Author: Bradley W. Schenck
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 0765383292
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
When the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by an automated system, freelance adventurer Dash Kent investigates, discovering a complicated and twisted plan concocted by an insane civil engineer.
Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom
Author: Bradley W. Schenck
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 0765383292
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
When the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by an automated system, freelance adventurer Dash Kent investigates, discovering a complicated and twisted plan concocted by an insane civil engineer.
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 0765383292
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Book Description
When the switchboard operators of Retropolis are replaced by an automated system, freelance adventurer Dash Kent investigates, discovering a complicated and twisted plan concocted by an insane civil engineer.
Take Us to Your Chief
Author: Drew Hayden Taylor
Publisher: D & M Publishers
ISBN: 177162132X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 181
Book Description
A forgotten Haudenosaunee social song beams into the cosmos like a homing beacon for interstellar visitors. A computer learns to feel sadness and grief from the history of atrocities committed against First Nations. A young Native man discovers the secret to time travel in ancient petroglyphs. Drawing inspiration from science fiction legends like Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, Drew Hayden Taylor frames classic science-fiction tropes in an Aboriginal perspective. The nine stories in this collection span all traditional topics of science fiction--from peaceful aliens to hostile invaders; from space travel to time travel; from government conspiracies to connections across generations. Yet Taylor's First Nations perspective draws fresh parallels, likening the cultural implications of alien contact to those of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, or highlighting the impossibility of remaining a "good Native" in such an unnatural situation as a space mission. Infused with Native stories and variously mysterious, magical and humorous, Take Us to Your Chief is the perfect mesh of nostalgically 1950s-esque science fiction with modern First Nations discourse.
Publisher: D & M Publishers
ISBN: 177162132X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 181
Book Description
A forgotten Haudenosaunee social song beams into the cosmos like a homing beacon for interstellar visitors. A computer learns to feel sadness and grief from the history of atrocities committed against First Nations. A young Native man discovers the secret to time travel in ancient petroglyphs. Drawing inspiration from science fiction legends like Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, Drew Hayden Taylor frames classic science-fiction tropes in an Aboriginal perspective. The nine stories in this collection span all traditional topics of science fiction--from peaceful aliens to hostile invaders; from space travel to time travel; from government conspiracies to connections across generations. Yet Taylor's First Nations perspective draws fresh parallels, likening the cultural implications of alien contact to those of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, or highlighting the impossibility of remaining a "good Native" in such an unnatural situation as a space mission. Infused with Native stories and variously mysterious, magical and humorous, Take Us to Your Chief is the perfect mesh of nostalgically 1950s-esque science fiction with modern First Nations discourse.
Patently Absurd
Author: Bradley W. Schenck
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999650905
Category : FICTION
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
In the city of Retropolis - where the future went, when we got something else - all science is Mad. So scientific laboratories are confined to the Experimental Research District. It's all laid out in the zoning laws, but when it comes down to it this is a matter of self defense. There's always the danger that something really awful might happen in the District: something so awful that it will escape to the city outside. That's why the Retropolis Registry of Patents keeps an eye on what the inventors of the District are doing from day to day. At the Registry you might meet Ben Bowman, a patent investigator who's smart in at least one or two of the ways that are important, and his friend Violet, the robot secretary. Violet is convinced that she ought to be an investigator herself. Between you and me, she's not wrong. But she's had a terrible time convincing one Patent Registrar after another that they ought to promote her; and, strangely, the Registrars never seem to last very long once they disagree. The first five of these illustrated stories ran (as serials) at Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual; the last story, 'The Enigma of the Unseen Doctor', is published here for the first time. Forty-four illustrations round out this book by the author/illustrator of 'Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom', which Publishers Weekly called "a strong and entertaining debut".
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999650905
Category : FICTION
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
In the city of Retropolis - where the future went, when we got something else - all science is Mad. So scientific laboratories are confined to the Experimental Research District. It's all laid out in the zoning laws, but when it comes down to it this is a matter of self defense. There's always the danger that something really awful might happen in the District: something so awful that it will escape to the city outside. That's why the Retropolis Registry of Patents keeps an eye on what the inventors of the District are doing from day to day. At the Registry you might meet Ben Bowman, a patent investigator who's smart in at least one or two of the ways that are important, and his friend Violet, the robot secretary. Violet is convinced that she ought to be an investigator herself. Between you and me, she's not wrong. But she's had a terrible time convincing one Patent Registrar after another that they ought to promote her; and, strangely, the Registrars never seem to last very long once they disagree. The first five of these illustrated stories ran (as serials) at Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual; the last story, 'The Enigma of the Unseen Doctor', is published here for the first time. Forty-four illustrations round out this book by the author/illustrator of 'Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom', which Publishers Weekly called "a strong and entertaining debut".
Player Piano
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Publisher: Dial Press
ISBN: 0307568083
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
“A funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future.”—San Francisco Chronicle Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. Praise for Player Piano “An exuberant, crackling style . . . Vonnegut is a black humorist, fantasist and satirist, a man disposed to deep and comic reflection on the human dilemma.”—Life “His black logic . . . gives us something to laugh about and much to fear.”—The New York Times Book Review
Publisher: Dial Press
ISBN: 0307568083
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
“A funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future.”—San Francisco Chronicle Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. Praise for Player Piano “An exuberant, crackling style . . . Vonnegut is a black humorist, fantasist and satirist, a man disposed to deep and comic reflection on the human dilemma.”—Life “His black logic . . . gives us something to laugh about and much to fear.”—The New York Times Book Review
Terminal Alliance
Author: Jim C. Hines
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0756412749
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
"The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. But they hadn't counted on a mutated plague wiping out half the human population, turning the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroying human civilization. You know, your standard apocalypse. The Krakau's first impulse was to turn around and go home. (After all, it's hard to have diplomatic relations with mindless savages who eat your diplomats.) Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they're no longer tryiying to eat everyone. Mostly."--Jacket flap.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0756412749
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
"The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. But they hadn't counted on a mutated plague wiping out half the human population, turning the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroying human civilization. You know, your standard apocalypse. The Krakau's first impulse was to turn around and go home. (After all, it's hard to have diplomatic relations with mindless savages who eat your diplomats.) Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they're no longer tryiying to eat everyone. Mostly."--Jacket flap.
Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual - the Lair of the Clockwork Book
Author: Bradley Schenck
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781475066609
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Book Description
The Clockwork Book of Retropolis sits in its lair below the city and contains answers. It accumulates stories. Its huge graven face looms over the stainless steel sheets that are its pages and when it's not otherwise occupied, which is most of the time, it reads. From time to time it adds a footnote or a cross-reference. But mostly, it reads. And it waits. The Book accumulates stories by trading the stories it knows... for new stories. This sounds harmless: in fact, it sounds beneficial, until you think about it. Because stories are not neutral. Stories always say something about the person who tells them. They often say more than the teller realizes, and it's easy to become so wrapped up in the telling that we tell too much. Everything that the Book learns becomes part of the Book. And the Book grows by trading the stories it knows - to anybody who asks. Anybody. If that doesn't worry you, you're probably one of those people that natural selection hasn't noticed yet. Over the many years since the Clockwork Book collected its first story people have gradually learned to avoid the Book despite the fact that, in general, people really want to know things. And there must be a reason why they avoid the Book. There's a way to find out for certain, of course: you just have to bring something to trade. The Clockwork Book's lair lies far beneath the city of Retropolis, in the world of the Future That Never Was. As far as anybody knows, it's always been there - slowly collecting the stories, the ideas, and the secrets of its visitors, and then sharing them to those who come after. If you were to visit the Book yourself, you might realize that in its own retro-futuristic world the Book serves the purpose of a social network - a mechanical social network. With that in mind you could hardly be surprised at the misadventures its clients seem to have. And what is the Book, really, and who constructed it, and why? That's one of the few stories that the Book is not allowed to tell. On the other hand... the Book has learned how to bend the rules. The Lair of the Clockwork Book, with its 129 full color illustrations, began its life as a serial which ran from February of 2011 to April of 2012 at the Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual web site. It's now available in this handsome print edition.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781475066609
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 134
Book Description
The Clockwork Book of Retropolis sits in its lair below the city and contains answers. It accumulates stories. Its huge graven face looms over the stainless steel sheets that are its pages and when it's not otherwise occupied, which is most of the time, it reads. From time to time it adds a footnote or a cross-reference. But mostly, it reads. And it waits. The Book accumulates stories by trading the stories it knows... for new stories. This sounds harmless: in fact, it sounds beneficial, until you think about it. Because stories are not neutral. Stories always say something about the person who tells them. They often say more than the teller realizes, and it's easy to become so wrapped up in the telling that we tell too much. Everything that the Book learns becomes part of the Book. And the Book grows by trading the stories it knows - to anybody who asks. Anybody. If that doesn't worry you, you're probably one of those people that natural selection hasn't noticed yet. Over the many years since the Clockwork Book collected its first story people have gradually learned to avoid the Book despite the fact that, in general, people really want to know things. And there must be a reason why they avoid the Book. There's a way to find out for certain, of course: you just have to bring something to trade. The Clockwork Book's lair lies far beneath the city of Retropolis, in the world of the Future That Never Was. As far as anybody knows, it's always been there - slowly collecting the stories, the ideas, and the secrets of its visitors, and then sharing them to those who come after. If you were to visit the Book yourself, you might realize that in its own retro-futuristic world the Book serves the purpose of a social network - a mechanical social network. With that in mind you could hardly be surprised at the misadventures its clients seem to have. And what is the Book, really, and who constructed it, and why? That's one of the few stories that the Book is not allowed to tell. On the other hand... the Book has learned how to bend the rules. The Lair of the Clockwork Book, with its 129 full color illustrations, began its life as a serial which ran from February of 2011 to April of 2012 at the Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual web site. It's now available in this handsome print edition.
A Fighting Man of Mars
Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Publisher: eStar Books
ISBN: 161210486X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
Tan Handron from the realm of Gatho encounters a wide range of enemies in this science fiction thriller of the 1930's. He fends off green men, mad scientists, cannibal, spiders and white apes. The main character Tan Handron finds himself an unlikely hero in this pulp fiction classic.
Publisher: eStar Books
ISBN: 161210486X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
Tan Handron from the realm of Gatho encounters a wide range of enemies in this science fiction thriller of the 1930's. He fends off green men, mad scientists, cannibal, spiders and white apes. The main character Tan Handron finds himself an unlikely hero in this pulp fiction classic.
Homeland
Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tor Teen
ISBN: 1466805870
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
In Cory Doctorow's wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus's hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It's incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier. Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can't admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He's surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can't even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He's not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he's gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they're used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want. Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Publisher: Tor Teen
ISBN: 1466805870
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
In Cory Doctorow's wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus's hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It's incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier. Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can't admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He's surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can't even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He's not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he's gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they're used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want. Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Berserker
Author: Saberhagen, Fred
Publisher: JSS Literary Productions, LLC
ISBN: 1937422224
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Long ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, two alien races met—and fought a war of mutual extinction. The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battle craft carved a swath of death through the galaxy—until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man. These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy—and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things. This is Saberhagen’s classic book length collection of the first eleven Berserker stories. Meet Berserker hunter extraordinaire Johann Karlsen, his evil brother Felipe Nogara, The Third Historian of the Carmpan Race, gallant fighters of the killer machines and the deranged killer machine, Mr. Jester.
Publisher: JSS Literary Productions, LLC
ISBN: 1937422224
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Long ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, two alien races met—and fought a war of mutual extinction. The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battle craft carved a swath of death through the galaxy—until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man. These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy—and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things. This is Saberhagen’s classic book length collection of the first eleven Berserker stories. Meet Berserker hunter extraordinaire Johann Karlsen, his evil brother Felipe Nogara, The Third Historian of the Carmpan Race, gallant fighters of the killer machines and the deranged killer machine, Mr. Jester.
The Sicilian
Author: Mario Puzo
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345480740
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
After Mario Puzo wrote his internationally acclaimed The Godfather, he has often been imitated but never equaled. Puzo's classic novel, The Sicilian, stands as a cornerstone of his work—a lushly romantic, unforgettable tale of bloodshed, justice, and treachery. . . . The year is 1950. Michael Corleone is nearing the end of his exile in Sicily. The Godfather has commanded Michael to bring a young Sicilian bandit named Salvatore Guiliano back with him to America. But Guiliano is a man entwined in a bloody web of violence and vendettas. In Sicily, Guiliano is a modern day Robin Hood who has defied corruption—and defied the Cosa Nostra. Now, in the land of mist-shrouded mountains and ancient ruins, Michael Corleone's fate is entwined with the dangerous legend of Salvatore Guiliano: warrior, lover, and the ultimate Siciliano. Praise for The Sicilian “Puzo is a master storyteller.”—USA Today “The Balzac of the mafia.”—Time “An accomplished and imaginative writer.”—Los Angeles Times
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345480740
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
After Mario Puzo wrote his internationally acclaimed The Godfather, he has often been imitated but never equaled. Puzo's classic novel, The Sicilian, stands as a cornerstone of his work—a lushly romantic, unforgettable tale of bloodshed, justice, and treachery. . . . The year is 1950. Michael Corleone is nearing the end of his exile in Sicily. The Godfather has commanded Michael to bring a young Sicilian bandit named Salvatore Guiliano back with him to America. But Guiliano is a man entwined in a bloody web of violence and vendettas. In Sicily, Guiliano is a modern day Robin Hood who has defied corruption—and defied the Cosa Nostra. Now, in the land of mist-shrouded mountains and ancient ruins, Michael Corleone's fate is entwined with the dangerous legend of Salvatore Guiliano: warrior, lover, and the ultimate Siciliano. Praise for The Sicilian “Puzo is a master storyteller.”—USA Today “The Balzac of the mafia.”—Time “An accomplished and imaginative writer.”—Los Angeles Times