The novel can be classified as an alternate history for its portrayal of 19th century Europe and the changes resulting, particularly in Britain, from an explosive scientific discovery made in the 1850s. A new element has been discovered in a hidden vein near the South Pole. Anti-ice is harmless until warmed, when it releases vast energies that promise new wonders and threaten new horrors beyond humankind’s wildest dreams

En 1870, cuando el poder del Imperio británico es absoluto, en las remotas tierras de una península antártica al sur del continente australiano se descubre un nueva material: el antihielo. Por el fenómeno que Faraday denominará de «conductancia aumentada», el material libera prodigiosas cantidades de energía cuando su temperatura se eleva. Su potencial energético, casi infinito, va a acelerar la Revolución Industrial de forma insospechada. El antihielo, como no podía ser de otra manera, es empleado en la campaña de Crimea, pero también se revela útil en otras aventuras del espíritu humano que, a priori, parecen menos. sangrientas. En la Nueva Gran Exposición de Manchester de 1870, un joven agregado del Foreing Office descubrirá el inmenso poder del antihielo y, junto al visionario sir Josiah Traveller, tendrá que enfrentarse a un inesperado y decimonónico viaje espacial a la Luna. Stephen Baxter, la nueva y gran estrella de la ciencia ficción británica, es considerado el sucesor de Arthur C. Clarke y un igual de Isaac Asimov y Robert A. Heinlein. Sus homenajes a Herbert G. Wells (Las naves del tiempo) y a Julio Verne (Antihielo) son un verdadero tour de force de la mejor ciencia ficción

S. Baxter z talentem dorównującym najznakomitszym przebłyskom geniuszu J. Verne’a opisuje świat, w którym wielkie mosty spinają Kontynent z Wielką Brytanią, błyszczące jednotorowe koleje przewożą błyskawicznie pasażerów na olbrzymie odległości, a przerażony świat wstrzymuje oddech w przededniu wojny prowadzonej za pomocą substancji o niebywałych właściwościach — antylodu. Autor przechodzi od odległej przyszłości, opisywanej w poprzednich dziełach, do niedawnej przeszłości, nie tracąc nic ze swej pomysłowości i błyskotliwości. Umiejętnie portretuje świat dyplomatycznych zabiegów, romantycznej miłości i gorącej publicznej debaty nad konsekwencjami ludzkiego panowania nad siłami natury

Bisesę Dutt, odesłaną na Ziemię 2037 roku przez tajemniczych i potężnych Pierworodnych, prześladują wspomnienia pięciu lat spędzonych na dziwnej, odmienionej Ziemi o nazwie Mir, światem poskładanym z lądów i ludzi wyrwanych z rozmaitych epok historii Ziemi. Dlaczego Pierworodni utworzyli Mir? Dlaczego Bisesę tam zabrano, a następnie sprowadzono z powrotem zaledwie w dzień po jej zniknięciu? Pytania, jakie zadaje sobie Bisesa, znajdą odpowiedź w chwili odkrycia przez naukowców niezwykłej anomalii w jądrze Słońca, będącej dowodem interwencji obcych ponad dwa tysiące lat wcześniej. Plan nakreślony przez zagadkowych obserwatorów oddalonych o wiele lat świetlnych ma zostać zrealizowany w postaci burzy słonecznej, której celem jest likwidacja życia na Ziemi. Kiedy nad światem zawisa widmo apokalipsy, okazuje się, że różnice polityczne i religijne na Ziemi zagrażają wszelkim próbom ratowania planety. A Pierworodni przez cały czas obserwują…

Baxter connects the lives of George Poole in the present and Regina at the end of the Roman empire. George’s father has just died, and the picture of a girl, Rosa, comes to light in his effects. Rosa is the mysterious twin George never knew, and he becomes consumed with the desire to find her. Regina’s part of the story begins in Britain at the end of Roman rule and takes her through the western empire’s collapse to Rome itself. Back to the near-past: George’s sister, it develops, had been sent to the Order of Mary, Queen of Virgins, which has existed, hive-like, in Rome since the time of Regina, one of its founders. George is Regina’s descendant, and the order being rather a family affair, George arrives at many uncomfortable realizations as he learns more about it. Opening with an artificial anomaly discovered in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune and ending with disturbing extrapolation of humanity’s future, Coalescent is a fabric of many slowly developed plot threads woven into a tight tapestry

Michael Poole spędził wiele lat, zmagając się z problemem fizyki kwantowej podczas budowy niezwykłego tunelu czasoprzestrzennego, łączącego teraźniejsze, przeszłe i przyszłe światy. Kontynuując samotnie swe badania w Chmurze Oorta, Michael nie wie, że jego odkrycia są wykorzystywane przez buntowników z przyszłości odległej o tysiąc pięćset lat. Fantyczna grupa Przyjaciół Wignera ucieka w przeszłość sprzed okresu, w którym Ziemia jest okupowana przez tajemniczą rasę qaxów. Dawna przyjaciółka Poole'a, utalentowany naukowiec Miriam Berg, zostaje zmuszona do współpracy z buntownikami. Przewidując katastrofalny wpływ ich działań na rozwój historii, wysyła wiadomość do Michaela z prośbą o pomoc. Qaxowie ruszają w głąb czasu z zamiarem unicestwienia ludzkości

Stellen Sie sich ein Universum vor, in dem die Schwerkraft eine Milliarde Mal stärker ist als in unserem. In dem schon der menschliche Körper eine meßbare Gravitation hat. In dem Sonnen nur ein paar Kilometer durchmessen und bereits ein Jahr nach ihrer Entstehung ausgebrannt sind. Fünfhundert Jahre nach der Havarie des Raumschiffs in diesem Universum kämpfen die Nachfahren der Besatzung ums Überleben. Sie sind in zwei Gruppen zerfallen: den Mineurs, die das eiserne Herz einer erkalteten Sonne ausschlachten, und den Wissenschaftlern, die auf dem „Floß“ leben, das sie aus den Resten des ehemaligen Raumschiffs gebaut haben. Dies ist die Geschichte des jungen Mineurs Rees, der erstaunlich begabt ist und deshalb eine Stelle als Wissenschaftsgehilfe bekommt. Er wird inne, daß ihre kleine Gesellschaft dem Untergang geweiht ist — und niemand eine Idee zu haben scheint, wie man ihn aufhalten könnte

DAS BUCH Die Erde in naher Zukunft: Eine gigantische Flutwelle hat weite Teile der Welt überschwemmt, um das verbleibende Festland werden erbitterte Kriege geführt, und der Meeresspiegel steigt immer weiter an. Um das Fortbestehen der Menschheit zu sichern, entwickeln amerikanische Wissenschaftler einen scheinbar genialen Plan: Eine kleine Gruppe Auserwählter soll sich in einem eigens dafür konstruierten Raumschiff – der »Arche« – auf den Weg machen, um in den Weiten des Universums einen neuen Planeten zu besiedeln. Der Start gelingt, und die neue Heimat rückt immer näher. Doch an ihrem Zielplaneten angekommen, müssen die Auswanderer feststellen, dass die »Erde II« für Menschen unbewohnbar ist. Und so steht die Besatzung der Arche vor einer existenziellen Entscheidung: Kehren sie auf die zerstörte Erde zurück oder setzen sie ihre Reise ins Ungewisse fort? Nach seinem Erfolgsroman Die letzte Flut führt Stephen Baxter in Die letzte Arche auf meisterhafte Weise die Geschichte einer Menschheit fort, die von ihrem eigenen Planeten vertrieben wird. DER AUTOR Stephen Baxter, 1957 in Liverpool geboren, studierte Mathematik und Astronomie, bevor er sich ganz dem Schreiben widmete. Er zählt zu den international bedeutendsten Autoren wissenschaftlich orientierter Literatur. Etliche seiner Romane wurden mehrfach preisgekrönt und zu internationalen Bestsellern. Baxter lebt und arbeitet im englischen Buckinghamshire. Weitere Informationen zu Autor und Werk erhalten Sie unter: www.stephen-baxter.com

Ihre Geschichte beginnt, als Dinosaurier die Erde beherrschen. Sie überstehen den gnadenlosen Kampf mit anderen Spezies um Nahrung und Territorien. Sie überleben den Einschlag eines gigantischen Asteroiden und erben eine leere Welt. Sie folgen der langsamen Bewegung der Kontinente über die Erde. Sie errichten eine planetenumspannende Zivilisation. Und sie greifen nach den Sternen… In diesem atemberaubenden, hochspannenden Roman folgt Stephen Baxter dem Strom der menschlichen Evolution, der Millionen von Jahren in der Vergangenheit entspringt und sich weit in die Zukunft ergießt. Ein in der Literatur einzigartiges Panorama – die gesamte Geschichte der Menschheit in einem Buch

Evolution is a collection of short stories that work together to form an episodic science fiction novel. It follows 565 million years of human evolution, from shrewlike mammals 65 million years in the past to the ultimate fate of humanity (and its descendants, both biological and non-biological) 500 million years in the future. The primary protagonist in Evolution is evolution itself (although primates as a group constitute another protagonist). The book follows the hero’s course as it shapes surviving pre-humans into tree dwellers, remoulds a group that drifts from Africa to a (then much closer) New World on a raft formed out of debris, and confronting others with a terrible dead end as ice clamps down on Antarctica. The stream of DNA runs on elsewhere, where ape-like creatures in North Africa are forced out of their diminishing forests to come across grasslands where their distant descendants will later run joyously. At one point, hominids become sapient, and go on to develop technology, including a universal constructor machine that goes to Mars and multiplies, and in an act of global ecophagy consumes Mars by converting the planet into its descendants. Human extinction (or the extinction of human culture) also occurs in the book, as well as the end of planet Earth and the rebirth of life on another planet. (The extinction-level event that causes the human extinction is, indirectly, an eruption of the volcano Rabaul, coupled with various actions of humans themselves, some of which are only vaguely referred to, but implied to be a form of genetic engineering which removed the ability to reproduce with non-engineered humans.) Also to be found in Evolution are ponderous Romans, sapient dinosaurs, the last of the wild Neanderthals, a primate who witnesses the extinction of the dinosaurs, symbiotic primate-tree relationships, mole people, and primates who live on a Mars-like Earth

In humankind’s Third Expansion, the species has spread throughout the galaxy and assimilated all challengers but the mysterious Xeelee; in a 20,000-year stalemate, humans have kept them at bay in the galaxy’s center. Time travel (used by both sides to gather intelligence) creates numerous “drafts” of time lines, but apart from this uncertainty the endless war has brought about a strangely static human society. Soldiers and pilots are bred in vats near the Front and taught only war; few survive past their teens. When Prius, a young pilot, captures a Xeelee ship and takes it to the recent past for study, an innovative program is begun to develop new weapons technology. While Prius Blue (the pilot from the future time line, now stuck in this one) is sent to the Front, the younger Prius Red (from this time line) must travel throughout the solar system with an eccentric but brilliant scientist in a quest for knowledge needed for the anti-Xeelee weapon. Working with widely differing elements of society, Red learns many secrets he’d rather not know, adjusts to new knowledge, and grows into a leadership role: he heads up Exultant, the elite squadron tasked with deploying the new weapon. Even in a genre characterized by unfettered imagination, Baxter’s future universe is extraordinary in its depth, breadth, and richness of invention. Cutting-edge physics, subtle humor, time-travel paradoxes, and loopy twists combine to give readers a wonderfully original sci-fi experience. It can be read independently of Coalescent, which is set in the same universe but mostly in the present age

The Firstborn — the mysterious race of aliens who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey — have inhabited legendary master of science fiction Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s writing for decades. With Time’s Eye and Sunstorm, the first two books in their acclaimed Time Odyssey series, Clarke and his brilliant co-author Stephen Baxter imagined a near-future in which the Firstborn seek to stop the advance of human civilization by employing a technology indistinguishable from magic. Their first act was the Discontinuity, in which Earth was carved into sections from different eras of history, restitched into a patchwork world, and renamed Mir. Mir’s inhabitants included such notables as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and United Nations peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt. For reasons unknown to her, Bisesa entered into communication with an alien artifact of inscrutable purpose and godlike power — a power that eventually returned her to Earth. There, she played an instrumental role in humanity’s race against time to stop a doomsday event: a massive solar storm triggered by the alien Firstborn designed to eradicate all life from the planet. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Now, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back. This time, they are pulling no punches: They have sent a “quantum bomb.” Speeding toward Earth, it is a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, that cannot be stopped or destroyed — and one that will obliterate Earth. Bisesa’s desperate quest for answers sends her first to Mars and then to Mir, which is itself threatened with extinction. The end seems inevitable. But as shocking new insights emerge into the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling plans for mankind, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away. From the Hardcover edition

A race of microscopic beings, who were genetically engineered to survive on the turbulent mantle of a neutron star and who vividly remember their superbeing creators, prepare for the biggest family reunion in history

Transported to the Sky Steppe of Mars in the final, satisfying book in British author Baxter’s highly original Mammoth trilogy (Longtusk; Silverhair), his engaging wooly characters face an abandoned and potentially lethal terraforming experiment left there by humans (aka “the Lost”). Matriarch mammoth Silverhair’s daughter, Icebones, awakens from an unnatural slumber to find herself in a land and time far from her native Pleistocene earth. The mammoths here have no knowledge of their ancient culture, such as the teachings of their mighty progenitor, Kilukpuk. Mammoth tradition says the Sky Steppe is “the Island in the sky where... mammoths would one day find a world of their own, free from the predations and cruelty of the Lost, a world of calm and plenty” yet whatever promise Mars once held is fading now as the changes made by human engineers are reversed under the assault of the red planet’s uncompromising weather and geology. Icebones’s companions, used to depending on the Lost for everything, can’t possibly survive alone. Their only hope is to cross half the world to reach the Footfall of Kilukpuk, a rich valley full of all the sweet grass and water the mammoths need. The journey is long and treacherous, but as the beasts’ great Cycle says, “The mammoth dies, but mammoths live on.” Baxter fills the tale with taut adventure and splendid settings, making it easy to suspend disbelief

Il Viaggiatore del Tempo nel grande capolavoro di H.G. Wells “La macchina del tempo” pensa con rimpianto a “come sia stato breve il sogno dell’intelletto umano”. Ma Stephen Baxter sa quello che Wells non poteva sapere, cioè proiettandosi nel tempo il Viaggiatore ha cambiato il futuro e sarà destinato a cambiarlo ancora. Svegliandosi nella sua casa di Richmond, il Viaggiatore non riesce a soffocare i rimorsi. Ha abbandonato la bella e indifesa Weena, del mite popolo degli Eloi, alle brame cannibalesche dei Morlock, la razza umana degenerata da cui è stato costretto a fuggire. Decide cosi di ripartire prontamente per un nuovo viaggio nell’anno 802.701 d.C., ma scopre con sgomento di essere entrato in un altro futuro. Approda infatti nell’anno 657.208 all’interno di una sfera di Dyson costruita da una razza di Morlock infinitamente più evoluta: il suo viaggio ha inevitabilmente innescato ramificazioni temporali che si aprono su nuovi universi paralleli. Non rimane quindi che tornare nel passato, affrontare una versione di se stesso più giovane e impedire l’invenzione della macchina del tempo. Ma non è cosi semplice, perché ecco apparire un’enorme e misterioso congegno, costruito per difendere a tutti i costi la macchina del tempo, che nel frattempo è diventata un’irrinunciabile arma segreta in una guerra futura... Ormai è chiaro, il destino del Viaggiatore non è solo quello di affrontare una sequela di avventure mozzafiato, ma di risolvere una catena di paradossi che si stanno moltiplicando attorno a lui. E soprattutto non ha abbandonato l’idea di ritrovare e salvare la sua Weena. Stephen Baxter reinterpreta le idee di Wells alla luce delle più recenti scoperte sulla natura dello spazio, del tempo e della meccanica quantistica, ma soprattutto, con estrema fedeltà e vigore narrativo, riscopre e rilancia verso nuovi orizzonti l’emozione che La macchina del tempo aveva saputo regalare

El Viajero del tiempo de H.G. Wells despierta en su casa de Richmond la mañana posterior al retorno de su primera partida al futuro. Apesadumbrado por haber dejado a Weena en manos de los Morlock, decide realizar un segundo viaje al año 802.701 para rescatar a su amiga Eloi. Pero al entrar en un futuro distinto y radicalmente cambiado, el Viajero se ve irremediablemente atado a las paradójicas complejidades del desplazamiento a través del tiempo. Acompañado por un Morlock, se encontrará consigo mismo, para ser detenido después por un grupo de viajeros temporales procedentes de un 1938 en el cual Inglaterra lleva 24 años en guerra con Alemania... Una novela sorprendente, repleta de aventuras y especulaciones que ha pretendido, con éxito, homenajear y reexaminar La máquina del tiempo de H.G. Wells

Stephen Baxter is one of preeminent science fiction writers of the current age. This collection showcases his work at its best. Last and First Contacts features ten exceptional stories personally selected by the author, none of which have been collected before and one of which, “Erstkontakt”, is brand new, having been written especially for this book. Also included is “Last Contact”, which was shortlisted for the Hugo Award

La machine à explorer le temps est le texte fondateur de la science-fiction moderne. Lorsque s’achève le récit de H. G. Wells, le Voyageur se prépare à repartir dans le futur sauver Weena, la charmante Eloï, menacée par les cruels Morlocks… Par une chance extraordinaire, la narration de ce second voyage est parvenue à Stephen Baxter, un siècle exactement après la parution, en 1895, de La machine à explorer le temps. En voici la fidèle et surprenante transcription. Il n’est pas nécessaire pour le goûter d’avoir lu le récit du premier voyage. Reparti dans un lointain avenir, le Voyageur surpris découvre un monde différent de celui qu’il avait exploré, où les Morlocks disposent d’une civilisation technologique avancée et ne ressemblent plus aux barbares qu’il a connus. Flanqué du Morlock Nebogipfel, il s’aventurera sur les Vaisseaux du temps jusqu’aux confins du temps et de l’espace, des univers parallèles et des possibles. Sans jamais perdre l’espoir de retrouver la délicieuse Weena. Les vaisseaux du temps, dans la tradition de la plus haute science-fiction britannique, celle de Wells, de Stapledon, de Brunner, de Ballard, d’Aldiss et de Banks, est à la fois un roman d’aventures et un conte philosophique. C’est sans doute l’un des plus grands textes de science-fiction de la décennie. Il a obtenu le British Science-Fiction Award 1996, le John Campbell Memorial Award 1996 et le Philip K. Dick Award 1997, et il a figuré parmi les cinq finalistes du prix Hugo en 1996

Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com) is the critically-acclaimed, online science fiction magazine edited by bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed publishes all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. Each month, Lightspeed features a mix of originals and reprints, from a variety of authors—from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven't heard of yet. Now, in Lightspeed: Year One, you will find all of the fiction published in Lightspeed's first year, from new stories such as Nebula Award finalists, Vylar Kaftan’s “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” and “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro, and Carrie Vaughn’s Hugo Award-nominee “Amaryllis,” to classic reprints by Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, and more

Meticulously researched, simply told and appropriate for readers of all ages, this second volume (after 1999’s Silverhair) in Baxter’s Mammoth trilogy brings to compelling life the complex culture of these giant creatures. It’s sixteen thousand years B.C., and woolly mammoths roam the earth, inhabiting the steppes of Beringia, the land bridge linking Asia and North America. Climactic changes have caused the steppes to recede, but humans, whom the mammoths call Fireheads, pose the greatest threat to their survival. Longtusk, whose coming-of-age story this is, must save the mammoths by spearheading an epic journey. Separated from his family, Longtusk is enslaved by the Fireheads, who make him a beast of burden. But a Dreamer (Neanderthal) woman foretells his future: Longtusk will die, along with the Dreamer who once saved his life and that of the Firehead matriarch, Crocus. Although Longtusk escapes his captors and finds a steppe that will support a small mammoth herd, years later Crocus and her people return, seeking to drive the mammoths away from their habitat. Longtusk embarks on a final heroic mission to save the mammoths and meet his fate. The book’s themes of ecological disaster, warfare and change resonate deeply with today’s concerns. When a mastodont tells Longtusk, "You and I must take the world as it is. [The Fireheads] imagined how it might be different. Whether it’s better is beside the point; to the Fireheads, change is all that matters," it’s clear that humans have not changed at all

La historia de lo que sucede cuando un brillante industrial aprovecha los beneficios de la física cuántica. Así consigue que cualquier persona pueda ver lo que hace otra desde cualquier sitio en cualquier situación. Las esquinas y paredes ya no son barreras, todo momento de la existencia por muy privado o íntimo que sea queda expuesto a los demás. Esta nueva tecnología supone la súbita abolición de la intimidad humana… para siempre. Mientras que los hombres y mujeres afrontan el trauma de la nueva situación, esta misma tecnología demostrará ser capaz de mirar también en el pasado. Nada puede prepararnos para lo que vendrá después: el descubrimiento de lo que hay de verdad y mentira a lo largo de los miles de años de historia humana tal y como la conocíamos. Como consecuencia de este saber, los gobiernos son derribados, las religiones caen, las bases de la sociedad humana tiemblan desde su propia raíz. Marca un cambio fundamental en la condición humana provocando la desesperación, el caos, y quizás, también la oportunidad de trascender como raza. Luz de otros días es un tour de force, un evento para el próximo milenio y una narración que no olvidarás

Wenn die Kugeln von Dallas John F. Kennedy verfehlt hätten, stünde die amerikanische Flagge heute nicht nur auf dem Mond, sondern auch auf dem Mars. Eine atemberaubende Vorstellung - doch der Aufbruch zum Roten Planeten steckt voller Gefahren und Rückschläge... Ein neues aufregendes SF-Abenteuer des gefeierten Autors von »Zeitschiffe« und »Das floß« Titel der englischen Originalausgabe "Voyage"

Stephen Baxter established himself as a major British sci-fi author with tales of exotic, far-future technology. More recently, in Voyage, Titan and now Moonseed, he shows his love for the hardware of the real world’s space programme. (Comparisons with Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff have been frequent.) Moonseed is a spectacular disaster novel whose threat to Earth comes from a long-forgotten Moon rock sample carrying strange silver dust that seems to be alien nanotechnology — molecule-sized machines. Accidentally spilt in Edinburgh, this ‘Moonseed’ quietly devours stone and processes it into more Moonseed. Geology becomes high drama: when ancient mountains turn to dust, the lid is taken off seething magma below. Volcanoes return to Scotland, and Krakatoa-like eruptions spread Moonseed around the world. A desperate, improvised US/Russian space mission heads for the Moon to probe the secret of how our satellite has survived uneaten. Baxter convincingly shows how travel costs could be cut, with a hair-raising descent on a shoestring lunar lander that makes Apollo’s look like a luxury craft. The climax brings literally world-shaking revelations and upheavals. Moonseed is a ripping interplanetary yarn

Jest rok 1885. Przebywający na Granicy Północno-Zachodniej młody dziennikarz, Rudyard Kipling, jest świadkiem niezwykłego spotkania brytyjskich żołnierzy z wytworem nieprawdopodobnie zaawansowanej technologii: unoszącą się w powietrzu kulą, która wydaje się obserwować wszystko wokół. Niebawem zza okolicznego wzgórza wyłania się uszkodzony helikopter z 2037 roku…

This is the third installment in Stephen Baxter’s Manifold trilogy. It sees Manifold regular Reid Malenfant and others once again dealing with possibilities of primate evolution in all forms and grappling with the Fermi Paradox. This time an artifact in the sky transports a select few individuals including Malenfant’s wife to a new red moon which has appeared in place of the moon we know. Blaming himself, Malenfant launches a one man mission to find his wife and solve the Fermi Paradox once and for all

one world among many…eleven stories about them all What if Lincoln never became president, and the Civil War never took place? What if Columbus never discovered America, and the Inca developed a massive, technologicallyadvanced empire? What if magic was real and a half-faerie queen ruled England? What if an author discovered a book written by an alternate version of himself? These are just some of the possible pathways that readers can take to explore the Other Earths that may be waiting just one page away

What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world? We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now. “Anthologist Adams presents readers with a wide variety of alternate Earths, some only slightly askew and others completely unfamiliar. […] Adams’s selections are mirrors reflecting one other with the best images of alternate realities. Readers will greatly enjoy this exploration of our world's foremost and ascendant speculative authors.” “Reminds longtime readers of fantasy and sci-fi what we love about the genre, while also and aptly demonstrating to newcomers that these stories are about so much more than dragons and multitentacled monsters. It comes highly recommended to both and all.”

Tied in to Baxter’s masterful Manifold trilogy, these thematically linked stories are drawn from the vast graph of possibilities across which the lives of hero Reid Malenfant have been scattered. Reid Malenfant is the commander of a NASA earth-orbiting science platform. The platform is intended to probe the planets of the nearest star system by bouncing laser pulses off them. But no echoes are returned … and Reid's reality begins to crumble around him. Huddling with his family, awaiting the end – or an unknown new beginning – Reid tells stories of other possibilities, other realities. The linked stories encompass the myriad possibilities that might govern our relationship with the universe: are we truly alone, or will we eventually meet other lifeforms? The final possibility – that the Universe as we know it is in fact an elaborate illusion designed to protect us from the fearful reality – is brilliantly explored in the tour de force novella that ends the volume

Pierworodni po raz pierwszy dali znać o sobie wywołując Nieciągłość, w wyniku której Ziemia została rozbita na fragmenty pochodzące z różnych epok. Jednym z rozbitków na tak odmienionej planecie, którą nazwano Mirem, była kobieta, imieniem Bisesa Dutt. Z przyczyn, których nie była w stanie zrozumieć, udało jej się nawiązać osobliwy kontakt z zagadkowym artefaktem i kryjącą się za nim potęgą, która odesłała ją z powrotem na Ziemię. Po powrocie odegrała zasadniczą rolę w podjętej przez całą ludzkość próbie powstrzymania katastrofy, potężnej burzy słonecznej, wywołanej przez Pierworodnych, która miała unicestwić wszelkie życie na całej planecie. Groźbie tej udało się wprawdzie zapobiec, ale straty, jakie poniosła Ziemia, były niewyobrażalne. Teraz, w dwadzieścia lat później, Pierworodni wracają. Tym razem zastosowali broń ostateczną: w stronę Ziemi zmierza „bomba kosmologiczna”, urządzenie, którego działania ziemscy naukowcy właściwie nie pojmują i którego nie da się zatrzymać ani zniszczyć. Całemu światu grozi zagłada. Rozpaczliwie poszukując ratunku, Bisesa udaje się na Marsa, a następnie na Mir, którego koniec także jest bliski. Ale kiedy wychodzą na jaw szokujące cechy natury Pierworodnych i ich mrożące krew w żyłach plany dotyczące rodzaju ludzkiego, z odległych o wiele lat świetlnych otchłani kosmosu przybywa nieoczekiwany sprzymierzeniec

Are you sure this didn’t almost happen?

Akcja powieści toczy się na planecie zamieszkanej przez maleńkie istoty, których biologia całkowicie różni się od ludzkiej. Jednak ich uczucia, marzenia i lęki są takie same jak każdej istoty ludzkiej. Pewnego dnia stają oni do walki z — w ich wyobrażeniu — bogami, tzw. Xeelee. Tylko od ich wytrwałości i hartu ducha zależy, czy przetrwają nasilające się ataki na ich słońce

Five hundred years after a handful of human starship travelers got lost in a hostile universe, their descendants are still struggling for survival. As hard as life is on The Raft — a platform remnant of the ship’s hull — it’s even harder in The Belt — a string of shacks circling the iron-rich core of a dead star. Every Belter has heard the story of the legendary starship but most of them don’t believe it. But Rees, a lowly mine-rat, does. He wonders why the sky is angry red instead of the blue his parents remembered. Why food from The Raft gets less and less nutritious. Why fewer and fewer stars form every day. In his quest to find answers, Rees travels from boyhood to manhood, from the outermost edges of his world into its mysterious heart. And along the way he discovers there’s more at stake than his simple curiosity: life in his enigmatic universe is about to become impossible…

RESPLENDENT is a collection of stories that encompasses mankind's epic fight for survival against the Xeelee, a narrative of how man will change and evolve over our epic journey out into the universe. These tales will encompass the rise of sub-molecular empires in the first nanoseconds after the Big Bang to mankind's final transformation. Full of cutting-edge science, descriptions of time and space on a mind-boggling scale and memorable, all-too-human characters. It is both the capstone to one of the most significant series in the history of SF and a remarkable achievement in its own right. This is a mature and uniquely talented writer at the height of his powers

Michael Poole’s wormholes constructed in the orbit of Jupiter had opened the galaxy to humankind. Then Poole tried looping a wormhole back on itself, tying a knot in space and ripping a hole in time. It worked. Too well. Poole was never seen again. Then from far in the future, from a time so distant that the stars themselves were dying embers, came an urgent SOS — and a promise. The universe was doomed, but humankind was not. Poole had stumbled upon an immense artifact, light-years across, fabricated from the very string of the cosmos. The universe had a door. And it was open…

Isolated from the passage of time, a small colony of mammoths survives into the 20th century until their discovery by a group of shipwrecked sailors threatens their existence. Baxter combines well-researched details on the physical habits of prehistoric mammoths with an anthropomorphic touch to delineate the personalities of his protagonists. Fans of the prehistoric novels of Jean Auel and the animal-based fantasies of Richard Adams should enjoy this tale of triumph over adversity

‘If they existed, they would be here’ ENRICO FERMI. In the second volume in Stephen Baxter's epic Manifold Series Reid Malenfant inhabits the universe Malenfant kick-started in TIME (‘science fiction at its best’ FHM) — and ‘they’ are here. When Nemoto, a Japanese researcher on the Moon, discovers evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence in the solar system, the Fermi Paradox provokes both Malenfant and Nemoto to question why now? Because, suddenly, there are signs of intelligent life in deep space in all directions. Deeper layers of Fermi’s paradox unravel as robot-like aliens, the Gaijin, seem to be e-mailing themselves from star to star, and wherever telescopes point, far away, other alien races are destroying worlds!

Powieść napisana została z pozycji pojmowania kosmosu przez człowieka końca dwudziestego wieku i zdobyczy współczesnej nauki; jest nowoczesną reinterpretacją wizji Wellsa. Podróżnik w czasie u Baxtera zmierza ku nieskończoności. Jego zadanie jest daleko ważniejsze niz tylko uratowanie Weeny: prócz tajemnicy przyszłości musi także rozwiązać paradoksy otaczającego go świata. Autoryzowana kontynuacja Wehikułu czasu Herberta George’a Wellsa

Returned to the Earth of 2037 by the Firstborn, mysterious beings of almost limitless technological prowess, Bisesa Dutt is haunted by the memories of her five years spent on the strange alternate Earth called Mir, a jigsaw-puzzle world made up of lands and people cut out of different eras of Earth’s history. Why did the Firstborn create Mir? Why was Bisesa taken there and then brought back on the day after her original disappearance? Bisesa’s questions receive a chilling answer when scientists discover an anomaly in the sun’s core-an anomaly that has no natural cause is evidence of alien intervention over two thousand years before. Now plans set in motion millennia ago by inscrutable watchers light-years away are coming to fruition in a sunstorm designed to scour the Earth of all life in a bombardment of deadly radiation. Thus commences a furious race against a ticking solar time bomb. But even now, as apocalypse looms, cooperation is not easy for the peoples and nations of the Earth. Religious and political differences threaten to undermine every effort. And all the while, the Firstborn are watching …

Hugo Best Short Story nominee (2002)

Part of Phase Space: Stories From the Manifold and Elsewhere. Nomitated for Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 2001

An anthology of stories Sherlock Holmes is back! Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first-and most famous-consulting detective, came to the world’s attention more than 120 years ago through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels and stories. But Conan Doyle didn’t reveal all of the Great Detective’s adventures… Here are some of the best Holmes pastiches of the last 30 years, twenty-eight tales of mystery and the imagination detailing Holmes’s further exploits, as told by many of today’s greatest storytellers, including Stephen King, Anne Perry, Anthony Burgess, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and many more. These are the improbable adventures of Sherlock Holmes, where nothing is impossible, and nothing can be ruled out. In these cases, Holmes investigates ghosts, curses, aliens, dinosaurs, shapeshifters, and evil gods. But is it the supernatural, or is there a perfectly rational explanation? You won’t be sure, and neither will Holmes and Watson as they match wits with pirates, assassins, con artists, and criminal masterminds of all stripes, including some familiar foes, such as their old nemesis, Professor Moriarty. In these pages you’ll also find our heroes crossing paths with H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and even Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and you’ll be astounded to learn the truth behind cases previously alluded to by Watson but never before documented until now. These are tales that take us from the familiar quarters at 221B Baker Street to alternate realities, from the gaslit streets of London to the far future and beyond. Whether it’s mystery, fantasy, horror, or science fiction, no puzzle is too challenging for the Great Detective. The game is afoot!

The crowning achievement of any professional writer is to get paid twice for the same material: write a piece for one publisher and then tweak it just enough that you can turn around and sell it to someone else. While it’s specious to accuse Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke of this, fans of both authors will definitely notice some striking similarities between Light of Other Days and other recent works by the two, specifically Baxter’s Manifold: Time and Clarke’s The Trigger. The Light of Other Days follows a soulless tech billionaire (sort of an older, more crotchety Bill Gates), a soulful muckraking journalist, and the billionaire’s two (separated since birth) sons. It’s 2035, and all four hold ringside seats at the birth of a new paradigm-destroying technology, a system of "WormCams," harnessing the power of wormholes to see absolutely anyone or anything, anywhere, at any distance (even light years away). As if that weren’t enough, the sons eventually figure out how to exploit a time-dilation effect, allowing them to use the holes to peer back in time. For Baxter’s part, the Light of Other Days develops another aspect of Manifold’s notion that humanity might have to master the flow of time itself to avert a comparatively mundane disaster (yet another yawn-inducing big rock threatening to hit the earth); Clarke, just as he did with Trigger’s anti-gun ray, speculates on how a revolutionary technology can change the world forever

The possibilities are endless. (Just be careful what you wish for…) 1916: The Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong and the wind in the leaves. Where have the mud, blood, and blasted landscape of no-man's-land gone? For that matter, where has Percy gone? 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive — some say mad, others allege dangerous — scientist who seems to have vanished. Sifting through the wreckage, Jansson find a curious gadget: a box containing some rudimentary wiring, a three-way switch, and… a potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way humankind views the world forever. The first novel in an exciting new collaboration between Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth transports readers to the ends of the earth — and far beyond. All it takes is a single step…

2040–2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous rescue work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has an ulterior motive for his request… Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth. For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the Long Mars

2045-2059. After the cataclysmic upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption humanity is spreading further into the Long Earth, and society, on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. Now an elderly and cantankerous AI, Lobsang lives in disguise with Agnes in an exotic, far-distant world. He’s convinced they’re leading a normal life in New Springfield – they even adopt a child – but it seems they have been guided there for a reason. As rumours of strange sightings and hauntings proliferate, it becomes clear that something is very awry with this particular world. Millions of steps away, Joshua is on a personal journey of discovery: learning about the father he never knew and a secret family history. But then he receives a summons from New Springfield. Lobsang now understands the enormity of what’s taking place beneath the surface of his earth – a threat to all the worlds of the Long Earth. To counter this threat will require the combined efforts of humankind, machine and the super-intelligent Next. And some must make the ultimate sacrifice

Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has one thing in common: each features some alteration in history, some divergence from historical reality, which results in a world very different from the one we know today. As well as original stories specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow, Stephen Baxter and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s story of how World War II atomic bomber the Enola Gay, having crashed on a training flight, is replaced by the Lucky Strike with profoundly different consequences

Stories of the fall of civilisation, the destruction of the Earth and the end of the Universe itself The last sixty years have been full of stories of one or other possible Armageddon, whether by nuclear war, plague, cosmic catastrophe or, more recently, global warming, terrorism, genetic engineering, AIDS and other pandemics. These stories, both pre- and post-apocalyptic, describe the fall of civilization, the destruction of the entire Earth, or the end of the Universe itself. Many of the stories reflect on humankind’s infinite capacity for self-destruction, but the stories are by no means all downbeat or depressing — one key theme explores what the aftermath of a cataclysm might be and how humans strive to survive

An anthology of stories edited by Mike Ashley Marianne is an important fictional formulation of Sand's thinking on the role of women and the nature of democracy. This edition includes a long biographical preface which quotes extensively from her correspondences