23 results for "Science"

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman,Dave McKean
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, an ingenious and captivating reimagining of Rudyard Kipling's adventure The Jungle Book that is a glorious meditation on love, loss, survival, sacrifice, and what it means to truly be alive―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene Yee. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would have been completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy--an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack--who has already killed Bod's family. . . By turns macabre, uplifting, sinister, and heartwarming, Neil Gaiman's #1 national bestseller―winner of the Carnegie and Newbury Medals and the Hugo Award―is a "novel of wonder . . . a tale of unforgettable enchantment" (New York Times Book Review).
William Morrow 2021-10-19 304 pages

Walkaway A Novel

Cory Doctorow
Kirkus' Best Fiction of 2017 From New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow, an epic tale of revolution, love, post-scarcity, and the end of death. " Walkaway is now the best contemporary example I know of, its utopia glimpsed after fascinatingly-extrapolated revolutionary struggle." —William Gibson Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza—known to his friends as Hubert, Etc—was too old to be at that Communist party. But after watching the breakdown of modern society, he really has no where left to be—except amongst the dregs of disaffected youth who party all night and heap scorn on the sheep they see on the morning commute. After falling in with Natalie, an ultra-rich heiress trying to escape the clutches of her repressive father, the two decide to give up fully on formal society—and walk away. After all, now that anyone can design and print the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter—from a computer, there seems to be little reason to toil within the system. It’s still a dangerous world out there, the empty lands wrecked by climate change, dead cities hollowed out by industrial flight, shadows hiding predators animal and human alike. Still, when the initial pioneer walkaways flourish, more people join them. Then the walkaways discover the one thing the ultra-rich have never been able to buy: how to beat death. Now it’s war – a war that will turn the world upside down. Fascinating, moving, and darkly humorous, Walkaway is a multi-generation science fiction thriller about the wrenching changes of the next hundred years...and the very human people who will live their consequences.
Tor Publishing Group 2018-05-22 496 pages

Multiverse

M a Rothman
"Fast-paced prose, fit-for-Hollywood characterizations, science with a wow factor, and accessible descriptions of complex quantum concepts and experiments... hard science meets pop-science time-travel in this entertaining thriller." - Kirkus Reviews When the future ruins your life... From a USA Today bestselling author: After particle physics professor Michael discovers how to pierce time and space, he meets a student who has memories of her future - and the research they have yet to complete together... "You won't be disappointed" (New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson). ------ When Michael Salomon woke up Tuesday morning, he did so with a smile, knowing that today would be a positive turning point in his career. With his first child on the way, he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen. As he drives into work, he feels a sudden wave of anguish wash over him, and he sees himself alone, at the gravesite of an unborn daughter. It feels like a crystal-clear memory, a waking nightmare that nearly sends him crashing into the car in front of him. The idea of faster-than-light particles has been a part of science fiction lore for fifty years, yet Michael had made a breakthrough discovery late last night. Tachyons do exist. Going back into the office, he hasn't even had a chance to tell anyone about what he's discovered when the men from DARPA came calling. The entirety of his research has suddenly become an object of national security. But it was only when a young college student intercepts him as he gets into his car that he knows the life he's looking forward to is over. The student has memories of her future self... a future where she's worked with Michael on extending his research. She knows things that he's only thought of as possibilities, and she speaks of them as if they'd already happened. And most chilling of all, she speaks of a future where they are both in hiding from the government that sees them as the enemy. MULTIVERSE is a story about a scientist who uncovers a way to pierce the veil of time and space, and has unwittingly opened Pandora's box. Is it even possible to undo what a future version of yourself has done, or is everyone doomed to the chaos that's been loosed on the world?
Primordial Press 2022-09-05 364 pages

You

Austin Grossman
"A razor-sharp comedy and a smart meditation on the nature of gaming." -- Boston Globe When Russell joins Black Arts games, brainchild of two visionary designers who were once his closest friends, he reunites with an eccentric crew of nerds hacking the frontiers of both technology and entertainment. In part, he's finally given up chasing the conventional path that has always seemed just out of reach. But mostly, he needs to know what happened to Simon, his strangest and most gifted friend, who died under mysterious circumstances soon after Black Arts' breakout hit. As the company's revolutionary next-gen game is threatened by a software glitch, Russell finds himself in a race to save his job, Black Arts' legacy, and the people he has grown to care about. The deeper Russell digs, the more dangerous the glitch appears--and soon, Russell comes to realize there's much more is at stake than just one software company's bottom line.
Little, Brown 2014-04-08 400 pages

Worldwar Tilting the Balance

Harry Turtledove
NO ONE COULD STOP THEM-- NOT STALIN, NOT TOGO, NOT CHURCHILL, NOT ROOSEVELT . . . The invaders had cut the United States virtually in half at the Mississippi, vaporized Washington, D.C., devastated much of Europe, and held large parts of the Soviet Union under their thumb. But humanity would not give up so easily. The new world allies were ruthless at finding their foe's weaknesses and exploiting them. Whether delivering supplies in tiny biplanes to partisans across the vast steppes of Russia, working furiously to understand the enemy's captured radar in England, or battling house to house on the streets of Chicago, humankind would never give up. Yet no one could say when the hellish inferno of death would stop being a war of conquest and turn into a war of survival--the very survival of the planet . . .
Ballantine Books 1996 597 pages

Supervolcano: Eruption

Harry Turtledove
Yellowstone National Park sits on a hotspot: a plume of molten rock coming up from deep inside the earth capable of volcanic eruptions far greater than any that have occurred in times past. It has been silent for many years, providing false security for a nation unprepared for the full force and fury of nature unleashed. It begins with explosions that send lava and mud flowing far beyond Yellowstone towards populated areas. Clouds of ash drift across the country, nearly blanketing the land from coast to coast. The fallout destroys crops and livestock, clogs machinery, and makes cities uninhabitable. Those who survive find themselves facing the dawn of a new ice age as temperatures plummet worldwide. Colin Ferguson is a police lieutenant in a suburb of Los Angeles, where snow is falling for the first time in decades. He fears for his family who are spread across America, refugees caught in an apocalyptic catastrophe where humanity has no choice but to rise from the ashes and recreate the world…
Penguin 2012-12-04 464 pages

After the Madness

Sol Wachtler
Driving down the Long Island Expressway in November of 1992, Sol Wachtler was New York's Chief Judge and heir apparent to the New York Governorship. Suddenly, three van loads of FBI agents swerved in front of him--bringing his car and his legal career to a halt. Wachtler's subsequent arrest, conviction and incarceration for harassing his longtime lover precipitated a media feeding frenzy, revealing to the world his struggles with romantic obsession, manic-depression and drug abuse. In this, his prison diary, Wachtler reveals the stark reality behind his vertiginous fall from the heights of the legal establishment to the underbelly of the criminal justice system. Sentenced to a medium security prison in Butner, North Carolina, Wachtler is stabbed by an unseen assailant, berated by prison guards, and repeatedly placed in solitary confinement with no explanation. Moreover, as a prisoner he confronts first hand the inequities of a system that his judicial rulings helped to construct and befriends the type of people he once sentenced to prison. With unflinching honesty, Wachtler draws upon his unique experience of living life on both sides of the bench to paint a chilling portrait of prison life interwoven with a no-holds-barred analysis of the shortcomings of the American legal justice system.
Open Road Integrated Media, Incorporated 2003-07 320 pages

Primordial Threat

M. A. Rothman
*** USA Today bestseller *** The year is 2066 and the world is oblivious to the threat it faces. The fate of humanity lies on the shoulders of Burt Radcliffe, the new head of NASA's Near Earth Object program. He's been rushing the completion of DefenseNet, a ring of satellites that are both part of an early-warning system as well as the means to eliminate incoming threats. Yet Burt knows that despite the world's best efforts, nothing can be done about the alert he's just received. Coming out of deep space is a danger that's been approaching since the dawn of time. A black hole. An unstoppable threat that promises death for all in its wake. Dave Holmes was a modern-day Einstein. As the original architect of DefenseNet, he'd had visions of this Primordial Threat before he disappeared, yet he'd left behind no details on how the problem might be solved. Can Holmes be found, and if so, will his solution even work? The world has less than a year to find out.
Primordial Press 2018-08-09 420 pages

The Blade Between A Novel

Sam J. Miller
A Library Journal Horror Best Seller From Nebula Award winner Sam J. Miller comes a frightening and uncanny ghost story about a rapidly changing city in upstate New York and the mysterious forces that threaten it. Ronan Szepessy promised himself he'd never return to Hudson. The sleepy upstate town was no place for a restless gay photographer. But his father is ill and New York City's distractions have become too much for him. He hopes that a quick visit will help him recharge. Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, his first love, and Dom's wife, Attalah. The three former misfits mourn what their town has become--overrun by gentrifiers and corporate interests. With friends and neighbors getting evicted en masse and a mayoral election coming up, Ronan and Attalah craft a plan to rattle the newcomers and expose their true motives. But in doing so, they unleash something far more mysterious and uncontainable. Hudson has a rich, proud history and, it turns out, the real-state developers aren't the only forces threatening its well-being: the spirits undergirding this once-thriving industrial town are enraged. Ronan's hijinks have overlapped with a bubbling up of hate and violence among friends and neighbors, and everything is spiraling out of control. Ronan must summon the very best of himself to shed his own demons and save the city he once loathed.
HarperCollins Publishers 2022-02 384 pages

The Hypnotist

M. J. Rose
Haunted by his inability to stop the murder of a beautiful young painter twenty years ago, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Investigating a crazed collector who's begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past-life study. There, to maintain his cover, he submits to the treatment of a hypnotist. Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of the world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: a fifteen-hundred-year-old sculpture the nation of Iran will do anything to recover.
Mira 2011-04-19 416 pages

The Book of Skulls

Robert Silverberg
From Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author, Robert Silverberg comes the classic: The Book of Skulls. Four friends embark on a cross-country trip in search of a legendary monastery. There, they hope to find the secrets of immortality promised in an ancient manuscript, the Book of Skulls There, they will present themselves-and pay the horrific price demanded. For immortality requires sacrifice. Two victims to balance two survivors. One by suicide, one by murder. Beneath the gaze of grinning skulls, the terror begins. . . .
Three Ravens Publishing 2024-03-10 296 pages

Heaven's Fall

David S. Goyer,Michael Cassutt
Mankind’s first contact with extraterrestrial life led to an incredible revelation. Their last may lead them to extinction. Twenty years have passed since the mysterious Near-Earth Object nicknamed Keanu appeared in the night sky and transported humans from all over Earth into its interior. There they discovered that Keanu was a long-range spaceship—and they were not alone. They joined forces with the aliens called the Architects, who had come from a distant galaxy to seek help in fighting the vicious Reivers. And they defeated them. Or so they thought. For when Keanu reestablished contact with Earth, they learned that the Reivers have taken over the planet, placing most of the population under their dominion. But mankind’s last hope may yet be hidden inside the NEO. And if the men and women still in Keanu cannot find it, humanity will be finished. And the galaxy will be next.
National Geographic Books 2014-07-29 560 pages

Freedom's Last Gasp

M. A. Rothman
An "intelligent and entertaining" tale. (Kirkus Reviews): Priya is thrilled when she's recruited to serve in the spaceborne military. But she's soon forced to volunteer for a dangerous mission - and finds her life at stake... "For nail-biting science fiction thrillers, look no further than one of Rothman's stories" (New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia). ------ Aliens exist... and, as it turns out, most of them are fairly harmless. It's the humans you need to watch out for. Priya Radcliffe wasn't even born yet when the first set of terrorists struck. She was seventeen when they struck again, but this time her parents paid the ultimate price. That was seven years ago, and since then, the United Nations finally agreed to field its first spaceborne military. Serving aboard one of the first true starships had been a dream of hers. All of her years of education and training had been geared for entering the service. However, just before Priya's graduation, she's approached by an officer from a military branch she'd never heard of and given a choice: volunteer for a risky mission to an outpost she knows nothing about or be excluded from serving. She had no choice.
Primordial Press 2020-04-06 330 pages

The Mutant Season

Robert Silverberg,Karen Haber
There are mutants living among us. People with golden yellow eyes, extraordinary powers and strange abilities. For centuries they have hidden themselves, fearing persecution. After rising tensions in recent decades, the mutants find new hope in the twenty-first century, with one of their own holding high political office. *** But underlying prejudices are hard to eradicate completely. And even as the mutants find greater acceptance in society, a single event threatens to undo everything. *** In 2017, the murder of a prominent politician sets off a series of events that will bring the mutants into direct conflict with "normal" humans, and the world may never again be the same.
Arc Manor 2013-07 264 pages

Saturn's Children

Charles Stross
Sometime in the twenty-third century, humanity went extinct, leaving only androids behind to fulfill humanity’s dreams. And, having learned well from their long-dead masters, they’ve established a hierarchical society—one with humanoid aristo rulers at the top and slave-chipped workers at the bottom, performing the lowly tasks all androids were originally created to do. Designed as a concubine for a species that hasn’t existed for two hundred years, femmebot Freya Nakamichi-47—one of the last of her kind still functioning—accepts a job from a stranger to deliver a package from mercury to Mars. Unfortunately, she’s just made herself a moving target for some very powerful, very determined humanoids desperate to retrieve the package’s contents…
National Geographic Books 2009-06-30 336 pages

The Holy Land

Robert Zubrin
What if Americans were the terrorists, and a more civilized superpower found it necessary to put us down? What if contemporary Christian ministers preached salvation through murder of non-believing foreigners, and the US government recruited child suicide-assassins for this purpose? If you were an American living in such a crazed society, what would you do? If you were a civilized outsider, how would you deal with these insane savages? The Holy Land poses such predicaments, and more. In an attempt to save the Minervans from oppression in the central galaxy, the liberal Western Galactic Empire has relocated the sect to their ancient homeland of Kennewick, Washington. The fundamentalist fanatics ruling the USA find the presence of pagans in the holy city intolerable, however, and they launch an interstellar campaign of mass destruction in protest. Now, cast in a universe gone mad, the primitive Earthling POW Sergeant Hamilton and his case officer, the sophisticated Minervan priestess (3rd class) Aurora, must find the way out, or neither side will survive. In this madcap role-reversed science-fiction satire on the Mideast crisis and the War on Terrorism, the gloves come off. Written with wit and verve by Heinlein Award winner Robert Zubrin, the author of The Case for Mars, Entering Space, and First Landing, The Holy Land takes science fiction back to its Swiftian roots. Rarely since Czech humanist Karel Capek aimed his 1936 War with the Newts at fascism and appeasement has the medium been mobilized to such pointed effect. "A satiric tour de force" - School Library Journal "The duplicity, mendacity, and hypocrisy that characterize the present predicament in the Middle East are laid bare in Zubrin's engaing romp, with verve and biting wit." - National Review Online "Nothing is spared from Zubrin's satiric pen: religion, politics, economics, sex, war, psychology, philosophy - all are the objects of his barbs....The Holy Land is a surprisingly fine follow-up to Zubrin's other fictional and non-fiction works." - The Rocky Mountain News "It's a hoot." - The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Polaris Books 2003 298 pages

The Great Wash (original U.S. Title The Secret Masters) (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

Gerald Kersh
"An extravaganza . . . fertile invention and forceful style . . . Mr. Kersh's many admirers will undoubtedly devour this highly flavoured hotch-potch with avidity." - Julian Maclaren-Ross, Sunday Times "[F]irst-rate Kersh, richly peopled with the odd bit roles he sketches so well and written with style and individuality." - Anthony Boucher, New York Herald Tribune "Sometimes funny, sometimes nightmarish, always first-class entertainment." - Basil Davenport, New York Times Journalist George Oaks and his friend Albert Kemp, a mystery novelist, are on their way to meet their friend, the celebrated philosopher Dr. Monacelli. But when a clerical mix-up leads to their meeting the American gangster Monty Cello instead, Oaks and Kemp quickly find themselves caught up in a bizarre and dangerous plot involving a murdered reporter, a missing scientist, and a group of powerful madmen with a plan to destroy the world as we know it. It's a race against time as Oaks and Kemp must infiltrate the villains' stronghold and save humanity before it's too late! Equal parts hard-boiled crime novel and apocalyptic science fiction tale, The Great Wash (1953) is one of the most exciting novels by Gerald Kersh (1911-1968), who is best known for his classics Night and the City (1938) and Fowlers End (1957). Fowlers End and four volumes of Kersh's strange and brilliant short fiction are also available from Valancourt.
Valancourt Books 2015-03-17 232 pages