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Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern
By David Brin, Lois Mcmaster Bujold, Elizabeth Moon, Mercedes Lackey, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Todd Mccaffrey, Michael Whelan. 2013
When Anne McCaffrey passed in November 2011, it was not only those closest to her who mourned her death; legions…
of readers also felt the loss deeply. The pioneering science fiction author behind the Dragonriders of Pern® series crafted intricate stories, enthralling worlds, and strong heroines that profoundly impacted the science fiction community and genre.In Dragonwriter, Anne's son and Pern writer Todd McCaffrey collects memories and stories about the beloved author, along with insights into her writing and legacy, from those who knew her best. Nebula Award-winner Elizabeth Moon relates the lessons she learned from Pern's Lessa (and from Lessa's creator); Hugo Award-winner David Brin recalls Anne's steadfast belief that the world to come will be better than the one before; legendary SFF artist Michael Whelan shares (and tells stories about) never-before-published Pern sketches from his archives; and more.Join Anne's co-writers, fellow science fiction authors, family, and friends in remembering her life, and exploring how her mind and pen shaped not only the Weyrs of Pern, but also the literary landscape as we know it.Contributors include: Angelina Adams David Brin David Gerrold John Goodwin Janis Ian Alec Johnson Georgeanne Kennedy Mercedes Lackey Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Lois McMaster Bujold Elizabeth Moon Charlotte Moore Robert Neilson Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett Robin Roberts Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Wen Spencer Michael Whelan Richard J. Woods Chelsea Quinn YarbroSleeping Dragon, Rising Sun
By Fabien Lascombe, Craig Cartmell, Charles Murton. 2014
With new equipment, Talents, Mystical Powers, scenario options and a host of Adventuring Companies, Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun reveals the…
mysteries of the East to players of In Her Majesty's Name. In the West, the Great Powers send their agents into the ailing Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires but stop short of overt acts of aggression. In the East, however, conflicts between rival factions regularly erupt into open warfare. In India, the British Raj faces the machinations of rebellious maharajahs, Russian agents and a resurgent Thuggee cult. In China, the Celestial Court weaves a complex web of plots and alliances to counter both the external threat of the Great Powers and the internal menaces of mutinous warlords and an ancient power that has arisen and seeks to return to the Jade Throne. Across the pirate-infested South China Sea, Japan has established itself as a new Great Power and is starting to forge its own empire despite unrest from rebels and insurgents at home. Throughout the entire region treasure-seekers, mercenaries and adventurers of all stripes take advantage of the chaos to seek glory and riches.Other Things Being Equal
By Emma Wolf, Barbara Cantalupo. 2002
Widely regarded as a literary genius in her day, the Jewish American author Emma Wolf (1865-1932) wrote vivid stories that…
penetrated the struggles of women and people of faith, particularly Jews, at the turn of the twentieth century. This reissue of the 1916 revised edition of one of her most popular novels, Other Things Being Equal, first published in 1892, introduces Wolf to a new generation of readers, immersing them in an interfaith love story set in her native San Francisco in the late nineteenth century. The novel's protagonist, Ruth Levice, a young intellectual from an upper-class Jewish family, meets Dr. Herbert Kemp, a Unitarian, and falls in love. The novel's force lies in its unwillingness to adhere to ideological stands. A woman need not give up marriage and home to be strong, independent, and unconventional; a Jew does not have to be orthodox to remain close to her heritage and her faith.The Judas Rose
By Suzette Haden Elgin, Julie Vedder. 1987
An instant cult classic, and groundbreaking forerunner to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Native Tongue Trilogy revealed to its audiences…
a frightening future world where the women of Earth are once again property.In Volume II of the trilogy, the women have at last decided to spread the language using the Roman Catholic church. But when a handful of priests discover the plot, they move to stamp it out with their own female agent, Sister Miriam Rose. But Sister Miriam has plans of her own. . . .J. G. Ballard: Visions and Revisions
By Jeannette Baxter, Rowland Wymer. 2012
Providing an extensive reassessment of dominant and recurring themes in Ballard's writing, including historical violence, pornography, post 9/11 politics, and…
urban space, this book also engages with Ballard's 'late' modernism; his experimentation with style and form; and his sustained interests in psychology and psychopathology.Apocalypse in Contemporary Japanese Science Fiction
By Motoko Tanaka. 2014
Starting with the history of apocalyptic tradition in the West and focusing on modern Japanese apocalyptic science fiction in manga,…
anime, and novels, Motoko Tanaka shows how science fiction reflected and coped with the devastation in Japanese national identity after 1945.Heroes, Villains and Fiends
By Fabien Lascombe, Charles Murton. 2013
It is 1895 and the future depends not upon the actions of governments but upon those of the Adventuring Companies,…
and will be shaped by countless engagements in city streets, ancient ruins, dense jungles, high mountains and boundless deserts. In America, good men fight to preserve their hard-won liberty and the great drive west is stalled by Native American mystics and powerful outlaw gangs. In Africa, native forces fight to push back the Pax Britannica no longer is a Lee-Metford rifle and a disciplined resolve enough to put the foe to flight. In Europe, darkness gathers around the Austro-Hungarian court and the Great Powers watch warily, knowing its fall could precipitate a war to end all wars. Heroes, Villains and Fiends presents new Companies, from the rebellious Zulu and Apache to the spies of the Okhrana and Secret Service, and the mysterious forces of such groups as the Knights Templar and the sinister Hellfire Club. With equipment, Talents and Mystical Powers, additional scenarios and a sample campaign, Heroes, Villains and Fiends opens up new possibilities for In Her Majesty's Name.Liminal Lives: Imagining the Human at the Frontiers of Biomedicine
By Susan Merrill Squier. 2004
Embryo adoptions, stem cells capable of transforming into any cell in the human body, intra- and inter-species organ transplantation--these and…
other biomedical advances have unsettled ideas of what it means to be human, of when life begins and ends. In the first study to consider the cultural impact of the medical transformation of the entire human life span, Susan Merrill Squier argues that fiction--particularly science fiction--serves as a space where worries about ethically and socially charged scientific procedures are worked through. Indeed, she demonstrates that in many instances fiction has anticipated and paved the way for far-reaching biomedical changes. Squier uses the anthropological concept of liminality--the state of being on the threshold of change, no longer one thing yet not quite another--to explore how, from the early twentieth century forward, fiction and science together have altered not only the concept of the human being but the contours of human life. Drawing on archival materials of twentieth-century biology; little-known works of fiction and science fiction; and twentieth- and twenty-first century U. S. and U. K. government reports by the National Institutes of Health, the Parliamentary Advisory Group on the Ethics of Xenotransplantation, and the President's Council on Bioethics, she examines a number of biomedical changes as each was portrayed by scientists, social scientists, and authors of fiction and poetry. Among the scientific developments she considers are the cultured cell, the hybrid embryo, the engineered intrauterine fetus, the child treated with human growth hormone, the process of organ transplantation, and the elderly person rejuvenated by hormone replacement therapy or other artificial means. Squier shows that in the midst of new phenomena such as these, literature helps us imagine new ways of living. It allows us to reflect on the possibilities and perils of our liminal lives.The Amputated Memory
By Marjolijn De Jager, Michelle Mielly, Werewere Liking. 2007
"....An expansive, eclectic, and innovative novel."--Women's Review of BooksA modern-day Things Fall Apart, The Amputated Memory explores the ways in…
which an African woman's memory preserves, and strategically forgets, moments in her tumultuous past as well as the cultural past of her country, in the hopes of making a healthier future possible.Pinned between the political ambitions of her philandering father, the colonial and global influences of encroaching and exploitative governments, and the traditions of her Cameroon village, Halla Njokè recalls childhood traumas and reconstructs forgotten experiences to reclaim her sense of self. Winner of the Noma Award--previous honorees include Mamphela Ramphele, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Ken Saro-Wiwa--The Amputated Memory was called by the Noma jury "a truly remarkable achievement . . . a deeply felt presentation of the female condition in Africa; and a celebration of women as the country's memory."Since 1978, Cameroon-born artiste extraordinaireWerewere Liking has been living in the Ivory Coast, where she established the Village Ki-Yi, a self-supporting center for the performing and fine arts. A singer, dancer, actor, playwright, songwriter, and author of two titles previously published in the United States, Liking has been honored across the globe for her writing and theater work; she has performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center.Marjolijn de Jager teaches French, Dutch, and literary translation at New York University and works as an independent literary translator, most recently on Assia Djebar's Children of the New World.Michelle Mielly received her PhD from Harvard University and is now teaching in the Department of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University.The Present Moment
By Valerie Kibera, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye. 1987
Published in conjunction with the award-winning Coming to Birth, this novel is the first U.S. release of a major force…
in East African literature. Of her ability to both empathize with her characters and capture their complex levels, the Weekly Review said, "Macgoye's major virtue as a writer and social critic is the inclusiveness of her vision. Nothing human is alien to her. She refuses to bestow virtue or villainy along ideological or gender lines."The Present Moment tells the story of seven unforgettable Kenyan women as it traces more than sixty years of turbulent national history. Like their country, these women are divided by ethnicity, language, class, and religion. But around the charcoal fire at the Refuge, the old-age home they share, they uncover the hidden personal histories that connect them as women: stories of their struggles for self-determination; of conflict, violence, and loss, but also of survival. As they reflect upon their tragedies, they also become aware of the community they have formed--a community of collective history, strength, humor, and affection. A chronology by Jean Hay provides U.S. readers with context on Kenyan history."Marjorie Macgoye paints a group portrait colored by deep respect, compassion, and admiration."--Commonwealth Today (Great Britain)"With the vividly specific economy of the best poetry . . . [Macgoye] confers a stature and significance on humble lives; or, rather, shows that behind the most unpromising human façades lurk lives of extraordinary courage, enterprise, and resilience."--Sunday Nation (Kenya)Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye is the award-winning author of Coming to Birth, as well as many other novels and volumes of poetry. The first African woman writer to receive the Sinclair Prize in 1986, she lives in Nairobi, Kenya.Valerie Kibera has taught European and African literature at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. She is editor of An Anthology of East African Short Stories.Jean Hay teaches history at the African Studies Center of Boston University.Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk & Postmodern Science Fiction
By Larry Mccaffery. 1991
The term "cyberpunk" entered the literary landscape in 1984 to describe William Gibson's pathbreaking novel Neuromancer. Cyberpunks are now among…
the shock troops of postmodernism, Larry McCaffery argues in Storming the Reality Studio, marshalling the resources of a fragmentary culture to create a startling new form. Artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, multinational machinations, frenetic bursts of prose, collisions of style, celebrations of texture: although emerging largely from science fiction, these features of cyberpunk writing are, as this volume makes clear, integrally related to the aims and innovations of the literary avant-garde.By bringing together original fiction by well-known contemporary writers (William Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kathy Acker, J. G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany), critical commentary by some of the major theorists of postmodern art and culture (Jacques Derrida, Fredric Jameson, Timothy Leary, Jean-François Lyotard), and work by major practitioners of cyberpunk (William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling), Storming the Reality Studio reveals a fascinating ongoing dialog in contemporary culture.What emerges most strikingly from the colloquy is a shared preoccupation with the force of technology in shaping modern life. It is precisely this concern, according to McCaffery, that has put science fiction, typically the province of technological art, at the forefront of creative explorations of our unique age. A rich opporunity for reading across genres, this anthology offers a new perspective on the evolution of postmodern culture and ultimately shows how deeply technological developments have influenced our vision and our art. Selected Fiction contributors: Kathy Acker, J. G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, Pat Cadigan, Samuel R. Delany, Don DeLillo, William Gibson, Harold Jaffe, Richard Kadrey, Marc Laidlaw, Mark Leyner, Joseph McElroy, Misha, Ted Mooney, Thomas Pynchon, Rudy Rucker, Lucius Shepard, Lewis Shiner, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, William VollmanSelected Non-Fiction contributors: Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson, Arthur Kroker and David Cook, Timothy Leary, Jean-François Lyotard, Larry McCaffery, Brian McHale, Dave Porush, Bruce Sterling, Darko Suvin, Takayuki TatsumiNative Tongue
By Suzette Haden Elgin, Susan Squier. 1984
Called "fascinating" by the New York Times upon its first publication in 1984, Native Tongue won wide critical praise and…
cult status, and has often been compared to the futurist fiction of Margaret Atwood. Set in the twenty-second century, the novel tells of a world where women are once again property, denied civil rights and banned from public life. Earth's wealth depends on interplanetary commerce with alien races, and linguists ---a small, clannish group of families ---have become the ruling elite by controlling all interplanetary communication. Their women are used to breed perfect translators for all the galaxies' languages.Nazareth Chornyak, the most talented linguist of the family, is exhausted by her constant work translating for trade organizations, supervising the children's language education, running the compound, and caring for the elderly men. She longs to retire to the Barren House, where women past childbearing age knit, chat, and wait to die. What Nazareth comes to discover is that a slow revolution is going on in the Barren Houses: there, word by word, women are creating a language of their own to free them from men's control."Native Tongue brings to life not only the possibility of a women's language, but a rationale for one,"--Village Voice"Elgin takes up more than linguistics, of course--everything from religion to sex...the story is absolutely compelling."--Women's Review of BooksSuzette Haden Elgin is author of twelve science fiction novels and is widely know for her best-selling series The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense and for The Grandmother Principles. She is director of the Ozark Center for Language Studies and is professor emerita of linguistics at San Diego State University.Susan Squier is Julia Brill professor of English and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University.Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto
By Abraham Cahan. 1970
Yekl (1896), the first novel upon which the much acclaimed film Hester Street was based, was probably the first novel…
in English that had a New York East Side immigrant as its hero. Reviewing it, William Dean Howells hailed Cahan as "a new star of realism."What Fire Cannot Burn
By John Ridley. 2006
The bestselling author of "Those Who Walk in Darkness" delivers the second book of his action-packed series, featuring top LAPD…
mutant-hunter Soledad O'Roark, who teams up with rival Eddi Aoki when a vigilante starts killing metanormals without mercy. Original.What Fire Cannot Burn
By John Ridley. 2006
The bestselling author of "Those Who Walk in Darkness" delivers the second book of his action-packed series, featuring top LAPD…
mutant-hunter Soledad O'Roark, who teams up with rival Eddi Aoki when a vigilante starts killing metanormals without mercy. Original.Skin Folk
By Nalo Hopkinson. 2001
Throughout the Caribbean there are stories about people who aren't what they seem. Skin gives these folk their human shape.…
When the skin comes off, their true selves emerge. And whatever the burden their skin bears, once they remove it, skin folk can fly...Nalo Hopkinson has gained universal acclaim as one of the most impressively original authors to emerge in years. Her debut novel, "Brown Girl in the Ring," won the "Locus" Award for Best First Novel, became a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, and garnered Hopkinson the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her second novel, "Midnight Robber," was a "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards.Now she presents "Skin Folk," a richly vibrant collection of short fiction that ranges from Trinidad to Toronto, from fantastic folklore to frightening futures, from houses of deadly haunts to realms of dark sexuality. Powerful and sensual, disturbing and triumphant, these tales explore the surface of modern existence... and delve under the skin of eternal legends.John Brunner
By Jad Smith. 2012
Under his own name and numerous pseudonyms, John Brunner (1934-1995) was one of the most prolific and influential science fiction…
authors of the late twentieth century. During his exemplary career, the British author wrote with a stamina matched by only a few other great science fiction writers and with a literary quality of even fewer, importing modernist techniques into his novels and stories and probing every major theme of his generation: robotics, racism, drugs, space exploration, technological warfare, and ecology. In this first intensive review of Brunner's life and works, Jad Smith carefully demonstrates how Brunner's much-neglected early fiction laid the foundation for his classic Stand on Zanzibar and other major works such as The Jagged Orbit, The Sheep Look Up, and The Shockwave Rider. Making extensive use of Brunner's letters, columns, speeches, and interviews published in fanzines, Smith approaches Brunner in the context of markets and trends that affected many writers of the time, including Brunner's uneasy association with the "New Wave" of science fiction in the 1960s and '70s. This landmark study shows how Brunner's attempts to cross-fertilize the American pulp tradition with British scientific romance complicated the distinctions between genre and mainstream fiction and between hard and soft science fiction and helped carve out space for emerging modes such as cyberpunk, slipstream, and biopunk.Cyborgs in Latin America
By J. Andrew Brown. 2010
A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform, www. oapen.…
org . Cyborgs in Latin America explores the ways cultural expression in Latin America has grappled with the changing relationships between technology and human identity.Smart Pop Preview 2013: Standalone Essays and Exclusive Extras on the Hunger Games, Ender's Game, Percy Jackson, the Mortal Instruments, Munchkin, the Dragonriders of Pern, and More
By David Brin, Orson Scott Card, Neal Shusterman, Kami Garcia, Michael Whelan, J Voelkel. 2013
Get a sneak peak at Smart Pop's 2013 titles with this preview volume of standalone essays and exclusive book extras!Volume…
includes:"Anne McCaffrey, Believer in Us" - David BrinFrom Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern, edited by Todd McCaffreyExclusive Extra: "Painting the Dragonwriter Cover" - Michael WhelanExcerpts from "Munchkin: Hollywood" - Liam McIntyreFrom The Munchkin Book: The Official Companion, edited by James Lowder"Percy Jackson and the Gods of Death" - J&P VoelkelFrom Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, edited by Rick Riordan"Why the Best Friend Never Gets the Girl" - Kami GarciaFrom Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader, edited by Cassandra Clare"The Price of Our Inheritance" - Neal ShustermanFrom Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game, edited by Orson Scott CardExclusive Extra: Q&A with Orson Scott Card"The Architects of the Rebellion" - V. ArrowFrom The Panem Companion: An Unofficial Guide to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, From Mellark Bakery to MockingjaysExclusive Extras:"A Grosser Power" - Ned Vizzini"Capitol or Katniss - Who Am I?" - Lili WilkinsonFrom the special e-book only content for The Girl Who Was on Fire - Movie Edition, edited by Leah Wilson"A Prehistory of Fanfiction" - Anne JamisonFrom Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the WorldExcerpts on Washington Commons, The Foundry, and AndrewAndrewFrom The Unofficial Girls Guide to New York: Inside the Cafes, Clubs, and Neighborhoods of HBO's GirlsSmart Pop Preview 2013
By David Brin, Orson Scott Card, Neal Shusterman, Kami Garcia, Michael Whelan, J Voelkel. 2013
Get a sneak peak at Smart Pop's 2013 titles with this preview volume of standalone essays and exclusive book extras!Volume…
includes:"Anne McCaffrey, Believer in Us" - David BrinFrom Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern, edited by Todd McCaffreyExclusive Extra: "Painting the Dragonwriter Cover" - Michael WhelanExcerpts from "Munchkin: Hollywood" - Liam McIntyreFrom The Munchkin Book: The Official Companion, edited by James Lowder"Percy Jackson and the Gods of Death" - J&P VoelkelFrom Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, edited by Rick Riordan"Why the Best Friend Never Gets the Girl" - Kami GarciaFrom Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader, edited by Cassandra Clare"The Price of Our Inheritance" - Neal ShustermanFrom Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game, edited by Orson Scott CardExclusive Extra: Q&A with Orson Scott Card"The Architects of the Rebellion" - V. ArrowFrom The Panem Companion: An Unofficial Guide to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, From Mellark Bakery to MockingjaysExclusive Extras:"A Grosser Power" - Ned Vizzini"Capitol or Katniss - Who Am I?" - Lili WilkinsonFrom the special e-book only content for The Girl Who Was on Fire - Movie Edition, edited by Leah Wilson"A Prehistory of Fanfiction" - Anne JamisonFrom Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the WorldExcerpts on Washington Commons, The Foundry, and AndrewAndrewFrom The Unofficial Girls Guide to New York: Inside the Cafes, Clubs, and Neighborhoods of HBO's Girls