Best Selling Books by Brian W. Aldiss

A grieving songwriter reflects on his life and contemplates his future in this classic novella of heartbreak and healing from a Grand Master of Science Fiction. It''s been a long time since Hugh Billing visited his home in England. Decades earlier, he made his fortune as a hit songwriter in America, but years of shuffling between cities and countries has changed him. His clothes are American, his speech is American—even his thoughts are American. He doesn''t have much English left inside him and he hasn''t had a hit in years. What he does have, however, is sadness . . . Then his mother''s death returns him to London to embark on a new journey. Forced to examine the state of his life, Hugh begins moving from loneliness and aimlessness to somewhere around survival and hope.

Colonists on Mars fight to prevent their own extinction in "a suspenseful genre-bending combination of straight SF and mystery" ( Booklist, starred review). Doomed by overpopulation, irreversible environmental degradation, and never-ending war, Earth has become a fetid swamp. For many, Mars represents humankind''s last hope. In six tightly clustered towers on the red planet''s surface, the colonists who have escaped their dying home world are attempting to make a new life unencumbered by the corrupting influences of politics, art, and religion. Unable ever to return, these pioneers have chosen an unalterable path that winds through a landscape as terrible as it is beautiful, often forcing them to compromise their beliefs—and sometimes their humanity—in order to survive. But the gravest threat to the future is not the settlement''s total dependence on foodstuffs sent from a distant and increasingly uncaring Earth, or the events that occur in the aftermath of the miraculous discovery of native life on Mars—it is the fact that in the ten years since colonization began, every new human baby has been born dead, or so tragically deformed that death comes within hours. The great Brian W. Aldiss has delivered a dark and provocative yet ultimately hopeful magnum opus rich in imagination and bold ideas. A novel of philosophy as much as science fiction, Finches of Mars is an exploration of intellectual history, evolution, technology, and the future by one of speculative fiction''s undisputed masters.

Twelve exciting science fiction stories by the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of the Helliconia trilogy, Hothouse, and Non-Stop. "Aldiss offers up tales of humanity''s possible futures, in visions ranging from apocalyptic to comic. . . . Quite stunning. . . . Overall, the book demonstrates Aldiss had more range as a storyteller than many of the field''s popular practitioners at the time." — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews There is much to be learned through travel. In New Arrivals, Old Encounters, Science Fiction Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss takes readers on adventures to fantastical new worlds. Here are twelve tales that provide stunning vantage points from which to view the shadowy realms of human nature . . . An idyllic planet is visited by humans who play terrible music in the title story. A time traveler forges a friendship with an ancient Chinese poet in "The Small Stones of Tu Fu." "Amen and Out" tells of a machine-dominated world where everyone prays to talking shrines, and an acid head''s immortal ancestor reveals some troubling truths. A tourist becomes involved with the Tahitian underworld when his family leaves him behind and the bureaucracy won''t allow him to leave in "A Spot of Konfrontation." The crew of Earth''s first interstellar mission returns home after 120 years away to find a world radically different from when they left in "Three Ways." With humor and imagination, Aldiss leads readers from Earth to the stars and back again on a riveting journey that shows what makes mankind tick. "The wit is often brilliant, the sense of humor is usually informed by a zest for living and a nice awareness of the distance between man''s intellectual reach and his emotional grasp." —Robert Nye, The Guardian

A retrospective of classic science fiction tales from the first decade in the long-running career of the Hugo Award–winning author of Non-Stop. "A writer of imagination and power." —Frederick Pohl Science Fiction Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss had a career spanning sixty years. Although he is a well-known author of the 1960s and ''70s British New Wave style of science fiction, Aldiss''s career as a science fiction writer began in the 1950s. The Complete Short Stories: The 1950s offers the full catalog of Aldiss''s stories from his first decade as an author. This volume starts off with his first professional sale, "A Book in Time"—about a bookseller chasing a thief one hundred years into the future—and finishes off with a group of strangers forming a peculiar bond in "Three''s a Cloud." By the end of the decade, Aldiss had established himself as a major new voice in science fiction. Together the fifty-eight stories in this retrospective collection offer a look at the burgeoning writer before he became a literary legend.

Third in the acclaimed Squire Quartet—from the author of "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," the basis for the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers'' minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. Ray and Ruby Tebbutt are a Norfolk couple struggling to pay off a loan they could not afford. Peter Petrik, a small-time Czech film director, is involved with an Irish arms smuggler. Dominic Mayor, a British millionaire with a cold past, made his fortune by manipulating the stock market. All four people''s lives are taken by a terrorist bombing in a small British seaside hotel. In Remembrance Day, an American academic examines the details of the victims'' lives and histories to find the relationship between them and their fate. "In another significant mainstream outing, British science-fiction/fantasy grandmaster Aldiss discovers fresh and arresting nuances in the dichotomy between blind chance and predestination in human affairs...original, disturbing, and memorable." — Kirkus Reviews This ebook includes an introduction by the author.

A disruption of time and space sends a modern man back two hundred years to confront Dr. Frankenstein''s immortal monster in this brilliant reinvention of Mary Shelley''s classic tale Some years into the twenty-first century, a newly devised weapon of mass destruction will do far worse than kill; it will disrupt time and space. Suddenly, land, buildings, animals, and people are falling through "timeslips" and being transported briefly back to earlier eras. One of these inadvertent time travelers, Joe Bodenland, is shocked when he finds himself parked outside a villa on the shore of Lake Geneva—and soon after, unbelievably, in the presence of nineteenth-century literary luminaries Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, along with Shelley''s very enticing fiancée, budding author Mary. But when Joe comes face to face with a real, flesh-and-blood Victor Frankenstein and the monster the mad doctor brought into this world, the visitor from the future realizes that not only has time been disrupted, reality itself has been transmogrified. And this Frankenstein, it seems, is far from finished with his unholy endeavors, leaving it up to Joe to make it right for the sake of history—and for the bewitching lady novelist who has stolen his heart—before he is rudely thrust back to his own time. An absolutely stunning reinvention of a cherished literary classic, Frankenstein Unbound proves once more that there are no limits to the unparalleled creative genius of science fiction Grand Master W. Brian Aldiss, one of the most revered names in the field of speculative fiction.

First in the acclaimed Squire Quartet—from the author of "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," the basis for the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Thomas C. Squire, creator of the hit documentary series Frankenstein Among the Arts, one-time secret agent and founder of the Society for Popular aesthetics, is attending an international media symposium in Sicily. It is here that he becomes involved with lovely, but calculating Selina Ajdina. Alongside the drama of the conference is the story of Squire''s private life—the tale of his infidelity, the horrifying circumstances surrounding his father''s death, and the threatened future of his ancestral home in England. Winner of two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Brian W. Aldiss challenged readers'' minds for over fifty years with literate, thought-provoking, and inventive science fiction. "A complex, thoughtful and beguiling story by one of our best novelists." —William Boyd This ebook includes an introduction by the author.

The entire catalog of the Hugo Award–winning author''s science fiction stories from the 1960s: all four volumes in one book. Featuring "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," the basis of the Steven Spielberg film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. "One of the best SF writers Britain has ever produced." —Iain M. Banks Hailed by the Guardian as "a master of the form," Science Fiction Grand Master Brian W. Aldiss came into his own as an author in the early 1960s. He created enough short fiction over the course of one decade to fill four volumes. This edition of The Complete Short Stories: The 1960s combines all four into one complete collection. The stories herein, gathered from diverse and often rare sources, showcase how Aldiss became one of Great Britain''s most beloved authors, and how his work exemplifies the New Wave style. He was constantly experimenting with form and content and exploring new ideas. In this collection, you will meet astronauts approaching a star-swallowing vortex, a mother and son captured by aliens and taken to a world where time runs backward, a robot who commits suicide, and a unique little boy who is closer to his teddy bear than his own mother. The scope of Aldiss''s imagination and his gifted prose are sure to challenge and delight readers both old and new. This special short story collection is a must-have for Aldiss fans, as well as an exciting introduction to the work of a true master.

Der Planet Helliconia umkreist ein Doppelsternsystem, so langsam, dass die Jahreszeiten Tausende Jahre dauern. Nach einem langen, harten Winter ist die Welt nun wieder erwacht. Die Menschen sind an die Oberfläche zurückgekehrt und entdecken alte Fertigkeiten und Künste wieder, die lange vergessen waren. Mit überlegener Waffengewalt werden die einheimischen Pahgoren zurückgedrängt, die Meere und Kontinente erkundet – und schon bald brechen die erste Kämpfe zwischen den Menschen aus. Der kurze, heiße Sommer auf Helliconia hat begonnen. Er dauert 238 Jahre ...

From a Science Fiction Grand Master: The sweeping epic of a planet veering from one extreme atmosphere to another—and the humans trying to survive on it. Helliconia Spring introduces us to a tumultuous world that follows an eccentric orbit around a double-star system—and the satellite from Earth secretly monitoring it. Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Brian W. Aldiss then explores the social and religious divisions keeping the planet''s population in conflict even as they''re devastated by plague in Helliconia Summer, and concludes the trilogy with Helliconia Winter, which recounts both the threat of a looming, frigid age of decay and the hope of a new future. The Helliconia Trilogy is both a riveting story and a thought-provoking examination of how our destinies are shaped by the environment around us. Aldiss''s study of fields from astronomy to climatology to geobiology endow all three novels with rich details of the planet Helliconia. This riveting, century-spanning saga is a timely exploration of what climate change can mean for our own planet. "Brian Aldiss''s towering imagination places his Helliconia Trilogy far above standard science fiction" ( Daily Mail).

Four loosely linked realistic novels from "one of Britain''s most accomplished and versatile writers" ( The Guardian). A Hugo and Nebula Award–winning science fiction writer, British novelist Brian W. Aldiss also regularly "returned to earth with distinction," penning realistic works, including the Squire Quartet ( The New York Times). Comprised of "loosely interconnected novels following many characters through a twenty-first century landscape of insidious new technology and international political turmoil" ( Booklist), here is the complete series from this "ambitious and gifted writer" ( The Guardian). Life in the West: Thomas C. Squire, creator of the hit documentary series Frankenstein Among the Arts, one-time secret agent, and founder of the Society for Popular Aesthetics, is attending an international media symposium in Sicily. It is here that he becomes involved with the lovely but calculating Selina Ajdina. Alongside the drama of the conference is the story of Squire''s private life—the tale of his infidelity, the horrifying circumstances surrounding his father''s death, and the threatened future of his ancestral home in England. "[A] novel of ideas that is also eminently readable . . . a virtuoso performance." — Publishers Weekly Forgotten Life: Analyst Clement Winters is trying to write a biography of his recently deceased older brother, Joseph. Through the writings Joseph left behind—letters, diaries, notes, and confessions—Clement realizes how vastly his perception of his sibling differs from reality. As Clement tries to make sense of Joseph''s life, he uncovers dark corners of his family history and even his own existence. "A realistic novel . . . imaginative richness . . . [a] many-layered venture into the extraordinariness of ordinary lives." — The New York Times Remembrance Day: When four people are killed by a terrorist bombing in a small British seaside hotel, an American academic examines the details of the victims'' lives and histories to find the relationship between them and their fate. "Aldiss discovers fresh and arresting nuances in the dichotomy between blind chance and predestination in human affairs . . . original, disturbing, and memorable." — Kirkus Reviews Somewhere East of Life: Architectural historian Roy Burnell has been tasked with traveling the globe and listing architectural gems in danger of being destroyed. But when Burnell is in Budapest, ten years of his memory, including his sexual experiences, are stolen. In this near future, where thieves sell memories on the black market, Burnell tries to resume his life, while also searching for the "bullet" that will restore his memory. "Intelligent, funny, and hopeful in spite of itself." — Kirkus Reviews