Showing results for "Science" in Literature & Fiction

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

THE DEAD WEEP. THE DEAD RUN. THE DEAD HUNT. Humanity survived the first Weeping Plague only because a storm grounded flights and trapped ships in Ireland's harbours. The apocalypse was quarantined—for now. One breach could mean extinction. Luck did not save the world, it just bought it time. On the Aran Islands, Samantha Prendergast has the boat, the skill and the nerve to slip through the blockade and escape Ireland's doom—but her partner refuses to abandon others. After witnessing the savage fall of Galway City, Samantha knows what the spreading sound of weeping means.

Long before movies like Minority Report and The Matrix, the world's writers have been recording the future as it might exist - and as it turns out, they were right. This bizarre anthology collects the most stunning predictions and imagined inventions here for the first time. Visions of Tomorrow includes "The Land Iron Clads" by H. G. Wells, who described a military tank in 1903 - long before it was ever a possibility; "The Yesterday House" by Fritz Leiber, who wrote about cloned humans; and more.

In the 'fantasy' universe of the phenomenally bestselling Discworld series, everything runs on magic and common sense. The world is flat and million-to-one chances happen nine times out of ten. Our world seems different - it runs on rules, often rather strange ones. Science is our way of finding...

In an alternate America, JFK survived—and didn’t just win the Space Race. He never stopped. Now it’s 1972, and JFK’s ever-expanding space empire is ripping holes in space-time itself—erasing people, places, and entire histories from existence. The only ones who might be able to stop him? Nancy Kranick (Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne), a former moon nurse lying low in Hoboken, New Jersey… and Richard Nixon, tangled in a conspiracy so bizarre it stretches from the Moon to a Shakey’s Pizza to a parallel-universe Watergate.

One elven village, saved. One...business rival, found? It seems a restaurant named the Bear's Lounge (complete with bear-themed decor) has opened in the capital, muscling in on Yuna's brand! Yuna heads straight to the capital to investigate this copybear—and promptly gets pulled into a school festival with Fina, Shuri, and Noa. Can the Bloody Bear never know a moment's peace?

In this final installment of Apocalypse Regression, Nick refuses to let history repeat itself with the destruction of earth. This time, he plans to end the threat once and for all by waging war against millions of dragonkin, thousands of dragons, and the Dragon Emperor, a being capable of destroying worlds. If Nick fails, both Earth and the Black Witch’s world will fall, consumed by the same dragon led annihilation. Nick’s final strategy hinges on acquiring artifacts that will eliminate the dragon’s innate advantages.

The Starship Atlantis takes you on an unforgettable journey through the extraordinary. From alien civilizations and rogue AI to desperate missions on the brink of collapse, these stories will transport you across the stars into the heart of the unknown. This anthology features six never-before-published novellas and short stories, plus two exclusive bonus tales.

The gods don't play dice with the universe; they play Board & Conquest. Wepwawet, young god of wolves and scouts, is given a task to prove himself worthy of becoming a major god: form a new pantheon with other junior deities, manage a young civilization on a newborn world, and train mortal Champions to resist an inevitable Titan Incursion. Being saddled with an ice-covered barbarian village besieged from all sides isn’t ideal, but it's now his duty to transform this ragtag bunch of misfits into the most formidable force the world of Elphion has ever seen.

Joe has done the impossible: designing a ritual that uses all five of his core class skills, etching the final design into his body, mana, and soul. Now he only needs one last push to make the synthetic enhancement permanent. But replacing his shattered channels came at a price. First, a tribulation that pits his hunger for power against the stability he created—failure means the next attempt will be a hundred times harder.

College student Melody Gage is craving a night of no-strings fun when she meets charming out-of-towner Jeremy, and that's exactly what she gets. Until three years later, when Melody relocates to Los Angeles and finds herself thrust back into Jeremy's orbit. Not only does her hunky one-night stand work at the same aerospace company where she's just started her dream job, he's the CEO's son. Jeremy's got a girlfriend and a reputation as a bad boy, so Melody resolves to keep her distance. Despite her good intentions, a series of awkward circumstances throw her together with the heavenly-smelling paragon of hotness.

People are growing ill; eyes changing color, burning up with a fever so fierce that it causes them to go crazy, attacking those around them, spreading the infection like wildfire. People are trying to escape the unknown sickness, but there is nowhere to run… nowhere to hide… The only chance for the survival of the human race is to stay and fight. However, they're unaware of what they're fighting. What they're up against is much greater than anything they could ever imagine. This is just the beginning... Could this be the end of humanity?

Forty years ago, Walt Kelly's comic strip character Pogo famously intoned: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Now, as the evidence for climate change becomes overwhelming, we learn the hard reality behind that witticism. The possible destruction, and certain transformation, of the ecosphere has been brought about by our own activities. What will our new world look like? How will we - can we - adapt? The clash of a rapidly changing environment with earth's self-styled ruling species, humans, provides ample creative fodder for this riveting anthology of original science fiction.

When an EMP wipes out power, Renee must protect her daughter and their wildlife preserve from strangers, unrest, and the growing fear that the collapse has begun. Survival means guarding family, land, and trust before the quiet countryside becomes their prison.

Science is always telling stories. Whether in the creation myths of evolution or the Big Bang, or in the eureka moments of science history, narrative just as much as metaphor is a key tool in the scientist's surprisingly literary toolkit. In this unique anthology, authors have collaborated with leading scientists, to bounce literary, human narratives against purely theoretical ones, alloying together real stories with abstract ones, to produce truly extraordinary results.

Drew Hallas was an ordinary warehouse worker. Then he woke up naked on a ritual altar in another world and accidentally absorbed four centuries of spatial magic that was meant for someone else. Now he can fold space, teleport, and reshape the landscape with a thought — and the power is growing every day.

The relationship between sleep and storytelling is an ancient one. For centuries sleep has provided writers with a magical ingredient, a passage of time during which great changes miraculously occur, an Orpheus-like voyage through the subconscious daubed with the fantastic. But over the last 10 years, our scientific understanding of sleep has been revolutionised. No longer is sleep viewed as a time of simple rest and recuperation. Instead it is proving to be an intensely dynamic period of brain activity.

Brought to you by Penguin. Far away and long ago, when dragons still existed and the only arcade game was ping-pong in black and white, a wizard cautiously entered a smoky tavern in the evil, ancient, foggy city of Morpork... A truly unmissable set of unearthed stories from the pen of Sir Terry...

Like the creation myths they supersede, the revelations of science are seared into our collective imagination through storytelling. From Archimedes' bath to Newton's apple, vivid accounts of scientific discovery help us understand the principles behind each theory, and add to the larger narrative of how the universe works, and how we came to be here. This anthology draws out and distils science's love of narrative from a wide range of scientific disciplines, weaving theory into very human stories.

Hadrian Marlowe, privileged first son of a Duke, was destined for greatness, and he has become a legend. The Sun-Slayer. The Breaker of Sieges. The Crusher of Civilisations. His is a story which defined the course of worlds. This novel is not that story - not the only laid out in the history books, charting the 300 years of his life. Rather this is Hadrian's story, told in his own worlds.