Category: scifi 1950-1970

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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The Family Business

Decades ago, the Visitors descended on Earth. They claimed to bring peace and prosperity. Their real goal was the total subjugation of humankind. But humanity did not give up its only home without a fight. After a devastating war, the Read more

A Hymn Before Battle, Second Edition (Legacy of the Aldenata Book 1)

The First Book in John Ringo's Groundbreaking military sf series. WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . . . With the Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the peaceful and friendly races of the Galactic Federation offer their resources to Read more

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
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Celebrate one of the earliest science fiction novels by rediscovering Jack Finney’s internationally acclaimed Invasion of the Body Snatchers—which Stephen King calls a story “to be read and savored for its own satisfactions,” now repackaged with a foreword by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.

On a quiet fall evening in the peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovers an insidious, horrifying plot. Subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms are taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, friends, family, the woman he loves, and the entire world as he knows it.

First published in 1955, this classic science fiction thriller about the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy has inspired multiple film adaptations and entertained readers for decades. This repackaged edition features a new cover by Hugo award–winning illustrator, John Picacio and a foreword by New York Times bestselling author, Dean Koontz.

 

Colossus

Colossus
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Charles Forbin has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to the construction of his own supercomputer, Colossus, rejecting romantic and social endeavours in order to create the United States’ very first Artificially Intelligent defence system.
Colossus is a supercomputer capable of taking in and analysing data rapidly, allowing it to make real-time decisions about the nation’s defence.
But Colossus soon exceeds even Forbin’s calculated expectations, learning to think independently of the Colossus Programming Office, processing data over 100 times faster than Forbin and his team had originally anticipated.
The President hands off full control of the nation’s missiles and other defence protocols to Colossus and makes the announcement to the world that he has ensured peace.
However, the USSR quickly announces that it too has a supercomputer, Guardian, with capabilities similar to that of Colossus.
Forbin is concerned when Colossus asks – asks – to communicate with Guardian.
The computer he built shouldn’t be able to ask at al

New Celebrations: The Adventures of Anthony Villiers

New Celebrations: The Adventures of Anthony Villiers
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All three Anthony Villiers novels in one collection by Hugo and Nebula winning author, Alexei Panshin.

Includes:

Starwell
The Thurb Revolution
Masque World

“[Star Well] is a gallery of gamblers, duels and double-crosses, a minuet of manners and manners mangled; the machinery of the universe is speculated upon; inspector generals arrive to inspect it. And Anthony Villiers, gentleman par excellence, dashes through it all, buckling a swash or two, bungling a couple of others.”—Samuel R. Delany

A series of books with timeless humor where satire and adventure mix to provide great, thoughtful entertainment.

The Best of L. Sprague de Camp science fiction

The Best of L. Sprague de Camp science fiction
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Introduction by Poul Anderson

A science fiction collection by one of the all-time greats of science fiction, L. Sprague de Camp. These stories and poems exemplify de Camp’s unique outlook on life and mankind and are told with a quiet but sharp irony that became his trademark. Bold, inventive and humorous, this collection is a must for fans of the writer.

“De Camp’s clever fusion of the droll and the sober is evident throughout.”—Booklist

The Solarians

The Solarians
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Earth was programmed for destruction in the mad war of the computer worlds – unless the Solarians could stop the machines!

Three hundred years ago the Solarians retreated to the safety of their Fortress as Earth became embroiled in the first of the computer wars with the dread Duglaari Empire.

The Solarians’ final word to all humanity was a promise to reappear one day and bring it to victory. Suddenly, with Earth on the verge of becoming a helpless victim of the merciless Duglaars, the Solarians made contact with Fleet Commander Jay Palmer. It was an offer of aid.

But the Solarians’ plan was so cunning, so fraught with danger, that Jay faced the greatest decision of his life – and that of Earth’s:

Accept their ingenious strategy as a stroke of genius or reject it as a trick designed to destroy human life forever.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and other Harlan Ellison stories

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and other Harlan Ellison stories
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A collection of award-winning short stories by Harlan Ellison, an eight-time Hugo Award-winner, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and four-time Nebula Award winner.

Harlan Ellison’s work shaped the science-fiction, fantasy, and horror genres in the 20th century, and this collection of his best-known and most-acclaimed stories is a perfect treasury for old Ellison fans as well as readers discovering this zany, polyphonic writer for the first time.

Featuring these stories and many more:

  • “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” – Hugo Award winner
  • “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” – Bram Stoker Award winner
  • “Mefisto in Onyx” – Bram Stoker Award winner
  • “Jeffty Is Five” – British Fantasy Award winner
  • “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” – Edgar Allan Poe Award winner

Berserker (Saberhagen’s Berserker Series)

Berserker (Saberhagen's Berserker Series)
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Long ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, two alien races met—and fought a war of mutual extinction. The sole legacy of that war was the weapon that ended it: the death machines, the BERSERKERS. Guided by self-aware computers more intelligent than any human, these world-sized battle craft carved a swath of death through the galaxy—until they arrived at the outskirts of the fledgling Empire of Man.
These are the stories of the frail creatures who must meet this monstrous and implacable enemy—and who, by fighting it to a standstill, become the saviors of all living things.
This is Saberhagen’s classic book length collection of the first eleven Berserker stories. Meet Berserker hunter extraordinaire Johann Karlsen, his evil brother Felipe Nogara, The Third Historian of the Carmpan Race, gallant fighters of the killer machines and the deranged killer machine, Mr. Jester.

Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison (classic)

Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison (classic)
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Published in 1967 and contain 33 stories, it helped define the New Wave movement in science fiction

Among the contributor are : Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl,Fritz Leiber,Philip K. Dick,Roger Zelazny…
20 authors who had won, or would win, a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, or BSFA award

Dubbed “the most significant and controversial SF book” of its generation, Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking collection launched an entire sub-genre: New Wave science fiction. With contributions from legendary authors and multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Dangerous Visions returns to print in a stunning new edition perfect for new and returning fans alike.

A landmark short story collection that put the more character-based New Wave science fiction on the map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards. Contributing authors include: Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Brian W. Aldiss, Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, Theodore Sturgeon, J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, and Ellison himself.

As relevant now as it was when first published, Dangerous Visions is a phenomenal collection that deserves a place on every bookshelf.

The full list of additional narrators includes:

Tatja Grimm’s World

Tatja Grimm's World
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Multiple Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge’s first full-length novel

As a mud-spattered youngster, Tatja quickly realized she was different from the stone-age primitives with whom she grew up. Her insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge could not be quenched among them; she had to explore and learn more about the strange world she lived on.

She finds the bastion of all culture, arts, entertainment and history for the entire planet, the seven-hundred-year-old science fiction magazine Fantasie, which is produced entirely aboard a gargantuan floating vessel the size of a small city. But despite the printing presses, sail-powered vessels, and mind-expanding technology, Tatja is still dissatisfied. Rising through the ranks, she finds that the people on the enormous barge are just as unintelligent as the primitives she grew up with. But others have come to the planet who not only challenge her intelligence, but offer her a tantalizing opportunity to uncover answers to mysteries that have long plagued her.

But with opportunity comes risk. And if she acts unwisely, she could bring doom to the only world she knows.