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The Dorsai are ultimate warriors, known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe. Donal Graeme is Dorsai, taller and harder than any ordinary man. But he is different as well, with talents that amaze even his fellow Dorsai. And once he ventures out into the stars, the future will never be the same.
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The human mind ... the computer brain - fused together, they could form a super-mind, a potential power that might change the course of history, the face of the earth itself, and the future of mankind. Someone or something had done just - and the race was on to find out how it had been done ... and exactly what it would mean for the future.
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In this far-future reimagination of Moby-Dick, a desperate addict on a bleak and arid planet joins the crew of a whaling vessel to hunt the source of the drug he craves The powerful narcotic syncophine, commonly known as Flare, comes from only one source: the oil of the gargantuan whale-like beasts that swim the dust sea of Nullaqua. It was John Newhouse's addiction to the substance that made him a dealer and forced him to move to this airless, inhospitable planet But when the all-powerful galactic Confederacy declares Flare illegal, the needs of Newhouse and his clientele leave the desperate off-worlder no choice but to sign on as an able seaman aboard a dustwhaler and hunt the giant creatures himself. Joining a crew of junkies and misfits, including a mad captain with his own dark and secret agenda and a bewitching, batlike alien woman who is pained by human touch, Newhouse sets out across the silica ocean at the bottom of a seventy-mile-deep crater in search of release and redemption ... and sails toward a fateful confrontation between man and beast that could lead to catastrophe. Bruce Sterling's debut novel is a remarkable feat of world building--imaginative, provocative, and smart, featuring an unforgettable cast of colorful characters. If Herman Melville's Moby-Dick unfolded on Frank Herbert's Dune, the result might be something akin to Sterling's extraordinary Involution Ocean.
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A strange virus was creeping slowly over the earth like a monster, wiping out millions of lives. The finest scientific minds. The greatest geniuses of art and literature. The rich. The poor. All were doomed.
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Short stories
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PSYCHEDELIC-40 was PSI-40, the drug that gave The Syndicate its power and the people their pleasure. THE SYNDICATE was a group of Specials, ruthless men with super-intellects, who with PSI-40 could probe the minds of friend and foe alike-and even control lesser minds at will. THE PEOPLE lived for the joys of the vacation colonies where they played orgiastically with liquor, sex, and best of all, PSI-40, which brought them drugged dreams of impossible sensuality. KEMP POWELL was a Special whose super-super-intellect didn't require PSI-40. Powell wouldn't join The Syndicate, so they marked him for death!
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The situation bore an alarming resemblance to the classic Gothic situation. But since it was taking place on the planet Esmeralda in the Barnum system, there were differences. There was a disputed inheritance -- an interplanetary robot-making business. There was the uncle who had taken charge, a cyborg now, fifty per cent human, fifty per cent machine, and one hundred per cent smiling deceit. There was the innocent young heir, the boy, Tad, in the clutches of this uncle and his sinister household. Even the weather was foggy and gloomy, and Tad could find no friend to help him from what seemed certain doom.That is until he stumbled upon the wreckage of the family's greatest engineering triumph, the super-robot Electro. With nothing better to do, he secretly repaired it. And then, once Electro was on his feet and ticking electronically away, wicked cyborg uncle -- watch out!
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The Novak Transformation had altered the very shape of the universe and left proud Earth an outcast, a sleazy pleasure-colony at the outer edge of the federation of planets "Way Up There." But the Federation must expand or die: first came the starship jammed with mercenaries from seven worlds; then came the Assassin... Algorithm.
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The entire population of that colonized planet was crowded into one all-enclosed self-functioning city construction. For the majority the situation was like living forever in the steerage of an immigrant freighter. For a few there were some privileges, and for the Highs, power and luxury had been secured by a change of language and the destruction of the old books. Which was where the man Ryne came in. For he was the last who could read the original language - and if they could ever locate the machine that could build new cities, he'd be the only one to read the instructions. The story of the search for the City Machines, the linguistics and logistics problems presented, and the fight for Ryne's very life is a science fiction novel of edge-of-the-seat excitement.
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15 science fiction short stories.
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Start with medical transplants, add a dash of cybernetic engineering, and a talking dog can be commonplace. But Bowser was not commonplace--he was the top-rated star of 1999's television--comedian, commentator, actor, and temperamental headache of the media masters. But he was still a dog--man's best friend to the vast gaping audience of watchers, and a cur, mutt, and son of a five-letter-word to Bert Schenley, his agent and guardian. So when Bert got two assignments at once--both taking him and Bowser to the battle front in Lower California where the various guerrillas and rebels were making news, history and hysterics, it was the climax. Bowser was determined to keep on grabbing the headlines, Bert was determined to keep a grip on his own life, and the rest were equally set on blotting them both out.
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A brilliant scientist learns to reduce humans to Lilliputian size and finds the perfect guinea pigs when three colleagues try to discover his secret.
Dr. Bulfinch, Bill Stockton, beautiful Mary Phillips, and the Mexican, Pedro, did not remember what had happened after the furious scientist caught them snooping in his secret room.
Now they did not know where they were. They rose, shakily, breathing in great gasps. Everything was dark.
"Where are we?" Mary cried out.
Suddenly horror grew in Pedro's eyes as he remembered something. He gasped, "He made my Pinto, the mule, little. Now I know... He has made us little like my mule..."
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Horselover Fat begins receiving what he considers to be divine revelations that imply extraterrestrial forces are interfering in the affairs of the Earth.
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Ragle Gumm thinks that it is 1959, that he lives in a small town, and that he is a whiz at newspaper puzzle contests. A series of hallucinations make him begin to doubt all of these things.
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The "civilized" government of the planet Missouri was overthrown by revolutionaries who have embraced the lifestyle and culture of the United States' Old West frontier. Suspicious of technology, the denizens of Missouri nevertheless ride robot horses and drink synthetic liquor to pass the time on a planet whose main source of income comes from exporting western souvenirs (i.e. miniature outhouses, wagons, revolvers, etc.), staging gunfights for tourists, and providing "living antiques" in the form of gunfighters being placed on other planets as zoo specimens.
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Army psychiatrist Philip Outerbridge receives a confidential folder containing the letters, memos, and transcripts for a young soldier named George Smith--a quiet young man with a terrible past and a shocking secret. As Outerbridge conducts George's therapy, he gradually discovers the truth about George's traumatic childhood, his twisted romance with an older woman named Anna, and the unusual obsession George keeps hidden from the world.
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It was forbidden to enter the tower. The law had been handed down from a time beyond man's memory, and none who broke it had ever survived. From the tower flowed the energy and intelligence that kept alive the city of Noi Lantis, the sole vestige of civilization left on Earth.The Earthling, Kymri, and the beautiful invader-girl, Mirlana, already had violated a great and terrible taboo by daring to fall in love. Now they were about to commit the most fearful transgression of all.But there was no turning back as they slid open the glittering tower doors. Within was the secret that could spell man's last hope for survival - or his final sentence of doom.
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Dudley Carnforth, gifted beyond the average with the 'gift of the gab', and also a 'jack-of-all-trades' scientific and master of none, decides that the time has come to end his grasshopper leaping from one job to another and do something really arresting which will put him on top of the world. Born in an age where space travel is just around the corner but not yet accomplished, he conceives the notion of pooling the many sciences he almost understands and producing therefrom a master plan for the conquest of space...
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The Blank was the time, near-forgotten but for the legends that remained as fancies, when the Earth's crust shifted mightily, and towering mountains rose where no mountains had existed before. New coastal lines were formed, while jungle became desert, and desert and grassy plain became the bottom of the new seas. The old world was gone... but the legends remained. And they told of marvels hard to believe, even among men who had mastered the powers of the mind. The stories told that before the Blank men possessed marvels almost unbelievable; it was even said that the old people had conquered the skies (and, in whispers, space itself). Men like Shaker Sandow knew there was the truth in the fancies...and then a would-be master of the world uncovered a trove of pre-Blank treasures, and once more the world turned toward all-consuming war!
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It all began quietly enough in the railway carriage. Arthur Rawlings was dying for a cigarette, when suddenly young Harry Browne offered him his pack. But Rawlings hadn't said a word to Harry... Harry could read minds all right- but only under a certain condition: he had to be drunk to do it... Then Harry read the mind of a murderer and his troubles really began...
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The 3000 is the perfect community of the future, complete with all the exotic - and erotic - luxuries, amenities and technology that man's imagination could desire. But it is a suicidal and malignant paradise, one that threaten to eat away the very basics of humanity... and eventually humanity itself.
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On the arena: the savage champion of space.To win the right to a name he fought - without weapons - the dreaded beast. Only to be cheated of his prize. Branded a criminal he sought refuge with a mysterious clan of intergalactic revolutionaries - and found his heritage at last. As Blacklantern he was born again. And with his beloved Snowfire, set out to burn his vengeance on a universe of evil.
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In the year 2000, a young man discovers ice-nine, which can set off a chain reaction more deadly than a nuclear bomb, and discovers a new prophet whose teachings sweep the world.
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A family of four living alone on a tiny planet in the outer galaxy receive images to remind them about Earth. The machinery begins to show flaws revealing the truth.
