Voyager – serie

A gripping sf adventure from the acclaimed author of The Pliocene Exile series.‘I was living in pleasant anonymity under the name of Helmut Icicle, taking smartass sport-divers out on holocam trips around the reefs of Kedge-Lockaby. Fourteen thousand light years away from civilization, K-L’s a freesoil planet way out in the boondocks, and that’s the way I like it: it makes life easier if no-one asks nosy questions.‘So one minute there I was, subbing around Brillig Reef; the next thing I know, some giant sea-toad has eaten my house and I’m caught up in a galactic conspiracy! From gently coaxing an ageing submersible around the shores of K-L to piloting a state-of-the-art Javelin starship may seem like a big jump: but when it looks as if the future course of human civilization is under threat, it’s a hell of a motivator.’Perseus Spur delivers everything readers have come to expect from worldwide bestseller Julian May: galactic scope, high adventure, humour, and complex political intrigue in a finely worked balance.

In the most exciting SF collaboration ever, Arthur C. Clarke and his universally acknowledged heir Stephen Baxter pool talent, fantastic ideas, unprecedented cosmic insights as well as page-turning plotting skills and breathlessly good writing to produce the most awesome novel of the future since 3001.’Space is what keeps everything from being in the same place. Right?’ With these words Hiram Patterson, head of the giant media corporation OurWorld, launches the greatest communications revolution in history. With OurWorld’s development of wormhole technology, any point in space can be connected to any other, faster than the speed of light. Realtime television coverage is here: earthquakes and wars, murders and disasters can be watched, exactly as they occur, anywhere on the planet.Then WormCams are made to work across time as well as space. Humanity encounters itself in the light of other days. We witness the life of Jesus, go to the premiere of Hamlet, solve the enigmas that have baffled generations. Blood spilled centuries ago flows vividly once more – and no personal treachery or shame can be concealed.But when the world and everything in it becomes as transparent as glass and there are no more secrets, people find new ways to gain vengeance and commit crime, and Hiram Patterson finds new ways to keep his Machiavellian schemes secret.

Is there life on Mars? If not, why not? These questions have gripped mankind throughout the twentieth century. In the shadow of the new millennium, The Genesis Question seeks the definitive answers from the scientists participating in the race to discover life on the Red Planet.‘Ever since I was a small child, I’ve believed there was life out there. When I look at the magnitude of the universe, with its billions of stars, I believe that if life developed here on Earth, it must have developed elsewhere. We simply can’t be unique. I really don’t think we’re the most intelligent life forms in the universe, but that’s just my gut feeling’, Dr Claire Parkinson, NASA scientist.Of all the planets, Mars has exerted the most powerful allure over the human intellect and imagination. Generations of astronomers have expected to find clues to the origin and destiny of Earth and its inhabitants concealed amid the red storms sweeping across the surface of Mars. Today, public interest in the Mars mission is sky-high; the exploits of the tiny Mars Rover ‘Sojourner’ in the summer of 1997 excited the greatest curiosity in a space mission in a generation.In The Quest for Mars Laurence Bergreen has unrestricted access to a team of NASA employees – engineers, geologists and other scientists – who are consumed by the search for proof of life on Mars. As one formidable obstacle after another attempts to scupper their quest for a deeper understanding of life on Mars and throughout the Solar System, the narrative takes us step by step through the exhilaration and the despondency of their extraordinary adventure. Nothing is off limits in this unique, behind-the-scenes story of space exploration.