Most Popular Books by Paul McAuley

Arc’s unique mix of fact, opinion and fiction explores the possibilities for a species that can’t seem to stop tinkering with itself. P D Smith explores the city as pleasure palace. Holly Gramazio and Kyle Munkittrick each explore the friction points between civics and play, while science fiction writer Gord Sellar wonders why arguably the most forward-looking nation on earth shows no interest in futurology. Taking a longer view, Anne Galloway & Sumit Paul-Choudhury wonder whether we’ll ever be able to talk to the animals; Regina Peldszus suggests ways of surviving the tedium of deep space; and Sonja Vesterholt & Simon Ings trace Prometheus’s horrific aliens back to the utopian designs of long-forgotten Soviet filmmaker Pavel Klushantsev. In this issue’s stories - Paul McAuley’s The Man is apparently less than human, but embodies qualities his human companions seem to have forgotten. T.D. Edge, creates a polysentient world defined entirely by relationships. Jeff VanderMeer stretches human limits far beyond the ordinary. And Nick Harkaway’s mordant comedy Attenuation skewers our love of novelty and transformation.

Monumental Edinburgh takes the reader on a tour of the city''s centre, focusing on monumental pieces which capture the city''s industrial & creative heritage. Colour images & fascinating tales, must for anyone interested in Edinburgh''s historic street art.

A practical step-by-step guide for students, amateurs, and professional restorers.

Aufstand der Klone Die schrankenlose Anwendung der Gentechnik hat die Welt verändert: Sogenannte Puppen, aus menschlichen Chromosomen erzeugte Kunstgeschöpfe, dienen nicht nur als billige Arbeitskräfte, sondern auch als todgeweihte Gladiatoren in perversen Unterhaltungsshows. Doch während die Menschen selbst in ihren virtuellen Welten dahindämmern, übernehmen die „Feen“, illegal aus den Puppen hochgezüchtete und mit kalter Intelligenz ausgestattete Wesen, auf skrupellose Weise die Macht.

Eine Bedrohung aus der Tiefe des Alls Nach dem Schrecken eines interstellaren Krieges wird ein geheimnisvoller Stern entdeckt, der aus dem Inneren der Galaxis geradewegs auf unser Sonnensystem zukommt. Der labile Friede ist augenblicklich wieder in Gefahr; politische Gruppierungen und religiöse Eiferer versuchen die sich abzeichnende Katastrophe für ihre Zwecke zu nutzen. Doch wer hat diesen Stern vor einer halben Million Jahre auf die Reise geschickt? Welche Technik steckt dahinter? Und vor allem: weshalb? Eine Gruppe von herausragenden Wissenschaftlern fällt die Aufgabe zu, dieses Rätsel zu lösen, darunter Dorthy Yoshida, die telepathisch begabte Astronomin, Robot, ein revolutionärer Künstler, dessen Gehirn mit der komplexesten Hardware aufgerüstet ist, die die irdische Technologie je hervorgebracht hat, und Talbeck, ein „Goldener“, dessen Organismus so weit verändert wurde, dass er über eine fast unendliche Lebenserwartung verfügt.

Ein mysteriöser Planet Dorthy Yoshida ist Astronomin – und sie ist telepathisch begabt. Sie erhält den Auftrag, das Geheimnis eines kleinen Planeten zu enträtseln, der einen roten Zwergstern umkreist. Die Welt scheint von einer intelligenten Lebensform gestaltet worden zu sein, aber sie ist nur von halbintelligenten Hirten bewohnt, die Herden von schneckenartigen Pflanzenfressern hüten, deren Nervensystem nur rudimentär entwickelt ist. Es ist schwer vorstellbar, dass eine Verbindung zu den Aliens besteht, die zu den unversöhnlichen Gegnern der Menschheit gehören und ihr bei jeder Gelegenheit erbitterte Raumschlachten liefern. Doch als Dorthy die Oberfläche des Planeten betritt, fühlt sie die intensive Gegenwart einer so überwältigenden Intelligenz, wie ihr noch nie eine begegnet ist ...

Eight years after the catastrophic downfall of the cult his sister Izzy had joined, Marc Winters has at last found a refuge from unwanted attention. The wildlife ranger of a small, unremarkable island, he''s quietly helping to preserve what survives of nature in a world wracked by climate change and chaotic weather, and trying his best to put his past behind him. But then his narrowboat is burgled, the counterterrorism police come calling, and everything he thought he knew about the cult and his sister''s fate is turned upside down. A cabal of so-called deep dreamers has revived the cult''s crazy belief that the world could be healed by collective dreams fuelled by psychotropic mushrooms. They appear to think that Winters possesses information crucial to their success, and when he tries to discover more about them, he becomes inextricably entangled in plans that challenge his very existence. Blending noir-inflected conspiracies and double-crosses, fantasies of dream science and elegiac evocations of a depleted world, Loss Protocol''s chimerical story keeps its secrets until the last page

This collection highlights 20 stellar space operas published over the past 20 years by top-notch authors of the science fiction genre. A soldier fights for survival behind enemy lines, on an alien vessel, thousands of light-years from Earth in "On the Orion Line," by Stephen Baxter. A man aboard a ship in deep space wakes up from biostasis at the wrong time in "The Days Between," by Allen M. Steele. An astronaut in a damaged balloon struggles to survive 800 meters above the surface of a sea on Titan in "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick. Two rival space-faring cultures vie for influence over the people of a forgotten human world in "The Third Party," by David Moles. One thousand people, aboard five generation starships, leave the Sol system to flee an enemy that threatens to destroy their way of life in "Mayflower II," by Stephen Baxter. Modified combat troops must deal with recalcitrant settlers on a planet being attacked by hostile aliens in "Bright Red Star," by Bud Sparhawk. Programmed military doppelgängers continue to carry out their missions long after the Quiet War''s end in "Dead Men Walking," by Paul McAuley. Mathematicians seek to learn more from a civilization, on another planet, that spent three million years doing math in "Glory," by Greg Egan. Human diplomats must deal their own cultural biases while dealing with two representatives from warring factions on a newly discovered planet in "Saving Tiamaat," by Gwyneth Jones. Space pirates haul in booty aboard a living spaceship that doesn''t quite smell right in "Boojum," by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. The constable in a settlement on a planet full of the tombs of a long-vanished alien race befriends a woman who researches dangerous hive rats in "City of the Dead," by Paul McAuley. A dying young man on a treasure hunt tries to save a world that''s devoid of gravity and lit by artificial suns in "The Hero," by Karl Schroeder. An eternal, aboard a slower than light ship, is woken to investigate an unexplained signal emanating from the area of the ship''s next stargate construction site in "The Island," by Peter Watts. An alienated teenager, in a domed iron city on a planet where a fundamentalist revolt is brewing, seeks to uncover her enigmatic tutor''s long-held secret in "The Ice Owl," by Carolyn Ives Gilman. A woman recalls a childhood train journey, on a planet with a permanent dayside and a nightside of eternal darkness, to see a captured specimen of the Nightmare race in "Weep for Day," by Indrapramit Das. Peculiar mating rituals and divergent evolution have developed on a lost colony that has been out of contact with the rest of humanity in "Someday," by James Patrick Kelly. An aristocrat''s trip to Venus, in search of her disgraced brother, is memorialized by papercuts of flora native to the planet in "Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathagan," by Ian McDonald. An enemy of the revolution, on a colonized planet, uploads a digital copy of himself into the body of a braindead boy in an attempt to escape off-world in "Jonas and the Fox" by Rich Larson. Set in the author''s Machineries of Empire universe, an undercover agent infiltrates a space station to recover the crew of a lost ship in "Extracurricular Activities," by Yoon Ha Lee. And finally, the captain of a dustship musters her crew to escape from a trap set by Hunter-Killers in a game of cat and mouse amid the rings of a giant planet in "By the Warmth of Their Calculus," by Tobias S. Buckell.

This collection puts together 20 of the best science fiction stories about Mars published over the past two decades by top-notch authors of the genre. An improbable group of astronauts are slingshot to Mars in cheap one-person, one-way jalopies in "Terminal," by Lavie Tidhar. In "The Cascade," by Sean McMullen, an affair between a shy robotics postdoc and an adventurous young woman change the destiny of the first landing on Mars. A penal colony on Mars violently clashes with a science base in "Falling onto Mars," a Hugo Award winning story by Geoffrey A. Landis. In "The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars," by Ian McDonald, the lives of a young Indian construction worker and an old Estonian cosmonaut collide during the terraforming of Mars by quantum machines. Two young girls are desperate to survive on the surface of Mars after their commune''s underground compound is destroyed by comet strikes in "Hanging Gardens," by Gregory Feeley. In "Digging," by Ian McDonald, a project has been undertaken to create a breathable atmosphere on Mars constructing a valley so deep that the planet''s thin atmosphere will be forced into it. An amusing step-by-step program enables potential potentates to find the right Mars to rule over in "How to Become a Mars Overlord," by Catherynne M. Valente. In the Hugo Award winning story "The Emperor of Mars," by Allen M. Steele, a laborer on a corporate-owned Martian colony transforms himself into royalty while coping with a tragedy on Earth. A young girl defies the conventional role she''s fated for on Mars in "La Malcontenta," by Liz Williams. In "The Burial of Sir John Mawe at Cassini," by Chez Brenchley, a gravedigger uncovers many secrets at the burial of a hanged British nobleman on a Victorian Mars. A colonist provides a moving account of his life on Mars to inspire a new generation of Martians in "Martian Heart," by John Barnes. In "The Vicar of Mars," by Gwyneth Jones, a High Priest suffers hauntings after visiting an old, reclusive, wealthy woman on Mars. A rough and tumble Martian mining town reconstructs a lawman from the Old American West to restore order in "Wyatt Earp 2.0," by Wil McCarthy. In "An Ocean is a Snowflake, Four Billion Miles Away," by John Barnes, the rivalry between two documentarians, filming on Mars, puts them in peril as the planet is being terraformed. A corporation building New Las Vegas on Mars grooms a janitor for rock stardom to improve worker morale in "The Rise and Fall of Paco Cohen and the Mariachis of Mars," by Ernest Hogan. In "Martian Blood," by Allen M. Steele, an Egyptian-American astrobiologist travels to a Martian aboriginal settlement to prove his theory that life on Earth originated on Mars. Pilgrims, tourists, and locals visit the many monoliths of Mars to commune with their unknown builders through radio bursts in "The Monoliths of Mars," by Paul McAuley. In "The Martian Job," by Jaine Fenn, the greatest heist known to humankind, with many a double-cross, is pulled on the largest corporation on Mars. The first man to step foot on Mars recounts his life''s story as mankind ends its colonization of the planet in "Mars Abides," by Stephen Baxter. And finally, in the Locus Award winning story "The Martian Obelisk," by Linda Nagata, a robotic crawler threatens the remote construction of a monument on Mars, by an architect on Earth, as it approaches the obelisk.

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our Feburary 2016 issue (#113) contains: Original fiction by Paul McAuley ("The Fixer"), Benjanun Sriduangkaew ("That Which Stands Tends Toward Free Fall"), Nick Wolven ("In the Midst of Life"), and An Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky ("Between Dragons and Their Wrath"). Reprints from Ted Kosmatka and Michael Poore ("Blood Dauber") and Kim Stanley Robinson ("Mercurial"). Non-fiction by Dan Koboldt (Six Quirks of the Human Genome), an interview with Lawrence Schoen, an Another Word column by Fran Wilde, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.