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.

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...

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.

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.

Heather Cross runs a historical living-history village on fifty-three fenced acres. When the grid dies and the cars stop, refugees fill the road outside her single gate. One man already inside isn't who he claims to be. Protection only works when someone is willing to do what it costs.

The Hierophant is dead. The forest Megadungeon is open. The Littans want their city back. While Arlo contends with the many new demands his fresh crown has earned him, the wider world is on edge in the wake of yet another disaster. The powers that be have their collective eye on Fortune’s Folly. Two-faced allies, sewer-dwelling spies, and overconfident assassins are just a few of the consequences of such notoriety.

They came hoping to find a new home after their own planet was destroyed, but Earth was dying, as well, and most humans saw their arrival as an invasion. Now, two decades later, the Veilorians have been banished to the District, a fenced-in area on the outskirts of the last known livable land on Earth. Most people do their best to pretend they don’t exist, but not everyone.

The gods have been banished from Asgard! Odin, paranoid in a fit of paranoia over the prophecy of his death, has stranded them on earth until the time of Ragnarok, the apocalyptic war that permanently ends their lives the life of the gods. These the Asgardian outcasts, now living among humans, are now hiding in plain sight among humans on earth.

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.

SOPHIE RAMOS has always had visions—perceptions of beings others don’t see. Even her mother doubted her as a child. Psychiatrists doubted her too. Psychics tried to recruit her to enrich and empower themselves. Now she’s thirty-two, living on her own, and sharing her secret only with her mother and a few friends. A threatening specter begins to visit her at night, and more than her sleep is at stake. She follows a friend’s recommendation to visit Detta Washington, a church lady who believes that Sophie does see angels and demons.

A lawless frontier. A corrupt Senate. Two Rangers stand between peace and a corporate takeover. In the far reaches of the Steele Empire, corporations are buying influence, hiring private armies, and rewriting the law to suit their interests. When Frontier Ranger Wes Antrim investigates what should have been a routine land dispute on a remote cattle world, he uncovers evidence of something far bigger: a coordinated corporate power grab backed by mercenaries and political protection.

Flush with his winnings in both money and power, Akio and his comrades find dire events waiting for them at home. A rival has taken advantage of their absence to launch a series of brutal attacks, and his domain is crumbling. Akio must also face the consequences of his hasty actions, his sudden engagement not least among them, and Shaeula's bitter past rears its head in deadly fashion, only adding to the chaos.

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.

When the power dies, Holly watches the world fall out of the sky. Cars fail, phones go dark, and help never comes. Trapped between a collapsing town and a forgotten homestead, she must choose fast. Survive alone, or die waiting for a system that’s already gone.

2023 Winner of the Gold Nautilus Book Award! Spirituality is the Final Frontier for Science Contrary to popular belief, not all scientists are materialists fervently discounting the spiritual. Science, Being, & Becoming shares interviews with some of the world's foremost scientists who recount...

The Rift Saga reaches its thundering conclusion. Kase, Brell, and Rumcole have survived betrayal, battled across fractured realms, and forged impossible alliances. Now the dark mage Kregryn moves to resurrect an ancient evil and only these three unlikely heroes stand against the coming storm. With time itself unraveling and monsters pouring through unsealed portals, the final confrontation awaits on a cursed island where a black tower pierces the sky. Friendships will be tested. Sacrifices will be demanded. And the fate of every realm hangs upon a single desperate gambit.

Humankind rose from the carcass of a dead world. Lifetimes later, billions of people live in superstructures constructed atop the only habitable lands left, the Hawaiian Islands. Kilohana “Kilo” Ressler lives in Hawai'i City (known to the people as Big City) along with his illegal Digital Psychological Manifestation (DPM), EO, a pseudo-twin only perceptible to the host, designed during the rebuilding years to provide companionship in a world of horrors.

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.

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.

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.