James Gunn

Joining a group of pilgrims on a ship traveling throughout the galaxy in the style of The Canterbury Tales, Riley, an interstellar war veteran assigned to kill their prophet, encounters other passengers who gradually reveal their own identities and non-spiritual agendas. By the Hugo Award-winning author of The Joy Makers.

Transcendental

Von Poe bis Wells (Wege zur Science Fiction, #2)

A novel centered around the narrator's growing addiction to the memoribilia of his childhood chronicles his descent into drugs, sex, and alcohol.

The Toy Collector

In this wickedly funny novel, a young orderly at a Times Square hospital sells stolen pharmaceuticals to finance his growing addiction to memorabilia. As the story switches from the make-believe world he created with his childhood friends to the grownup pleasures of sex, drugs and alcohol, he falls in and out of love, and stumbles through New York City in search of dubious redemption.

The Magicians

Gregory Benford

Hugh Howey

David Brin

Zoltan Istvan

Ramez Naam

Ray Kurzweil

Douglas Rushkoff

Martin Rees

Kevin Anderson

Joe Haldeman

Ben Bova

Catherine Asaro

Alan Dean Foster

Douglas Richards

Allen Steele

Brenda Cooper

Jasper Scott

Robert Sawyer

J. Batt

Visions of the Future is a collection of stories and essays including Nebula and Hugo award-winning works. In this anthology, you'll find stories and essays about artificial intelligence, androids, faster-than-light travel, and the extension of human life. You'll read about the future of human institutions and culture. But these literary works are more than just a reprisal of the classical elements of science fiction and futurism. At their core, each of these pieces has one consistent, repeated theme: us.

Visions of the Future

James Gunn’s masterpiece about a human fountain of youth collects the author’s classic short stories that ran in elite science-fiction magazines throughout the 1950s. What is the price for immortality? For nomad Marshall Cartwright, the price is knowing that he will never grow old. That he will never contract a disease, an infection, or even a cold. That because he will never die, he must surrender the right to live. For Dr. Russell Pearce, the price is eternal suspicion. He appreciates what synthesizing the elixir vitae from the Immortal’s genetic makeup could mean for humankind. He also fears what will happen should Cartwright’s miraculous blood fall into the wrong hands. For the wealthy and powerful, no price is too great. Immortality is now a fact rather than a dream. But the only way to achieve it is to own it exclusively. And that means hunting down and caging the elusive Cartwright, or one of his offspring.

The Immortals

Alternate Worlds was first published in 1975 and became an instant classic, winning a Hugo award. This third edition brings the history of science fiction up to date, covering developments over the past forty years--a period that has seen the advent of technologies only imagined in the genre's Golden Age. As a literature of change, science fiction has become ever more meaningful, presaging dangers to humanity and, as Alvin Toffler wrote, guarding against "the premature arrival of the future." The world has begun to recognize science fiction in many different ways, incorporating its elements in products, visual media and huge conventions.

Alternate Worlds

Michael R. Page

James Gunn—one of the founding figures of science fiction scholarship and teaching—wrote in 1951 what is likely the first master’s thesis on modern science fiction. Portions were in the short-lived pulp magazine Dynamic but it has otherwise remained unavailable. Here in its first full publication, the thesis explores many of the classic Golden Age stories of the 1940s and the critical perspective that informed Gunn’s essential genre history Alternate Worlds and his anthology series The Road to Science Fiction. The editor’s introduction and commentary show the historical significance of Gunn’s work and its relevance to today’s science fiction studies.

The Seminal 1951 Thesis with a New Introduction and Commentary

Modern Science Fiction: A Critical Analysis

Star Trek - The Original Series 6: Die Glücksmaschine

Die Sucht nach dem perfekten Glück ... Timshel war einst das beliebteste Urlaubsziel der Galaxis: voller Kultur, natürlicher Schönheit und liebenswürdiger gastfreundlicher Einwohner. Nun aber hat sich Timshel vom Rest des Universums abgeschottet: Niemand darf mehr hinein oder hinaus. In tiefer Sorge hat die Föderation Agenten entsandt, um Nachforschungen anzustellen. Keiner von ihnen ist bislang zurückgekehrt. Captain Kirk und die Mannschaft der Enterprise sind schockiert, als sie die Wahrheit herausfinden: Die Leute von Timshel sind einer heimtückischen neuen Technologie erlegen, die jedem Bürger totales Vergnügen und dauerhafte Extase garantiert. Kirk und Spock sind schon vielen Bedrohungen begegnet, doch nun werden sie mit der verführerischsten Gefahr von allen konfrontiert: dem perfekten Glück. Und der Rest der Föderation könnte bald der unwiderstehlichen Kontrolle der Glücksmaschine verfallen.

James Gunn--one of the founding figures of science fiction scholarship and teaching--wrote in 1951 what is likely the first master's thesis on modern science fiction. Portions were in the short-lived pulp magazine Dynamic but it has otherwise remained unavailable. Here in its first full publication, the thesis explores many of the classic Golden Age stories of the 1940s and the critical perspective that informed Gunn's essential genre history Alternate Worlds and his anthology series The Road to Science Fiction. The editor's introduction and commentary show the historical significance of Gunn's work and its relevance to today's science fiction studies.

The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, 3d ed.

Nicole Perlman

Chris Wyatt

Marvel Staff

Brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits. But when he discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand - with the galaxy's fate in the balance!

Guardians of the Galaxy Junior Novel

Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, is one of many beings from many different worlds aboard a ship on a pilgrimage that spans the galaxy. However, he is not journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help others transcend. While their ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by violence and betrayal, making it clear that some of the ship's passengers are not the spiritual seekers they claim to be. Like the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a number of those on the starship share their unique stories. But as tensions rise, Riley realizes that the ship is less like the Canterbury Tales and more like a harrowing, deadly ship of fools. When he becomes friendly with a mysterious passenger named Asha, he thinks she's someone he can trust. However, like so many others on the ship, Asha is more than she appears. Uncovering her secrets could be the key to Riley's personal quest, or make him question everything he thought he knew about Transcendentalism and his mission to stop it. James Gunn's Transcendental is a space adventure filled with excitement and intrigue that explores the nature of what unifies all beings. A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013 At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The age-old question about alien existence and human contact is explored in a new way in this collection of six novellas, previously anthologized in Analog magazine. When disillusioned aerospace engineer Adrian Mast buys a book at a remainder sale, the last things he expects to find in its appendix are alien spacecraft designs. With the help of the bookstore owner, Adrian tracks down the author--only to find him in a mental institution anguishing over the intentions of the aliens who sent the designs to him. By bluffing a bureaucrat intent on thwarting their progress, the two friends continue their quest for the stars and go ahead with the spacecraft designs. Having successfully launched their ship 15 years later, the questions that remain are: What were the intentions of the aliens? and Is mankind ready to face what's out there?

Gift from the Stars

As baby Ivy is tucked up in bed ready to go to sleep she hears a noise. After looking out of her bedroom window Ivy realises that a fox has got stuck in a box. But how? In order to solve the mystery - baby Ivy... Has to become... A detective!

Detective Ivy and the Fox Stuck in the Box

Timshel was once the vacation spot of the galaxy, full of culture, natural beauty, and friendly, hospitable inhabitants. But now Timshel has cut itself off from the universe. No one is allowed to enter or leave. Concerned, the Federation has sent agents to investigate, but none have returned. Captain Kirk and the crew of the Starship EnterpriseTM are shocked to discover the truth: the people of Timshel have succumbed to an insidious new technology that guarantees every citizen total pleasure, a soul-destroying ecstasy that has enslaved their entire civilization. Kirk and Spock have faced many threats before, but now they face the most seductive menace of all: perfect happiness. And the rest of the Federation may soon fall under the irresistible control of the Joy Machine.

The Joy Machine

James Gunn’s masterpiece about a human fountain of youth collects the author’s classic short stories that ran in elite science-fiction magazines throughout the 1950s. New material accompanies this updated edition, including an introduction from renowned science-fiction writer Greg Bear, a preface from Gunn himself, and “Elixer,” Gunn’s short story that introduced Dr. Pearce to another Immortal. What is the price for immortality? For nomad Marshall Cartwright, the price is knowing that he will never grow old. That he will never contract a disease, an infection, or even a cold. That because he will never die, he must surrender the right to live. For Dr. Russell Pearce, the price is eternal suspicion. He appreciates what synthesizing the elixir vitae from the Immortal’s genetic makeup could mean for humankind. He also fears what will happen should Cartwright’s miraculous blood fall into the wrong hands. For the wealthy and powerful, no price is too great. Immortality is now a fact rather than a dream. But the only way to achieve it is to own it exclusively. And that means hunting down and caging the elusive Cartwright, or one of his offspring.

An engaged woman starts an affair with a possible murderer whose next victim may be her sister.

James Gunn

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