New Releases by Greg Egan

An unabridged collection spotlighting the best robot and AI stories published in 2024 by current and emerging masters of the science fiction genre, edited by Allan Kaster. "The Lark Ascending" by Eleanna Castroianni-A robot aids a girl whose memory has been erased by the government. "The Best Version of Yourself" by Grant Collier-A corporation offers a brain procedure that allows everyone to become the best version of themselves via nanobots. "Death and the Gorgon" by Greg Egan-A sheriff investigates the collapse of a cryogenic storage facility with the help of an AI. "The Indomitable Captain Holli" by Rich Larson-An AI with unclear motives presents itself as a pirate to a young girl who's eager for adventure. "Three Views of a Parking Lot" by Ken Liu-A parking lot becomes a lens into humanity's forgotten spaces as viewed by a small robot searching for meaning. "The Optics of Infinity" by James Morrow-An AI aboard a space telescope suffers from anxiety attacks as it travels toward the Alpha Moment. "Burned Like Coal" by T. R. Napper-Two women and an AI infiltrate a power plant. "Arazem-2 Is Waiting for a Letter" by Amal Singh-A robot grows frustrated with its retirement. "The Robot" by Lavie Tidhar-A general-purpose robot goes about its duties for nearly six hundred years. "Tepid War" by Jay Werkheiser-A product manager in Manhattan goes about his daily routine amidst a war that does not target civilians. "Nine Billion Turing Tests" by Chris Willrich-During a flooding event in Silicon Valley, a software engineer grieving the loss of his wife struggles with both people and AIs.

Année 2055. Utopie autogérée et indépendante au cœur du Pacifique, l’île artificielle d’Anarchia se prépare à accueillir un colloque rassemblant la crème des physiciens du monde entier à l’occasion du centenaire de la disparition d’Albert Einstein. L’ambition est claire : exposer les Théories du Tout les plus abouties — ce graal de la physique censé réconcilier relativité générale et mécanique quantique . Or, en ce XXIe siècle, nombreux sont les obscurantismes à tenir pour impie toute découverte impliquant les mystères de la Création... Ainsi, le plus secret de ces Cultes de l’ignorance prend pour cible la physicienne prodige Violet Mosala — nobélisée à 27 ans. Andrew Worth, journaliste scientifique présent sur les lieux pour couvrir l’événement, va se retrouver propulsé au cœur d’un jeu d’intrigues aux implications proprement cosmologiques...

For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it's a cryptic message encountered by a survey ship, the discovery of alien life in the distant reaches of space, a window into a future Earth, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires our imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. At the very heart of the genre is short fiction, the secret lab that has introduced many of the new ideas, techniques, and voices prominent across all other media. In The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Eight, Hugo and Locus Award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a comprehensive year-in-review of 2022's short fiction markets and selects thirty-one of its best stories from the wealth of magazines, anthologies, podcasts, and collections that make up the field. In these pages you'll find works by both the new and established authors who are setting the pace for science fiction today and into tomorrow. Start your journey here.

Nick Stavrianos avait huit ans quand les étoiles se sont éteintes – le 5 novembre 2034, il y a trente ans. Depuis, le Système solaire est confiné au sein d’une sphère titanesque le coupant du reste de l’univers : la Bulle. Après la sidération initiale, l’humanité, résiliente, a repris sa marche en avant malgré l’incommensurable artefact. Et si l’astronomie n’est plus désormais qu’un souvenir, la science a connu d’énormes avancées du côté des implants cérébraux. Aujourd’hui détective privé, Nick Stavrianos est missionné pour découvrir comment une femme, plongée dans un coma végétatif depuis des décennies, est parvenue à quitter sa chambre d’hôpital, fermée et surveillée, avant d’y revenir. Une énigme dont la réponse semble se trouver au cœur des rues sombres de la Nouvelle Hong Kong, enclave australienne devenue le paradis des entreprises de biotechs. C’est alors que Stavrianos est enlevé par l’Ensemble, une organisation dont il découvre bientôt qu’elle mène des recherches destinées à élucider le plus singulier des mystères, celui de la Bulle... et que lui-même pourrait bien avoir un rôle à jouer dans tout cela.

Les Indifférents sont une énigme. Nichés dans le bulbe galactique central, ils refusent tout contact avec la méta-civilisation de l’Amalgame et ses milliers de cultures extraterrestres ou posthumaines. Les messages qui leur sont adressés demeurent sans réponse, les sondes ignorées, réexpédiées. Un mystère que Leila et Jasim, comme bien d’autres avant eux, font vœu de percer, une entreprise grandiose, le point d’orgue d’une existence tissée de merveilles. Alors seulement, après dix mille trois cent neuf années de vie commune, leur restera le dernier des partages, l’ultime voyage – enfin.

Instantiation is a collection of 11 stories by the Hugo award winning author Greg Egan: “The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine” “Zero For Conduct” “Uncanny Valley” “Seventh Sight” “The Nearest” “Shadow Flock” “Bit Players” “Break My Fall” “3-adica” “The Slipway” “Instantiation”

An unabridged collection spotlighting the "best of the best" hard science fiction stories published in 2018 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In "3-adica," by Greg Egan, sentient characters in an online multiplayer game hack the operating systems of their host machines to escape to a refuge that's only rumored to exist. Struggling colonists, on a world subject to periodic bursts of radiation from its primary's UV-emitting companion, go on an expedition to recover a critical package from Earth in "Umbernight," by Carolyn Ives Gilman. In "Icefall," by Stephanie Gunn, the Mountain on the planet, Icefall, holds the mystery to a lost colony and is an irresistible, fatal allure to the climbers of the universe; but no one ever returns from the Mountain. A mother seeks revenge on the doctor that changed her neuro-atypical son's personality with a deep brain stimulation implant in "The Woman Who Destroyed Us," by S.L. Huang. In "Entropy War," by Yoon Ha Lee, a conquering alien race at the height of their powers, retreats into an arkworld to win the ultimate war in the only way they can. An AI piloting an island-ship, that used to be the Earth, struggles to make sense of the universe as the last stars are dying out in "Cosmic Spring," by Ken Liu. In "Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon," by Paul McAuley, set in the author's Quiet War universe, a supervisor of a mining operation on the moon, Oberon, investigates the crash-landing of an ancient escape pod. In depression-era Alaska, a desperate bush pilot reluctantly accepts an illegal charter from a pair of scientists investigating a legendary mirage in Glacier National Park in "The Spires," by Alec Nevala-Lee. In "Providence," by Alastair Reynolds, the crew of a crippled starship, unable to complete its mission, decides to salvage its expedition by providing future exploratory ships with data they did not have. A disillusioned crèche manager leaves Luna to work on an asteroid-based crèche and then must decide whether or not to return to Luna in "Intervention," by Kelly Robson. And finally, an entity that controls the solar system wants aid against another entity from a reconstructed human it just created, in "Kindred," by Peter Watts.

From the award-winning author Greg Egan comes a Tor.com Original sci-fi short story, "Zeitgeber" For millions of years, life on Earth has taken its cues from the rising and setting of the sun, and for most of human history we've followed the same rhythm. But if that shared connection was broken, and we each fell under the sway of our own private clock, could we still hold our lives together? One family is about to find out. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Greg Egan's Perihelion Summer is a story of people struggling to adapt to a suddenly alien environment, and the friendships and alliances they forge as they try to find their way in a world where the old maps have lost their meaning. Taraxippus is coming: a black hole one tenth the mass of the sun is about to enter the solar system. Matt and his friends are taking no chances. They board a mobile aquaculture rig, the Mandjet, self-sustaining in food, power and fresh water, and decide to sit out the encounter off-shore. As Taraxippus draws nearer, new observations throw the original predictions for its trajectory into doubt, and by the time it leaves the solar system, the conditions of life across the globe will be changed forever. Praise for Perihelion Summer "Egan here doubles down on climate change with his typically rigorous exploration of a cosmic accident's effect on Earth and all its people. His characters are sharp and funny and their courageous response to the massive challenge they face works as a spur to cause us to think—why couldn't we do as well with our own great challenge? This is what the best science fiction can do that no other genre can, and we need it now more than ever. Bravo!" — Kim Stanley Robinson At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Greg Egan is arguably Australia's greatest living science fiction writer. In a career spanning more than thirty years, he has produced a steady stream of novels and stories that address a wide range of scientific and philosophical concerns: artificial intelligence, higher mathematics, science vs religion, the nature of consciousness, and the impact of technology on the human personality. All these ideas and more find their way into this generous and illuminating collection, the clear product of a man who is both a master storyteller and a rigorous, exploratory thinker. The Best of Greg Egan contains twenty stories and novellas arranged in chronological order, and each of them is a brilliantly conceived, painstakingly developed gem. The book opens with "Learning to be Me," about a society in which the organic human brain can be replaced by a miraculous piece of technology called "the jewel," a "mock brain" that confers, among other things, a kind of immortality on its recipients. "Bit Players""€"the opening movement in a trio of tales that continues with "3-adica" and "Instantiation""€"posits a world in which cheaply generated software beings are exploited for the basest commercial purposes. (Other sets of interconnected stories"€"all of them reprinted here"€"include the mathematically-themed "Luminous" and "Dark Integers," and a pair of stories centered on the complex marriage of a physicist and a mathematician: "Singleton" and "Oracle.") "Reasons to be Cheerful," concerns a young boy whose brain tumor has an unexpected effect on his life, moods, and view of the world. "Axiomatic" tells the story of a society in which "implants" can be used to alter the human personality, with potentially lethal results. And the Hugo Award-winning novella "Oceanic" is a powerful account of a boy whose deeply held religious beliefs are undermined by what he comes to learn about the laws of the physical world. This book really does represent the best of Greg Egan.

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine. Fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder. For more than a decade award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has sifted through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers. Featuring stories from Daniel Abraham, Charlie Jane Anders, Kelly Barnhill, R. S. Benedict, Tobias Buckell, Indrapramit Das, Samuel R. Delany, Greg Egan, Max Gladstone, Theodora Goss, Saad Z. Hossain, Dave Hutchinson, Kathleen Kayembe, Caitlin R Kiernan, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rich Larson, Yoon Ha Lee, Scott Lynch, Maureen McHugh, Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali, Linda Nagata, Suzanne Palmer, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Alastair Reynolds, Karl Schroeder, Nick Wolven and Caroline M. Yoachim.

Welcome to Tvíbura and Tvíburi, the richly imagined twin planets that stand at the center of Greg Egan's extraordinary new novella, Phoresis. These two planets...one inhabited, one not...exist in extreme proximity to one another. As the narrative begins, Tvíbura, the inhabited planet, faces a grave and imminent threat: the food supply is dwindling, and the conditions necessary for sustaining life are growing more and more erratic. Faced with the prospect of eventual catastrophe, the remarkable women of Tvíbura launch a pair of ambitious, long-term initiatives. The first involves an attempt to reanimate the planet's increasingly dormant ecosphere. The second concerns the building of a literal "bridge between worlds" that will connect Tvíbura to its (hopefully) habitable sibling. These initiatives form the core of the narrative, which is divided into three sections and takes place over many generations. The resulting triptych is at once an epic in miniature, a work of hard SF filled with humanist touches, and a compressed, meticulously detailed example of original world building. Most centrally, it is a portrait of people struggling...and sometimes risking everything...to preserve a future they will not live to see. Erudite and entertaining, Phoresis shows us Egan at his formidable best, offering the sort of intense, visionary pleasures only science fiction can provide.

In un remoto universo dove le leggi fisiche sono completamente diverse, ruota il pianeta su cui vive Yalda, aliena mutaforma con "generalmente sei membra simmetriche", occhi sul davanti come sul retro della testa e in grado di emettere luce. Poiché in quell'universo la luce non ha velocità unifome e la sua generazione produce calore, Yalda è decisamente una creatura calda, ma l'ambiente si fa ancora più scottante quando cominciano a piovere gli stellanti, sorta di meteore roventi e distruttive. Il popolo di Yalda ha una tecnologia piuttosto arretrata, ma per reagire al pericolo decide di inviare nello spazio un razzo meccanico che raggiunga altri mondi e importi la scienza più avanzata. Il viaggio richiederebbe intere generazioni (tempo soggettivo sul razzo) ma solo pochi anni di tempo planetario e così la missione viene varata... Le altre sorprese di questo stupefacente romanzo sono all'interno del volume, che segna il ritorno di Greg Egan sulle pagine di "Urania".

Seth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right. Theo, in turn, relies on Seth for mobility, and for ordinary vision looking forwards and backwards. Like everyone else in their world, they are symbionts, depending on each other to survive. In the universe containing Seth's world, light cannot travel in all directions: there is a “dark cone” to the north and south. Seth can only face to the east (or the west, if he tips his head backwards). If he starts to turn to the north or south, his body stretches out across the landscape, and to rotate as far as north-north-east is every bit as impossible as accelerating to the speed of light. Every living thing in Seth’s world is in a state of perpetual migration as they follow the sun’s shifting orbit and the narrow habitable zone it creates. Cities are being constantly disassembled at one edge and rebuilt at the other, with surveyors mapping safe routes ahead. But when Seth and Theo join an expedition to the edge of the habitable zone, they discover a terrifying threat: a fissure in the surface of the world, so deep and wide that no one can perceive its limits. As the habitable zone continues to move, the migration will soon be blocked by this unbridgeable void, and the expedition has only one option to save its city from annihilation: descend into the unknown.

Wettlauf gegen die Zeit Auf der von Rebellen heftig umkämpften Molukken-Insel Teranesia treten bei Tieren merkwürdige genetische Veränderungen auf, die unmöglich natürlichen Ursprungs sein können. Unter Lebensgefahr versuchen die Wissenschaftler herauszufinden, was die Ursache für diese rätselhaften Mutationen sein könnte. Wer hat die Abweichung in der DNS in die Wege geleitet und zu welchem Zweck? Als die Veränderungen schließlich auch auf die Menschen übergreifen, gerät die Lage außer Kontrolle. Gibt es in letzter Sekunde eine Lösung – oder muss alles Leben weiträumig vernichtet werden, um die irdische Ökologie zu retten?

Nachdem die Sterne erloschen sind ... Am 24. November 2034 geschieht das Unfassbare: Eine riesige Barriere legt sich um unser Sonnensystem, und die Sterne erlöschen. Wir schreiben das Jahr 2068: Für den Privatdetektiv Nick Stavrianos ist der sternenlose Himmel bereits eine Alltäglichkeit geworden. Außerdem hat er andere Sorgen: Er muss die junge Laura finden, ein Mädchen, das trotz einer schweren Gehirnschädigung aus einem Pflegeheim entwischt ist. Die Spur führt nach Hongkong, ins Zentrum der Genforschung. Doch bevor er Laura findet, wird Nick selbst gefangengenommen und von skrupellosen Forschern programmiert. Und dann erkennt er, dass zwischen dem verschwundenen Mädchen und der Barriere ein unglaublicher Zusammenhang besteht ...

Après avoir consacré notre dernière numéro à Stephen King, maître incontesté des littératures de genre outre-Atlantique, la logique voulait que nous retournions dans l'Hexagone pour aborder une œuvre qui, par bien des aspects, pourrait être le pendant français de celle de l'auteur américain. En effet, les parallèles sont nombreux entre Pierre Pelot et Stephen King (outre le fait qu'ils appartiennent à la même génération). Les deux œuvres sont énormes de qualité et de quantité. Chacune s'inscrit dans une géographie physique très délimitée (le Maine pour King, les Vosges pour Pelot). Elles ont longtemps été méprisées par la critique avant d'être portées au nu. Toutes deux, enfin, mélangent les genres, font fi des classifications, sans jamais pour auteur que leur auteur respectif ne renie le terreau populaire sur lequel elles s'épanouissent...Pierre Pelot est né le 13 novembre 1945. Il est l'auteur d'environ deux-cents romans qui visitent tous les genres ou presque (science-fiction surtout, mais aussi polar, western, fantastique, préhistorique - Sous le vent du monde, avec Yves Coppens). Ses dernières années, la plupart de ses romans sont parus hors genre dans des collections et chez des éditeurs généralistes. Au rang de ses réussites les plus manifestes, on citera La Forêt muette, C'est ainsi que les hommes vivent, La Guerre olympique, Delirum Circus, Brouillards, L'Eté en pente douce (adapté au cinéma par Gérard Krawczyk en 1987), Transit ou Natural Killer...

“Taut, suspenseful, darkly powerful . . . Egan is on his way, and with considerable velocity!” —Gardener Dozois, editor, The Year's Best SF In 2034, the stars went out. Riots and religions break out after an unknown agency surrounds the solar system with an impenetrable barrier, now leaving the universe in darkness. While some see this act as revenge from God, others see it as protection. The only thing known is that for now and forever, Earth and the universe shall never be connected again. Or so it seems. In 2067, PI Nick Stavrianos is hired to investigate the disappearance of Laura, a mentally disabled woman. The trail leads him to the Republic of New Hong Kong, where an organization known as the Ensemble has uncovered Laura’s secret and the only possible way she could have escaped from the institution: her ability to walk through walls. It’s up to Nick not only to find out what the Ensemble plans to do with Laura, but also—if he can—to get her before her powers transform the world. Will it be for good or bad? That’s the question Nick has to answer. From the mind of Hugo Award–winning author Greg Egan, Quarantine is a tour de force of hard science fiction that will grip you from the first page and not let go. Originally published more than twenty years ago, Quarantine is now back in print and available to readers again. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

From the inner realms of humanity to the far reaches of space, these are the science fiction and fantasy tales that are shaping the genre and the way we think about the future. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan continues to shine a light on the very best writing, featuring both established authors and exciting new talents. Within you will find twenty-eight incredible tales, showing the ever growing depth and diversity that science fiction and fantasy continues to enjoy. These are the brightest stars in our firmament, lighting the way to a future filled with astonishing stories about the way we are, and the way we could be. Including stories by K J Parker, Neil Gaiman, Yoon Ha Lee, Joe Abercrombie, Sofia Samatar, Greg Egan, E Lily Yu, Geoff Ryman, M Bennardo, Ramez Naam, Ted Chiang, Priya Sharma, Richard Parks, Lavie Tidhar, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Eleanor Arnason, Ian R Macleod, An Owomoyela, Karin Tidbeck, Madeline Ashby, Caitlin R Kiernan, Robert Reed, Ian Mcdonald, Val Nolan, M John Harrison, James Patrick Kelly and Charlie Jane Anders.

«J’avais six ans lorsque mes parents m’ont dit que j’avais dans le crâne un petit cristal sombre qui apprenait à être moi.»La matière organique est faible et périssable. Rien ne vaut le cristal Ndoli, cette invention révolutionnaire qui stocke la personnalité d’un individu dans sa nano-structure de carbone,...

« En septembre 2004, peu après mon douzième anniversaire, j’entrai dans un état de bonheur presque constant. Il ne me vint jamais à l’idée de me demander pourquoi. »Atteint d’une tumeur au cerveau, un jeune garçon entre alors dans un état de bonheur constant. Cause à cela ? La présence anormalement haute d’une endorphine particulière, qui provoque cet état de béatitude et qui lui permet de surmonter cette épreuve. Mais, guéri, il sombre dans la dépression, l’endorphine ayant disparu. Pires, les zones de son cerveau capables d’éprouver du plaisir sont mortes. Comment alors retrouver la joie de vivre?

Un match de football quantique. Et des joueurs vieux de plusieurs millénaires. Des mathématiques armes de destruction massive dans une guerre entre univers. Le premier voyage de l'homme vers les étoiles, en pleine ère transhumaine. L'amour négocié par le biais de nanomachines. La foi mise en équation chimique. La transplantation cérébrale comme moyen d'immortalité... Océanique, troisième volet de l'intégrale des nouvelles de Greg Egan, réunit treize longs récits et consacre son auteur comme le chef de file d'une science-fiction déterminée à décrypter notre monde et ses enjeux. Un talent unique salué par le prix Hugo et le John W. Campbell Memorial Award. L'écrivain le plus fascinant de sa génération.

Greg Egan’s The Clockwork Rocket introduced readers to an exotic universe where the laws of physics are very different from our own, where the speed of light varies in ways Einstein would never allow, and where intelligent life has evolved in unique and fascinating ways. Now Egan continues his epic tale of alien beings embarked on a desperate voyage to save their world . . . . The generation ship Peerless is in search of advanced technology capable of sparing their home planet from imminent destruction. In theory, the ship is traveling fast enough that it can traverse the cosmos for generations–and still return home only a few years after they departed. But a critical fuel shortage threatens to cut their urgent voyage short, even as a population explosion stretches the ship’s life-support capacity to its limits. When the astronomer Tamara discovers the Object, a meteor whose trajectory will bring it within range of the Peerless, she sees a risky solution to the fuel crisis. Meanwhile, the biologist Carlo searches for a better way to control fertility, despite the traditions and prejudices of their society. As the scientists clash with the ship’s leaders, they find themselves caught up in two equally dangerous revolutions: one in the sexual roles of their species, the other in their very understanding of the nature of matter and energy. The Eternal Flame lights up the mind with dazzling new frontiers of physics and biology, as only Greg Egan could imagine them.

In Yalda's universe, light has no universal speed and its creation generates energy. On Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting their own light into the dark night sky. As a child, Yalda witnesses one of a series of strange meteors, the Hurtlers, that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed. It becomes apparent that her world is in imminent danger — and the task of dealing with the Hurtlers will require knowledge and technology far beyond anything her civilization has yet achieved! Only one solution seems tenable: if a spacecraft can be sent on a journey at sufficiently high speed, its trip will last many generations for those on board, but it will return after just a few years have passed at home. The travelers will have a chance to discover the science their planet urgently needs, and bring it back in time to avert disaster.

Set in a near future Iran (where the theocracy has been overthrown, but where Muslim religion still dominates the culture), an Arab/Muslim focused MMORG gaming companies cutting edge AI software might hold the key achieving "uploaded consciousness." Martin is an Australian journalist who covered uprising and overthrow of the Iranian theocracy, and has since “gone native” with a Iranian wife and child. As tragedy strikes his multi-cultural family, Martin struggles to maintain his place in his adapted culture, and to provide for his child. Zendigi explores what it means to be human, and the lengths one will go to in order to provide for ones children. This emotional roller coaster explores a non-Western-European near future that both challenges ideas of global mono-culture and emphasizes the humanity we all share.

Oceanic is a collection of twelve stories, including the Hugo-award-winning “Oceanic”: “Lost Continent” “Dark Integers” “Crystal Nights” “Steve Fever” “Induction” “Singleton” “Oracle” “Border Guards” “Riding the Crocodile” “Glory” “Hot Rock” “Oceanic”