Orbitsville Departure Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Orbitsville Departure book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
Two hundred years ago mankind found Orbitsville, a vast sphere whose habitable inner surface comprised living space equivalent to five billion Earths. The resulting migration was enthusiastic - and nearly total. Earth itself is a backwater now, a place with which the people of Orbitsville maintain only marginal contact. But just because it's backward doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.
Racing from the certain vengeance of Earth's tyrant ruler, space captain Vance Garamond flees the Solar System. And discovers the almost unimaginably vast spherical structure soon to become famous as 'Orbitsville' - a new home for Earth's huddled masses. Behind Garamond comes Earth's space fleet... Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel, 1975
Orbitsville is the scene of two of Bob Shaw's most successful novels and is possibly the most gigantic artefact ever dreamed up by an SF writer - a vast hollow world completely enclosing its sun, habitable across its entire inner surface. At the end of ORBITSVILLE DEPARTURE the whole world was shifted to an alternative universe. In a conclusion which is both stunning and moving, ORBITSVILLE JUDGEMENT tells what happens next...
A series of provocative essays on how the fantastic genres evolve and grow In this wide-ranging series of essays, an award-winning science fiction critic explores how the related genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror evolve, merge, and finally "evaporate" into new and more dynamic forms. Beginning with a discussion of how literary readers "unlearned" how to read the fantastic during the heyday of realistic fiction, Gary K. Wolfe goes on to show how the fantastic reasserted itself in popular genre literature, and how these genres themselves grew increasingly unstable in terms of both narrative form and the worlds they portray. More detailed discussions of how specific contemporary writers have promoted this evolution are followed by a final essay examining how the competing discourses have led toward an emerging synthesis of critical approaches and vocabularies. The essays cover a vast range of authors and texts, and include substantial discussions of very current fiction published within the last few years.
From the vaults of The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal introduction to the work of the award-winning Bob Shaw. Best known for his extraordinary novel of 'slow glass', Other Days, Other Eyes, Bob Shaw was a fan favourite at conventions for his hysterical 'serious scientific talks'. This omnibus contains three of his finest works: Orbitsville, A Wreath of Stars and The Ragged Astronauts. Orbitsville: Racing from the certain vengeance of Earth's tyrant ruler, space captain Vance Garamond flees the Solar System. And discovers the almost unimaginably vast spherical structure soon to become famous as 'Orbitsville' - a new home for Earth's huddled masses. A Wreath of Stars: Thornton's Planet is an anti-neutrino planet detected on its approach to Earth. It can be seen only through the newly developed magniluct lenses and its arrival causes a wave of panic. When its course carries it past the earth, interest in Thornton's Planet wanes. But the visit of Thornton's Planet has had effects on Earth further-ranging than anyone could have imagined. The Ragged Astronauts: Land and Overland - twin worlds a few thousand miles apart. On Land, humanity faces a threat to its very survival - an airborne species, the ptertha, has declared war on humankind, and is actively hunting for victims. The only hope lies in migration. Through space to Overland. By balloon.
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by George Mann Pdf
This encyclopedia is the most up-to-date, concise, clear and affordable guide to all aspects of science fiction, from its background to generic themes and devices, from authors (established and new) to films. Science fiction has evolved into one of the most popular, cutting-edge and exciting fiction geners, with a proliferation of modern and classic authors, themes and ideas, movies, TV series and awards. Arranged in an A-Z format, and featuring a comprehensive index and cross-referencing system, The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is also the most accessible and easy to use encyclopedia of its kind currently available.
The chronicle of adventures of the survey ship Sarafand as it journeys through space exploring and mapping newly-discovered planets. The mission brings them into contact with man startling life-forms and menacing aliens. On one world the Sarafand sends out six survey modules and seven return: one of them is a shape-changing malevolent alien - but which? On another planet they discover a humanoid civilisation which can move around in time. Suddenly the Sarafand investigators are marooned millions of years in the past. Finally the Sarafand and its crew are stranded in a distant galaxy where everything - including them - is shrinking inexorably to zero size...
Shot at by aliens, eaten up by monsters, frozen up, burned up and shipped all over the galaxy¿ war was one game Private Peace didn't want to play. So why had he joined the Space Legion? Warren Peace had joined the Space Legion to forget - exactly what, he hadn't the faintest idea. But he was sure about one thing - however horrific the crime he'd once committed, the memory of it could hardly be more unbearable than life in the lunatic Space Legion. Private Peace knew he'd got to get out¿ The trouble was, the only way to escape his 30-year contract was to discover exactly why he'd signed it in the first place. And that meant a hair raising journey into his forgotten past to meet the one person Peace definitely didn't want to know - Warren Peace Mark I - in other words, himself!
Thornton's Planet is an anti-neutrino planet detected on its approach to Earth. It can be seen only through the newly developed magniluct lenses and its arrival causes a wave of panic. When its course carries it past the earth, interest in Thornton's Planet wanes. Then comes news from the African state of Barandi. Miners wearing magniluct lenses have seen ghosts in the mine passages. The visit of Thornton's Planet has had effects on Earth further-ranging than anyone could have imagined¿
'The entire head had been stripped of skin, creating a nightmarish sculpture in gelled blood...' The hideous apparition that confronted John Redpath almost defied description. It was the beginning of a horrific ordeal that would cause him to question his own sanity... A member of a telepathic research project, Redpath believes the cause to be side-effects from the experimental drugs he is taking - but then stranger things begin to happen. He wakes up to find himself in America...he is drawn to a local house occupied by a bizarre group of people leading an artificial and peculiar life...which events are really happening? Slowly an explanation emerges, more terrifying than anything he could have imagined...
This is the gripping story of the collision between two vastly different human civilisations. One is Earth in the early 21st century, rushing toward self-inflicted nuclear doom. The other is the distant world of Mollan, whose inhabitants have achieved great longevity and the power to transport themselves instantly from star to star. Bob Shaw's novel unfolds a tale which spans thousands of years and the reaches of interstellar space. On Earth's side, there is Denny Hargate, whose indomitable courage drives him to alter the course of history. On their side is the Gretana ty Iltha, working on Earth as a secret observer, who dreams of returning to the delights of her world's high society, but who gets caught up in a cosmic train of events leading to an explosive climax.
The opening of The Fugitive Worlds finds Toller Maraquine II - grandson of the hero of The Ragged Astronauts and The Wooden Spaceships - bemoaning the fact that life on the twin planets of Land and Overland has become dull and uneventful compared to the stirring times in which his illustrious forebear lived. Then, while on a balloon flight between the worlds, he makes an astonishing discovery - a rapidly growing crystal disc, many miles across, is creating a barrier between Land and Overland. Precipitated for personal reasons into investigating the enigmatic disc, Toller - armed with only his sword and boundless courage - becomes a pivotal figure in events which will decide the future of entire planets and their civilizations.
The Price of Eternal Life In the 22nd Century, no one had to die of old age: an immortality drug was available to all. Its only drawback was the side-effect that ended a man's sex drive, so most men waited till their youth was fading before they took the final step and became "cools." But Will Carewe became the first man to test a new variety of the drug, one without any side effects at all. The limitless future, a million tomorrows, stretched before him with golden hope - until a series of "accidents" made him realise that someone was trying to murder him. As an immortal Carewe had an infinitely greater stake in remaining alive. So he began the battle to find out who was after him, and why...
Warren Peace joined the Space Legion to forget - and forget what it was he wanted to forget. In his quest to find out who he'd been he got turned into an Oscar by a symbiotic alien parasite. Oscars are invulnerable superbeings, immune to everything and with no need for air, food or drink, let alone sex and drugs and rock'n'roll. Marooned on an airless planet with a whole bunch of them, Warren is bored witless. Then a chance encounter with a lump of pryktonite turns him back into a human, and Warren embarks on a new career- as a galactic troubleshooter. His first mission takes him (with a couple of Oscars providing the muscle) to a water-covered planet where a company producing a mind-blowing drug is having trouble with its alien work force. It seems they're smuggling alien porn mags on to the planet, and are too...tired to work. Warren sets out to find the solution... Warren Peace is the second bizarre episode in the series that began with Who Goes Here? By the acclaimed author of Orbitsville and the Ragged Astronauts trilogy.
