2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke

Man's control over the machines he has created is absolute. He has manipulated his natural environment, conquered the problems of interplanetary travel, and is ready for what comes next, IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, 2001 enable Java to view text sample You are commander of Discovery, a spacecraft traveling at a hundred thousand miles an hour. Your destination is a planet on the farthest edge of the Solar System. Your companions are a fellow navigator, three deep-freeze hibernauts, and Hal, a chatty computer who ceaselessly guides your course and your life. The mission you undertake through the abyss of space has been set off by a shrieking slab found within the moon's crater Clavius. There is no posibility that this strange monolith is a natural formation. It is a deliberately buried calling card, left by an alien Intelligence millions of years ago. And you must find It, wherever, whatever, It is. 2001: A Space Oddysee, 2010, 2061 and 3001 on amazon.com

Rendezvous with Rama

Arthur C. Clarke

In 2130, astronomers discover a curious asteroid heading for the inner solar system at hyperbolic speed. But this asteroid, dubbed Rama, is no natural object, but an interstellar spacecraft of incredible dimensions. A perfect cylinder, 40 kilometers long and weighing more than 10 trillion tons, humankinds first evidence of extraterrestial intelligence. enable Java to view text sample Rama II "By 2197 the world knew that the object hurtling through the solar system toward the inner planetes was a second extraterrestrial spacecraft. The International Space Agency concentrated its resources to prepare a mission that would intercept the intruder just inside the orbit of Venus in late February of 2200. Again the eyes of humanity looked outward, toward the stars, and the deep philosophical questions raised by the first Rama were again debated by the populace on Earth. As the new visitor drew nearer and its physical characteristics were more carefully resolved by the host of sensors aimed in its direction, it was confirmed that this alien spacecraft, at least from the outside, was identical to its predecessor. Rama had returned. Mankind had a second appointment with destiny."

Neuromancer

William Gibson

In 1984 William Gibson's first novel, Neuromancer, burst onto the science fiction scene like a supernova. The shock waves from that explosion had an immediate impact on the relatively insular SF field. Neuromancer became the first novel to win the triple crown- Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards- and, in the process, virtually single-handedly launched the cyberpunk movement. Neuromancer, with its stunning technopoetic prose surface and its superspecific evocation of life in a sleazed-out global village of the near future, has rapidly gained unprecedented critical and popular attention outside SF. Prior to the publication of Neuromancer, Gibson had published only a half- dozen stories (since collected in Burning Chrome [1986b]). Although several of these display flashes of his abilities- and two of them, "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Burning Chrome," introduce motifs and elements elaborated upon in the later novels- clearly Neuromancer was a major imaginative leap forward for someone who had not even attempted to write a novel previously. The sources of all the white light and white heat being generated by this new kid on the block are immediately apparent from the opening words of the novel: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Dense, kaleidoscopic, fast-paced, full of punked-out, high-tech weirdos, Neuromancer depicts with hallucinatory vividness the desperate, exhilarating feel of life in our new urban landscapes. from: An Interview with William Gibson,conducted by Larry McCaffery Neuromancer and Burning Chrome on amazon.com

The Heir to the Empire Trilogy

Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn's continuation of the Star Wars storyline is one of the most fantastic pieces of Star Wars fiction ever written. The movie trilogy definitely pales in comparison. The only kind of disappointment you will feel after reading this is that you will not see this on the movie screen instead of the prequels. It's five years after Return of the Jedi: the Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven out the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting Jedi Twins. And Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of Jedi Knights. But thousand of light-years away, the last of the emperor's warlords has taken command of the shattered Imperial Fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the new Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to build. The explosive confrontation that results is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale--in short, a story worthy of the name Star Wars. Heir to the Empire Dark Force Rising and The Last Commnand on amazon.com

Sherlock Holmes	Arthur Conan Doyle
enable Java to view text sample The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes and A Study in Scarlet and the Sign of Four on amazon.com

Nineteen-Eighty-Four

George Orwell

In 1984 the world is divided into three parts, Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia, all perpetually at war. In Oceania, the Party has created a totalitarian state that annihilates all opposition. In the forefront of the Party stands Big Brother, a figure of almost mythical power. Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one´s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satiesfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies, while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies - all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. Nineteen-Eighty-Four on amazon.com

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

"If it were I who were to be always young and the picture to grow old ... I would give my soul for it." "Here, one should never make one´s début with a scandal. One should reserve that to give an interest to one´s old age." "A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.." "The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties." "The aim of life is self-development. To realize one´s nature perfectly - that is, what each of us is here for." "Always! That is a dreadful word. (..) Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last for ever." "It is only the sacred things that are worth touching." "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful." "Beauty is a form of Genius - higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation." "... we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!" The Picture of Dorian Gray on amazon.com

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often `came down' handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, `My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?' No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, `No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!' But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call `nuts' to Scrooge. A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Carol Audio CD (narrated by Patrick Stewart) on amazon.com

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Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
Forbidden Archeology's Impact
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