Pyrs 2nd Season of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Explore Pyr's 2nd Season of Science Fiction and Fantasy with a curated list of must-read books. Dive into epic fantasy, futuristic sci-fi, and groundbreaking speculative fiction from top authors.
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Silverheart
by Michael Moorcock
This is a novel set at the very heart of Michael Moorcock’s multiverse, in Karadur, city of metal, steam, and ancient families, the mighty clans of the metal. In six days, Max Silverskin, thief and trickster, must discover the secrets of his heritage or die from the witch mark – the silverheart – which will devour his heart. Lady Rose Iron, daughter of the leader of the powerful Clan Iron is thrown into an edgy alliance with Max as she searches for the secrets that could save the city’s future. Captain Cornelius Coffin, head of the clans’ security forces, is in love with Lady Rose and obsessed with capturing Max. And there are others, in Shriltasi, Karadur’s underworld twin, who know the prophecy which says that only Max Silverskin can save both realms. In Silverheart, Michael Moorcock and Storm Constantine have combined their talents to produce a novel that is both surreal and gothic.
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The Affinity Trap
by Martin Sketchley
Sketchley's first novel skillfully blurs the boundaries between good and evil, male and female, human and nonhuman. The very essence of what it is to be human is explored within this gripping narrative.
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Silver Screen
by Justina Robson
Silver Screen presents an enjoyably different, subversive slant on the science fiction themes of AI and cyberspace. Insecure and overweight heroine Anjuli O’Connell is one of a group of friends who have been hot-housed from an early age to perform in genius-level jobs. But Anjuli worries that her eidetic memory and her friendship with genuine smart boy Roy Croft has been her ticket to success, rather than any real intelligence of her own. She’s put to the test when Roy kills himself in an experiment to upload his mind into cyberspace, seeking that SF dream of bodiless immortality, which doesn’t work as expected. At the same time her boyfriend’s research has led to him harnessing himself to dubious biomechanoid technologies, which pull the user into mental symbiosis, creating hybrid consciousness – a new "I", continuous with the old, but different. "Where does life end and the machine begin?" Meanwhile Anjuli’s grasping multinational employer, OptiNet, the owner of global communications AI, 901, is locked into an increasingly bitter war with the Machine-Greens, who preach AI liberation. As the case for 901’s humanity, or otherwise, comes up before the Strasbourg Court, expert witness Anjuli is targeted by assassins and entangled in the hunt for an algorithm which is the key to machine consciousness, and which may even be the master-code of life itself. This story explores many interfaces between humans and their technologies, between the promises of science and the explanations of faith. It is written in a first-person style that mingles elements of detective story and confessional. Alongside its SF content, the book delves into the complexities of friendship, loyalty, love, and betrayal from an intimate human perspective. This is "grrrl-style" SF: as well as all the favorite "Airfix" features, the protagonists deconstruct personal relationships amidst macrocosmic and deeply philosophical goings-on. The writing is punchy, but with a literary sheen. It delivers complex concepts and a twisting plot with a deceptively light touch.
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Tides
by Scott MacKay
Paras and Ortok are the only two continents on this planet--home to two different species separated by thousands of miles of ocean. Paras is a lush, hospitable place giving rise to a culture of kindness and honesty. Ortok is bleak and volcanic, with a culture of cruelty and deceit. What happens when the cultures collide?
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Starship: Mutiny
by Mike Resnick
The starship Theodore Roosevelt is fighting on the far outskirts of a galactic war, its crew made up of retreads and raw recruits. A new first officer reports, Wilson Cole, a man with a reputation for exceeding his orders (but getting results). He's been banished to the Teddy R. for his actions, but once there he again ignores his orders. ... This is the first of five novels about the starship Theodore Roosevelt. The next four will be, in order, Pirate, Mercenary, Rebel, and Flagship.
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Macrolife
by George Zebrowski
Selected by "Library Journal" as one of the hundred best science fiction novels of all times, this pioneering tale is a visionary speculation on the long-term future of human and natural history. Includes new Afterword by author.
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Macrolife
by George Zebrowski
Selected by "Library Journal" as one of the hundred best science fiction novels of all times, this pioneering tale is a visionary speculation on the long-term future of human and natural history. Includes new Afterword by author.
Book
Genetopia
by Keith Brooke
British author Brooke's engrossing far-future parable intertwines old, old human questions: Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going? Must I go? After centuries of biotechnology gone berserk, "True" humans inhabit a land of mortal fears where a chance microbe or the changing vats of their enemies can dehumanize them forever. "Mutts," grotesque "Lost" subhumans, outwardly devote themselves to their True masters, though like pre?Civil War slaves, the mutts secretly talk of finding "Harmony," freedom from their inborn servitude. Flint, a True human, leaves his clan to find his rebellious sister, Amber, sold by their abusive father into a horrifying slavery. Though he dreads change, Flint himself passes through successive fragments of a degenerate civilization, first adopting the Lordsway of the gentle religious Riverwalkers, then becoming a "Watchman" in an army bent on purging the Lost from the world.