- Blackmore, R.D.
- General AAS
- Coffee & Tea
- Japan
- Old Ordnance Survey Maps
- General AAS
- Film & Cinema
- By Platform
- Argentina
- Ecclesiastical (Canon)
- Mitchell, David
- Artists
- North American Studies
- Willis, Lynn
- Adobe Encore
- Bar Exams
- Tate, Allen
- McDonald, Gregory
- General AAS
- Melbourne
- General AAS
- Bestsellers
- Hungarian
- Trollope, Joanna
- Bestsellers
- Cover, Arthur Byron
- General AAS
- Microsoft Office
- Other European Languages
- 1500-1800
- Some of our other sites:
- Books
- Clothing, Shoes and Accessories
- Baby Clothes and Accessories
- Cosmetics, Beauty Products and Fragrances
- Cellphones, Call Plans and Accessories
- Video Games
- DVDs
- Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- Health and Personal Care
- Home and Garden
- Home DIY
- Jewelry
- Magazines and Newspapers
- Music Downloads
- Musical Instruments
- Office Equipment and Supplies
- Software and Games
- Sporting Goods
- Toys and Games
- Watches
- UK Books
- UK Video Games
- UK Home and Garden
- UK Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- UK Baby Clothes and Accessories
- UK Software and Games
- UK Sporting Goods
- UK Toys and Games
Books : Science Fiction & Fantasy : Authors, A-Z : B : Brin, David
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Isaac Asimov's 1951-53 "Foundation" trilogy is a rough-hewn classic of far-future SF, honoured with a unique 1965 Hugo for Best All-Time Series. It begins with "psychohistorian" Hari Seldon mapping the best possible course for humanity's next millennium, after the fall of the doomed Galactic Empire. Late in life Asimov revisited the series and awkwardly linked it with his popular robot stories--introducing vast conspiracy theories to explain the Empire's total lack of visible robots.Asimov's estate authorised three SF notables to fill out Seldon's life in the "Second Foundation Trilogy", which David Brin here wraps up after Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear and Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos. Chaos is the new keyword because chaos theory seemingly makes nonsense of psychohistorical prediction. Whole planetary populations can lapse into chaotic rebellion despite secret mind-controlling agencies behind the scenes. So Seldon makes his last interstellar journey, harried, lectured and even kidnapped by the warring factions of robots and not-quite-robots that have long manipulated humanity. The robots' dilemma:
"We are loyal, and yet far more competent than our masters. For their own sake, we have kept them ignorant, because we know too well what destructive paths they follow, whenever they grow too aware."
Brin does his best with Asimov's overcrowded legacy, skilfully steering Seldon to an insight about the much-foretold future that satisfies both the old man and the reader, with a spark of human free will and constructive chaos shining through the greyness of predestination. Asimov would have approved. --David Langford
-
-
-
Isaac Asimov spent the latter years of his writing career turning the various space opera universes of his early work into a single coherent storyline--behind the Psychohistorical Foundations and their master plan to rebuild the Galactic Empire plots the altruistic robot, R.Daneel Olivaw. Since his death, the gaps in his vast scheme of historical movements have been gradually filled in by friends and admirers; this third in the series of novels authorised by his estate--the others being Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford and Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear--deals with the old age of Hari Seldon, inventor of Psychohistory and the Foundations. His work is done, his wife is supposedly dead and he is waiting for the end-- and yet the restless intelligence that has shaped human destiny cannot rest.David Brin takes some interesting risks with this material, patching in books that Asimov never got round to reusing and asking some pertinent ethical questions about the whole enterprise. He brings to Asimov's universe his own sense of the vastness and strangeness of the physical universe and a capacity for complex and inventive plotting--this book rehabilitates the whole idea of sequels by other hands. --Roz Kaveney
-
This second volume in David Brin's new Uplift trilogy is an epic tale that artfully combines dozens of unique characters and their individual stories. The planet Jijo, which has been settled by six separate races despite a decree that it remain barren for a million years, is about to change. The exploration ship Streaker, on the run since discovering the secrets of a two-billion-year-old derelict fleet, has arrived with virtually the entire universe in pursuit. Overnight the peaceful, technologically backwards Jijoan society erupts into civil war, creating a chaotic tapestry of grief, sorrow, joy, love and, ultimately, hope.
-
Heaven's Reach is the final volume of the Uplift trilogy, which begins in Brightness Reef and continues in Infinity's Shore. It chronicles the adventures of a handful of primitives from the planet Jijo who have left or been taken from their homes only to be swept into the intrigues of galactic politics. The novel also continues the story of the fugitive Earth starship Streaker, pursued across the galaxy for its precious cargo of ancient artifacts. Just when it looks like things can't get worse for Streaker, the foretold Time of Changes rocks the galaxy. Devastating "space quakes" shake every planet and star, and some of the particularly unscrupulous alien races attempt to use the disaster to further their bizarre goals. There's danger and excitement on almost every page (in contrast to much of the first two books in the series) and Brin finally delivers on many of the mysteries of the Five Galaxies. The Progenitors, the Hydrogen Breathers, Streaker's cargo--these and more are explained at last. Or are they? Each seemingly ultimate truth tends to dissolve a chapter later, revealing a new and more complex truth. New adventures and mysteries await. --Brooks Peck, Amazon.com
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
