Category: scifi 1970-1990

Split Infinity (Apprentice Adept Book 1)

Related Posts
The Doomfarers of Coramonde (Coramonde duology)

Just yesterday Sergeant Gil McDonald and his APC crew had been fighting their way out of an ambush in a Viet Nam jungle. In the middle of the enchange of fire some kind of magic had transported them to this Read more

The Mask of Circe

A psychiatrist travels to a world of magic and gods in this take on “Jason and the Argonauts” from the Hugo Award–nominated author of Earth’s Last Citadel. Jay Seward remembers a former life in a land of magic, gods, and goddesses—a Read more

Split Infinity (Apprentice Adept Book 1)
Date:
MainCategories: ,
Types: ,
tropes: ,
Lenght:
Seriesizes: ,
Author:
Narrator:

On the technological, decadent world of Proton, someone was trying to destroy Stile, serf and master Gamesman. His only escape lay through a mysterious “curtain” revealed by a loving robot.

Beyond the curtain lay Phaze—a world totally ruled by magic. There, his first encounter was with an amulet that turned into a demon determined to choke him to death. And there, he soon learned, his alternate self had already been murdered by sorcery, and he was due to be the next victim.

“Know thyself!” the infallible Oracle told him. But first he must save himself as he shuttled between worlds.

On Proton, his fate depended on winning the great Games.

On Phaze, he could survive only by mastering magic.

And if he used any magic at all, the werewolf and the unicorn who were his only friends were determined to kill him at once!

Refugee (Bio of a Space Tyrant Book 1)

Refugee (Bio of a Space Tyrant Book 1)
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genres: , ,
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Narrator:

The future tyrant begins his path to power as an asylum seeker on Jupiter in this sci-fi series opener from the New York Times–bestselling author.

Though he was later accused of every crime and sexual perversion in the galaxy, Hope Hubris began as an innocent. Because he defended his older sister against the violent lusts of a wealthy scion, Hope and his peasant family were forced to flee Callisto, one of the moons of Jupiter. Pursued by the bloodthirsty scions across the airless desert, they barely escaped with their lives. The illegal space bubble was overcrowded with refugees, all hoping to reach Jupiter for asylum.

But the space travelers had not reckoned on the terrible threat of high space—the pirates, barbaric men who rape, rob, and murder, with no thought but to satisfy their bestial appetites. It will take all Hope’s ingenuity to survive, but the atrocities he witnesses will never die. There is only one way he can be rid of them . . .

Hour of the Horde

Hour of the Horde
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
Lenght:
Author:

One man stands between Earth and a ravening alien horde. Classic military sf in the mode of Starship Troopers and Ender’s Game from a master of the genre.

The ravenous aliens known as the Horde make their way across the Universe like locusts, stripping bare entire galaxies and leaving death and destruction in their wake. Now, they stand on the edge of the Milky Way.

It seems all is lost, but the denizens of our galaxy are not content to give up without a fight. To that end, a galaxy-wide defense force has been assembled, with each star system contributing their greatest warrior to the battle.

Enter Miles Vander, the best a tiny backwater like Earth has to offer. Vander may be the key to destroying the Horde. But first he’ll have to prove his worthiness to his alien compatriots.

A classic of military sf from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning master of science fiction Gordon R. Dickson.

The Dumarest Saga

The Dumarest Saga
Dates: ,
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Reception:

Written from 1967 to 1986 by E.C. Tubb with a last book  published in 2008 2 year before the death of the author

The Dumarest saga was one of the inspiration for the Traveller (role-playing game)

Each story is a self-contained adventure, but throughout the series, Earl Dumarest, the protagonist, searches for clues to the location of his home world, Earth.

The stories are set in a far future galactic culture that is fragmented and without any central government. Dumarest was born on Earth, but had stowed away on a spaceship when he was a young boy and was caught. Although a stowaway discovered on a spaceship was typically ejected to space, the captain took pity on the boy and allowed him to work and travel on the ship. When the story opens in The Winds of Gath, Dumarest has traveled so long and so far that he does not know how to return to his home planet and no-one has ever heard of it, other than as a myth or legend.

This is the tale of Earl Dumarest. Space-wanderer, gladiator-for-hire, seeker of Man’s forgotten home.

Dumarest’s search begins on the ghost-world of Gath, where he becomes unwilling champion of the Matriarch of Kund, and must undergo a fight-to-the-death at stormtime.

Victory could give Dumarest his first clue to the whereabouts of the planet he fled from as a child – an obscure world scarred by ancient wars, which lies countless light years from the thickly populated centre of the galaxy; a world no-one else in the inhabited universe believed exists.

Earth, the birthplace of Man.

 

Envoy to New Worlds (Retief Book 1)

Envoy to New Worlds (Retief Book 1)
Dates: ,
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
Seriesize:
Author:

The authorized history of the frontier worlds of the 29th century is readily available to anyone who cares to pore through the official files of the Terrestrial Diplomatic Corps.

For serious students of history, however, it would be well to read between the lines of what has been set down for posterity. The records, for example, fail to grasp the full significance of the work done by a career diplomat named Jame Retief, in his efforts to alleviate strife on the emerging planets of our galaxy.

Contained here are several accounts of Retief’s contribution to the peace of the universe—written in the hope that the injustice committed by the history books will thus be rectified.

The Ginger Star Leigh Brackett

The Ginger Star Leigh Brackett
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:

Eric John Stark, Outlaw of Mars, travels beyond the solar system for exciting science fantasy adventures on the planet of Skaith, a lawless sphere at the edge of the known universe.

Raised as a savage on the hostile planet of Mercury and honed into a fearless warrior in the low canals of the Red Planet, Stark is one of science fiction’s greatest adventurers and is Leigh Brackett’s most famous character.

In The Ginger Star, Simon Ashton, Stark’s foster father, has been kidnapped by the Lords Protector, and only Stark can rescue him!

See also the first adventures of Eric John Stark

Crisis of Empire series by David Drake

Crisis of Empire series by David Drake
Dates: ,
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
Lenght:
Seriesize:

A modern take on Golden Age space opera the serie is set in the year 5341

The Emperor is dead, leaving only a child as successor. Will the leaders of the empire rally behind the heir? If not, interstellar civilization will once again dissolve into civil war and slide into another long night of barbarism. Book 1 of the Crisis of Empire series.

book 1

book 2

book 3

book 4

Joe Haldemann – The Forever War

Joe Haldemann - The Forever War
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genres: ,
trope:
Lenght:
Author:
Narrator:
Receptions: ,

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards: A futuristic masterpiece, “perhaps the most important war novel written since Vietnam” (Junot Díaz).

In this novel, a landmark of science fiction that began as an MFA thesis for the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to become an award-winning classic—inspiring a play, a graphic novel, and most recently an in-development film—man has taken to the stars, and soldiers fighting the wars of the future return to Earth forever alienated from their home.

Conscripted into service for the United Nations Exploratory Force, a highly trained unit built for revenge, physics student William Mandella fights for his planet light years away against the alien force known as the Taurans. “Mandella’s attempt to survive and remain human in the face of an absurd, almost endless war is harrowing, hilarious, heartbreaking, and true,” says Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Junot Díaz—and because of the relative passage of time when one travels at incredibly high speed, the Earth Mandella returns to after his two-year experience has progressed decades and is foreign to him in disturbing ways.

Based in part on the author’s experiences in Vietnam, The Forever War is regarded as one of the greatest military science fiction novels ever written, capturing the alienation that servicemen and women experience even now upon returning home from battle. It shines a light not only on the culture of the 1970s in which it was written, but also on our potential future. “To say that The Forever War is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise. It is . . . as fine and woundingly genuine a war story as any I’ve read” (William Gibson).

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Joe Haldeman including rare images from the author’s personal collection

The Mote in God’s Eye

The Mote in God's Eye
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Authors: ,
Narrator:
Receptions: ,

The united ‘Second Empire of Man’ spans vast distances, due to the Alderson Drive which has enabled humans to travel easily between the stars. After an alien probe is discovered, the Navy dispatches two ships to determine whether the aliens pose a threat… Called by Robert A. Heinlein: “Possibly the greatest science fiction novel ever written,” this magnificent exploration of first contact and a truly alien society is a “must read” for science fiction fans.

“As science fiction, one of the most important novels ever published.”
– San Francisco Chronicle

“Possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read.”
– Robert A. Heinlein

“A superlatively fine novel…no writer has ever come up with a more appealing, intriguing, and workable concept of aliens.”
– Columbus Dispatch

“A spellbinder, a swashbuckler…And, best of all, it has a brilliant new approach to that fascinating problem — first contact with aliens.”
– Frank Herbert

“One of the most engrossing tales I’ve read in year…fascinating.”
– Theodore Sturgeon

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Ringworld by Larry Niven
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Narrator:
Receptions: ,

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, RINGWORLD remains a favorite among science fiction readers.

Louis Wu, accompanied by a young woman with genes for luck, and a captured kzin – a warlike species resembling 8-foot-tall cats — are taken on a space ship run by a brilliant 2-headed alien called Nessus. Their destination is the Ringworld, an artificially constructed ring with high walls that hold 3 million times the area of Earth. Its origins are shrouded in mystery.

The adventures of Louis and his companions on the Ringworld are unforgettable . . .

“Larry Niven’s RINGWORLD remains one of the all-time classic travelogues of science fiction — a new and amazing world and fantastic companions.”
– Greg Bear

“If there isn’t a Ringworld out there somewhere, we ought to build one someday. Until then we have Larry Niven’s. A rich and fantastic story.”
– Fred Saberhagen

“Our premier hard SF writer.”
– The Baltimore Sun

“The scope of Larry Niven’s work is so vast that only a writer of supreme talent could disguise the fact as well as he can.”
– Tom Clancy

“Niven is a true master.”
– Frederik Pohl