After a genetic mutation has left the human species sterile and doomed to extinction, the citizens of New Sebastian live long and luxurious lives, thanks to Rejuvenation. But when Jericho and Gabrielle, two specimens from the Rejuvenation supply farm, escape prior to being harvested, the dark truth threatens the existence of the last society on Earth.After a genetic mutation has left the human species sterile and doomed to extinction, the citizens of New Sebastian live long and luxurious lives, thanks to Rejuvenation. But when Jericho and Gabrielle, two specimens from the Rejuvenation supply farm, escape prior to being harvested, the dark truth threatens the existence of the last society on Earth.The cure for the Deathshead plague has created a genetic mutation that has left the human species sterile and doomed to extinction. But in the last known civilization on Earth, the citizens experience long and luxurious lives, through a process known as Rejuvenation.Jericho and Gabrielle spend their simple lives in the Village dreaming of their future together, and barely notice the metallic humanoid Guardians that ensure obedience. But when she scans positive for the plague and is permanently sent away to the mysterious Quarantine, Jericho enters a frantic battle to find and save her.Jonah and his wife enjoy their carefree lives in New Sebastian, and Rejuvenation every twenty or so years keeps them eternally young and healthy. But when Jonah discovers the dark secret behind their long and privileged lives, he struggles with the bitter choice of continuing to live his long life or facing the horrific discovery head on. As Jonah helps Jericho and Gabrielle attempt to escape, they find that they are on a predefined path which leads to the last hope for the survival of the human species, and the salvation of mankind. Views: 709
THE JESUS TWIN is a comic fiction short story about the nature of faith. Written by Wright Forbucks, the author of THE WALKING MAN, THE JESUS TWIN tells the story of two professors as they struggle to interpret three ancient scrolls that appear to be the Gospel According to Jessup, the younger brother of Jesus Christ.This story takes place after the second Guardians novel "Blood in the Water" and is about the Water Guardian's mother and her unexpected journey into Faerie. Views: 709
Sandy asks the Russian Princess the one question she’s not supposed to: Why do you sleep?For the princess and her siblings are cursed to sleep endlessly, ruling through the granting of magical swan feathers that lead to an answer. And so Sandy is led from her life in Victorian London to one of mystical lakes and swan maidens – yet discovering the curse’s source could result in her own death"One thing about living in New Orleans I never could stomach...all the damn zombies." That seems to be the popular sentiment as the wild decadence and splendor of the Crescent City is underlined with the very real threat of a zombie apocalypse. In OCCUPATION, two best friends struggle to survive in a post-Katrina New Orleans in which several of the city’s residents have turned into mindless, ravenous zombies. Largely ignored by many in the city/state legislature, the city’s residents are forced to defend themselves against a mysterious epidemic that has many baffled as to the true nature of its origin.Now on the heels of a city swept in the madness and hysteria of both Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, two friends race against time in a last ditch effort to discover the truth behind the cause of the virus before it is too late. OCCUPATION is a funny, insightful and haunting story bringing a new twist on zombie folklore. Views: 708
Death. Despair. Madness. When a terrifying nightmare predicts the apocalypse, Detective David Burfict finds himself drawn into an ancient conspiracy to bring about an end to the age of man. Can he stop the machinations of madmen, or is he merely an unwitting link in the chain of our destruction?David Burfict has always been haunted by nightmares - violent ones, with unspeakable horrors, and terrifying whisperers, whose every word has always proven to be prophetic. Now, he dreams of Eschaton - the end of times. Can he avert the prophecy, or are we doomed to destruction by an entity beyond our understanding? Views: 708
*Jailbird* takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in government—and in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from Harvard to the Nixon White House to the penitentiary as Watergate’s least known co-conspirator. But the humor turns dark when Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and calculated greed of the mighty, giving a razor-sharp edge to an unforgettable portrait of power and politics in our times.
*From the Trade Paperback edition.* Views: 707
Tom, like the medieval Tom O'Bedlam, can't decipher the meaning of the images plaguing his mind. Much like the wondering and mad Tom of the medieval ballad, the Tom O'Bedlam of 2103 doesn't know what to make of the images that keep cluttering his mind. To preserve the last shred of his sanity and keep these never-ending wonders a secret, he feigns insanity. But then a probe that has traveled over four light years away transmits the very pictures that have been haunting Tom's dreams. In this post-industrial world on the verge of a total collapse, Tom has become humanity's spokesperson to the distant planet that may be his world's salvation. Views: 706
In the grand tradition of historical fictional biographies by Robert Graves (I, Claudius), Marguerite Yourcenar (Memories of Hadrian) and Gore Vidal (Julian), THE SECULARY OF A WANDERING JEW - ENVY, brings to light the story of an outsider fated to roam through the ages under the shadows of History.I was a man of my time - a doting father, a devout Jew, a diligent worker, a patriot, or so I believed. But I was destined to be a man for all Time, an immortal.“Who is the man the soldiers are dragging, father?” asked the youngster.“A preacher, I believe.”“But they’re calling him a king, father.” “They’re mocking him, son.”So did I, when I came across this obscure prophet on his way to martyrdom — an encounter that would mold my destiny, force me to question my beliefs, and uproot me from all that I cared for.More than 20 centuries after my birth, I have decided to chronicle my life into a diary — or as I call it, a seculary — of my long haunting existence. You’ll come to know why.Through these journals you are invited to accompany me on an epic journey of an envied, ageless man. An ostracized man, persecuted as the living proof of the divinity of a messiah in whom I never believed. In these pages you will meet some of the protagonists of the age, the ideals and the morality of the times, and learn the real truth behind events that would forever change the fabric of civilization, the very essence of what we are today. Views: 706
Simak's "City" is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.
Contents:
· City · nv Astounding May 1944
· Huddling Place · ss Astounding Jul 1944
· Census · nv Astounding Sep 1944
· Desertion · ss Astounding Nov 1944
· Paradise · ss Astounding Jun 1946
· Hobbies · nv Astounding Nov 1946
· Aesop · nv Astounding Dec 1947
· The Simple Way [The Trouble with Ants] · nv Fantastic Adventures Jan 1951
· Author’s Note · is
· Epilog · ss Astounding, ed. Harry Harrison, Random, 1973 Views: 706
Never had a Gift been so costly--Hell's vengeance seems to steep a price.All Jet wanted was a Gift, certainly not the responsibility that would come with it—the prophesied powers that would hurl him against Hell’s invasion. In a world where everyone is given special powers by their LORD, there was one among them that wasn’t: Jet Burner. Believed to be shunned by their God, he certainly wouldn’t have banked on anything worthwhile from his life. He was sadly mistaken. For it was his destiny to discover this Gift that would save the world he knows, but once his true nature and his planet’s hidden past are revealed, so too are instincts better left buried. Now Jet must restrain his new-found blood-lust and walk the path towards the Apocalypse. Views: 706
When a man receives a seemingly innocuous painting from a recently deceased colleague, he finds himself being pulled inexorably down into the dark depths of insanity.“Lonely Child” is a sci-fi story of a young boy’s wish to be able to walk on our planet’s surface. He was born in zero gravity and has lived there since birth with his parents on a mining and transport vessel supplying Earth. The boy has the opportunity to start talking to school kids his age on the surface and eventually realises that despite how trapped he feels on the ship, to the children on the planet he is the one free and living an adventure. Views: 706
Commander John Hanson recounts his harrowing adventure with the Electites of space. Views: 705
'Tis done.
The world is a most confused and unsteady place -- especially London, center of finance, innovation, and conspiracy -- in the year 1714, when Daniel Waterhouse makes his less-than-triumphant return to England's shores. Aging Puritan and Natural Philosopher, confidant of the high and mighty and contemporary of the most brilliant minds of the age, he has braved the merciless sea and an assault by the infamous pirate Blackbeard to help mend the rift between two adversarial geniuses at a princess's behest. But while much has changed outwardly, the duplicity and danger that once drove Daniel to the American Colonies is still coin of the British realm.
No sooner has Daniel set foot on his homeland when he is embroiled in a dark conflict that has been raging in the shadows for decades. It is a secret war between the brilliant, enigmatic Master of the Mint and closet alchemist Isaac Newton and his archnemesis, the insidious counterfeiter Jack the Coiner, a.k.a. Jack Shaftoe, King of the Vagabonds. Hostilities are suddenly moving to a new and more volatile level, as Half-Cocked Jack plots a daring assault on the Tower itself, aiming for nothing less than the total corruption of Britain's newborn monetary system.
Unbeknownst to all, it is love that set the Coiner on his traitorous course; the desperate need to protect the woman of his heart -- the remarkable Eliza, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm -- from those who would destroy her should he fail. Meanwhile, Daniel Waterhouse and his Clubb of unlikely cronies comb city and country for clues to the identity of the blackguard who is attempting to blow up Natural Philosophers with Infernal Devices -- as political factions jockey for position while awaiting the impending death of the ailing queen; as the "holy grail" of alchemy, the key to life eternal, tantalizes and continues to elude Isaac Newton, yet is closer than he ever imagined; as the greatest technological innovation in history slowly takes shape in Waterhouse's manufactory.
Everything that was will be changed forever ...
The System of the World is the concluding volume in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, begun with Quicksilver and continued in The Confusion.
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