’s the year 2044, and America has gone to hell. A disenfranchised U.S. Air Force base has turned to highway robbery in order to pay the bills. Vast chunks of the population live nomadic lives fueled by cheap transportation and even cheaper computer power. Warfare has shifted from the battlefield to the global networks, and China holds the information edge over all comers. Global warming is raising sea level, which in turn is drowning coastal cities. And the U.S. government has become nearly meaningless. This is the world that Oscar Valparaiso would have been born into, if he’d actually been born instead of being grown in vitro by black market baby dealers. Oscar’s bizarre genetic history (even he’s not sure how much of him is actually human) hasn’t prevented him from running one of the most successful senatorial races in history, getting his man elected by a whopping majority. But Oscar has put himself out of a job, since he’d only be a liability to his boss in Washington due to his problematic background. Instead, Oscar finds himself shuffled off to the Collaboratory, a Big Science pork barrel project that’s run half by corruption and half by scientific breakthroughs. At first it seems to be a lose-lose proposition for Oscar, but soon he has his “krewe” whipped into shape and ready to take control of events. Now if only he can straighten out his love life and solve a worldwide crisis that no one else knows exists.

Won Clarke Award in 2000.

Nominated for Hugo, Locus, and Nebula awards in 1999.

Some months ago, I wrote an article about the raid on Steve Jackson Games, which appeared in my "Comment" column in the British science fiction monthly, INTERZONE (#44, Feb 1991). This updated version, specially re-written for dissemination by EFF, reflects the somewhat greater knowledge I've gained to date, in the course of research on an upcoming nonfiction book, THE HACKER CRACKDOWN: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. The bizarre events suffered by Mr. Jackson and his co-workers, in my own home town of Austin, Texas, were directly responsible for my decision to put science fiction aside and to tackle the purportedly real world of computer crime and electronic free-expression.

Bruce Sterling, one of the founding fathers of the cyberpunk genre, now presents a novel of vivid imagination and invention that proves his talent for creating brilliant speculative fiction is sharper than ever. Forty years from now, Earth's climate has been drastically changed by the greenhouse effect. Tornadoes of almost unimaginable force roam the open spaces of Texas. And on their trail are the Storm Troupers: a ragtag band of computer experts and atmospheric scientists who live to hack heavy weather -- to document it and spread the information as far as the digital networks will stretch, using virtual reality to explore the eye of the storm. Although it's incredibly addictive, this is no game. The Troupers' computer models suggest that soon an "F-6" will strike -- a tornado of an intensity that exceeds any existing scale; a storm so devastating that it may never stop. And they're going to be there when all hell breaks loose.

In a novel set in the twenty-first century, a bionic woman becomes swept into a world of simulated environments and heightened perception.

Nominated for BSFA Award in 1996, for Hugo and Locus awards in 1997.

In the high-tech twenty-first century, a family of "corporate associates" descends into an underworld of data pirates and bootleg biogenetics to discover the identity of new-order terrorists.

È considerata l'opera che, insieme a Neuromante (1984) di William Gibson, ha dato inizio alla stagione della narrativa Cyberpunk.

Definito da Sterling stesso come il favorito tra i suoi libri, “La matrice spezzata” racconta di un mondo in cui l'umanità è divisa tra i rivoluzionari Shaper, favorevoli a un'umanità biologica, in lotta contro gli aristocratici Mechanist (che vorrebbero imporre il dominio della macchina) per il definitivo controllo del genere umano. Il volume comprende un romanzo e cinque racconti pubblicati tra il 1982 e il 1984, ambientati nello stesso sfondo fanta-storico e che costituiscono una sorta di minisaga, quasi una summa dell'intenso universo sterlinghiano.

Nominato per il premio Nebula per miglior romanzo in 1985, premio BSFA in 1986.

Bienvenue dans les années 2020 !Multinationales toutes-puissantes, complots terroristes, réseaux informatiques, réveil du tiers-monde, ingénierie génétique, retour en force de l’irrationnel, sida, torture, intox, chantage atomique… Toute ressemblance avec la Terre que vous connaissez n’est pas une pure coïncidence.Citoyenne de ce monde dément, Laura Webster a su s’adapter, trouver l’équilibre entre réalité et virtuel. Mais quand elle se retrouve impliquée malgré elle dans le meurtre du représentant d’un État-pirate, une course contre la mort s’engage pour échapper aux mailles du réseau.

Lightspeed

(

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

) is the critically-acclaimed, online science fiction magazine edited by bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed publishes all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. Each month, Lightspeed features a mix of originals and reprints, from a variety of authors—from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven't heard of yet. Now, in Lightspeed: Year One, you will find all of the fiction published in Lightspeed's first year, from new stories such as Nebula Award finalists, Vylar Kaftan’s “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” and “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro, and Carrie Vaughn’s Hugo Award-nominee “Amaryllis,” to classic reprints by Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and more.

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?

Zbliża się koniec XXI wieku. Rządzony przez gerontokratów świat pogrążył się w stagnacji — konserwatywni staruszkowie poświęcają więcej uwagi swemu zdrowiu, niż przyszłości gatunku ludzkiego. Medycyna jest najważniejszą gałęzią przemysłu, najlepszą lokatą kapitału, nadzieją na nieśmiertelność. Lekarze czynią cuda: tworzą mówiące psy, przedłużają życie, potrafią wyleczyć prawie każdą chorobę. Główna bohaterka, dziewięćdziesięcioczteroletnia kobieta, przechodzi eksperymentalną kurację odmładzającą, która na zawsze odmieni jej życie.

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

A poet and a bear journey toward the ruins of a city in search of answers; a diminutive man seeks satisfaction within a secluded mountain cave; an elderly widow enjoys the company of a collection of robotic cowboys; the Boy Who Never Grew Up becomes an agent of Her Majesty's Secret Service; a werewolf girl joins the cast of a musical revue; a group of hardened mercenaries takes on a foolish job; a young man learns the ways of the world in the arms of a Sylvanian maiden; a teenage girl attempts to escape her domineering mother’s influence aboard a cargo spaceship; an impossible flying machine departs on its maiden voyage… The depth and breadth of science fiction and fantasy fiction continues to change with every passing year. The twenty-nine stories chosen for this book by award-winning anthologist Jonathan Strahan carefully map this evolution, giving readers a captivating and always-entertaining look at the very best the genre has to offer

Books of Big Ideas often polarize reviewers, and Bruce Sterling’s latest novel is no exception. Either the best SF book of this or any other year (Cory Doctorow) or “a mess of a book about the mess of the world” (John Clute), The Caryatids, at the very least, illustrates Sterling's ability to raise voices (in praise or protest) 30 years after he laid the groundwork for the cyberpunk movement, without which contemporary SF would be a much rockier—and much less diverse—landscape. Sterling’s complex, controversial vision of our future invites comparison to Neal Stephenson (

Cryptonomicon

,

Snow Crash

) and William Gibson (

Neuromancer

). Love him or hate him, Bruce Sterling always has something important to say, and The Caryatids is worth a look.

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.

The saucer aliens are here. They’re healing the planet. They’ve got to be stopped.

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT…

For decades, the apocalypse and its aftermath have yielded some of the most exciting short stories of all time. From David Brin’s seminal “The Postman” to Hugh Howey’s “Deep Blood Kettle” and Tananarive Due’s prescient “Patient Zero,” the end of the world continues to thrill.

This companion volume to the critically acclaimed WASTELANDS offers thirty of the finest examples of post-apocalyptic short fiction, with works by:

Ann Aguirre

Megan Arkenberg

Paolo Bacigalupi

Christopher Barzak

Lauren Beukes

David Brin

Orson Scott Card

Junot Díaz

Cory Doctorow

Tananarive Due

Toiya Kristen Finley

Milo James Fowler

Maria Dahvana Headley

Hugh Howey

Keffy R. M. Kehrli

Jake Kerr

Nancy Kress

Joe R. Lansdale

George R. R. Martin

Jack McDevitt

Seanan McGuire

Maureen F. McHugh

D. Thomas Minton

Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling

Ramsey Shehadeh

Robert Silverberg

Rachel Swirsky

Genevieve Valentine

James Van Pelt

Christie Yant

Award-winning editor John Joseph Adams has once again assembled a who’s who of short fiction, and the result is nothing short of mind-blowing.