Somebody should make a movie of this one. There’s a new form of entertainment in town - the Feelies. You are placed in a capsule, wired up with electronic stimulators and drugged to the eyeballs, the better to live out your virtual-reality dreams. Be the Marquis de Sade, Billy the Kid, Thongar the Planet-Waster, or even Jesus if that’s your kink. Pick your fantasy from a catalog or have one tailor-made. Naturally, the Corporations charge a fortune for this ultimate luxury, but on the TV gameshows the top prize of the moment is a free lifetime Feelie contract. All you have to do is humiliate yourself in public – again and again and again – to win. And, should you finally climb into that capsule, you’ll discover that the Corporations haven’t quite mastered the technology, and your dream becomes a living (and dying) nightmare. A vicious satire on mass entertainment, corporate greed and media manipulation, probably Farren’s best novel.
A dying assassin is given one last assignment and one last chance for survival. The job: to find God Almighty and destroy Him. The payment: eternal life. With the aid of a beautiful lady gambler, an ancient Hollywood witch, and a telepathic smartass of a girl, Dell Ammo breaches the gates of Heaven and Hell to pull the Cosmic Trigger.Self-consciously styled after a hard-boiled detective novel, this is a most unusual and entertaining work of satirical SF. An assassin by trade, Dell Ammo works in a bombed-out section of Los Angeles that has been irradiated by a ...
In this alternately chilling and hilarious sequel to The Atrocity Archives (2004) from Hugo-winner Stross, Bob Howard is a computer ?bergeek employed by the Laundry, a secret British agency assigned to clean up incursions from other realities caused by the inadvertent manipulation of complex mathematical equations: in other words, magic. In 1975, the CIA used Howard Hughes's Glomar Explorer in a bungled attempt to raise a sunken Soviet submarine in order to access the Jennifer Morgue, an occult device that allows communication with the dead. Now a ruthless billionaire intends to try again, even if by doing so he awakens the ...
Ted Chiang has made his bones in SF as a master of the short story, so a much longer work than is customary comes as a surprise. "The typical science-fiction depiction of AI is this loyal, obedient butler; you simply flip a switch, turn it on and it's ready to do your bidding. I feel like there's a huge story being glossed over," Chiang tells Boing Boing about the genesis of The Lifecycle of Software Objects. To be sure, the ethical issues that he raises and the depth of the technology (even for a novella) overshadow character development and some hasty plotting. Chiang's distinctive voice is evident here — a tech-industry insider, he's always been fluent in geek-speak and has a knack for translating heavy ideas into workable plots — and his first foray into the long form is a success. It would be his readers' good fortune if the author decided to take up novel-writing full time.
Angel Cardenas is a hardworking police detective in 21st Century Los Angeles. But Cardenas is no ordinary cop - as an intuit he possesses the special talent of knowing what others will do in any given situation. When a business man is found murdered, missing his vital organs and all his money Cardenas is on the case. His investigation takes him to the victim's home, where an explosion nearly kills him. Now, he has to figure out where the woman and the young girl who have been living there have disappeared to. And why doesn't the victim's I.D. match his DNA scan? Exploring the underworlds of Los Angeles, Cardenas will stop at nothing in his search for The Mock, a stonecold killer who will do anything to get what he wants.
Ce roman d’Isaac Asimov, in?dit en fran?ais, appartient au cycle de Trantor.Dans l’Empire galactique d?clinant, les despotes de la plan?te Tyrann contr?lent de nombreux mondes, dont la Terre. Biron Farrill, le fils d’un de leurs principaux opposants qu’ils ont assassin?, ?chappe de peu ? un attentat et r?ussit ? quitter la Terre. Il y est aid? par son vieux ma?tre, Sander Jonti et, en compagnie de la jolie Art?misia, gagne alors Lingane, une plan?te o? s’organise la r?sistance contre Tyrann. L?, il d?couvre que le chef des opposants et l’auteur de l’attentat qui faillit lui co?ter la vie sont un seul et m?me homme : Sander Jonti.Comment parviendra-t-il ? distinguer ses amis v?ritables de ses ennemis ? Lui reste-t-il une chance de sauver sa vie et d’an?antir les ma?tres de Tyrann pour venger son p?re ?
Роман знаменитого американского писателя Филипа К. Дика «Убик» – одно из наиболее странных и необычных произведений в современной фантастике. Мир «Убика» – это мир будущего, в котором существуют могущественные корпорации телепатов и антителепатов, ведущие между собой постоянную войну. Но это и мир прошлого, в котором время идет вспять, съедая людей и созданные ими вещи еще до того, как они появились на свет. Наконец, это мир по ту сторону жизни, мир мораториумов, в стеклянных гробах которых веками лежат замороженные люди; в глубинах их сознания еще теплится разум – они мыслят, чувствуют, страдают, общаются между собой и внешним миром и – пытаются выжить, выжить любой ценой.
En otros tiempos era un buscavidas callejero de los bajos fondos conocidos como el Buday?n. Ahora, Mar?d Audran se ha convertido en aquello que m?s odiaba. Ha perdido su orgullosa independencia para pasar a ser un t?tere de Friedlander Bey, aquell-que-mueve-los-hilos, y a trabajar como policia.Al mismo tiempo que busca la forma de enfrentarse a s? mismo y al nuevo papel que le ha tocado adoptar, Audran se topa con una implacable ola de terror y violencia que golpea a una persona que ha aprendido a respetar. Buscando venganza, Audr?n descubre verdades ocultas sobre su propia historia que cambiar?n el curso de su propia vida para siempre. es finalista del Premio Hugo 1990.
Mort (geddit?) Vickers is a CORPorate Security Executive (i.e., a company hitman) in a near-future America wherein the Corporations have usurped most of the functions of Government and are a law unto themselves. We first meet him on a return Shuttle flight from an orbiting space station, where he has just eliminated a potential troublemaker. On arrival, Vickers learns that his own Corporate employer has "lost" an entire underground nuclear command facility to a megalomanic executive, who is on the point of sealing the bunker against the outside world and running it as his own personal domain. Through a number of violent subterfuges, Vickers is inveigled into the bunker with the mission: get it back and kill those responsible. Excellently bleak and savage, the first of a series of ‘80s/’90s "realist" works which claw America’s decadent corporate inhumanity.
Gibson ?j reg?nye a XXI. sz?zad els? ?vtized?be, egy neurom?nc — ciklusn?l k?zelebbi j?v?be vezet. H?sei egy sz?thull?ban l?v? vil?g inform?ci?fogyaszt? polg?rai, akik gyorsan ?lnek, de nem lehetnek sem gyorsabbak, sem okosabbak a minden?tt jelenl?v? sz?m?t?g?pekn?l…
In a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hardway. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he’s available… for a price.For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can’t refuse.The 200-year-old “godfather” of the Budayeen’s underworld has enlisted Marid as his instrument of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most ...
Zbli?a si? koniec XXI wieku. Rz?dzony przez gerontokrat?w ?wiat pogr??y? si? w stagnacji — konserwatywni staruszkowie po?wi?caj? wi?cej uwagi swemu zdrowiu, ni? przysz?o?ci gatunku ludzkiego. Medycyna jest najwa?niejsz? ga??zi? przemys?u, najlepsz? lokat? kapita?u, nadziej? na nie?miertelno??. Lekarze czyni? cuda: tworz? m?wi?ce psy, przed?u?aj? ?ycie, potrafi? wyleczy? prawie ka?d? chorob?. G??wna bohaterka, dziewi??dziesi?cioczteroletnia kobieta, przechodzi eksperymentaln? kuracj? odm?adzaj?c?, kt?ra na zawsze odmieni jej ?ycie.
Rok 2005, dwa siostrzane stany NoCal i SoCal powsta?e w miejscu dawnej Kalifornii. Minione tysi?clecie pozostawi?o nielicznych ocala?ych i oszo?omionych mieszka?c?w. Berry Rydell pracuje teraz dla ?owcy nagr?d; Chevette Washington pod wp?ywem nag?ego impulsu kradnie niewinnie wygl?daj?ce okulary. Jest to produkt bardzo zaawansowanej technologii. To, co przez nie wida?, mo?e uczyni? cz?owieka bogatym lub martwym.
Понять Zeitgeist, поймать дух времени — вот залог успеха шоу-бизнесмена Лёхи Старлица, сумевшего организовать поп-группу из безголосых, но симпатичных девиц, устроить промоушн, отправить их в турне по развивающимся странам и добиться мировой известности. Только правильно ли угадал он дух времени?.. Тем более что времена меняются, близится рубеж тысячелетий...Автор книги, Брюс Стерлинг, один из отцов-основателей литературного киберпанка, сам поймал дух времени, написав постмодернистскую фантасмагорию, закручивая захватывающий сюжет, в котором сталкиваются деятели шоу-бизнеса, спецслужбы, террористы и контрабандисты, космические спутники и духи, русские и гавайцы, Пелевин и некрореалисты...
