![]() ![]() It’s possible to argue that Stanislaw Lem is the best science fiction writer ever, and Solaris is his most famous book. Lem’s humans are some of the best in science fiction, as well: they screw up, are late, fail to see the whole picture, act irrationally, and even the brightest of them can be swayed by vanity and pride. Communication with them is often impossible, and the humans that attempt to interact with them are well intentioned but unsuccessful. “Vinge offers heart-pounding, mind-expanding science fiction at its best.”Īuthor Stanislaw Lem has the best aliens, mostly because he makes them completely and profoundly, well, alien. A rescue mission, composed not entirely of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these “regions of thought,” but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.įleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind’s potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Corey is the pen name used by collaborators Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.) But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe. Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations, and the odds are definitely against them. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money, and money talks. A secret that someone is willing to kill for-and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew.ĭetective Miller is looking for a girl. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. Jim Holden is an officer on an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. Humanity has colonized the solar system-Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond-but the stars are still out of our reach. This book isn’t technically deep space, since it takes place in our solar system, but so much of it happens in space (and it’s so fun) that it’s worth bending the rules for it. “Wilson’s most tightly constructed pure adventure tale to date.”- Locus ![]() And the planet itself has secrets that will change our understanding of life in the universe. But there are secrets implanted within her that not even she suspects. Cloned and genetically engineered by a faction within the hothouse politics of Earth, Zoe is optimized to face Isis’s terrors. It’s also the hardest of hardship posts, the loneliest place in the universe. The entire planet is a permanent Level Four Hot Zone.ĭespite that, Isis is the most interesting discovery of the millennium: a parallel biology with lessons to teach us about our own nature. And every molecule of this life is spectacularly toxic to human beings. ![]() Isis is rich with complex DNA-based plant and animal life. Starflight is possible but hugely expensive, so humankind’s efforts are focussed on Isis, the one nearby Earth-like world. In the 22nd century, humankind has colonized the solar system. “stonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect, because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine―and what he will become is far stranger. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. They don’t want young people they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.Įarth itself is a backwater. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce―and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. ![]()
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