New Releases by Brian W. Aldiss

Collected from an evening of live performance, a selection of the Science Fiction Grand Master’s best stories, poetry, and speculations. In October 1987, Brian W. Aldiss—with the help of two other performers—took his science fiction to the masses, staging theatrical performances of his best stories and fantastic, mind-wrenching speculations before a live audience. Included in Science Fiction Blues are three short stories that were included in the show’s program, three scripted stories that didn’t make the final cut, and a selection of the author’s science fiction poetry. Among the scripted stories, readers will find “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” based on the original short story that inspired Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg’s film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, in which Aldiss portrayed the role of Teddy. When the show was taken on the road, Matrix hailed it as “possibly the best piece of SF theatre [they’ve] seen.” In this book’s introduction, Robert Holdstock recalls it as “an evening of splendidly visual effects” all done by words that “managed to indulge all the senses, all the moods. . . .The feeling was one of something very special.”

Explore the fate of humankind across the stars in this classic collection of stories by the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of the Helliconia trilogy. “Aldiss’ stories are cleverly conceived and deeply felt.” —The A.V. Club In the far-distant future, refugees from Earth leave their dying planet behind for a wondrous galactic cluster known as “Starswarm.” Originally published in 1963, Starswarm takes readers on a grand tour of the civilizations inhabiting this galaxy’s vast sectors through a series of eight interconnected stories. Discover the strange new worlds and how humans have adapted to their new homes. A young man must make contact with an alien for the sake of his government. A new drug empowers soldiers at a great cost. A man and woman travel to a promised utopia only to be consumed with regret. A seasoned explorer crashes into what he believes is a primitive society. Something horrifying lies buried in the mud. A hero treks through a world full of a putrid stench. Witness the remnants of humanity as they struggle to survive and shape their destinies amidst harsh landscapes. Each world is different from the next, but all of them could only come from the mind of Science Fiction Grand Master. “Aldiss . . . has sufficient integrity never to put a piece of paper into his typewriter before he has hit on a really original idea. [Starswarm] is a perfect example of this.” —Oxford Mail “Given the brilliant success of [the Helliconia series], I would say Mr. Aldiss is now in competition with no one but himself.” —The New York Times Book Review

Five classic science fiction and fantasy tales from the author of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” the inspiration for the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Science Fiction Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss was a prolific author, as well as a winner of two Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. Originally published in 1969, Intangibles, Inc. collects five amazing short works from early in his career. In “Neanderthal Planet,” an author is caught attempting to escape a zoo where human beings are sequestered and must explain his behavior to the ruling artificial intelligence. Unborn children in “Randy’s Syndrome” grow frustrated with the state of the world and revolt. A psychiatrist believes he’s Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria in “Send Her Victorious.” A strange little man peddles an even stranger product that rules the lives and deaths of its customers in the title tale. And in “Since the Assassination,” a political assassination, evidence of a time distortion, and a drug granting immortality could all spell disaster for Earth. Each story in this anthology grapples with uniquely brilliant ideas, and together they vividly illustrate the powerful imagination of one of Britain’s greatest science fiction writers.

In this satirical science fiction classic, a new technology promises to help British subjects find love—and threatens to destroy the empire. In the years following World War II, a new day has risen in Great Britain. A mechanical marvel has arrived to free society from the shackles of prudish Victorian morality and neo-Freudianism. The Emotion Register, a coin-shaped device, attaches to the forehead and emits a soft pink glow when the wearer experiences sexual attraction. Now the British can no longer deny that sex exists—and the government is insisting everyone undergo the procedure to get the device. Much of the population, including young Jimmy Solent, embraces the Emotion Registers. The gadget gives them a new lease on life. Meanwhile others refuse, seeing the marvel as an invasion of privacy. And so, another conflict begins on British soil. Fortunately, the stakes are far lower and much more hilarious . . . A satire on sexual reserve set in an alternate world, The Primal Urge was first published in 1961. Although the novel was initially banned in Ireland, Brian W. Aldiss still went on to become a Grand Master of Science Fiction.

A grieving songwriter reflects on his life and contemplates his future in this classic novella of heartbreak and healing from a Grand Master of Science Fiction. It’s been a long time since Hugh Billing visited his home in England. Decades earlier, he made his fortune as a hit songwriter in America, but years of shuffling between cities and countries has changed him. His clothes are American, his speech is American—even his thoughts are American. He doesn’t have much English left inside him and he hasn’t had a hit in years. What he does have, however, is sadness . . . Then his mother’s death returns him to London to embark on a new journey. Forced to examine the state of his life, Hugh begins moving from loneliness and aimlessness to somewhere around survival and hope.

Survivors of nuclear war endure strange adventures across time and space in this humorous classic by a Grand Master of Science Fiction. World War III is coming to an end, but the real chaos is just beginning. Nuclear warfare during the conflict has given rise to a disturbance in the fabric of space and time. Time-turbulences run rampant, sending whatever is caught in their trap to different times and locations. Survivors find themselves in the past, present, or future—or on other planets. Leaders across the globe, as well as an advanced AI system, are all vying to learn as much as possible about these time anomalies—and exploit them as best they can. But the disappearance of a mega-industrialist could have some answers . . . Meanwhile, a band of heroes embarks on a perilous quest in an alternate world of swords and sorcery. A mad scientist is wreaking havoc on Mars. And just about everyone is bursting whimsically into song. Who knows if the mayhem will ever subside . . . “Offers some wild entertainment . . . the whizzing energy behind all these time-warps and dirty deterministic work at the cosmic crossroads is something to wonder at.” —The Guardian

NUEVA EDICIÓN REVISADA Todo es caos. El planeta Tierra parece a punto de fenecer: es un mundo arrasado por la superpoblación y la degradación medioambiental. La necesidad de alimentar a la gente ha conllevado a una explotación agrícola destructiva basada en productos químicos que agotan el suelo y convierten las labores del campo en trabajos realizados mayormente por robots. De hecho, la máquinas han pasado a ser más valiosas que los seres humanos. Y, con el colapso del sistema, las gentes se han echado en brazos de extraños y retorcidos cultos, ocupados solo en sobrevivir. El pronóstico de futuro no podría ser peor, el desastre es total... Pero siempre hay un lugar para la esperanza, y, en esta ocasión, toma la forma del carguero nuclear Estrella Trieste, capitaneado por un viajero exconvicto: Knowle Noman. Nadie como Brian Aldiss es capaz de combinar la profundidad de las ideas con la fuerza arrolladora y el trepidante ritmo narrativo de una gran novela de aventuras. Y nadie tampoco ha sabido, hasta ahora, enfrentar al lector a una situación desesperada que, quizás, en realidad, no esté tan lejos en un futuro como podría parecer, cuando Aldiss escribió la novela.

In ferner Zukunft hat die Erde aufgehört, sich zu drehen Millionen Jahre in der Zukunft: Die Sonne ist auf das Hundertfache ihrer Größe angewachsen. Erde und Mond drehen sich nicht mehr und haben sich einander bis auf wenige Tausend Kilometer angenähert. Im immerwährenden Sonnenlicht der Tagseite hat sich ein gewaltiger Dschungel aus fleischfressenden Pflanzen entwickelt. Was auf der in ewige Dunkelheit getauchten Nachtseite ist, weiß niemand. Dies ist die Geschichte von Gren, der sich mit seiner Gefährtin aufmacht, dieses Rätsel zu lösen – und sich auf seiner Reise unzähligen Gefahren stellen muss ...

A “brilliant . . . classic of the field” generation ship adventure from the Golden Age of Science Fiction by the author of the Helliconia Trilogy (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). Non-Stop is Grand Master of Science Fiction and Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Brian W. Aldiss’s debut novel. Written in response to Robert Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky and published in the late 1950s, it is set in a primitive world, home to tribes of inhabitants who endure their harsh and stunted lives in a maze of corridors. Though legends exist that they’re actually on a ship traveling through the universe, no one really believes it. But that conviction doesn’t stop a group of people from embarking on a mission to find the rumored “Forwards” section and its control room. Through a tangled, hydroponic jungle, they’ll encounter telepathic animals, giants, outcasts, and mutants in an epic race to uncover the truth—and survive . . . “A breakneck ride filled with some truly disturbing and chaotic imagery . . . Aldiss’ world is visceral and powerful.” —Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations “Worth reading, and quite a significant contribution to the long SF history of generation ship novels.” —SF Site Praise for Brian W. Aldiss “A major figure in world SF . . . Whatever else Aldiss may be, predictable he is not.” —The Guardian “One of the most influential—and one of the best—SF writers Britain has ever produced.” —Iain M. Banks, award-winning author of the Culture series “One of the most important SF writers of the 20th century.” —Publishers Weekly

Viele Wissenschaftler hatten eindringlich davor gewarnt, doch die Militärs glaubten, nicht auf sie verzichten zu können, also wurden Atombombentests im Orbit, außerhalb der Atmosphäre, durchgeführt. Zunächst schienen die Befürchtungen grundlos gewesen zu sein. Doch dann stellte sich heraus, dass keine Kinder mehr geboren wurden. Die Menschheit hatte es fertiggebracht, sich selbst zu sterilisieren. Die Menschen wurden immer älter, die sozialen Strukturen wandelten sich den Erfordernissen entsprechend, die Zivilisation begann zu erlöschen. Nur eines blieb: Das zählebige Gerücht, es würden dann und wann doch noch Kinder geboren. Nur blieben sie unsichtbar ...

Helliconia ist eine Welt in einem Doppelsternsystem, auf dem ein Jahr über zweitausend irdische Jahre dauert. Nun, nach einem langen Frühling und einem zweihundert Jahre währenden Sommer, verblasst das Licht der lebensspendenden Sonne Freyr wieder. Die stierköpfigen Phagoren, die im Winter über Helliconia herrschen, werden immer aggressiver und greifen die Städte der Menschen an. Zudem grassiert unter den Nachfahren jener Forscher von der Erde, die Helliconia einst entdeckt haben, eine Seuche – eine Folge der sinnlosen Kriege des Sommers. Der Winter hält Einzug. Er dauert 16 Jahrhunderte ...

Die nahe Zukunft: Durch einen Anschlag wird das Spaceshuttle Leda bei seiner Rückkehr vom Mond zum Absturz gebracht. Nur eines der vier Besatzungsmitglieder überlebt: Unterstaatssekretär Calvert Madie Roberts. Nachdem er tagelang auf dem Pazifischen Ozean dahingetrieben ist, strandet er an einer Insel. Doch ihre Bewohner schockieren Roberts: Sie sind zwar von menschlicher Gestalt, zeigen aber tierhafte Züge. Nach und nach findet Roberts heraus, dass diese Kreaturen künstlich geschaffen wurden. Doch ihr Schöpfer ist nicht bereit, seine Kreationen kampflos aufzugeben ...

Helliconia ist ein Planet in einem Doppelsternsystem, auf dem ein Jahr zweieinhalb Tausend irdische Jahre dauert. Nach mehr als tausend Jahren erbarmungslosem Winter beginnen die Gletscher auf Helliconia zurückzuweichen. Das erste Grün zeigt sich, die Tierwelt erwacht. Nun kehren auch die Menschen, Nachfahren der Forscher, die diese Welt einst entdeckten, an die Oberfläche ihres Planeten zurück – doch zuerst müssen sie die Fesseln der Barbarei abschütteln und sich von der Unterdrückung der einheimischen Phagoren befreien ...

Der Planet Helliconia umkreist ein Doppelsternsystem, so langsam, dass die Jahreszeiten Tausende Jahre dauern. Nach einem langen, harten Winter ist die Welt nun wieder erwacht. Die Menschen sind an die Oberfläche zurückgekehrt und entdecken alte Fertigkeiten und Künste wieder, die lange vergessen waren. Mit überlegener Waffengewalt werden die einheimischen Pahgoren zurückgedrängt, die Meere und Kontinente erkundet – und schon bald brechen die erste Kämpfe zwischen den Menschen aus. Der kurze, heiße Sommer auf Helliconia hat begonnen. Er dauert 238 Jahre ...

Eine Menschheitschronik aus der fernen Zukunft Vor Äonen verließen die Menschen ihren Heimatplaneten, eine kleine Welt in den Randbezirken unserer Galaxis, und brachen ins All auf. Ihre Nachfahren leben im Sternenschwarm, einem kosmischen Cluster mit zehntausenden Welten. Die Erde haben sie schon lange vergessen, doch das Erbe der Menschheit bewahren sie bis in die ferne Zukunft ...

Die Erde in der nahen Zukunft ist zu einer Albtraumwelt geworden: Ausgelaugt und abgewirtschaftet, von Insektiziden und Pestiziden vergiftet, bietet sie der sich explosionsartig vermehrenden Weltbevölkerung keinen Lebensraum mehr. Die meisten ihrer über zwanzig Milliarden Bewohner sind unterernährt und von Krankheiten gezeichnet. Allmächtige Farmer geben den Ton an. Die afrikanischen Länder – einst Spielball fremder Wirtschafts- und Konzerninteressen – treiben nun selbst Großmachtpolitik reinsten Wassers, während die früheren Industrienationen auf den Status von Entwicklungsländern herabgesunken und ihren Rohstofflieferanten auf Gedeih und Verderb ausgeliefert sind. Kurzum: Die Erde ist eine Welt geworden, deren Bewohner sich fragen müssen, ob ein Ende mit Schrecken nicht besser ist als ein Schrecken ohne Ende ...

Mitte des 21. Jahrhunderts beschließen die Staaten der Erde, dass der Mars nicht zu einem zweiten »blauen Planeten« umgeformt werden soll, sondern – wie die Antarktis – der Wissenschaft vorbehalten bleibt. Auf diesem »weißen« Mars errichtet eine kleine Gruppe von Männern und Frauen eine Forschungseinrichtung. Sie hoffen, dort jenes Elementarteilchen zu finden, das die letzten Rätsel unseres Universums und unserer Existenz löst. Doch als sie durch eine Katastrophe von der Erde abgeschnitten werden, sind sie gezwungen, eine völlig neue Form menschlicher Gemeinschaft zu entwickeln, um ihr Überleben auf dem Planeten langfristig zu sichern.

Wie werden intelligente Lebewesen von einem anderen Planeten wohl aussehen? Gehen sie, so wie wir Menschen, aufrecht auf zwei Beinen? Oder tragen sie Kleidung? Als die Menschen zum ersten Mal auf die Utod stoßen – rhinozerosähnliche Kolosse mit sechs Beinen und grauer Haut, die sich am liebsten in ihren eigenen Exkrementen wälzen –, halten die Forscher sie für Tiere. Sie machen Jagd auf die großen Pazifisten, die obendrein keine Schmerzen empfinden können. Doch dann stellt ein Mitglied des Forscherteams die Intelligenz der Utod fest – und muss sich mit der Frage auseinandersetzen, was »intelligentes Leben« eigentlich bedeutet ...

Wir schreiben das Jahr 2020. Mit der Erprobung neuer Waffen wurde das Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum zerstört. Sogenannte Zeitrutsche suche die Erde heim, bei denen ganze Stücke der Gegenwart in die Vergangenheit gerissen werden und die Zukunft verschwindet. Eines Tages entdeckt Joseph Bodenland auf dem Gebiet seiner Ranch in Texas unbekanntes Territorium, das nicht aus dem 21. Jahrhundert stammt. Beherzt erkundet er die Gegend – und findet sich am Genfer See im Jahr 1815! Dort trifft er auf Mary Wollstonecraft, die gerade mit Byron und Shelley Urlaub macht und dabei ihren Roman »Frankenstein« schreibt. Doch erst als Bodenland Dr. Frankenstein und dessen Monster begegnet, ahnt er, dass diese Vergangenheit nicht zu seiner Gegenwart gehören kann ...

Der Sammelband SCIENCE-FICTION-SOMMER 2018 beinhaltet auf über 1000 Seiten vier Romane und acht Erzählungen internationaler Spitzen-Autoren wie Douglas R. Mason, James E. Gunn, A. E. Van Vogt, James White, Roger Dee, Gordon R. Dickson, Brian W. Aldiss, John Rackham, Colin Kapp, Michael Moorcock und Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Dabei reicht das Spektrum von Space Opera über New-Wave-SF bis hin zur düsteren Dystopie.

Four loosely linked realistic novels from “one of Britain’s most accomplished and versatile writers” (The Guardian). A Hugo and Nebula Award–winning science fiction writer, British novelist Brian W. Aldiss also regularly “returned to earth with distinction,” penning realistic works, including the Squire Quartet (The New York Times). Comprised of “loosely interconnected novels following many characters through a twenty-first century landscape of insidious new technology and international political turmoil” (Booklist), here is the complete series from this “ambitious and gifted writer” (The Guardian). Life in the West: Thomas C. Squire, creator of the hit documentary series Frankenstein Among the Arts, one-time secret agent, and founder of the Society for Popular Aesthetics, is attending an international media symposium in Sicily. It is here that he becomes involved with the lovely but calculating Selina Ajdina. Alongside the drama of the conference is the story of Squire’s private life—the tale of his infidelity, the horrifying circumstances surrounding his father’s death, and the threatened future of his ancestral home in England. “[A] novel of ideas that is also eminently readable . . . a virtuoso performance.” —Publishers Weekly Forgotten Life: Analyst Clement Winters is trying to write a biography of his recently deceased older brother, Joseph. Through the writings Joseph left behind—letters, diaries, notes, and confessions—Clement realizes how vastly his perception of his sibling differs from reality. As Clement tries to make sense of Joseph’s life, he uncovers dark corners of his family history and even his own existence. “A realistic novel . . . imaginative richness . . . [a] many-layered venture into the extraordinariness of ordinary lives.” —The New York Times Remembrance Day: When four people are killed by a terrorist bombing in a small British seaside hotel, an American academic examines the details of the victims’ lives and histories to find the relationship between them and their fate. “Aldiss discovers fresh and arresting nuances in the dichotomy between blind chance and predestination in human affairs . . . original, disturbing, and memorable.” —Kirkus Reviews Somewhere East of Life: Architectural historian Roy Burnell has been tasked with traveling the globe and listing architectural gems in danger of being destroyed. But when Burnell is in Budapest, ten years of his memory, including his sexual experiences, are stolen. In this near future, where thieves sell memories on the black market, Burnell tries to resume his life, while also searching for the “bullet” that will restore his memory. “Intelligent, funny, and hopeful in spite of itself.” —Kirkus Reviews

Angst und Entsetzen sind allgegenwärtig. Überall und zu jeder Stunde greifen sie in mannigfaltiger Gestalt und mit eiskalten Klauen nach ihren Opfern... ...wie in der Geschichte von einem ganz speziellen Totentanz... ...oder in der Geschichte von dem Schloss, welches am Rand der Welt und somit an der Grenze zum entfesselten Chaos liegt... ...oder in der Geschichte von der Frau mit Namen Mittwoch... ...oder in der Geschichte von der harmlosen Telefonzelle, die sich in eine Schreckenskammer verwandelt, aus der es kein Entrinnen gibt... ...oder in der Geschichte von der ermordeten Hexe, deren Geist grausame Rache an ihrem Mörder nimmt... ...oder in der Geschichte von einem Vampir, der sich in einer post-apokalyptischen Welt ernste Probleme mit einem Ghul, einem Werwolf und einem anderen Vampir einhandelt... ...oder in der Geschichte von einer ganz besonders perfiden fleischfressenden Pflanze... ...oder in der Geschichte von dem Mann, der das Grab seiner verstorbenen Frau zu lesen lernen will... ...oder in der Geschichte von der jungen Frau und ihrem Zwiegespräch mit einer Epidemie, die bereits die gesamte Menschheit ausgelöscht hat. DREIZEHN SCHATTEN, der fünfte Band der Horror-Reihe 13 SHADOWS aus dem Apex-Verlag, die ganz in der Tradition legendärer Heftroman-Reihen wie GESPENSTERKRIMI und VAMPIR-HORROR-ROMAN steht, versammelt neun ausgewählte Horror-Erzählungen von Mervyn Peake, Michael Moorcock, William Tenn, Robert Presslie, Brian W. Aldiss, E.C. Tubb, Eric Williams, Theodore Sturgeon und Christian Dörge.

From a Science Fiction Grand Master: The sweeping epic of a planet veering from one extreme atmosphere to another—and the humans trying to survive on it. Helliconia Spring introduces us to a tumultuous world that follows an eccentric orbit around a double-star system—and the satellite from Earth secretly monitoring it. Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Brian W. Aldiss then explores the social and religious divisions keeping the planet’s population in conflict even as they’re devastated by plague in Helliconia Summer, and concludes the trilogy with Helliconia Winter, which recounts both the threat of a looming, frigid age of decay and the hope of a new future. The Helliconia Trilogy is both a riveting story and a thought-provoking examination of how our destinies are shaped by the environment around us. Aldiss’s study of fields from astronomy to climatology to geobiology endow all three novels with rich details of the planet Helliconia. This riveting, century-spanning saga is a timely exploration of what climate change can mean for our own planet. “Brian Aldiss’s towering imagination places his Helliconia Trilogy far above standard science fiction” (Daily Mail).

The Complete Aldiss Short Stories from the 1970s. A must-have for collectors, reissued as part of the Brian Aldiss Collection. The complete short stories of the 1970s, drawn from sources such as previous anthologies and rare magazines.Capturing the imagination and skill of one of Sci-Fi''s Grand Masters.

Colonists on Mars fight to prevent their own extinction in “a suspenseful genre-bending combination of straight SF and mystery” (Booklist, starred review). Doomed by overpopulation, irreversible environmental degradation, and never-ending war, Earth has become a fetid swamp. For many, Mars represents humankind’s last hope. In six tightly clustered towers on the red planet’s surface, the colonists who have escaped their dying home world are attempting to make a new life unencumbered by the corrupting influences of politics, art, and religion. Unable ever to return, these pioneers have chosen an unalterable path that winds through a landscape as terrible as it is beautiful, often forcing them to compromise their beliefs—and sometimes their humanity—in order to survive. But the gravest threat to the future is not the settlement’s total dependence on foodstuffs sent from a distant and increasingly uncaring Earth, or the events that occur in the aftermath of the miraculous discovery of native life on Mars—it is the fact that in the ten years since colonization began, every new human baby has been born dead, or so tragically deformed that death comes within hours. The great Brian W. Aldiss has delivered a dark and provocative yet ultimately hopeful magnum opus rich in imagination and bold ideas. A novel of philosophy as much as science fiction, Finches of Mars is an exploration of intellectual history, evolution, technology, and the future by one of speculative fiction’s undisputed masters.

A Hugo Award–winning classic about a far-future Earth dominated by gargantuan plants and the few humans who remain Millions of years beyond our time, our Earth has long since stopped spinning—and giant flora have taken over the sunlit half of the motionless world. Here humans are among the very few animal species that still exist, struggling to survive against enormous odds, but they have become small and weak, and their numbers have dwindled to almost nothing. When the aging leader of Gren’s tribe decrees it is time for the old ones to go “Up,” the younger are left to make their own way below. Although the journey will not be an easy one for young Gren, he sets off on an odyssey across a perilous world populated by carnivorous plants and other evolved vegetation. But any knowledge to be gained at the terminator—the forbidding boundary between the day world and the night—might well prove worthless for the boy and the companions he amasses along the way when the expanding sun goes nova and their Earth is no more. A thrilling parable of courage, discovery, and survival, Hothouse is among Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss’s most beloved and enduring works. Ingeniously inventive, richly detailed, and breathtakingly lush and vibrant, the doomed world and people that Aldiss creates will live forever in the minds of all those who enter this remarkable realm.

In the far future, a group of evolved utopians stranded on an inhospitable planet are unable to resist the reemergence of the human animal One million years in the future, the universe has become a utopia for the humans inhabiting it. Having evolved into the race homo uniformis—“man alike throughout”—they share a centralized nervous system and know nothing of war, disease, violence, emotion, or any of the ancient ills that plagued their ancestors. But while en route to a vacation that is light years from Earth, a small group of elite travelers find themselves marooned in the wilderness of the planet Lysenka. And they are not alone. Many millennia ago, during Earth’s darker days, human colonists came to this regenerate world, and the creatures their descendants became out of necessity bear little resemblance to the uniquely civilized beings now stranded in their midst. Here, in this place far removed from the protection of uniformity, there is only one rule: Adapt—or die. One of the twentieth century’s premier practitioners of the art of science fiction, Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss offers readers a startling look into the far future with a remarkable work of speculation that explores what it means to be human.

A breathtaking vision of a utopian future on Mars by one of science fiction’s most renowned authors In the middle decades of the twenty-first century, the corporate powers on Earth have established a thriving colony on Mars as an alternative to life on the overpopulated, war-torn, ecologically ravaged home planet. But when the economy of EUPACUS—Earth’s collective industrialized nations—collapses, all contact between the two worlds abruptly ceases, and the Martian pioneers are left to fend for themselves. Led by Tom Jeffries, a philosopher and a visionary, the colonists now face a twofold challenge: No longer supported and subsidized by Earthbound interests, they must somehow form a working planetary alliance to create a new society based firmly in freedom and fairness for all while at the same time eliminating war, hunger, hatred, environmental abuse, and other former scourges of humanity. But first and foremost, they must survive. Brian W. Aldiss, a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Grand Master of Science Fiction, presents a vision for the future that is startling, uplifting, and endlessly exciting. Written in collaboration with noted mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose—and with essential input from international law expert Laurence Lustgarten—Aldiss’s remarkable White Mars opens a window onto a relentlessly thrilling and gloriously possible tomorrow.

An unending chain of surveillance crosses countless dimensions in this brilliant, disturbing, and groundbreaking “antinovel” by one of science fiction’s greatest practitioners Mr. Mary and his wife are being observed from at least three vantage points as they go about their mundane home lives. G, the former gardener, watches them from a garden shed. Mr. Mary’s dismissed secretary, S, watches them from the top room of a brick outhouse in the back. The chauffeur, C, who no longer drives, watches the Marys from the garage. Each observer must file a report with his superiors in another continuum, pausing in his surveillance only long enough to eat identical meals alone at the deserted café across the street. But the watchers are themselves being observed by others who are, in turn, being watched across vast and infinite dimensional planes in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the world known as Probability A. This brilliant, experimental work by Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss is a perplexing and devastatingly haunting masterwork of speculative fiction, considered by many to be the greatest work in the long, prolific career of a true giant of the genre. Thought-provoking, confounding, and stylistically brilliant, Report on Probability A will burn its way into the reader’s mind and memory.

A castaway government official is stranded on an island of man-made monsters in this bold reimagining of the H. G. Wells science fiction classic War is hell, and the conflict tearing the world apart may be humankind’s last. Set adrift on a makeshift raft in the middle of the South Pacific, the sole survivor of a sabotaged space-shuttle flight, undersecretary of state Calvert Roberts is certain his life is coming to an end. But fate intervenes, depositing him dehydrated and half starved on the beach of an uncharted island with a giant M etched into a cliff wall. At first it appears to be paradise, but Eden has a dark side: Here, Dr. Mortimer Dart is playing God. A genius geneticist who is certifiably mad, he is called Master by the unspeakable creations of his predecessor—monstrous creatures, neither human nor animal but some nightmarish hybrid. Yet as horrible as the stranded government official finds these abominations, it is the truth behind Dart’s experiments that chill Roberts’s blood—for it will open wide a window onto an inescapable future of emptiness, ashes, and death. One of twentieth-century science fiction’s brightest luminaries, Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss pays homage to one of the genre’s most beloved progenitors, the great H. G. Wells, author of The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and other science fiction classics. An Island Called Moreau is a gripping near-future tale of inhuman experimentation, dystopia, morality, war, and mad science that honors and ingeniously updates Wells’s brilliant, dark masterwork, The Island of Doctor Moreau.