A NEW NOVEL OF REAL SF FROM WIL McCARTHYSpace: a tycoon's playground. From a space station full of women to a monastery on the Moon, from a Martian reality-TV contest to a solar shade large enough to cool the Earth, the dreams of a handful of trillionaires dictate the future of humanity. Outside the reach of Earthly law and with the vast resources of the inner solar system at their disposal, the “Four Horsemen” do exactly as they please.The governments of E...

*** A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK ***Mycora: technogenic life. Fast-reproducing, fast-mutating, and endlessly voracious. In the year 2106, these microscopic machine/creatures have escaped their creators to populate the inner solar system with a wild, deadly ecology all their own, pushing the tattered remnants of humanity out into the cold and dark of the outer planets. Even huddled beneath the ice of Jupiter's moons, protected by a defensive system known as the Immunity, survivors ...

A MODERN SCIENCE FICTION CLASSIC FROM WIL MCCARTHYIn the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three commodities rule the day. The first is wellstone, a form of programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance: natural, artificial, even hypothetical. The second is collapsium, a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, vital for the transmission of information and matter—including humans—throughout the solar system. The third is the bitter riva...

Programmable matter is probably not the next technological revolution, nor even perhaps the one after that. But it's coming, and when it does, it will change our lives as much as any invention ever has. Imagine being able to program matter itself-to change it, with the click of a cursor, from hard to soft, from paper to stone, from fluorescent to super-reflective to invisible. Supported by companies ranging from Levi Strauss to IBM and the Defense Department, solid-state physicists in labo...

Humanity has conquered the Solar System. What’s more, death itself has been vanquished. Wellstone—programmable matter—insures that no one need every die, or indeed, age past adulthood. But for the children of immortal parents, life remains a constant state of arrested development. And a prince shall remain a prince forever, never inheriting the throne. So what is a minor royal to do?Bascal Edward de Towaji Lutui is tired of his parents—the Queen of Sol and her consort—treating his ...

THE LUNAR MONASTERY TAUGHT PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE IN SPACE . . . AND THEN ONE OF ITS STUDENTS WAS MURDEREDWho owns the future?Homicide detective Raimy Vaught is a losing contestant in the biggest reality show ever: the colonization of Mars. Brother Michael is a Benedictine monk who just wants to help the future happen. Andrei Bykhovski is an asteroid miner desperately escaping indentured servitude. Bridget Tobin is a hydroponic farmer studying ...

** WALDENBOOKS BOOK OF THE WEEK **** LOCUS RECOMMENDED READING LIST **An alien armada from the center of Orion makes its deadly way through the galaxy, destroying all human life in the process, and only Marine Corporal Kenneth Jonson and the Aggressor Six team can stop the onslaught.REVIEWS:"An intense and satisfying novel."—Walter Jon Williams"Wil McCarthy brings thought and insight to the realm of fast-paced, action science fiction. AGGRESSOR...

**EXILED FROM IMMORTALITY!**The third entry in McCarthy's groundbreaking, mind-bending Queendom of Sol series back in print.Brash and idealistic, they were rebels without a cause in a world governed by science, reason . . . and immortality. Banished for their troubles to the starship Newhope, they now face a bold future: to settle the worlds of Barnard’s Star. Now King Bascal Edward de Towaji Lutui, former prince of the Queendom of Sol, together with Captain Xiomara “Xmary...

Was wissen wir eigentlich über die Steinzeit? Nur das, was uns die archäologischen Funde offenbaren. Doch was, wenn die Legende vom Höhlenmenschen nicht mehr ist als – eine Legende? Wenn die Steinzeit stattdessen ein Zeitalter der Bildung und des Fortschritts gewesen wäre? Den beiden Wissenschaftlern Harv Leonel und Tara Mukherjee ist eine bahnbrechende Entdeckung gelungen, eine Entdeckung, die es den Menschen ermöglicht, die Vergangenheit mit eigenen Augen zu sehen. Doch die alte Welt ist...

A wildly original alien contact novel, set against a vivid backdrop of near-Earth corporate intrigue.Trillionaire Igbal Renz has constructed a starship capable of making the twenty-year journey to Alpha Centauri. So why is he stopping at barely one-tenth that distance, with a cargo of a hundred frozen scientists and diplomats? Rumors abound that Renz Ventures, Inc., has made contact with . . . something. And yet, as deadly stealth ships prowl the space lanes and as...

CONCLUSION TO THE GROUNDBREAKING QUEENDOM OF SOL SERIESOnce the Queendom of Sol was a glowing monument to humankind’s loftiest dreams. Ageless and immortal, its citizens lived in peaceful splendor. But as Sol buckled under the swell of an immorbid population, space itself literally ran out. . . .Conrad Mursk has returned to Sol on the crippled starship Newhope. His crew are the frozen refugees of a failed colony known as Barnard’s Star. A thousand ...

David Sanger, an ambitious young physicist, attends a party at which a pompous older scientist, who just happens to have thrwarted the younger man's innovative ideas, is murdered. Suddenly it is not just David's career, but his life that is at stake. Are his ideas that important? Who's out to stop David from changing the world?REVIEWS:"Exceptionally good. Besides being an excellent mystery, it is a convincing look at the near future of nanotechnology."—Vernor Vinge