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The dragons of Eden: speculations on the evolution of human intelligence
By Carl Sagan. 1977
Essays by an award-winning scientist about the possible development of human intelligence, written for nonspecialists. Discusses the biological functions of…
sleep, increasing brain size, and language learning among chimpanzees. Chronicles advances in understanding the brain and implications for the future. BestsellerReadymade bodhisattva: the Kaya anthology of South Korean science fiction (The Magpie series of modern and contemporary Korean literature)
By Sunyoung Park, Park Sang Joon. 2019
A collection of short stories from South Korea translated into English, including both classic and contemporary works. Includes a critical…
introduction, an essay on science fiction fandom in South Korea, and contextualizing information and annotations for each story. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2019Reflections & refractions: thoughts on science-fiction, science, and other matters
By Robert Silverberg. 2016
Acclaimed writer of science fiction provides a collection of his essays on unique scientific ideas, characters, and the social context…
for science fiction. Some pieces examine the work of other great writers. This edition, expanded from the 1973 original, includes a section on writing science fiction. 2016Sisters of tomorrow: the first women of science fiction (Wesleyan early classics of science fiction series)
By Lisa Yaszek, Patrick B. Sharp. 2016
Selection of short fiction, essays, and poems by women working in the genre in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Includes…
fiction by C. L Moore, poems by Julia Boynton Green, and journalism by L. Taylor Hansen. Also provides commentary documenting women's contributions to the pulp-magazine community. Some violence and some strong language. 2016The road to Dune (Dune)
By Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, Herbert Franke. 2005
Collection of notes, correspondences, and stories revealing the creative process behind the Dune series. Includes previously unpublished chapters from Frank…
Herbert's Dune (DB 44126) and Dune Messiah (DB 19126), an alternate version of Dune called Spice Planet by Herbert's son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, and four short stories. 2005True talents
By David Lubar. 2007
The friends from Edgeview Alternative School wanted to keep their Hidden Talents (RC 56815) secret, but someone learns that Trash…
can move objects with his mind and kidnaps him. Torchie, Cheater, Lucky, Flinch, and Martin must use their talents to rescue Trash. For grades 5-8. 2007Dark matter: reading the bones
By Sheree R. Thomas. 2004
Collection of speculative fiction and nonfiction by twenty-eight writers of the African diaspora exploring "the languages of love and lore,…
oppression and abuse, identity and community, revelations and new frontiers." Companion to Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Disapora (RC 52151). Some explicit descriptions of sex, some violence, and some strong language. 2004Skin folk
By Nalo Hopkinson. 2001
The author of Brown Girl in the Ring (DB 52063) presents a collection of fifteen Afro-Caribbean tales, some set in…
Toronto, involving fantasy and folklore. In "Riding the Red," Red Riding Hood is now a grandmother. Explicit descriptions of sex and strong language. 2001Seven years in Tibet: Official Agents' Handbook
By Heinrich Harrer, Dawn Margolis. 1996
Harrer recalls how in 1943 he escaped from a British internment camp in India and, after an arduous journey, arrived…
on foot in Lhasa, the holy capital of Tibet. He was granted refuge and later became a tutor to the Dalai Lama. In late 1950, the Chinese invasion of Tibet forced Harrer to leave Lhasa, which had become his spiritual home. BestsellerAfter the events of William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope (DB 77244), Luke Skywalker and friends retreat to…
the ice planet Hoth. Darth Vader schemes to destroy them, but Luke begins training with Yoda, a reclusive Jedi master. In Cloud City, deception awaits Luke's compatriots. 2014Han Solo, entombed in carbonite at the end of The Empire Striketh Back (DB 79153), is artwork in the lair…
of Jabba the Hutt. Luke Skywalker and his band conspire to release Han. They then head to Endor, where they enlist the assistance of the native Ewoks. 2014William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a new hope (William Shakespeare's Star Wars #4)
By Ian Doescher. 2013
The story of Star Wars: Episode IV; a New Hope told in the format of a Shakespearean play. Luke Skywalker…
purchases two droids, one of which carries a secret message from a captured princess. They draw Luke into a battle with the Empire. Young adult appeal. Some violence. Bestseller. 2013Dragonwriter: 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 YarbroYou & Me
By Padgett Powell. 2012
Padgett Powell, author of the acclaimed The Interrogative Mood and “one of the few truly important American writers of our…
time” (Sam Lipsyte), returns with a hilarious Southern send-up of Samuel Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot. Truly a master of envelope-pushing, post-postmodern American fiction, in a class with Nicholas Baker and Lydia Davis, Powell brilliantly blends the sublime, the trivial, and the oddball in You & Me, as two loquacious gents on a porch discuss all manner of subjects, from the mundane to the spiritual to the downright ridiculous. At once outrageously funny and profound, You & Me is yet another brilliant, boundary-bursting masterwork, proving once again that, “there are few writers who understand both the beauty and the absurdity of language as well as Padgett Powell” (Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang) and that, “Padgett Powell is one of the best writers in America, and one of the funniest, tThe 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.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.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.