New Releases by Brian Wilson Aldiss

A collection of Brian Aldiss'' short stories, taken from the 1960s. Includes stories previously only available in magazines.

Brian Aldiss brings vividly to life the ancient world of dreaming Thebes: a world of sun-drenched landscapes, golden dust, sphynxes, furies, hermaphroditic philosophers, ghostly apparitions and ambivalent gods.

An oddity among Aldiss works - verse translations.

Set on the Red Planet, this book follows the stories of a group of colonists and the problems they have in setting up a new society. Life can be sustained by technology but new life will not prosper - the woman on the planet only ever give birth to stillborn children.

After the "Accident," all males on earth become sterile. Society ages and falls apart bit by bit. First toy companies go under. Then record companies. Then cities cease to function. Now earth''s population lives in spread-out, isolated villages, with its youngest members in their 50''s. When the people of Sparcot begin to make claims of gnomes and man-eating rodents lurking around their village, Greybeard and his wife set out for the coast with the hope of finding something better. With a New Introduction from the Author! "When is science fiction not science fiction? The answer must be: When it becomes too frighteningly believable. This is." - Sacramento Bee

Helliconia is a planet that, due to the massively eccentric orbit of its own sun around another star, experiences seasons that lasts eons. Whole civilisations grow in the spring, flourish in the summer & then die in the brutal winters. The inhabitants have been profoundly changed by their experience of this harsh cycle.

Paul Ali, a young Muslim writer, finds himself imprisoned because of his comic novel, in which two characters joke about the murder of a British prime minister, and his only escape is to an alien planet that he invents within his own mind.

Published to accompany the exhibition held at Modern Art Oxford, 8 May - 4 July 2004.

SUPER-STATE is Europe in a mere 40 years'' time, where men and women are much like us, but despite technological advancement the basic questions of life have yet to be answered by either philosophers or scientists. The comedy emerges from human behaviour - as does the tragedy. While many go their own moderately sweet way, Britain and Europe are bedevilled by global warming and war with an external enemy. With cool wit, Aldiss shows us what might happen as Europe expands and Britain and Ireland shrink. Better times seem, as always, to be on the way, but a subversive group calling themselves the ''Insanatics'' is sending out doleful messages to worry and provoke the population. Androids, too, prove nothing but a nuisance, and are generally kept locked in the cupboard. However, life goes on as usual - except for the crew of an expedition to another planet. But the least said about that the better.

The title story, Supertoys Last All Summer Long, soon to be a major film directed by Steven Spielberg, tells of a young boy who, whatever he does, cannot please his mother. He is puzzled by this, not realising that he is an android, a cunning construct of artificial intelligence - as is his one ally, his teddy bear. It was a story that hugely affected Stanley Kubrick (director of 2001) and Steven Spielberg (who perhaps saw in his forthcoming movie AI (Artificial Intelligence) a complement to his ET!). The other stories in the collection, whether SF, utopian fantasy or dark fable show a master writer at the peak of his considerable powers.

Curiosity was discouraged in the Greene tribe. Its members lived out their lives in cramped Quarters, hacking away at the encroaching ponics. As to where they were - that was forgotten. Roy Complain decides to find out. With the renegade priest Marapper, he moves into unmapped territory, where they make a series of discoveries which turn their universe upside-down ... Non-Stop is the classic SF novel of discovery and exploration; a brilliant evocation of a familiar setting seen through the eyes of a primitive.

WHITE MARS is Brian Aldiss'' Utopian vision of mankind''s future in space, written in collaboration with distinguished physicist Roger Penrose. Halfway through the next century, an organisation called EUPACUS, consisting of all the leading industrialised nations, has found a way to colonise Mars. They have, however, decided to protect the planet for scientific research. Human beings will live in great, self- perpetuating domes, producing their own food and oxygen, while drawing water from the planet''s core. The option of terraforming the planet, bombarding it with CFCs in order to give it an atmosphere, has been discontinued. Owing to economic collapse on earth the martian colony is cut off from the mother planet (''Downstairs'' as they call it). The head of the colony, Tim Jefferies, sets out to create a perfect society. Some, however, only want to get home, and think that the Utopian ideals (which are all broadcast back to Earth) will only hamper their rescue. An arresting novel of ideals and conflicts WHITE MARS contrasts the warmth of community in the domes with the icy wastes of Mars.

"On Earth, a spiritual and traditionalist China is the dominant global power but in Space, people live across a variety of artificial planetoids. Edward lives on one such planet as an inventor, building a device which gives predictions for the user''s life. It''s rather like a horoscope but it''s science. Edward believes that everything in life can be predicted and accounted for if one could only access the correct data.Outside of work, Edward''s only joy comes from Zenith, the woman he loves - despite knowing nothing about her or even what she looks like. They have only ever spoken through technology, but when he is sent to sell his invention on Earth, Edward decides to invite his new love along. Despite a lifetime of believing in the power of data and creating a device to control the future, revelations on Earth will rock his worldview in ways he couldn''t predict..."--Publisher.

We devotees of SF enjoy its diversity of opinion, the bustle of bright and dark, the clash of progress and entropy, the clamour of theories about the past, the future, the ever-present present, everything. In this fascinating collection of essays, one of the world''s pre-eminent SF writers explores a wide range of SF and fantasy writers and writing.

Science fiction-roman. Arkitekturhistorikeren Roy Burnell er blevet frastjålet 10 år af sin elskovshukommelse. Hans eftersøgning fører ham vidt omkring under dække af at registrere bevaringsværdig arkitektur

A glittering twelve story collection from Britain''s best loved Sci-Fi writer.

Three characters - Russian-born Dominic, whose marriage is coming adrift, bankrupt, high-flier Ray Tebbutt, and Peter Petrick, a dissident Czech film director, converge towards the finality of an IRA bomb episode in Great Yarmouth.

A collection of fantasy stories, including "Old Hundredth," "The Girl Who Sang," "The Source," "Bill Carter Takes Over," and more

Bundel met 22 sf-verhalen die eerder verschenen tussen 1955 en 1986.

From Hugo and Nebula Award winner Brian W. Aldiss comes the third book of the internationally bestselling Helliconia trilogy. A fitting culmination, not only for the trilogy . . ., but for Aldiss'' career to date . . . highly recommended.--Fantasy Review.

A tale of alternate worlds and their effect on the everyday life of a man faced with a personal crisis