Alec Nevala-Lee

The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller

Inventor of the Future

Fran Wilde

Ellen Kushner

Linda D. Addison

Delilah S. Dawson

Marissa Lingen

Natalia Theodoridou

Senaa Ahmad

Inda Lauryn

The January/February 2019 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Fran Wilde, Natalia Theodoridou, Senaa Ahmad, Delilah S. Dawson, Marissa Lingen, and Inda Lauryn. Reprinted fiction by Ellen Kushner, essays by Linda D. Addison, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Alec Nevala-Lee, and Keidra Chaney, poetry by Cassandra Khaw, Sonya Taaffe, Hal Y. Zhang, and Jennifer Crow, interviews with Natalia Theodoridou and Marissa Lingen by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

January/February 2019

Uncanny Magazine Issue 26

An Economist Best Book of the Year A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Best Book of 2018 “An amazing and engrossing history...Insightful, entertaining, and compulsively readable.” — George R. R. Martin "Enthralling…A clarion call to enlarge American literary history.” — Washington Post “Engrossing, well-researched… This sure-footed history addresses important issues, such as the lack of racial diversity and gender parity for much of the genre’s history.” — Wall Street Journal “A gift to science fiction fans everywhere.” — Sylvia Nasar, New York Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Mind Astounding is the landmark account of the extraordinary partnership between four controversial writers—John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard—who set off a revolution in science fiction and forever changed our world. This remarkable cultural narrative centers on the figure of John W. Campbell, Jr., whom Asimov called “the most powerful force in science fiction ever.” Campbell, who has never been the subject of a biography until now, was both a visionary author—he wrote the story that was later filmed as The Thing—and the editor of the groundbreaking magazine best known as Astounding Science Fiction, in which he discovered countless legendary writers and published classic works ranging from the I, Robot series to Dune. Over a period of more than thirty years, from the rise of the pulps to the debut of Star Trek, he dominated the genre, and his three closest collaborators reached unimaginable heights. Asimov became the most prolific author in American history; Heinlein emerged as the leading science fiction writer of his generation with the novels Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land; and Hubbard achieved lasting fame—and infamy—as the founder of the Church of Scientology. Drawing on unexplored archives, thousands of unpublished letters, and dozens of interviews, Alec Nevala-Lee offers a riveting portrait of this circle of authors, their work, and their tumultuous private lives. With unprecedented scope, drama, and detail, Astounding describes how fan culture was born in the depths of the Great Depression; follows these four friends and rivals through World War II and the dawn of the atomic era; and honors such exceptional women as Doña Campbell and Leslyn Heinlein, whose pivotal roles in the history of the genre have gone largely unacknowledged. For the first time, it reveals the startling extent of Campbell’s influence on the ideas that evolved into Scientology, which prompted Asimov to observe: “I knew Campbell and I knew Hubbard, and no movement can have two Messiahs.” It looks unsparingly at the tragic final act that estranged the others from Campbell, bringing the golden age of science fiction to a close, and it illuminates how their complicated legacy continues to shape the imaginations of millions and our vision of the future itself.

John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction

Astounding

From Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe’s geometry. His views on sustainability, as embodied in the image of Spaceship Earth, convinced him that it was possible to provide for all humanity through the efficient use of planetary resources. From Epcot Center to the molecule named in his honor as the buckyball, Fuller’s legacy endures to this day, and his belief in the transformative potential of technology profoundly influenced the founders of Silicon Valley. Inventor of the Future is the first authoritative biography to cover all aspects of Fuller’s career. Drawing on meticulous research, dozens of interviews, and thousands of unpublished documents, Nevala-Lee has produced a riveting portrait that transcends the myth of Fuller as an otherworldly generalist. It reconstructs the true origins of his most famous inventions, including the Dymaxion Car, the Wichita House, and the dome itself; his fraught relationships with his students and collaborators; his interactions with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, Clare Boothe Luce, John Cage, Steve Jobs, and many others; and his tumultuous private life, in which his determination to succeed on his own terms came at an immense personal cost. In an era of accelerating change, Fuller’s example remains enormously relevant, and his lessons for designers, activists, and innovators are as powerful and essential as ever.

Maddy Blume goes undercover as an art consultant for an oil billionaire suspected of channeling profits to military intelligence and soon gets caught up with the Russian secret police and a former assassin known as "the Scythian."

Eternal Empire

A controversial masterpiece resurfaces in Budapest. A ballerina's headless corpse is found beneath the boardwalk at Brighton Beach. And New York's Russian mob is about to collide with the equally ruthless art world... Maddy Blume, an ambitious young art buyer for a Manhattan hedge fund, is desperate to track down a priceless painting by Marcel Duchamp, the most influential artist of the twentieth century. The discovery of a woman’s decapitated body thrusts criminal investigator Alan Powell into a search for the same painting, with its enigmatic image of a headless nude. And a Russian thief and assassin known as the Scythian must steal the painting to save his reputation – and his life. The murderous race is on. And in the lead is an insidious secret society intent on reclaiming the painting for reasons of its own – and by any means necessary….

The Icon Thief

Nessuno conosce il suo segreto Quale segreto sconvolgente può nascondersi dietro un celebre dipinto? Chi sono i Rosacroce? Lo Studio per gli Étant Donnés di Marcel Duchamp, l’ultimo capolavoro del celebre e ambiguo artista francese, è appena stato acquistato all’asta a un prezzo esorbitante, quando durante una lussuosa festa nella villa londinese del nuovo proprietario, un oligarca russo, scompare improvvisamente. Maddy Blume, giovane e ambiziosa collezionista d’arte, viene ingiustamente accusata del furto e decide di mettersi alla ricerca del dipinto. Nel frattempo, l’orrendo ritrovamento del cadavere decapitato di una donna spinge l’agente Alan Powell sulle tracce dello stesso quadro, che rappresenta una donna nuda senza testa. Ben presto gli indizi porteranno alla temibile mafia russa, ma anche a un’antica e misteriosa società segreta, i Rosacroce... Occultismo, scacchi, arte, servizi segreti russi: quali misteri nasconde l’ultima inquietante opera dell’artista francese? Un dipinto scomparso in circostanze oscure Una giovane donna sulle tracce di un antico mistero Una leggendaria società segreta: i Rosacroce New York Times bestseller «Uno straordinario thriller d’esordio, avvincente come Il Codice da Vinci.» Publishers Weekly «Non è possibile che Alec Nevala-Lee sia un esordiente; deve essere stato uno scrittore di thriller in una vita passata. Questo libro ha tutti gli ingredienti giusti: ottima scrittura, personaggi affascinanti, una storia avvincente e un mistero da svelare.» Paul Christopher, autore di La spada dei templari Alec Nevala-Lee È nato nel 1980 a Castro Valley, California. Dopo la laurea a Harvard in lettere classiche, ha lavorato per diversi anni a New York in una società d’investimento globale. Attualmente vive con la moglie a Oak Park, Illinois.

Il ladro di reliquie

In the lightning-paced sequel to The Icon Thief, Europe’s turbulent past and terrifying future are set to collide in the streets and prisons of London—and beyond. Rachel Wolfe, a gifted FBI agent assigned to a major investigation overseas, discovers that a notorious gun runner has been murdered at his home in London, his body set on fire. When a second victim is found under identical circumstances, the ensuing chase plunges Wolfe and her colleagues into a breathless race across Europe, a secret war between two ruthless intelligence factions, and a hunt for a remorseless killer with a deadly appointment in Helsinki. At the heart of the mystery lies one of the strangest unsolved incidents in the history of Russia—the unexplained death of nine mountaineers in the Dyatlov Pass five decades before. And at the center of it all stands a figure from Wolfe’s own past, the Russian thief and former assassin known in another life as the Scythian…

Alec Nevala-Lee

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