Black Man  
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0575075139
Hidden Empire Kevin J. Anderson  
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HIDDEN EMPIRE begins a dazzling space opera fit to stand with the classics of the genre, combining the politics of Frank Herbert's DUNE, the scope of Peter F. Hamilton's NIGHT'S DAWN trilogy, and the pageantry and romance of STAR WARS In the far future, humanity began to search the stars, sending out vast spaceships that would take generations to reach their goals. In the depths of space they encountered the Ildiran empire - apparently the galaxy's only other intelligent civilisation. The Ildirans came to Earth and passed on the knowledge of their stardrive, allowing humanity to expand to the stars. Almost two hundred years after that first contact, there are human colonies proliferating through the galaxy. As Mankind seizes the future, danger comes from the past, for two human archaeologists glean forbidden knowledge from the ruins of a dead world. Once, the insect-like Klikiss ruled the stars. Now, only their robot servants remain, guardians of a terrible technology - the Klikiss Torch, which has the power to create suns. Now, Humanity prepares to flex its new found muscle and activate the Torch for the first time in millennia, but there are reasons the Klikiss empire fell, and a train of events is about to be set in motion, that will change the universe...

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The Robots of Dawn Isaac Asimov  
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Called to the Spacer world to solve a case of roboticide, New York City detective Elijah Baley teams up with humanoid robot R. Daneel Olivaw. Together they are tasked with proving that the prime suspect, a renowned roboticist, is innocent of the crime. Plain clothes man Elijah Baley must travel to the planet Aurora to investigate the murder of Robot Jander. He would rather not. His last trip off-Earth on police business resulted in a TV drama being made of the case - as a result of which even his son Bentley suspects Elijah had an affair with Gladia Delmarre, the murder suspect whom he proved innocent. Not only does Gladia now live on Aurora, the murdered robot belonged to her...and was her lover! Elijah is teamed once more with Robot Daneel, and they are joined by another interesting robot, Giskard. The investigation should benefit from a secret and unique ability possessed by Robot Giskard. But Elijah is disturbed by his presence, sensing perhaps that Giskard's positronic brainpaths function to a hidden agenda. What Giskard knows but Elijah does not is that the future of mankind in space hangs on the outcome of this investigation...

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Foundations Edge Isaac Asimov  
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It is 498 years since the two Foundations came into existence - half-way through the Interregnum planned by Hari Seldon. The Second Foundation has once more successfully concealed its existence so that the laws of psychohistory can operate to usher in a new Empire ruled by the mental sciences. The Second Foundation is thought to be extinct...except by Councilman Golan Trevize. Trevize fears that the mysterious Second Foundation will bid for power once a new Galactic Empire is established. To prevent Trevize spreading alarm' the Mayor of Terminus exiles him to the abandoned ruins of Trantor. Accompanying Trevize is Janov Pelorat' Professor of Ancient History at the University of Terminus. Pelorat hopes to find on Trantor a clue to the location of the planet that gave birth to the human race. His belief in the existence of Earth is considered as far-fetched as Trevize's belief that the Second Foundation endures. But the truths discovered by both of them on Trantor are far stranger than they could have guessed.

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Prelude to Foundation Isaac Asimov  
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In PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION, what happed in the many centuries before the events made famous in Asimov's other Foundation novels - hitherto only hinted at - is now revealed. The Key to the Future It is the year 12,020 G.E. and the last Galactic Emperor of the Autun dynasty, Cleon I, sits uneasily on the throne. These are troubled times and Cleon is desperate to find a way to calm them. When young Outworld mathematician Hari Seldon arrives on Trantor to present a paper on psychohistory, his astounding theory of prediction, the emperor believes that his future security may rest on Seldon's prophetic powers. But Hari Seldon becomes the most wanted man in the Empire as he struggles desperately to keep his remarkable theory from falling into the wrong hands. At the same time he must he must forge the key to the future - a power to be known as the Foundation.

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Child of Time Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg  
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Based on an Asimov short story, "The Ugly Little Boy". A children's nurse is hired as part of a scientific project aimed at bringing a living being from the past to the present. A four-year-old Neanderthal boy is snatched from his home and hurled 40,000 years into a terrifying future.

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Canal Dreams Iain Banks  
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Hisako Onoda, world famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako's ship is captured, it is not long before the atmosphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on her cello. CANAL DREAMS is a novel of deceptive simplicity and dark, original power: stark psychological insights mesh with vividly realised scenarios in an ominous projection of global realpolitik. The result is yet another major landmark in the quite remarkable career of an outstanding modern novelist.

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Walking On Glass Iain Banks  
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'Her eyes were black, wide as though with some sustained surprise, the skin from their outer corners to her small ears taut. Her lips were pale, and nearly too full for her small mouth, like something bled but bruised. He had never seen anyone or anything quite so beautiful in his life.' Graham Park is in love. But Sara Fitch is an enigma to him, a creature of almost perverse mystery. Steven Grout is paranoid - and with justice. He knows that They are out to get him. They are. Quiss, insecure in his fabulous if ramshackle castle, is forced to play interminable impossible games. The solution to the oldest of all paradoxical riddles will release him. But he must find an answer before he knows the question. Park, Grout, Quiss - no trio could be further apart. But their separate courses are set for collision.

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The Bridge Iain Banks  
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The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn't seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality. Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn't be much fun, you'd think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you've left behind. Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities.

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Whit, or Isis Amongst the Unsaved Iain Banks  
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Isis Whit is no ordinary teenager. An innocent in the ways of the world, an ingenue when it comes to fashion, she does however rejoice in some neat healing powers, a way with animals and the exalted status of Elect of God of the Luskentyrian Sect. Part of the 1995 Scottish Book Fortnight promotion.

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Song of Stone Iain Banks  
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The war is ending, perhaps ended. But for the castle and its occupants, the troubles are just beginning - armed gangs roam a lawless land and taking to the roads with the other refugees, anonymous in their raggedness, seems safer than remaining in the ancient keep.

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