New Releases by Hannu Rajaniemi

A remote village is determined to keep their robot teacher from being fired. A poetry-loving AI controls the wastewater treatment facility, but a series of malfunctions are beginning to cause concern. The biggest pop idol of the twenty-second century is trapped on Enceladus, and deeply alone. Latchko can talk to the banned AIs and now that his secret is out things are about to get complicated. A former child soldier is raised by a plant-like species but struggles to understand them. Ice fishing on Europa just keeps turning up rocks and things just got worse ... something is changing the world, making it better, but for whom? Short fiction is the heart of science fiction, introducing new voices, experimenting with ideas and technique, and paving the way for the future of the field. Thousands of stories are published every year in the many genre magazines, anthologies, collections, podcasts, and websites, as well as other less common venues. Each year, Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning editor Neil Clarke sifts through the myriad of offerings to select works that represent the best and the brightest, report on the state of the field, and recommend additional stories for further reading. In this volume, covering 2021, you'll find works by Aliette de Bodard, Meg Elison, Rich Larson, Ken Liu, Ray Nayler, Suzanne Palmer, Hannu Rajaniemi, Robert Reed, Karl Schroeder, Vandana Singh, Tade Thompson, and many more.

A Unique Speculative Fiction Collection From The Nordic Countries Storytelling has been a major force in the Nordic countries for thousands of years, renowned for its particular sense of dark humour, featuring pacts with nature and a view of the world you seldom find in other places. Perhaps it is the freezing cold winter? The closeness to the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic? Maybe it’s the huge ancient forests... Most have heard about Nordic crime fiction with its dark noir flare or the Icelandic Sagas. This anthology combines all that is unique about Nordic speculative fiction, from the darkest dystopian science fiction to terrifying horror. From the rational to the eccentric, these stories combine a deep sense of place with social criticism, themes of loneliness and the concern for humanity's impact on the wilderness. Featuring 16 stories from the best contemporary speculative authors from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Faroe Islands, including John Ajvide Lindqvist, Hannu Rajaniemi, Tor Åge Bringsværd and more, many of which are appearing in English for the very first time.

« Des vampires, lâche Kevin. Ce sont tous les deux des vampires. – Qui ça ? » je demande entre deux coups de dents dans la pomme. Kevin et moi étions perchés à six ou sept mètres au-dessus du sol, dans un arbre de son jardin. Nous avions construits là une grossière plate-forme qui se voulait une cabane à la Tarzan. Kevin avait dix ans, j'en avais neuf. « Mr. Innis et Mr. Denofrio, m'assène Kevin. Ce sont tous les deux des vampires. » Je lève le nez du Superman que j'étais en train de lire. « Ce sont pas des vampires, je lui fais. Ce sont des coiffeurs pour homme. – Ouais. N'empêche que ce sont aussi des vampires. Je viens juste de m'en rendre compte. » Dan Simmons “La barbe et les cheveux : deux morsures”

Les entretoises en titane, d’un diamètre de crayon, n’étaient pas conçues pour supporter l’impact. Les parois de pressurisation, minces comme des feuilles de papier, avaient fléchi et éclaté, éparpillant les débris dans le vide et sur un kilomètre carré de sol lunaire. Un instant avant l’impact, elle avait pensé à vider les réservoirs. Il n’y avait pas eu d’explosion, mais même un atterrissage en douceur aurait détruit le Moonshadow. Dans l’étrange silence, le fragile vaisseau s’était brisé et disloqué telle une canette broyyée. Elle se redressa sur le sol lunaire gris et regarda alentour. Son ombre s’étalait devant elle, flaque d’encre affectant une forme humaine fantastiquement étirée. Le site, chaotique, stérile, se présentait en lavis soutenus de gris et de noirs. « Grandeur et désolation », souffla-t-elle. Dans son dos, le Soleil frôlant les montagnes allumait des reflets sur les échardes de titane et d’acier éparpillées sur la plaine grêlée. Patricia Jay Mulligan considéra ce paysage accablant et s’efforça de retenir ses larmes. Geoffrey A. Landis Marche au soleil

"It reads like John Le Carré if Le Carré ate a ton of acid before writing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy..." —NPR on Summerland From Hannu Rajaniemi, one of the most exciting science fiction writers in the last decade, comes an awe-inspiring account of the afterlife and what happens when it spills over into the world of the living Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning. In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased. Yet Britain isn’t the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god. When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk. The spy has friends in high places, and she will have to go rogue to bring him in. But how do you catch a man who’s already dead? Other Tor books by Hannu Rajaniemi: Jean le Flambeur series 1. The Quantum Thief 2. The Fractal Prince 3. The Casual Angel At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This discounted ebundle of the Jean le Flambeur Trilogy includes: The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel “The next big thing in hard SF. Hard to admit, but I think he's better at this stuff than I am.” —Charles Stross The gentleman rogue Jean de Flambeur is part mind burglar, part confidence artist. He’s known throughout the Heterarchy for his amazing galactic exploits, like breaking into the vast Inner System of Zuesbrains. The Quantum Thief Jean Le Flambeur’s trapped inside the Dilemma Prison, and must wake up every morning to kill himself before his other self can kill him. Filled with mind-bending science, plus mediations on the nature of reality, these interstellar capers are reminiscent of Maurice Leblanc and the science fictional greats. The Fractal Prince A physicist receives a mysterious paper. The ideas in it are far, far ahead of current thinking and quite, quite terrifying. And on the edges of reality a thief, helped by a sardonic ship, is trying to break into a Schrödinger box for his patron. In the box is his freedom. Or not. The Causal Angel Discover the ultimate fates of Jean de Flambeur, his employer Miele, the independently minded ship Perhonnen, and the rest of a fractured and diverse humanity flung throughout the solar system in this stunning conclusion. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Mindblowingly inventive and beautifully written short stories from the most exciting new name in SF Hannu Rajaniemi exploded onto the SF scene in 2010 with the publication of his first novel The Quantum Thief. Acclaimed by fellow authors such as Charles Stross, Adam Roberts and Alastair Reynolds and brilliantly reviewed everywhere from Interzone to the Times and the Guardian he swiftly established a reputation as an author who could combine extraordinary cutting edge science with beautiful prose and deliver it all with wit, warmth and a delight in the fun of storytelling. It is exactly these qualities that are showcased in this his first collection of short stories. Drawn from antholgies, magazines and online publications and brought together in book form for the first time in this collection here is a collection of seventeen short stories that range from the lyrical to the bizarre, from the elegaic to the impish. It is a collection that shows one of the great new imaginations in SF having immense fun.

Inside the firewall the city is alive. Buildings breathe, cars attack, angels patrol, and hyperintelligent pets run wild in the streets. With unbridled invention and breakneck adventure, Hannu Rajaniemi is on the cutting-edge of science fiction. His postapocalyptic, postcyberpunk, and posthuman tales are full of exhilarating energy and unpredictable optimism. How will human nature react when the only limit to desire is creativity? When the distinction between humans and gods is as small as nanomachines--or as large as the universe? Whether the next big step in technology is 3D printing, genetic alteration, or unlimited space travel, Rajaniemi writes about what happens after.

"[In this third novel, the author] completes the tale of the many lives, and minds, of gentleman rogue Jean le Flambeur, [wherein] we will discover the ultimate fates of Jean, his employer Miele, the independently minded ship Perhonnen, and the rest of a fractured and diverse humanity flung throughout the solar system"--

HUMANITY AMONG THE STARS What happens when we reach out into the vastness of space? What hope for us amongst the stars? Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan brings us fourteen new tales of the future, from some of the finest science fiction writers in the field. The fourteen startling stories in this anthology feature the work of Greg Egan, Aliette de Bodard, Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder, Pat Cadigan, Karen Lord, Ellen Klages, Adam Roberts, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds and Peter Watts.

We're running out of planet and we're running out of patience. The party's over and we're looking for the door. But the exits are unmarked. The engines of the world are hidden from us. Ninety-six per cent of the universe is missing and the rest is stirred into motion by machinery that hides in plain sight. We've got to get out of this place - but how? Embracing everything from politics to polymorphism, physics & fantasy, Exit Strategies is your indispensable, (sometimes unreliable) guide to the escape tunnel. With a foreword by CERN physicist Michael Doser, and featuring stories by Jeff Noon, Kathleen Ann Goonan, and the best-selling fantasy writer Tad Williams, Exit Strategies looks for a back door to the universe over 150 pages. How much of the cosmos is real, how much an astronomer's dream? And if we could escape from reality, what kind of utopia would we build for ourselves? Elsewhere in Exit Strategies, M. John Harrison meets a rising star of TV science, Hannu Rajaniemi considers what will happen when our books start reading us, and Claire Dean meets the artists bent on making J G Ballard's Crystal World a reality. And in a special tribute, Adam Roberts considers the life, work and sheer sanity of the late, great Iain Banks. Every two months Arc maps the future through stories, features, essays and provocations from some of the world's most celebrated authors from science fiction and beyond.

An unabridged collection of the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2012 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In “Invisible Men,” by Christopher Barzak, a maid in an inn encounters the Invisible Man who makes her an offer to be more than she is in this quasi-retelling of H.G. Wells’ famous story. In this year’s Nebula Award winner for best novelette, “Close Encounters,” by Andy Duncan, an old man is hounded by reporters about the stories he used to tell of an alien who took him into space and the dog he brought back with him. “Bricks, Sticks, Straw,” by Gwyneth Jones, follows virtual scientists forced to survive within their remotes when a young science team on Earth loses remote contact with their telepresences on Jupiter’s moons. In “Arbeitskraft,” by Nick Mamatas, Friedrich Engels strives to spread class revolution as a labor organizer for factory cyborg matchstick girls. “The Man,” by Paul McAuley, is a Jackaroo tale about a solitary woman, living in a cabin on the planet Yanos, whose life is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a naked man at her door. In “Nahiku West,” by Linda Nagata, set in the author’s Nanotech Succession sequence, officer Zeke Choy investigates an accident involving an illegal enhancement which was used to save a life. “Tyche and the Ants,” by Hannu Rajaniemi, showcases the plight of a young girl hidden on the moon by her parents, along with grags and Brain, as robotic ants have come from the Great Wrong Place to take her away. In “Katabasis,” by Robert Reed, human adventurers on a journey in an inhospitable high-gravity region of the Great Ship must use porters, evolved for massive worlds, to aid them. “The Contrary Gardener,” by Christopher Rowe, tells of the tough decisions a talented gardener in a society which genetically grows some crops for ammunition must come to when she’s recruited for the war effort. Finally, in “Scout,” by Bud Sparhawk, a reconstructed marine is deployed to a planet occupied by the Shardies to reconnoiter by making use of his “turtle” enhancements to avoid detection.

« Le meilleur premier roman de SF que j’ai lu depuis des années. » Charles Stross « Selon toute probabilité, le roman SF le plus important cette année. » Locus « Spectaculaire et plein d’inventivité, maîtrisé et captivant. » Kirkus Reviews Jean le Flambeur est un criminel posthumain, un escroc et un manipulateur. Si ses origines restent entourées de mystère, ses exploits sont connus d’un bout à l’autre du système solaire : cambrioler les cerveaux numérisés qui régentent les planètes intérieures, dérober de précieuses antiquités aux aristocrates des cités mouvantes de Mars. Mais Jean finit par commettre une erreur, et se voit condamné à croupir dans la prison du Dilemme pour s’affronter lui-même dans d’infinies variations. Jusqu’à l’arrivée de Mieli, une fière guerrière qui lui propose un marché... Une palpitante aventure de hard SF située dans un futur lointain, le récit d’un « casse » commis par d’étranges posthumains, mais fondé sur des mobiles intemporels : le désir, la jalousie, la vengeance. Un premier roman époustouflant.

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND Those were Neil Armstrong’s immortal words when he became the first human being to step onto another world. All at once, the horizon expanded; the human race was no longer Earthbound. Edge of Infinity is an exhilarating new SF anthology that looks at the next giant leap for humankind: the leap from our home world out into the Solar System. From the eerie transformations in Pat Cadigan’s Hugo-award-winning “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” to the frontier spirit of Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey’s “The Road to NPS,” and from the grandiose vision of Alastair Reynolds’ “Vainglory” to the workaday familiarity of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Safety Tests,” the thirteen stories in this anthology span the whole of the human condition in their race to colonise Earth’s nearest neighbours. Featuring stories by Hannu Rajaniemi, Alastair Reynolds, James S. A. Corey, John Barnes, Stephen Baxter, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Elizabeth Bear, Pat Cadigan, Gwyneth Jones, Paul McAuley, Sandra McDonald, Stephen D. Covey, An Owomoyela, and Bruce Sterling, Edge of Infinity is hard SF adventure at its best and most exhilarating.

The Quantum Thief sequel is “stupefyingly entertaining, like a heist movie for post-singularity, AI-boosted string theoreticians from beyond spacetime” (Charles Stross). “The good thing is, no one will ever die again. The bad thing is, everyone will want to.” A physicist receives a mysterious paper. The ideas in it are far, far ahead of current thinking and quite, quite terrifying. In a city of “fast ones,” shadow players, and jinni, two sisters contemplate a revolution. And on the edges of reality a thief, helped by a sardonic ship, is trying to break into a Schrödinger box for his patron. In the box is his freedom. Or not. Jean de Flambeur is back. And he’s running out of time. In Hannu Rajaniemi’s sparkling follow-up to the critically acclaimed international sensation The Quantum Thief, he returns to his awe-inspiring vision of the universe . . . and we discover what the future held for Earth. “Stories within stories, mind-boggling scientific extrapolations, and flamboyant characters mark the author as a rising star of the genre.” —Library Journal “Rajaniemi’s witty language and charmingly wry hero will make the read well worth the effort for the first installment’s fans.” —Publishers Weekly “Fans of the author’s popular debut novel, which mixed hard science with wild fantasy, will probably be lining up for this follow-up, which resolves some of the questions posed in The Quantum Thief but, on the other hand, asks several more, for which there are, as yet, no answers.” —Booklist

A crazy joyride through the solar system several centuries hence—and the most exciting SF-adventure debut in years

Arc, a new publication from the makers of New Scientist, explores the future through cutting-edge science fiction and forward-looking essays by some of the world’s most celebrated authors, alongside columns by thinkers and practitioners from the worlds of books, design, gaming, film and more.

An unabridged collection of the “best-of-the-best” science fiction stories published in 2010 by current and emerging masters of the genre. In “Under the Moons of Venus,” by Damien Broderick, a man, who has returned to a mostly deserted Earth from a terraformed Venus with Luna and Ganymede as moons, longs to go back to Venus. In “The Shipmaker,” the 2011 story winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award, by Aliette de Bodard, a maker of living spaceships has her career threatened by the birth of a sentient Mind that will come before the ship that will house it will be ready. In “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee, a construct meets with an assassin that is the keeper of a gun that erases a victim’s entire lineage to secure the destruction of another gun made by the same gunsmith. In “Re-Crossing the Styx,” by Ian R. MacLeod, an entertainer aboard a cruise ship falls in love with a zombie husband’s Minder and schemes to free her from her marriage. In the steampunk story “Eight Miles,” by Sean McMullen, an English lord hires a balloonist to take him and a nonhuman female to a great height in order to learn the secrets of another world. In “Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi, the gods use a real human to retrieve something important from a city that has become sentient and surrounded by a firewall that protects against gods. In “Alone” by Robert Reed, set in the author’s Marrowuniverse, a traveler aboard the Great Ship has eschewed contact and remained alone for far longer than seems possible. In the winner of the 2010 Asimov’s Readers’ Award for best novelette “The Emperor of Mars,” by Allen M. Steele, a contract worker on Mars becomes enamored with the science fiction retrieved from NASA’s Phoenix lander that arrived on the red planet back in 2008. In “A Letter from the Emperor,” by Steve Rasnic Tem, an imperial envoy visits an outlying colony where a retiring colonel, whose memory is suspect for security reasons, claims to have fought alongside the emperor. Finally, the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award winner for best short story, “The Things,” by Peter Watts, is a retelling of John Carpenter’s classic movie, The Thing, from the perspective of the shape-shifting alien confronting a group of scientists in Antarctica.

SCIENCE FICTION – THRILLER – ISTORIE ALTERNATIVĂ DACĂ ȚI-A PLĂCUT: trilogia Jean le Flambeur de Hannu Rajaniemi; Omul din castelul înalt de Philip K. Dick JFK de Stephen King Biblioteca invizibilă de Genevieve Cogman Moartea e doar începutul. Crima e irelevantă. În 1938 moartea nu mai e capătul vieții. Dimpotrivă este o continuare în altă dimensiune pentru că oamenii au descoperit viața de apoi. Imperiul Britanic s-a extins până la Tărâmul Verii o metropolă pentru cei recent decedați. Dar Britania nu e singura care vrea puterea în viața asta – și în următoarea. Spionii sovietici sunt și ei acolo cu tehnologia potrivită pentru a construi un nou zeu. Agenta Rachel White nimerește în miijlocul unui complot și trebuie să facă imposibilul: să prindă un om care e deja mort. RECOMANDĂRI „Se citește ca John le Carré dacă acesta ar fi consumat LSD înainte să scrie Cârtița.“ NPR „Conspirații și intrigi tipice romanelor cu spioni dar cu un fundal extrem de ingenios.“ Chicago Tribune „Incredibil de originală. O lume fascinantă. Ar trebui să le placă și cititorilor de fantasy și celor care se bucură de istorii alternative având ca fundal al Doilea Război Mondial.” Booklist „Hannu Rajaniemi încoronat regele cyberpunk-ului și nanoficțiunii scrie un science fiction menit să devină un clasic despre o lume unde spiritualitatea a fost codificată și moartea cucerită.” Wall Street Journal „Pentru cei care vor un experiment de gândire combinat cu complexitățile unui Război Rece aceasta este o poveste de spionaj cu o premiză intelectuală fantastică.” SFFWORLD CE SPUN CITITORII: Bradley (Goodreads): Trădări mistere crime secrete întunecate și vremuri întunecare – când viața pare lipsită de însemnătate odată ce nu se schimbă nimic șa moarte. Cathy (Goodreads): Spioni și agenți dubli care au existat în realitate adaugă farmec poveștii. Și sunt integrați ingenios în lumea imaginară. M-am distrat mult când i-am căutat pe toți. "

„Nu se compara cu nimic din literatura SF contemporana“ Adam Roberts Matjek descopera intr-o librarie o lucrare misterioasa. Ideile din ea sunt atat de departe de tot ce s-a gandit ori s-a incercat vreodata incat sunt cu adevarat infricosatoare. Intr-un oras al „Iutilor“ al jucatorilor din umbra si al djinnilor doua surori planuiesc o revolutie. Iar la marginea realitatii un hot ajutat de o nava ganditoare este pe cale sa deschida o cutie Schrödinger pentru angajatorul sau. In cutie isi poate gasi libertatea. Sau nu. Jean le Flambeur s-a intors si nu are timp de pierdut. In mult asteptata continuare a volumului Hotul cuantic Hannu Rajaniemi revine la universul fascinant pe care l-a creat in romanul sau de debut si ne dezvaluie planurile unui viitor sumbru pentru Pamant. „Printul fractal ne vorbeste despre marile probleme: nemurire si moarte dragoste si tradare dar mai ales despre puterea povestilor.“ Adam Roberts "