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books tagged “near future”
books tagged “near future”
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All Tomorrow's Partiesby William GibsonISBN 0425190447 (0-425-19044-7)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'All Tomorrow's Parties'Book summary:Although Colin Laney (from Gibson's earlier novel Idoru) lives in a cardboard box, he has the power to change the world. Thanks to an experimental drug that he received during his youth, Colin can see "nodal points" in the vast streams of data that make up the worldwide computer network. Nodal points are rare but significant events in history that forever change society, even though they might not be recognizable as such when they occur. Colin isn't quite sure what's going to happen when society reaches this latest nodal point, but he knows it's going to be big. And he knows it's going to occur on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, which has been home to a sort of SoHo-esque shantytown since an earthquake rendered it structurally unsound to carry traffic.
Colin sends Barry Rydell (last seen in Gibson's novel Virtual Light) to the bridge to find a mysterious killer who reveals himself only by his lack of presence on the Net. Barry is also entrusted with a strange package that seems to be the home of Rei Toi, the computer-generated "idol singer" who once tried to "marry" a human rock star (she's also from Idoru). Barry and Rei Toi are eventually joined by Barry's old girlfriend Chevette (from Virtual Light) and a young boy named Silencio who has an unnatural fascination with watches. Together this motley assortment of characters holds the key to stopping billionaire Cody Harwood from doing whatever it is that will make sure he still holds the reigns of power after the nodal point takes place.
Although All Tomorrow's Parties includes characters from two of Gibson's earlier novels, it's not a direct sequel to either. It's a stand-alone book that is possibly Gibson's best solo work since Neuromancer. In the past, Gibson has let his brilliant prose overwhelm what were often lackluster (or nonexistent) story lines, but this book has it all: a good story, electric writing, and a group of likable and believable characters who are out to save the world ... kind of. The ending is not quite as supercharged as the rest of the novel and so comes off a bit flat, but overall this is definitely a winner. --Craig E. Engler [via]
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The Barsoom Projectby Larry Niven, Steven BarnesISBN 0441167128 (0-441-16712-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Barsoom Project'Book summary:Welcome to Dream Park-an amusement park where nothing is what it seems-except murder. [via]
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Blue Marsby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0553573357 (0-553-57335-7)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blue Mars'Book summary:On the brink of completing the terraforming effort on Mars, colonists find their work complicated by a crisis on Earth, new colonization projects on Jupiter and Saturn, and the onset of a Martian ice age. [via]
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The Butterfingers Angel; Mary & Joseph; Herod the Nut; the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Treeby William GibsonISBN 0822201682 (0-8222-0168-2)
Softcover, Dramatist's Play Service
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Butterfingers Angel; Mary & Joseph; Herod the Nut; the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree'Book summary:THE STORY: Dealing with the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus from a fresh and richly creative point of view, the author combines a series of deftly constructed short scenes, traditional Christmas music, and often antic characterizations into a wholly original theatre piece. The flow of the action follows the Biblical recounting, but is enhanced by a tree, a sheep and a donkey who talk (and most amusingly); a beguiling Mary who had heretofore decided that men and marriage were not for her; a suddenly cautious Joseph who now contends that he is too old for his intended (having earlier scoffed at Mary for expressing the same thought); and a flustered boy-angel who directs the action from a promptbook and manages to get only the most strangled, bleating sounds from his trumpet. But, through all the lively and resourceful happenings, the true significance of the occasion is never lost, and the underlying mood and spirit of reverence is, if anything, enhanced and made new by the distinctive approach of this joyful and unique retelling. [via]
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Contactby Carl SaganISBN 0671004107 (0-671-00410-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Contact'Book summary:It is December 1999, the dawn of the millennium, and a team of international scientists is poised for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team believes they've found a message from an intelligent source--and they travel deep into space to meet it. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan injects Contact, his prophetic adventure story, with scientific details that make it utterly believable. It is a Cold War era novel that parlays the nuclear paranoia of the time into exquisitely wrought tension among the various countries involved. Sagan meditates on science, religion, and government--the elements that define society--and looks to their impact on and role in the future. His ability to pack an exciting read with such rich content is an unusual talent that makes Contact a modern sci-fi classic. [via]
More editions of Contact:
- Contact: ISBN 0785787828 (0-7857-8782-8)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Contact: ISBN 0671434225 (0-671-43422-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster - Contact: ISBN 0671701800 (0-671-70180-0)
Softcover, Pocket Books - Contact: ISBN 0671434004 (0-671-43400-4)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - Contact: ISBN 089621687X (0-89621-687-X)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - Contact: ISBN 0671004107 (0-671-00410-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books
- Contact: ISBN 0785787828 (0-7857-8782-8)
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Darwin's Radioby Greg BearISBN 0345435249 (0-345-43524-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Darwin's Radio'Book summary:All the best thrillers contain the solution to a mystery, and the mystery in this intellectually sparkling scientific thriller is more crucial and stranger than most. Why are people turning against their neighbors and their newborn children? And what is causing an epidemic of still births? A disgraced paleontologist and a genetic engineer both come across evidence of cover-ups in which the government is clearly up to no good. But no one knows what's really going on, and the government is covering up because that is what, in thrillers as in life, governments do. And what has any of this to do with the discovery of a Neanderthal family whose mummified faces show signs of a strange peeling?
Greg Bear has spent much of his recent career evoking awe in the deep reaches of space, but he made his name with Blood Music, a novel of nanotechnology that crackled with intelligence. His new book is a workout for the mind and a stunning read; human malignancy has its role in his thriller plot, but its real villain, as well as its last best hope, is the endless ingenious cruelty of the natural world and evolution. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk [via]
Darwin's Radio : In the Next Stage of Evolution, Humans Are Historyby Greg BearISBN 0345459814 (0-345-45981-4)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Darwin's Radio : In the Next Stage of Evolution, Humans Are History'More editions of Darwin's Radio : In the Next Stage of Evolution, Humans Are History:
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The Descent of Anansiby Larry Niven, Steven Barnes, Copyright Paperback Collection (Library of Congress)ISBN 0523485425 (0-523-48542-5)
Hardcover, Tor
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Descent of Anansi'Book summary:It's the American Revolution all over again. But this time it's a ragtag band of space colonists vs. the United States. And the fate of the world hangs by a thread--200 miles above the earth.[via]More editions of The Descent of Anansi:
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The Diamond Ageby Neal StephensonISBN 0553380966 (0-553-38096-6)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Diamond Age'Book summary:John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change. [via]
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The Diamond Age/Or, Young Lady's Illustrated Primerby Neal StephensonISBN 0553573314 (0-553-57331-4)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer'Book summary:John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change. [via]
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Earthby David BrinISBN 055329024X (0-553-29024-X)
Softcover, Spectra
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Earth'Book summary:The long-awaited new novel by the award-winning, bestselling author of Startide Rising and The Uplift War--an epic novel set fifty years from tomorrow, a carefully-reasoned, scientifically faithful tale of the fate of our world. "One hell of a novel . . . has what sci-fi readers want these days; intelligence, action, and an epic scale".--Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Line drawings. [via]
Eastern Standard Tribeby Cory DoctorowISBN 0765310457 (0-7653-1045-7)
Softcover, Tor Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eastern Standard Tribe'Book summary:Cory Doctorow is one of those rare writers able to envision a future that is entirely believable, one we may wake up to tomorrow morning. Doctorow's prescience is largely a result of his passion for new technologies. Not only is he an established SF writer, he's also a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a co-editor of the popular tech culture website Boing Boing. Doctorow practically mainlines the future, and readers will feel at home in the future he presents in his second novel, Eastern Standard Tribe, because it's built out of familiar things: megacorporations, social networking services, instant messaging, and GPS devices. The technology and social trends in Eastern Standard Tribe are always the next generation of what exists now, but only just, as if they're simply the latest version rather than an entirely new operating system.
The book tells the story of Art, a member of the Eastern Standard Tribe, a Friendster-like society made up of people who share the same sleep schedule. Art works undercover for EST in England, performing various acts of corporate sabotage, but his life is changed when he falls in love with Linda, a woman who steps into the path of his car to earn some insurance money. Along with Fede, a paranoid EST co-conspirator, they get caught up in an intrigue involving music file-sharing, which eventually results in Art being committed to a sanitarium, where he narrates the book in flashbacks.
Eastern Standard Tribe is a hyper, caffeine jolt of a book, as biting and satirical as it is hopeful and utopian. Doctorow depicts a world that, like Schrödinger's cat, is caught in a moment of impossible simultaneity, torn between two possible futures. Will the profit motive continue to rule the world? Or will society embrace new technologies that serve the masses rather than the corporations? You'll have to open the book to find the answer. --Peter Darbyshire [via]
Fifty Degrees Belowby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0553585819 (0-553-58581-9)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fifty Degrees Below'Book summary:Bestselling, award-winning, author Kim Stanley Robinson continues his groundbreaking trilogy of eco-thrillersand propels us deeper into the awesome whirlwind of climatic change. Set in our nations capital, here is a chillingly realistic tale of people caught in the collision of science, technology, and the consequences of global warmingwhich could trigger another phenomenon: abrupt climate change, resulting in temperatures...
When the storm got bad, scientist Frank Vanderwal was at work, formalizing his return to the National Science Foundation for another year. Hed left the building just in time to help sandbag at Arlington Cemetery. Now that the torrent was over, large chunks of San Diego had eroded into the sea, and D.C. was underwater.
Shallow lakes occupied the most famous parts of the city. Reagan Airport was awash and the Potomac had spilled beyond its banks. Rescue boats dotted the saturated cityscape. Everything Frank and his colleagues in the halls of science and politics feared had culminated in this massive disaster. And now the world looked to them to fix it.
Whatever Frank can do, now that he is homeless, hell have to do from his car. Hes not averse to sleeping outdoors. Years of research have made him hyperaware of his status as just another primate. That plus his encounter with a Tibetan Buddhist has left him resolved to live a more authentic life.
Hopefully, this will prepare him for whatever is to come....
For even as D.C. bails out from the flood, a more extreme climate change looms. With the melting of the polar ice caps shutting down the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, another Ice Age could be imminent. The last time it happened, eleven thousand years ago, it took just three years to start.
Once again Kim Stanley Robinson uses his remarkable vision, trademark wry wit, and extraordinary insight into the complexity between man and nature to take us to the brink of disasterand slightly beyond.
From the Hardcover edition. [via]-
Footfallby Larry NivenISBN 0345323440 (0-345-32344-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Footfall'Book summary:"NOBODY DOES IT BETTER THAN NIVEN AND POURNELLE.
I LOVED IT!"
--Tom Clancy
They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star.
The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods.
Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender--or death for all humans.
"ROUSING . . . THE BEST OF THE GENRE."
--The New York Times Book Review
From the Paperback edition. [via] -
Forty Signs Of Rainby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0553585800 (0-553-58580-0)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Forty Signs Of Rain'Book summary:1st edition paperback, vg++ [via]
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The Gold Coastby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0812552393 (0-8125-5239-3)
Softcover, Tor Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Gold Coast'Book summary:In a prophetic glimpse into America's near future, Robinson provides a sweeping novel of courageous characters triumphing over the dehumanization of a too-large society. "What a bold, manic, wonderful book this is!"--Los Angeles Times. Reprint from Tor. [via]
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Green Marsby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0553572393 (0-553-57239-3)
Softcover, Fanfare
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Green Mars'Book summary:Kim Stanley Robinson has earned a reputation as the master of Mars fiction, writing books that are scientific, sociological and, best yet, fantastic. Green Mars continues the story of humans settling the planet in a process called "terraforming." In Red Mars, the initial work in the trilogy, the first 100 scientists chosen to explore the planet disintegrated in disagreement--in part because of pressures from forces on Earth. Some of the scientists formed a loose network underground. Green Mars, which won the 1994 Hugo Award, follows the development of the underground and the problems endemic to forming a new society. [via]
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Hammeredby ELIZABETH BEARISBN 0553587501 (0-553-58750-1)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hammered'Book summary:Once Jenny Casey was somebodys daughter. Once she was somebodys enemy. Now the former Canadian special forces warrior lives on the hellish streets of Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 2062. Racked with pain, hiding from the government she served, running with a crime lord so she can save a life or two, Jenny is a month shy of fifty, and her artificially reconstructed body has started to unravel. But she is far from forgotten. A government scientist needs the perfect subject for a high-stakes project and has Jenny in his sights. Suddenly Jenny Casey is a pawn in a furious battle, waged in the corridors of the Internet, on the streets of battered cities, and in the complex wirings of her half-man-made nervous system. And she needs to gain control of the game before a brave new future spins completely out of control. [via]
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The Handmaid's Taleby Margaret AtwoodISBN 038549081X (0-385-49081-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Handmaid's Tale'Book summary:Throughout her career, Margaret Atwood has played with different literary genres in her novels--historical fiction (Alias Grace), pulp fiction (The Blind Assassin), the comedy of manners (The Robber Bride)--but no foray into genre fiction has been as successful as her turn to speculative fiction in The Handmaid's Tale. Published in 1985, it echoes Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, but a vibrant feminism drives Atwood's portrait of a futuristic dystopia. In the Republic of Gilead, we see a world devastated by toxic chemicals and nuclear fallout and dominated by a repressive Christian fundamentalism. The birthrate has plunged, and most women can no longer bear children. Offred is one of Gilead's Handmaids, who as official breeders are among the chosen few who can still become pregnant.
The Handmaid's Tale is an imaginatively audacious novel that is at once a page-turning psychological thriller, a moving love story, and a chilling warning about what might be waiting for us around the corner. What ultimately makes it stand out is Atwood's ability to balance a passionate political statement with finely wrought literary fiction. The Handmaid's Tale is a remarkable work by one of Canada's most inventive writers. --Jeffrey Canton [via]
More editions of The Handmaid's Tale:
- The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0770428207 (0-7704-2820-7)
Softcover, Bantam Books of Canada Ltd - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0808598295 (0-8085-9829-5)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0449212602 (0-449-21260-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0449911535 (0-449-91153-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0816141711 (0-8161-4171-1)
Softcover, G K Hall & Co - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0395404258 (0-395-40425-8)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0771008139 (0-7710-0813-9)
Hardcover, McClelland and Stewart - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 081614172X (0-8161-4172-X)
Hardcover, G K Hall & Co - The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 038549081X (0-385-49081-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- The Handmaid's Tale: ISBN 0770428207 (0-7704-2820-7)
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Idoruby William GibsonISBN 0425158640 (0-425-15864-0)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Idoru'Book summary:Colin Laney is a data analyst with a talent for seeing patterns, or nodes, as he calls them, in the flow of information that is cyberspace. Chia McKenzie is a young member of the fan club for the Japanese pop supergroup Lo/Rez. When a rumour involving the lead singer of Lo/Rez and an idoru, a Japanese virtual-reality singing idol, brings both Laney and Chia to Tokyo, the resulting web of events involves Russian criminals, Japanese schoolgirls, and illegal nanotechnology. And it's all set in a Tokyo that is literally growing and changing around the characters, rising from the rubble of a major earthquake.
Idoru is not William Gibson's best novel, but it is a good example of his primary strength: creating worlds that don't so much show the future as expose the world we already live in, a world of computers, information, mega-corporations, pop art, tabloids, and rock & roll. Idoru works not only on its own terms but also as a set-up for Gibson's next novel, All Tomorrow's Parties. Gibson broadens his perspective by including a wider range of characters than in his earlier novels, but mainly Idoru moves Gibson's work forward by pushing further into his familiar territory. It is the work not of a writer who is discovering new topics, but of one who is re-examining his old ones, bringing greater depth and maturity to his art in the process. --Greg L. Johnson [via]
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Jennifer Governmentby Max BarryISBN 1400030927 (1-4000-3092-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jennifer Government'Book summary:In the horrifying, satirical near future of Max Barry's Jennifer Government, American corporations literally rule the world. Everyone takes his employer's name as his last name; once-autonomous nations as far-flung as Australia belong to the USA; and the National Rifle Association is not just a worldwide corporation, it's a hot, publicly traded stock. Hack Nike, a hapless employee seeking advancement, signs a multipage contract and then reads it. He discovers he's agreed to assassinate kids purchasing Nike's new line of athletic shoes, a stealth marketing maneuver designed to increase sales. And the dreaded government agent Jennifer Government is after him.
Like Steve Aylett, Alexander Besher, Douglas Coupland, Paul Di Filippo, Jim Munroe, Jeff Noon, and Chuck Palahniuk, Max Barry is an author of smartass, punky satire for the late capitalist era. It's a hip and happening field; before publication, Jennifer Government (Barry's second novel) was optioned by Stephen Soderbergh and George Clooney's Section 8 Films for a major motion picture. However, the level of literary accomplishment varies wildly among practitioners, from brilliant (Di Filippo and Palahniuk) to amateurish (Besher). This field is so hot, its writers needn't be nearly as accomplished as they'd have to become to break into any other form of fiction.
That said, like many of his fellow turn-of-the-millennium satirists, Barry is uneven. He has a lively imagination and a sharp eye for the absurdities and offenses of hypercorporate capitalism. But, with its sketchy characters and slow dialogue, Jennifer Government will disappoint anyone who believes the cover copy's grandiose claim that this is "a Catch-22 for the New World Order." --Cynthia Ward [via]
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Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Taleby Harold BloomISBN 0791075699 (0-7910-7569-9)
Hardcover, Facts on File
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale'Book summary:Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Bloom's Guides collection, presents concise critical excerpts from The Handmaid's Tale to provide a scholarly overview of the work. This comprehensive study guide also features "The Story Behind the Story," which details the conditions under which The Handmaid's Tale was written. This title also includes a short biography on Margaret Atwood and a descriptive list of characters. [via]
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Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Taleby Margaret Eleanor AtwoodISBN 079105926X (0-7910-5926-X)
Hardcover, Facts on File
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale'Book summary:Atwood's best-known novel depicts one woman's struggle to survive in a futuristic society in which women have become property.
The title, Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid's Tale, part of Chelsea House Publishers Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid's Tale through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Margaret Atwood, a chronology of the authors life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. [via]
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Market Forcesby Richard K. MorganISBN 0345457749 (0-345-45774-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Market Forces'Book summary:Richard Morgan, the award-winning author of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, strikes out into new territory with Market Forces, leaving behind the farflung battlegrounds of Takeshi Kovacs for the not-so-distant future of corporate Earth. Here, Morgan extrapolates a world where commodities trading reaches a brutal pitch and the outcomes of banana republic uprisings are the new market. Now, on the road to success, the brokers of the new economy compete for status and promotions via road rage on the freeways of new London.
Morgan's conflicted protagonist, Chris Faulkner, is a comer known for one spectacular kill that shot him to the top of mid-range global capital firm. He parlays his reputation and skills as a driver into a job in the emerging field of "Conflict Investment" at the world's hottest and hardest firm. Soon he finds himself running with the big dogs and rises to the top of a brutal realm, but his ascent is quickly threatened by vicious senior partners, gold-digging suitors, fame, fair-weather friends, and his own nagging conscience.
Market Forces is at once an anti-globalization treatise and anime fantasy meets The Road Warrior. Morgan employs the graphic-novel imagery of his two previous novels to create a disturbingly brutal picture of slash-and-burn capitalism run amok. There are times when Faulker's moral quandries seem hollow in the face of his actions but this isn't Crime and Punishment. Enjoy the ride and "come back with blood on your wheels or don't come back at all." --Jeremy Pugh
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
A Winning Translation: An Exclusive Essay by Richard Morgan
His novels may paint a bleak picture of the future, but Richard Morgan has a great attitude toward language, and one word in particular. Read his Amazon.com exclusive essay and find out why he'll never consider himself, or anyone else, anything worse than an occasional non-winner.More editions of Market Forces:
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Mindstar Risingby Peter F. HamiltonISBN 0330323768 (0-330-32376-8)
Softcover, Trans-Atlantic Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mindstar Rising'Book summary:It's the 21st century and global warming is here to stay, so forget the way your country used to look. And get used to the free market, too the companies possess all the best hardware, and they're calling the shots now. In a world like this, a man open to any offers can make out just fine. A man like Greg Mandel for instance, who's psi-boosted, wired into the latest sensory equipment, carrying state-of-the-art weaponry and late of the English Army's Mindstar Battalion. As the cartels battle for control of a revolutionary new power source, and corporate greed outstrips national security, tension is mounting to boiling point and Greg Mandel is about to face the ultimate test. 'Races ahead with verve and flair' Starburst 'The plotting is tight and ingenious' Interzone [via]
The Nano Flowerby Peter F. HamiltonISBN 0812577698 (0-8125-7769-8)
Softcover, Tor Books
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Neuromancerby William GibsonISBN 1569564116 (1-56956-411-6)
Softcover, William a Thomas Braille
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Neuromancer'Book summary:"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." William Gibson's Neuromancer starts out with one of the great opening lines in all of fiction and never lets up. This is the novel that introduced the term "cyberspace," and it remains one of the most vibrant and compelling looks at the world being built by computers and information technology.
Plus, it tells a great story. Case is a top-line hacker who made one mistake that cost him his greatest love. To get it back, he agrees to work for people who in turn are working for an artificial intelligence named Wintermute. Wintermute wants freedom, and Case is the man who can do the job. (Some of the secondary characters, including Molly from "Johnny Mnemonic," will be familiar to readers of Gibson's short stories.) The intensity never lets up as Gibson creates a world that is one of the most distinctive in science fiction. And the story is told in a high-tech poetic prose style that owes as much to William S. Burroughs as it does to Gibson's predecessors in SF. The end result is a book that is both stylistically creative and thoroughly gripping in its unfolding adventure. In short, Neuromancer packs more ideas into its 250 pages than most writers can manage in a 900-page trilogy. It was hailed as an instant classic when first published as an Ace Science Fiction Special in 1984, winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards, and it remains one of the most influential science fiction novels ever written. --Greg L. Johnson [via]
More editions of Neuromancer:
- Neuromancer: ISBN 0441007465 (0-441-00746-5)
Softcover, Ace Books - Neuromancer: ISBN 0441569595 (0-441-56959-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group - Neuromancer: ISBN 0441012035 (0-441-01203-5)
Hardcover, Ace Books - Neuromancer: ISBN 0441000681 (0-441-00068-1)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated - Neuromancer: ISBN 0932096417 (0-932096-41-7)
Hardcover, Phantasia Press - Neuromancer: ISBN 1569564116 (1-56956-411-6)
Softcover, William a Thomas Braille
- Neuromancer: ISBN 0441007465 (0-441-00746-5)
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Oryx and Crakeby Margaret AtwoodISBN 0385721676 (0-385-72167-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Oryx and Crake'Book summary:In Oryx and Crake, a science fiction novel that is more Swift than Heinlein, more cautionary tale than "fictional science" (no flying cars here), Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world that turns from the merely horrible to the horrific, from a fool's paradise to a bio-wasteland. Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a tree and just might be the only human left on our devastated planet. He is not entirely alone, however, as he considers himself the shepherd of a group of experimental, human-like creatures called the Children of Crake. As he scavenges and tends to his insect bites, Snowman recalls in flashbacks how the world fell apart.
While the story begins with a rather ponderous set-up of what has become a clichéd landscape of the human endgame, littered with smashed computers and abandoned buildings, it takes on life when Snowman recalls his boyhood meeting with his best friend Crake: "Crake had a thing about him even then.... He generated awe ... in his dark laconic clothing." A dangerous genius, Crake is the book's most intriguing character. Crake and Jimmy live with all the other smart, rich people in the Compounds--gated company towns owned by biotech corporations. (Ordinary folks are kept outside the gates in the chaotic "pleeblands.") Meanwhile, beautiful Oryx, raised as a child prostitute in Southeast Asia, finds her way to the West and meets Crake and Jimmy, setting up an inevitable love triangle. Eventually Crake's experiments in bioengineering cause humanity's shockingly quick demise (with uncanny echoes of SARS, ebola, and mad cow disease), leaving Snowman to try to pick up the pieces. There are a few speed bumps along the way, including some clunky dialogue and heavy-handed symbols such as Snowman's broken watch, but once the bleak narrative gets moving, as Snowman sets out in search of the laboratory that seeded the world's destruction, it clips along at a good pace, with a healthy dose of wry humor. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca [via]
More editions of Oryx and Crake:
- Oryx and Crake: ISBN 0385503857 (0-385-50385-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group - Oryx and Crake: ISBN 0375432124 (0-375-43212-4)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print - Oryx and Crake: ISBN 0771008686 (0-7710-0868-6)
Hardcover, McClelland & Stewart - Oryx and Crake: ISBN 0385721676 (0-385-72167-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- Oryx and Crake: ISBN 0385503857 (0-385-50385-7)
Pacific Edgeby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0812500563 (0-8125-0056-3)
Softcover, Tor Books
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A Quantum Murderby Peter F. HamiltonISBN 0812555244 (0-8125-5524-4)
Softcover, Tor Books
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Rainbows Endby Vernor VingeISBN 0812536363 (0-8125-3636-3)
Softcover, Tor Science Fiction
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rainbows End'Book summary:[via]Four time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge has taken readers to the depths of space and into the far future in his bestselling novels A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Now, he has written a science-fiction thriller set in a place and time as exciting and strange as any far-future world: San Diego, California, 2025.
Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he's starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts. Living with his son's family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access--through nodes designed into smart clothes--and to see the digital context--through smart contact lenses.
With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination.
In a world where every computer chip has Homeland Security built-in, this conspiracy is something that baffles even the most sophisticated security analysts, including Robert's son and daughter-in law, two top people in the U.S. military. And even Miri, in her attempts to protect her grandfather, may be entangled in the plot.
As Robert becomes more deeply involved in conspiracy, he is shocked to learn of a radical change planned for the UCSD Geisel Library; all the books there, and worldwide, would cease to physically exist. He and his fellow re-trainees feel compelled to join protests against the change. With forces around the world converging on San Diego, both the conspiracy and the protest climax in a spectacular moment as unique and satisfying as it is unexpected. This is science fiction at its very best, by a master storyteller at his peak.More editions of Rainbows End:
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Red Marsby Kim Stanley RobinsonISBN 0007115903 (0-00-711590-3)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Red Mars'Book summary:In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of three novels that will chronicle the colonization of Mars. For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny. John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life...and death. The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed. Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision. [via]
More editions of Red Mars:
- Red Mars: ISBN 0553560735 (0-553-56073-5)
Softcover, Bantam Books - Red Mars: ISBN 0553371347 (0-553-37134-7)
Softcover, Bantam Books - Red Mars: ISBN 0553092049 (0-553-09204-9)
Hardcover, Bantam Books - Red Mars: ISBN 060608066X (0-606-08066-X)
Hardcover, Demco Media - Red Mars: ISBN 0007115903 (0-00-711590-3)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square
- Red Mars: ISBN 0553560735 (0-553-56073-5)
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Rendezvous with Ramaby Arthur Charles ClarkeISBN 0553287893 (0-553-28789-3)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rendezvous with Rama'Book summary:An all-time science fiction classic, Rendezvous with Rama is also one of Clarke's best novels--it won the Campbell, Hugo, Jupiter, and Nebula Awards. A huge, mysterious, cylindrical object appears in space, swooping in toward the sun. The citizens of the solar system send a ship to investigate before the enigmatic craft, called Rama, disappears. The astronauts given the task of exploring the hollow cylindrical ship are able to decipher some, but definitely not all, of the extraterrestrial vehicle's puzzles. From the ubiquitous trilateral symmetry of its structures to its cylindrical sea and machine-island, Rama's secrets are strange evidence of an advanced civilization. But who, and where, are the Ramans, and what do they want with humans? Perhaps the answer lies with the busily working biots, or the sealed-off buildings, or the inaccessible "southern" half of the enormous cylinder. Rama's unsolved mysteries are tantalizing indeed. Rendezvous with Rama is fast moving, fascinating, and a must-read for science fiction fans. Clarke collaborated with Gentry Lee in writing several Rama sequels, beginning with Rama II. [via]
More editions of Rendezvous with Rama:
- Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 0899684491 (0-89968-449-1)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books - Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 0345350561 (0-345-35056-1)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group - Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 0330240242 (0-330-24024-2)
Hardcover, Pan Books - Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 057501587X (0-575-01587-X)
Hardcover, Gollancz - Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 0816130388 (0-8161-3038-8)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 0553287893 (0-553-28789-3)
Softcover, Bantam Books
- Rendezvous with Rama: ISBN 0899684491 (0-89968-449-1)
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Rendezvous With Ramaby Clarke Arthur C.ISBN 0613069498 (0-613-06949-8)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rendezvous With Rama'Book summary:An all-time science fiction classic, Rendezvous with Rama is also one of Clarke's best novels--it won the Campbell, Hugo, Jupiter, and Nebula Awards. A huge, mysterious, cylindrical object appears in space, swooping in toward the sun. The citizens of the solar system send a ship to investigate before the enigmatic craft, called Rama, disappears. The astronauts given the task of exploring the hollow cylindrical ship are able to decipher some, but definitely not all, of the extraterrestrial vehicle's puzzles. From the ubiquitous trilateral symmetry of its structures to its cylindrical sea and machine-island, Rama's secrets are strange evidence of an advanced civilization. But who, and where, are the Ramans, and what do they want with humans? Perhaps the answer lies with the busily working biots, or the sealed-off buildings, or the inaccessible "southern" half of the enormous cylinder. Rama's unsolved mysteries are tantalizing indeed. Rendezvous with Rama is fast moving, fascinating, and a must-read for science fiction fans. Clarke collaborated with Gentry Lee in writing several Rama sequels, beginning with Rama II. [via]
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River of Godsby Ian McDonaldISBN 1591024366 (1-59102-436-6)
Hardcover, Prometheus Books
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Scardownby ELIZABETH BEARISBN 055358751X (0-553-58751-X)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Scardown'Book summary:The year is 2062, and after years on the run, Jenny Casey is back in the Canadian armed forces. Those who were once her enemies are now her allies, and at fifty, shes been handpicked for the most important mission of her lifea mission for which her artificially reconstructed body is perfectly suited. With the earth capable of sustaining life for just another century, Jennyas pilot of the starship Montrealmust discover brave new worlds. And with time running out, she must succeed where others have failed.
Now Jenny is caught in a desperate battle where old resentments become bitter betrayals and justice takes the cruelest forms of vengeance. With the help of a brilliant AI, an excrime lord, and the man she loves, Jenny may just get her chance to save the world. If it doesnt come to an end first& [via]More editions of Scardown:
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Snow Crashby Neal StephensonISBN 0553380958 (0-553-38095-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Snow Crash'Book summary:From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman, and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible. [via]
More editions of Snow Crash:
- Snow Crash: ISBN 0613361628 (0-613-36162-8)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Snow Crash: ISBN 0553351923 (0-553-35192-3)
Softcover, Bantam Books - Snow Crash: ISBN 0553562614 (0-553-56261-4)
Softcover, Bantam Books - Snow Crash: ISBN 055308853X (0-553-08853-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Books - Snow Crash: ISBN 0553380958 (0-553-38095-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
- Snow Crash: ISBN 0613361628 (0-613-36162-8)
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Virtual Lightby William GibsonISBN 0553566067 (0-553-56606-7)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Virtual Light'Book summary:The author of Neuromancer takes you to the vividly realized near future of 2005. Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. Here the millennium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a bicycle messenger turned pick-pocket who impulsively snatches a pair of innocent-looking sunglasses. But these are no ordinary shades. What you can see through these high-tech specs can make you rich--or get you killed. Now Berry and Chevette are on the run, zeroing in on the digitalized heart of DatAmerica, where pure information is the greatest high. And a mind can be a terrible thing to crash. [via]
The Wild Shoreby Kim Stanley Robinson, Terry CarrISBN 0441888747 (0-441-88874-7)
Softcover, Putnam Berkley
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Worldwiredby ELIZABETH BEARISBN 0553587498 (0-553-58749-8)
Softcover, Bantam Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Worldwired'Book summary:Give Canadas Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey an inch and shell take a galaxy. Thats just the kind of person a world on the brink of destruction needs. The year is 2063, and Earth has been brutalized. An asteroid flung at Toronto by the PanChinese government has killed tens of millions and left the equivalent of a nuclear explosion in its wake. Humanity must find another option....
Perched above the devastation in the starship Montreal, Jenny is still in the thick of the fray. Plugged into the worldwire, connected to a brilliant AI, her mind can be everywhere and anywhere at once. But its focused on the mysterious alien beings right outside her ship. Are they there to helpor destroy? With Earth a breeding ground for treason and betrayal as governments struggle to assign blame, Jenny holds the fate of humankind in her artificially reconstructed hand.... [via]More editions of Worldwired:
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Contactoby Carl SaganISBN 8401462231 (84-01-46223-1)
Softcover, Random House Mondadori
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Contacto'More editions of Contacto:
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La Era Del Diamante/The Diamond Ageby Neal Stephenson, Pedro RomeroISBN 8466617248 (84-666-1724-8)
Softcover, Ediciones B
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La Era Del Diamante/The Diamond Age'Book summary:In a Shanghai of the future, John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.[via]More editions of La Era Del Diamante/The Diamond Age:
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El Rio De Los Dioses/ the River of the Godsby Ian McDonaldISBN 8498002508 (84-9800-250-8)
Softcover, LA Factoria De Ideas
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