- Table View
- List View
Black Pockets: And Other Dark Thoughts
by George ZebrowskiIn this masterful collection of horror stories, George Zebrowski divides these nineteen tales into personal, political, and metaphysical terrors—stories to scare you individually, stories to frighten you as a social animal, and stories that should terrify the entire human race. In &“I Walked with Fidel,&” a young man encounters a once politically powerful zombie; &“Jumper&” focuses on a young woman with a dark and troubled past, while in &“The Coming of Christ the Joker,&” the lighthearted banter of a celebrity TV talk show becomes something far more serious. &“A Piano Full of Dead Spiders&” is an eerie story of genius, its demands, and its delusions; in &“Passing Nights,&” the truth behind a recurring nightmare is revealed; &“The Soft Terrible Music&” depicts a man who must hide his past even from himself. And in the title story, the novella &“Black Pockets,&” Zebrowski asks: What happens to a man when his desire for revenge becomes all-consuming? With an introduction by Howard Waldrop and an afterword by the author, George Zebrowski reveals himself in Black Pockets and Other Dark Thoughts as a writer who can play on our more disturbing emotions even as he impels us to deeper thoughts.
Brute Orbits
by George Zebrowski&“Like his previous tales of technocratically engineered futures (Macrolife; Stranger Suns; etc.), Zebrowski's latest evokes the pioneering SF of social philosopher Olaf Stapledon... In the 21st century, Earth incarcerates its undesirables in mined-out asteroids launched into new orbits for the duration of their sentences. "This use of distance as a better prison wall" is more than just an ingenious application of technology to the penal system: it's also a convenient trick for disposing of the socially misfit, since orbits are "accidentally" miscalculated to prevent their return. The narrative follows the histories of several of these "rocks" as their prisoners fight, unite and ultimately set out to create superior, self-contained cultures free of the taint of earthly ways. Individual asteroids house specific groups of offenders, ranging from hardened convicts to sexual deviants, juvenile delinquents and unwanted foreigners... Zebrowski argues his points with conviction.Publishers Weekly"A brilliant and dramatic philosophical reflection on the nature of society, technology . . . and humanity itself. Zebrowski is a deep thinker who writes about the big questions' in the grand tradition of Wells, Stapledon, and Clarke."-- Jack M. Dann, award-winning author of The Silent and The Memory CathedralHigh Crimes Call for High Punishment. It is the twenty-first century. Convicts are sentenced to asteroids that move in ever-widening solar orbits, timed to return when their terms run out. But a few ambitious administrators discover that small "errors" in velocity can rid them of selected groups altogether: the hardcore violent, the mentally defective, and especially the political dissidents. Enduring the black vise of interstellar space-time, these human rejects--men and women mixed together--create their own Darwinian societies, struggling to survive.Back on Earth, a handful of sympathetic and curious scientists have not forgotten these lost citizens. When a technological breakthrough makes it possible to overtake these scattered asteroids, a courageous team sets out to go where none has willingly gone before. What they discover in these "brute orbits" is both provocative and moving--a startling vision of humanity you will never forget.
Cave of Stars (Macrolife #2)
by George ZebrowskiOld Earth is gone. Humanity has been scattered to the stars. Some left their dying planet in spaceship arks, in search of new worlds to inhabit. Others, nanoengineered for near-immortality, explore the far reaches of interstellar space in gargantuan macrolife mobiles. An earth-like human society endures on the environmentally volatile planet of Tau Ceti IV—a rigid community of the faithful that has declared evil the science that caused the homeworld&’s destruction. The Church is the absolute power here; obedience and belief the rule. But His Holiness Peter III, the New Vatican&’s most powerful figure, himself harbors doubts, engendered by his love for his unacknowledged and illegitimate rebel daughter Josepha. And suddenly there is another assault on his tottering faith—and on the sacred traditions he has devoted his life to uphold. For an emissary, Voss Rhazes, has arrived from one of old Earth&’s journeying mobiles—the first off-planet human visitor ever to Tau Ceti—bearing remarkable hated technology that could shred the fragile emotional fabric of a family . . . and bring devastating chaos to their world.
In the Distance, and Ahead in Time: Stories (Five Star First Edition Science Fiction And Fantasy Ser.)
by George ZebrowskiThe ten stories of this collection present glimpses of our near, middle, and far futures "Heathen God," the author's first Nebula Award finalist, reveals the consequences of learning that our solar system may have been engineered by an alien race. "In the Distance, and Ahead in Time" and "Wayside World" depict the rediscovery of a ruined Earth's interstellar colonies by a new culture of mobile habitats. In "Transfigured Night" and "Between the Winds," we enter two possible destinies as we tamper with human reality and humankind mutates into vastly different offshoots.
Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia (Macrolife #1)
by George ZebrowskiSubtitled &“A Mobile Utopia,&” this pioneering novel about the meaning of space habitats for human history, presents spacefaring as no work did in its time, and since. A utopian novel like no other, presenting a dynamic utopian civilization that transcends the failures of our history. Epic in scope, Macrolife opens in the year 2021. The Bulero family owns one of Earth&’s richest corporations. As the Buleros gather for a reunion at the family mansion, an industrial accident plunges the corporation into a crisis, which eventually brings the world around them to the brink of disaster. Vilified, the Buleros flee to a space colony where young Richard Bulero gradually realizes that the only hope for humanity lies in macrolife—mobile, self-reproducing space habitats. A millennium later, these mobile communities have left our sunspace and multiplied. Conflicts with natural planets arise. John Bulero, a cloned descendant of the twenty-first century Bulero clan, falls in love with a woman from a natural world and experiences the harshness of her way of life. He rediscovers his roots when his mobile returns to the solar system, and a tense confrontation of three civilizations takes place. One hundred billion years later, macrolife, now as numerous as the stars, faces the impending death of nature. Regaining his individuality by falling away from a highly evolved macrolife, a strangely changed John Bulero struggles to see beyond a collapse of the universe into a giant black hole. Inspired by the possibilities of space settlements, projections of biology and cosmology, and basic human longings, Macrolife is a visionary speculation on the long-term future of human and natural history. Filled with haunting images and memorable characters, this is a vivid and brilliant work.
The Omega Point Trilogy: Ashes and Stars, The Omega Point, and Mirror of Minds
by George Zebrowski6599 A.D. The war between the Earth Federation and the Herculean Empire had been over for more than three centuries. The planet in the Hercules Globular Cluster was a cinder; the few descendants of the surviving Herculeans lived on Myraa's World, half a galaxy away, in what seemed to be a religious commune. But on an unnamed planet, deep within the Hercules Cluster, two survivors, father and son, gather their resources and plan a reign of terror against Federation worlds. But the woman Myraa has a different vision--one which excludes empires and warring armies. Subtly, she strives to shape events toward a different end. Rising to one of the most unusual climaxes in recent fantastic literature, this novel of chase and vengeance depicts a colorful, poetic future which is struggling to overcome its past. Filled with striking twists and vivid ideas, this is space opera at its most modern.
The Omega Point Trilogy
by George Zebrowskifrom the back cover 6599 A.D. The war between the Earth Federation and the Herculean Empire has been over for more than three centuries. The planet in the Hercules Globular Cluster was a cinder; the few descendants of the surviving Herculeans lived on Myraa's World, half a galaxy away, in what seemed to be a religious commune. But on an unnamed planet, deep within the Hercules Cluster, two survivors, father and son, gather their resources and plan a reign of terror against Federation worlds. But the woman Myraa has a different vision-one which excludes empires and warring armies. Subtly, she strives to shape events toward a different end. Rising to one of the most unusual climaxes in recent fantastic literature, this novel of chase and vengeance depicts a colorful, poetic future struggling to overcome its past. Filled with striking twists and vivid ideas, this is space opera at its most modern.
Stranger Suns
by George ZebrowskiThe orbiting tachyon detector was designed by physicist Juan Obrion to identify life in other star systems, but even though he expected to find some signs of life, he certainly didn't expect to find any life on Earth. When Obrion discovers that a culture has been concealed for many years far below Antarctica, he ventures out as part of a four-man team to explore the unknown. Juan, Lena, Malachi, and Magnus are awestruck when they discover a myriad of portals to parallel lands, but the maze they fall into makes them wonder if their journey will ever come to an end.
The Sunspacers Trilogy: Sunspacer, The Stars Will Speak, and Behind the Stars
by George ZebrowskiThe Sunspacers Trilogy is a trio of novels of an alternate, earth-based civilization. In Sunspacer, young and idealistic philosophy student Joe Sorby must come to terms with adulthood while negotiating the gross injustices of interplanetary commerce. In Stars Will Speak, an alien signal is broadcast from the farthest reaches of the known galaxy . . . but will the scientists of earth decipher its warning in time? In Behind the Stars, young Max Sorby returns to Earth after spending all of his life on a mobile space habitat, fearing that the only home he has ever known will be lost to him forever.
Swift Thoughts
by George ZebrowskiThis collection of stories showcases the work of George Zebrowski, one of science fiction&’s masters and a writer Hugo and Nebula Award winner Robert J. Sawyer has called &“one of the most philosophically astute writers in science fiction.&” Like the writers Olaf Stapledon, Arthur C. Clarke, and Stanislaw Lem, Zebrowski explores the &“big questions&”—the expansion of human horizons, and the growth of power over our lives and the world in which we live. In the title story, scientists push the boundaries of human mentality to keep pace with ever-evolving AIs. In &“The Eichmann Variations,&” a finalist for the Nebula Award, exact copies of captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann stand trial for his crimes against humanity, while in &“The Word Sweep,&” all speech must be rationed because spoken words take on physical form. In &“Wound the Wind,&” another Nebula Award finalist, unchanged humans roam freely until captured by those who know what&’s best for them, and in &“Stooges,&” a visiting alien hijacks the persona of Curly Howard. From hard science fiction (&“Gödel&’s Doom&”) to alternate history (&“Lenin in Odessa&”) to first alien contact (&“Bridge of Silence&”), and with an introduction by renowned physicist/writer Gregory Benford, this collection presents one of the most distinctive voices writing in the field of science fiction today.
Synergy: New Science Fiction, Vol. 1
by George ZebrowskiThis is an anthology of original science fiction stories selected by George Zebrowski, written by some of the best known writers of the 1980s, including: Bleak Velocities by Gregory Benford, Jewels in an Angel's Wing by Ian Watson, Signals by Charles L. Harness, Veritas by James Morrow, My Life as a Born-Again Pig by Frederik Pohl, Madonna of the Red Sun by W. Warren Wagar, Inside Out by Rudy Rucker, and What Should an SF Novel Be About by Brian W. Aldiss.
Synergy: New Science Fiction (Synergy Ser. #3)
by George ZebrowskiAn anthology of science fiction stories including: Before the Rainbow by Fruma Klass, Phylogenesis by Paul Di Philippo, All the Live Long Night by Bruce Clemence, Proserpina's Daughter by Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter, The Author as Torturer by Ian Watson.
Synergy: New Science Fiction (Synergy #4)
by George ZebrowskiAn anthology of original science fiction stories including: The End of the World Ball by James Gunn, Oort Cloud by Robert Reed, Passages by Michael Cassutt, Chimera by Jayge Carr, The Farmer on the Wall by Marc Laidlaw, Old Four-eyes by Chad Oliver, The Final Dream by Daniel Pearlman, Antenna by Andrew Joron, and In the Tradition of an Immodest Proposal, Revisited by Pamela Sargent.
Synergy: New Science Fiction, Vol. 2
by George ZebrowskiThis book consists of the stories Diary of a Mad Deity by James Morrow, French Scenes by Howard Waldrop, Taking from the Top by Daniel Pearlman, Probability Pipeline by Rudy Rucker and Marc Laidlaw, The Daily Chernobyl by Robert Frazier, Backward, Turn Backward by James Tiptree, Jr. an introduction by George Zebrowski and an essay SF Poetry: A New Genre by Andrew Joron.
Faster Than Light
by George Zebrowski Jack DannShort stories and scientific articles about how we might do interstellar travel.
Garth Of Izar: Star Trek The Original Series (Star Trek: The Original Series)
by George Zebrowski Pamela SargentCaptain Garth of Izar, hero of the battle of Axanar which helped secure the future of the Federation, was once a legendary Starfleet Captain whose exploits were required reading at Starfleet Academy. In the 2260s he suffered serious injuries in an incident on Antos IV. The inhabitants of Antos repaired his body by teaching him the art of cellular metamorphosis, but did not realise that his injuries had rendered him criminally insane. After ordering the destruction of Antos IV, Garth was committed to the Federation rehab colony on Elba II, where, in 2268, he overpowered his keepers, escaping with the aid of the cellular-metamorphosis process, mastery of which enabled him to take on the appearance of any person he wished. Before his eventual recapture he had proclaimed himself lord of the universe and attempted to commandeer the Starship Enterprise. Now cured of his insanity by new techniques of experimental medicine, Garth of Izar must rebuild his shattered life. The opportunity to do so is provided on a mission to solve a diplomatic crisis -- a crisis that requires Garth to return to the very planet that caused his insanity so many years ago.
Star Trek: A Fury Scorned
by George Zebrowski Pamela SargentWith their sun about to go nova, the people of Epictetus III face annihilation. Although the U.S.S. Enterprise has come to lead the rescue operation, there is no way to evacuate a population of over twenty million, leaving Captain Picard to make an agonizing decision. Should he try to salvage the planet's children, its greatest leaders and thinkers, or its irreplaceable archeological treasures? No matter what he decides, millions must be sacrificed -- unless another solution can be found. With time running out, Data proposes a revolutionary scientific experiment that could save all of Epictetus III, or doom both the planet and the Enterprise as well.
Empty Hearts: A Novel
by Juli ZehA prescient political and psychological thriller ripped from tomorrow's headlines, by one of Germany's most celebrated contemporary novelistsA few short years from now, the world is an even more uncertain place than it is today, and politics everywhere is marching rightward: Trump is gone, but Brexit is complete, as is Frexit. There's a global financial crisis, armed conflict, and mass migration, and an ultrapopulist movement governs in Germany. With their democracy facing the wrecking ball, most well-off Germans turn inward, focusing on their own lives. Britta, a wife, mother, and successful businesswoman, ignores the daily news and concentrates on her family and her work running a clinic specializing in suicide prevention. But her legitimate business is connected to a secret and far more lucrative operation known as The Bridge, an outfit that supplies terrorist organizations looking to employ suicide bombers. Using a complex candidate-identifying algorithm designed by Babak, a brilliant programmer and Britta's only employee, The Bridge has effectively cornered the market, and terrorism never takes place without Britta's services—which is why news of a thwarted suicide attack in Leipzig comes as a shock. Then The Bridge's database is stolen, driving Britta, Babak, and their latest recruit into hiding. On their heels is a new terrorist organization called the Empty Hearts, a group unlike any Britta and Babak have encountered before. Part suspenseful thriller, part wickedly effective social satire, Empty Hearts is a novel for our times, examining urgent questions of morality, politics, and culture and presenting a startling vision of a future where empathy is a thing of the past.
El método
by Juli ZehEn la tradición de novelas como 1984, Un mundo feliz y Fahrenheit 451, El Método de Juli Zeh es «una parábola amarga de todos los sistemas totalitarios y la caricatura de nuestro posible futuro».En 2057 ni la religión ni el mercado dirigen ya la sociedad. La ciencia es el nuevo credo, y el Método, el nuevo orden social basado en la salud de los individuos. El Método es infalible. Desde su implantación, ha vencido todas las enfermedades. Los hombres viven sanos, felices y en paz. Sin embargo, en una sociedad en la que la felicidad es una obligación cívica, la salud es un deber y el amor ha quedado reducido a la mera compatibilidad de dos sistemas inmunitarios, el suicidio es la única vía de escape posible.Moritz Holl es un apasionado defensor de la libertad y la naturaleza que aboga por el derecho a enamorarse libremente y vivir fuera de la norma. Su hermana Mia, por el contrario, es una bióloga que comulga con el Método, convencida de que ningún sistema político del pasado fue capaz de hacer felices a las personas. Cuando el Método acusa a Moritz de asesinato, y este, que insiste en su inocencia, se suicida como último acto de libertad individual, Mia se encuentra de repente en conflicto con el Método.«Juli Zeh aprovecha su novela hábilmente para hablar de un dilema constitucional: la transformación paulatina de la ayuda social en vigilancia. Al centrar el debate sobre el culto al cuerpo, Juli Zeh captura el espíritu de la época.»Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung«El Método es una parábola amarga de todos los sistemas totalitarios y la caricatura de nuestro posible futuro. Juli Zeh ha escrito un libro de ciencia ficción muy político y perturbador, un alegato en favor de la dignidad del individuo.» NDR Kultur
Star Wars I Am Your Father: Lessons for Parent's, Protectors, and Mentors
by Dan Zehr Amy RichauAcknowledge the father figure or Star Wars fan in your life with this collection of lessons in parenting from a galaxy far, far away.Families can be complicated and messy, and can take many forms—from the Skywalkers to the Fetts, the found family of the Ghost crew from Star Wars Rebels, and mentor relationships such as Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. This book shares some wise advice for parenting, mentoring, and families of all shapes and sizes, from fan-favorite Star Wars characters such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, Hondo Ohnaka and Boba Fett, and the Mandalorian and Grogu. The perfect Father&’s Day or new-parent gift for your long-lost father, adoptive family, or Jedi Master, Star Wars: I Am Your Father is a light-hearted guide to parenting, featuring quotes, classic moments, and characters from the Star Wars galaxy. © & ™ 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd.
Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero
by E. Paul ZehrBattling bad guys. High-tech hideouts. The gratitude of the masses. Who at some point in their life hasn't dreamed of being a superhero? Impossible, right? Or is it?Possessing no supernatural powers, Batman is the most realistic of all the superheroes. His feats are achieved through rigorous training and mental discipline, and with the aid of fantastic gadgets. Drawing on his training as a neuroscientist, kinesiologist, and martial artist, E. Paul Zehr explores the question: Could a mortal ever become Batman? Zehr discusses the physical training necessary to maintain bad-guy-fighting readiness while relating the science underlying this process, from strength conditioning to the cognitive changes a person would endure in undertaking such a regimen. In probing what a real-life Batman could achieve, Zehr considers the level of punishment a consummately fit and trained person could handle, how hard and fast such a person could punch and kick, and the number of adversaries that individual could dispatch. He also tells us what it would be like to fight while wearing a batsuit and the amount of food we'd need to consume each day to maintain vigilance as Gotham City's guardian.A fun foray of escapism grounded in sound science, Becoming Batman provides the background for attaining the realizable—though extreme—level of human performance that would allow you to be a superhero.
Android
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeDakos was an alien humanoid who hated earth; he detested the planet; its people were anathema to him. He loathed its cities; its countryside was an abomination to him. He lived for one thing only... the destruction of the world which had rejected him. Dakos was no mean enemy. His hatred was allied to a brilliant mind and a very superior technology. He was a man of action... highly destructive action! Security agents Blanthus and Croberg were after him, but Dakos covered his tracks with all the cunning of a diabolically clever homicidal maniac. He could so easily pass as a terrestrial humanoid. ...Are you sure that man sitting beside you in the bus isn't the alien? What's in that case? His clothes? His lunch? His business documents? Or an alien bomb? This is the story of a world reeling from a war of nerves with a sinister secret enemy.
Escape to Infinity
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeMike Sterne was a man with problems. His environment included an unknown quantity in the form of an eccentric alien scientist and a determined corps of totalitarian militia with orders to liquidate him. A rigidly imposed authoritarian social structure can only be undermined by a superior ideology. Sterne encountered that ideology on the other side of an electronic gateway through the X dimensions, a gateway to the infinite universe of the microcosm and the macrocosm. His enemies also discovered a route through the continuum... but they didn't reach the same world that Sterne had found.
The Girl From Tomorrow
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeThursday began as an ordinary day as far as Estelle was concerned. Breakfast... Tube... Office... Lunch... And then the sane, sane, simple everyday world began to fade. One moment she was walking along the pleasant tree-lined familiarity of her home town... the next she was involved in a strange translucent sphere and life had turned into a nightmare. Without warning and without explanation she found herself alone in a strange new environment. There were strange stars in the unknown sky above her and the flora and fauna of her new surroundings were disturbingly unfamiliar. Most minds would have yielded to the easy escape of insanity. But Estelle Wilde was made of sterner stuff. She fought back at the strangeness of her new setting and tried desperately to establish a new set of survival data before it was too late. Piece by piece she collected her information and sat down to the mammoth task of answering the great questions. Where was she? How had she been brought there? And why? Above all... was it possible to get home?
No Way Back
by Karl Zeigfreid Lionel Fanthorpe Patricia FanthorpeAlong with progress in other spheres, criminology and remedial treatment for the socially unacceptable will undoubtedly make rapid strides in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third centuries. Purely retributive justice is not a satisfactory answer to the enlightened Welfare Officer of the Future. Psychiatry, criminology and electronic mind control could combine into an entirely new concept of reclamation. In the right hands this would be an advance into something close to Utopia - in the wrong it would be leave 1984 looking like a pleasant week-end in the country. This thoughtful new novel is a daring attempt to handle the deliucate theme of advanced criminology and the unresolved conflict of Society versus those who will not or cannot conform. Try as they will to be impersonal and humane, the psychiatrists of the future - even with electronic aids - will be as human as we are today. Their problems will be ours...