Best Selling Books by Brian W. Aldiss

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

War is humanity’s only hope. “Aldiss’ dark vision of collapsing society and withering earth is poignant and brutal . . . [a] richly detailed world” (Science Fiction Ruminations). In a future where the Earth has been savaged by overpopulation and over‐farming, robots are considered more valuable than humans and sand must be altered to create artificially fertile soil. Ex‐convict Knowle Noland, the hallucinating sea captain of the Trieste Star, finds himself wrapped up in a plot to incite a global war that will wipe out millions. War, it seems, is the only way to drastically reduce the population and create a better world for those who survive.

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.

The sci-fi author behind Steven Spielberg’s A.I. shares his thoughts on the present, the future, and his own work and life. “We are infinitely rich, yet we mess about with penny-in-the-slot machines,” writes Brian W. Aldiss in this autobiographical work written over the course of one month. From his Oxfordshire home, he ruminates on dreams, education, the role of technology in our lives, the rise and function of science fiction, and a variety of other topics. The Shape of Further Things is a window into the life and mind of a Science Fiction Grand Master. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers’ minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. “This short book flows with large ideas, a time capsule now from the grandest of writers.” —SF Site

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 novel of time-traveling adventure from the author of the story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” the basis for the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers’ minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. In the year 2093, human consciousness has expanded to the point that man can now travel to the past using a technique called “mind-traveling.” Artist Edward Bush returns from a nearly three-year mind-travel to find that his government has crumbled and society is now under the leadership a new regime. Given Bush’s experience, he is recruited by the regime to track down and assassinate a scientist whose ideas threaten to topple everything they''ve built. This ebook includes an introduction by the author.

A strange alien species forces us to question our definition of civilization in this biting satire from the Grand Master of Science Fiction. What would intelligent life‐forms on another planet look like? Would they walk upright? Would they wear clothes? Or would they be hulking creatures on six legs that wallow in their own excrement? Upon first contact with the Utod— intelligent, pacifist beings who feel no pain—mankind instantly views these aliens as animals because of their unhygienic customs. This leads to the slaughter, capture, and dissection of the Utod. But when one explorer recognizes the intelligence behind their habits, he must reevaluate what it actually means to be “intelligent.”

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.

Second in the acclaimed Squire Quartet—from the author of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” the basis for the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers’ minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. 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 little he actually knows his brother and how vastly his perception of him differs from reality. As Clement tries to make sense of the life of his deceased sibling, he uncovers “little dark corners” of his family history and even his own life. “Likable . . . solid and satisfying . . . Forgotten Life works as fiction—funny, human, tough, irresistibly lively.” —The Times (London) This ebook includes an introduction by the author.

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.

A collection of science fiction tales, including the story of a robot boy who wants nothing more than to be loved by his parents.

Fourth in the acclaimed Squire Quartet—from the author of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” the basis for the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. 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, mostly his architectural knowledge and sexual experiences, are stolen. In this near-future, thieves using EMV (“e-mnemonicvision”) sell memories on the black market. In the wake of this event, Burnell tries to resume his life, while also searching for the “bullet” that will restore his memory. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers’ minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. “Aldiss weaves these thoughts into a delightful and sometimes harrowing story, proving once again that science fiction can illuminate vital matters of the present as effectively as any genre.” —Publishers Weekly This ebook includes an introduction by the author.

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.”

A new savior emerges from a drugged-out dystopia in “the most ambitious psychedelic sci-fi novel of the era” from the Science Fiction Grand Master (Conceptual Fiction). The earth is recovering from the Acid Head War, in which hallucinogenic chemicals were the primary weapon. Many humans are now suffering from delusions and are unable to tell the real from the imaginary. When a man named Colin Charteris tries to make sense of the drugged-out world, he is taken as the new messiah. As he descends into paranoid visions, he begins to believe this himself.

Third in the acclaimed Squire Quartet—from the author of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” the basis for the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers’ minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. Ray and Ruby Tebbutt are a Norfolk couple struggling to pay off a loan they could not afford. Peter Petrik, a small-time Czech film director, is involved with an Irish arms smuggler. Dominic Mayor, a British millionaire with a cold past, made his fortune by manipulating the stock market. All four people’s lives are taken by a terrorist bombing in a small British seaside hotel. In Remembrance Day, an American academic examines the details of the victims’ lives and histories to find the relationship between them and their fate. “In another significant mainstream outing, British science-fiction/fantasy grandmaster Aldiss discovers fresh and arresting nuances in the dichotomy between blind chance and predestination in human affairs…original, disturbing, and memorable.” —Kirkus Reviews This ebook includes an introduction by the author.

The Grand Master of Science Fiction’s “monumental” epic continues as Helliconia nears its larger star—and a strange visitor joins its civilization (The Times, London). A handful of centuries on, Helliconia is close to the larger star in its binary system, and the Phagors have been driven into exile, but conflicting religions and hostility to science keep human civilization fragmented and constantly fighting wars over petty power and fertile land as a plague devastates populations. However, everything changes when a secret visitor from the observer satellite from Earth accepts a slow death in order to visit the planet and spend his time in the sunlight and open air. More than thirty years after the original publication of Helliconia Spring, the first volume of the Helliconia Trilogy, the series is newly available, now with a map, an afterword, and an introduction by the author.

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.

The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author and Science Fiction Grand Master delivers a sweeping epic of a planet suffering deadly conditions of alternating extremes in this Nebula Award finalist Helliconia follows an eccentric orbit around a double-star system with a twenty-six-hundred-year cycle of very long seasons. As spring slowly breaks the brutally long winter, humans emerge from hiding and a long sequence of civilization and growth begins to repeat again, unbeknownst to the participants but watched by an orbiting satellite station, Avernus, created by Earth some centuries ago. Humans free themselves from slavery to the aboriginal Phagors, and religion and science flower and expand. Brian W. Aldiss has, for more than fifty years, continued to challenge readers’ minds with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive fiction. Helliconia Spring’s prescience with regard to climate change is nothing short of extraordinary.

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.

This collection of nine stories from the Grand Master of Science Fiction charts the course of humanity from the near future onward through millennia. In Galaxies Like Grains of Sand, Brian W. Aldiss tells the tale of mankind’s future over the course of forty million years. Each of these nine connected short stories highlights a different millennia in which man has adapted to new environments and hardships. This ebook includes a new introduction from the author.

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.

Human reproduction has ceased and society slowly spirals in this “adult Lord of the Flies” by a Grand Master of Science Fiction (San Francisco Chronicle). After the “Accident,” all males on Earth become sterile. Society ages and falls apart bit by bit. First, toy companies go under. Then record companies. Then cities cease to function. Now Earth’s population lives in spread‐out, isolated villages, with its youngest members in their fifties. When the people of Sparcot begin to make claims of gnomes and man‐eating rodents lurking around their village, Greybeard and his wife set out for the coast with the hope of finding something better.

A civilization crumbles as its planet hurtles away from its star in the final chapter of this “monumental” epic from the Grand Master of Science Fiction (The Times, London). After many centuries, the flowering of human civilization has begun to dwindle again and the Great Year slowly progresses while the long, deadly cold winter looms—but a break in the long, repeating cycles of growth and decay may result from the long-ago visit of the Earthman. New legends of the spring and summer have evolved and a new future may be aborning. More than thirty years after the original publication of Helliconia Spring, the first volume of the Helliconia Trilogy, the series is newly available, now with a map, an afterword, and an introduction by the author.

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

Ten classic fables about the spark of life and the flash of destruction, from the Grand Master of Science Fiction behind the Helliconia trilogy. “As a short story writer, Mr. Aldiss may legitimately be regarded as a nonpareil.” —The Sunday Times A Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author, Brian W. Aldiss was a prolific writer with a gifted imagination. Originally published in 1984, Seasons in Flight reveals the scope and intensity of this gift through ten stories leading readers into a realm where ancient powers clash with modern gods. A bold fisherman challenges the distance and taboos that separate him from his beloved. A kind prince underestimates human nature when he liberates slaves. Nuclear holocaust resurrects primal terrors on a tropical island. Two rival chiefs embrace the futility of tribal wars after reaching the end of their divinity. Although some of these tales may depict a bleak existence, all of them carry a spark of humor and optimism, along with the stunning creativity that made Aldiss one of the greatest authors in science fiction history. “Strong folktale flavor . . . delicate, understated work, displaying a flawless technique. . . . Impressive!” —Kirkus Reviews “The book succeeds . . . very fast reading, Seasons in Flight should be sampled . . . for the taste and the experience.” —Fantasy 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.

Invisible aliens invade the bucolic English countryside in Brian W. Aldiss’s Nebula Award–winning science fiction novella, plus nine other stories of the fantastic and the odd A meteor shower in the skies above the rolling English countryside late in the nineteenth century fires the imagination of a young man with a penchant for science—especially when one of the falling rocks breaks off from the rest and lands at the bottom of a pond near the Benford farm. While the young man’s curiosity has been seriously aroused, Farmer Benford and his clan couldn’t be less interested—not even when there’s a sudden, curious rash of animal births, they notice odd, lingering, pervasive smells, and the family dog dies inexplicably. Still, the young man is not willing to abandon his investigation into these strange occurrences, even as it becomes increasingly apparent that to keep looking could prove injurious—and perhaps even fatal—not only to himself but to every Benford in the vicinity. Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss wrote his wonderfully strange and gripping novella “The Saliva Tree,” as a tribute to H. G. Wells, the immortal author of The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, and it was honored with a Nebula Award. Included alongside this classic tale of creeping alien terror are nine other sparkling gems of short fiction—from the grisly baby steps of a novice serial killer, to the travels of a history professor through alternate worlds, to the journey of a young widow who has both a murderer and a monster vying for her attention.

It was the first British novel to explore, frankly and with a gleeful honesty, the sexual awakening of a teenage boy. It was regarded as so outrageous that thirteen publishers initially refused to publish it. The Hand-Reared Boy no longer shocks, instead, it stands as the classic novel of teenage self-discovery and the realisation of a young boy of love, and the fact that other people are more than sexual objects.Depicting the preoccupations common to all young boys as they reach puberty, The Hand-Reared Boy is a delightfully funny account of burgeoning sexuality, marked by self-revelation, self-mockery and a complete absence of prurience. It was shortlisted for the Lost Booker Prize in 2010.

From one of science fiction’s greatest living writers comes an unforgettable near-future novel in the hortatory tradition of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Orwell’s 1984, and Dick’s A Scanner Darkly. Both a searing indictment of a fear-drenched political climate and a visionary allegory that shines a piercing light on timeless human verities, HARM is a powerfully compact masterwork that is sure to be one of the most passionately discussed books of the year. The time is today or tomorrow—or perhaps the day after tomorrow. Paul Fadhil Abbas Ali, a young British citizen of Muslim descent, has written a satirical novel in which two characters joke about the assassination of the prime minister. Arrested by agents of HARM—the Hostile Activities Research Ministry—Paul is thrown into a nameless Abu Ghraib-like prison, possibly located in Syria, where he is held incommunicado and brutally interrogated by jailers to whom his Muslim heritage is itself a crime meriting the harshest punishment. Under this sadistic regime, Paul’s personality begins to show signs of radical fragmentation. . . . On the remote planet of Stygia, a man named Fremant, haunted by memories of torture that seem drawn from Paul’s mind, is one of a small group of colonists struggling for survival on a harsh but weirdly beautiful world whose dominant life-forms are insects. The sole humanoid race on the planet has been hunted to extinction by the human settlers, whose long journey to Stygia has left them unable to understand their own history and technology. Thrown back to a more primitive state, they seem destined to repeat all the sins of the world they fled to Stygia to escape. Is Paul dreaming Fremant as a way of escaping the horrors of his imprisonment? Or is there a stronger—and far stranger—connection between the two men, whose very different circumstances begin to take on uncanny parallels? As aspects of their identities blur and, finally, merge, astonishing answers take shape—and profound new questions arise.

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

In a grand medieval city where all change has been outlawed, a roguish young actor tempts fate and dinosaurs, all in the name of love By law, nothing can change in Malacia—a teeming, eternal city of dukes, players, wizards, merchants, beggars, ape-men, lizard-boys, and courtesans—but that is of no great consequence to Perian de Chirolo. An out-of-work actor and unabashed rogue, he is well satisfied with his lot as long as there’s coin, eager young women to bed, and the occasional adventure. Perhaps it is this thrill-seeking spirit—or simply the lure of noble beauty—that makes Perian imprudently agree to take part in a mad inventor’s illegal experiments, since such foolishness will never be tolerated in Malacia. But Perian’s rash actions will only lead him on to further indiscretions, winning him first fame and then notoriety, causing him to be hunted, hounded, martyred, and trapped in a fight to the death with a razor-toothed Ancestral Beast on the outskirts of the city. And perhaps most frightening of all, Perian de Chirolo will find himself in love. Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss, one of science fiction’s most able and ingenious creative artists, performs a truly astonishing feat of alternate-world building, immersing the reader in an unforgettable Medieval fantasy realm rich in color, incident, invention, and peril—and of course, giant lizards. Welcome to Malacia.

Begins at the birth of science fiction, with Mary Shelley''s "Frankenstein," and studies the development of the genre to its present position in contemporary literature