Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent... read more

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and British sitcoms. (hide)

When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing, after it's... read more

When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing, after it's unearthed the artifact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self-aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well. He is capable of guilt, neurosis, even murder, and he controls every single one of Discovery's components. The crew must overthrow this digital psychotic if they hope to make their rendezvous with the entities that are responsible not just for the monolith, but maybe even for human civilization.

Clarke wrote this novel while Stanley Kubrick created the film, the two collaborating on both projects. The novel is much more detailed and intimate, and definitely easier to comprehend. Even though history has disproved its "predictions," it's still loaded with exciting and awe-inspiring science fiction. --Brooks Peck (hide)

Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world... read more

Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet? (hide)

This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire.... read more

This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.

The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.

Dune is one of the most famous science fiction novels ever written, and deservedly so. The setting is elaborate and ornate, the plot labyrinthine, the adventures exciting. Five sequels follow. --Brooks Peck (hide)

The three novelizations of the original Star Wars trilogy each sold millions of copies. In honor of Star Wars'-or technically Episode IV: A New Hope-silver anniversary, Ballantine has... read more

The three novelizations of the original Star Wars trilogy each sold millions of copies. In honor of Star Wars'-or technically Episode IV: A New Hope-silver anniversary, Ballantine has released this handsome three-in-one hardcover edition sporting a cover by conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie, who greatly influenced the look of the films, e.g., Vader's mask was his idea. Though Star Wars might seem like geek fan boy stuff, creator Lucas (all the novels are based on his initial treatments for the scripts) does use proven literary motifs: a coming-of-age story as well as a search for a father figure, with a talisman (daddy Darth's lightsaber) linking the generations, it is most importantly about redemption. Each of the novels also includes an introduction by Lucas. A quarter-century later, millions of fans worldwide remain ravenous for all things from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away; the new films rake in zillions, and print titles in the "expanded universe" (characters/plots not covered on-screen) are widely read. This volume should do well.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. (hide)

Juan Rico signed up with the Federal Service on a lark, but despite the hardships and rigorous training, he finds himself determined to make it as a cap... read more

Juan Rico signed up with the Federal Service on a lark, but despite the hardships and rigorous training, he finds himself determined to make it as a cap trooper. In boot camp he will learn how to become a soldier, but when he graduates and war comes (as it always does for soldiers), he will learn why he is a soldier. Many consider this Hugo Award winner to be Robert Heinlein's finest work, and with good reason. Forget the battle scenes and high-tech weapons (though this novel has them)--this is Heinlein at the top of his game talking people and politics. (hide)

Uneasy Peace. Worlds In Flux. Tests Of Faith.The Final Episode Was Only The Beginning.The Dominion War is over...or is it? Three months after the Allied victory against the... read more

Uneasy Peace. Worlds In Flux. Tests Of Faith.

The Final Episode Was Only The Beginning.

The Dominion War is over...or is it? Three months after the Allied victory against the invaders from the Gamma Quadrant, a surprise attack awakens the fear of renewed hostilities. At the same time, a senseless murder sets a space station commander on a path that will test the limits of her faith...while a strange discovery within the plasma storms of the Badlands propels an old soldier toward a rendezvous with destiny. Elsewhere, amidst the ruins of an ancient civilization, a young man is about to embark on a dangerous quest to fill the hole in his life -- one left by the loss of his father.

So begins the unprecedented, authorized continuation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine®, springing from the seven-year television odyssey of Captain Benjamin Sisko and his crew aboard a Federation starbase at the edge of the final frontier. Following the serial format and evolving character arcs that were the hallmarks of the TV series, the new Deep Space Nine novels pick up where the show left off, daring to imagine what happened after the final episode.

Now the first five tales of that critically acclaimed storyline are collected in one massive volume. Originally published as the two-part Avatar, Abyss, Demons of Air and Darkness, and the novella "Horn and Ivory," Twist of Faith revisits the aftermath of the Dominion War, the pivotal planet Bajor, its mysterious connection to the timeless Prophets of the wormhole, as well as the familiar faces, new friends, and uncertain allies whose fates intertwine at the crossroads of the galaxy. With an introduction by New York Times bestselling author David R. George III (Mission: Gamma -- Twilight; The Lost Era: Serpents Among the Ruins; the Crucible trilogy), Twist of Faith takes the Deep Space Nine saga to a new level...exploring what was left behind, and what awaits beyond.

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Tom Clancy has said of Robert A. Heinlein, "We proceed down the path marked by his ideas. He shows us where the future is." Nowhere is this more... read more

Tom Clancy has said of Robert A. Heinlein, "We proceed down the path marked by his ideas. He shows us where the future is." Nowhere is this more true than in Heinlein's gripping tale of revolution on the moon in 2076, where "Loonies" are kept poor and oppressed by an Earth-based Authority that turns huge profits at their expense. A small band of dissidents, including a one-armed computer jock, a radical young woman, a past-his-prime academic and a nearly omnipotent computer named Mike, ignite the fires of revolution despite the near certainty of failure and death. (hide)

Foundation marks the first of a series of tales set so far in the future that Earth is all but forgotten by humans who live throughout the galaxy.... read more

Foundation marks the first of a series of tales set so far in the future that Earth is all but forgotten by humans who live throughout the galaxy. Yet all is not well with the Galactic Empire. Its vast size is crippling to it. In particular, the administrative planet, honeycombed and tunneled with offices and staff, is vulnerable to attack or breakdown. The only person willing to confront this imminent catastrophe is Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian and mathematician. Seldon can scientifically predict the future, and it doesn't look pretty: a new Dark Age is scheduled to send humanity into barbarism in 500 years. He concocts a scheme to save the knowledge of the race in an Encyclopedia Galactica. But this project will take generations to complete, and who will take up the torch after him? The first Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) won a Hugo Award in 1965 for "Best All-Time Series." It's science fiction on the grand scale; one of the classics of the field. --Brooks Peck (hide)

Red Mars opens with a tragic murder, an event that becomes the focal point for the surviving characters and the turning point in a long intrigue that pits... read more

Red Mars opens with a tragic murder, an event that becomes the focal point for the surviving characters and the turning point in a long intrigue that pits idealistic Mars colonists against a desperately overpopulated Earth, radical political groups of all stripes against each other, and the interests of transnational corporations against the dreams of the pioneers.

This is a vast book: a chronicle of the exploration of Mars with some of the most engaging, vivid, and human characters in recent science fiction. Robinson fantasizes brilliantly about the science of terraforming a hostile world, analyzes the socio-economic forces that propel and attempt to control real interplanetary colonization, and imagines the diverse reactions that humanity would have to the dead, red planet.

Red Mars is so magnificent a story, you will want to move on to Blue Mars and Green Mars. But this first, most beautiful book is definitely the best of the three. Readers new to Robinson may want to follow up with some other books that take place in the colonized solar system of the future: either his earlier (less polished but more carefree) The Memory of Whiteness and Icehenge, or 1998's Antarctica. --L. Blunt Jackson (hide)

From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the... read more

From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they've displaced.

Bradbury's quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In "The Silent Towns," the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of "the other," yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art. --Blaise Selby (hide)

This is the first of Lewis's Space Trilogy. The others are PERELANDRA and THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH. Geoffrey Howard, who also reads Lewis's better known work, MERE CHRISTIANITY, offers... read more

This is the first of Lewis's Space Trilogy. The others are PERELANDRA and THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH. Geoffrey Howard, who also reads Lewis's better known work, MERE CHRISTIANITY, offers an Oxbridge accent, which would have been the accent of Lewis, a professor at both of those universities. Howard's tenor voice never stumbles with Lewis's formal syntax or the invented alien language of the inhabitants of Malacandra (Mars). The story, which is influenced by the fiction of H.G. Wells, has deeper meaning but is also compelling on its own. M.L.C. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine (hide)

In this collection, one of the great classics of science fiction, Asimov set out the principles of robot behavior that we know as the Three Laws of Robotics.... read more

In this collection, one of the great classics of science fiction, Asimov set out the principles of robot behavior that we know as the Three Laws of Robotics. Here are stories of robots gone mad, mind-reading robots, robots with a sense of humor, robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world, all told with Asimov's trademark dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction. (hide)

Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned... read more

Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.

The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60's to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck (hide)

Bill Mumy's compelling writing dares to add new glory to the legend & luster of the classic Lost In Space! --Stan Lee, Marvel Entertainment, December 15, 2005

Bill Mumy's compelling writing dares to add new glory to the legend & luster of the classic Lost In Space! --Stan Lee, Marvel Entertainment, December 15, 2005 (hide)