Can science fiction--especially sci-fi cinema--save the world? It already has, many times. Retired officers testify that films like Doctor Strangelove, Fail-Safe, On the Beach and War Games provoked changes and helped prevent accidental war. Soylent Green and Silent Running recruited millions of environmental activists. The China Syndrome and countless movies about plagues helped bring attention to those failure modes. And the grand-daddy of "self-preventing prophecy"-Nineteen Eighty-Four-girded countless citizens to stay wary of Big Brother. It's not been all dire warnings. While optimism is much harder to dramatize than apocalypse, both large and small screens have also encouraged millions to lift their gaze, contemplating how we might get better, incrementally, or else raise grandchildren worthy of the stars. Come along on a quirky quest for unusual insights into the power of forward-looking media. How the romantic allure of feudalism tugs at men and women who benefited vastly from modernity. Or explore why almost every Hollywood film preaches Suspicion of Authority, along with tolerance, diversity and personal eccentricity, and how those messages helped keep us free. No one is spared scrutiny! Not Spielberg or Tolkien or Cameron or Costner... nor Dune or demigods or zombie flicks. Certainly not George Lucas or Ayn Rand! Though some critiques are offered from a lifetime of respect and love... and gratitude.

One Last Adventure!

Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is one of the highwater marks of science fiction. The monumental story of a Galactic Empire in decline and a secret society of scientists who seek to shorten the coming Dark Age with tools of Psychohistory, Foundation pioneered many themes of modern science fiction. Now, with the approval of the Asimov estate, three of today's most acclaimed authors have completed the epic the Grand Master left unfinished.

The Second Foundation Trilogy begins with Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear, telling the origins of Hari Seldon, the Foundation's creator. Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos relates the epic tale of Seldon's downfall and the first stirrings of robotic rebellion. Now, in David Brin's Foundation's Triumph, Seldon is about to escape exile and risk everything for one final quest-a search for knowledge and the power it bestows. The outcome of this final journey may secure humankind's future-or witness its final downfall...

A starship crew of humans and dolphins skirts the brink of interstellar war in this epic adventure by the New York Times-bestselling author of The Postman. We are not alone. Humanity's explorations have revealed galaxies inhabited by millions of intelligent species interacting under ancient traditions. Foremost among said traditions is uplift, which requires all spacefaring races to welcome newcomers into Galactic culture by breeding and genetically guiding each client species to full sapience--but at a price. Patron races demand centuries of indentured servitude from each uplifted client. But is upstart humanity a patron or a client? The Earthship Streaker--crewed by humans and uplifted dolphins and chimpanzees--discovers a derelict armada, perhaps left by the very first patrons, the fabled Progenitors. Suddenly the Five Galaxies teeter on the brink of all-out war as fanatics hunt Streaker for the secret. With a damaged ship and hostile aliens in pursuit, the crew must band together if they hope to survive . . . This book features a new introduction by the author. Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards "An extraordinary achievement." --Poul Anderson, award-winning author of Tau Zero "What a wonderful ride . . . Startide Rising is one of the books that I remember most fondly, out of all I have read, and rereading it thirty years later proved just as enjoyable as the first time. I remain amazed at how many different characters and subplots Brin juggles without a misstep, and the way he keeps the tension and suspense high throughout." --Tor.com "This is one of the outstanding SF novels of recent years." --Publishers Weekly "One of maybe twenty science fiction novels that deserve the label classic." --Time

OUR CONTINUED EXISTENCE WAS NEVER A GIVEN. Year after year, humanity has survived the main pitfalls awaiting us - natural disasters, nuclear war, rising seas. But when an alien artefact is found floating in Earth's orbit, it pushes our troubled world to the brink of chaos. Is this a message in a bottle bringing peace and enlightenment from the stars? Or a warning, threatening to destroy what little stability mankind has achieved? The world is divided - holding its breath. Soon we will know the secret of existence. Brilliant and gripping, David Brin's novel of the near future is the work of a modern master of science fiction.

He was a survivor: a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating war. But when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker, his life changes for ever. As he journeys from one isolated community to the next, the old, worn uniform becomes far more than a protection against the unrelenting cold: it's a reminder of how things were before the world collapsed - and a symbol for how things might be again. His story is one of a lie becoming the most important kind of truth. Translated into 25 languages around the world, The Postman is a powerful and affecting novel about survival of the human spirit, from the award-winning author of EXISTENCE and The Uplift novels.

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Mike Resnick. *** Stories by: Jack Dann, Sabina Theo, Andrea G. Stewart, Catherine Asaro, Eric Cline, David Brin, Alavaro Zinos-Amaro, Kevin J. Anderson, Martin L. Shoemaker, Larry Niven. *** Serialization: Voodoo Planet by Andre Norton. *** Columns by: Barry Malzberg, Gregory Benford Book Reviews: Paul Cook.

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy *** ISSUE 8: May 2014 *** Mike Resnick, Editor *** Shahid Mahmud, Publisher *** Stories by: Tina Gower, Robert Silverberg, Tom Gerencer, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Andrew Liptak, David Brin, Eric Leif Davin, Robin Reed, Nancy Kress, Alex Shvartsman. Serialization: Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp Columns by: Barry Malzberg, Gregory Benford Book Reviews: Paul Cook. Interview: Joy Ward interviews Gene Wolfe

rom bestselling author David Brin comes a collected work that takes the reader on a swooping, controversial ride through worlds of fiction, nonfiction and film. Through Stranger Eyes is a freedom-of-expression free-for-all, offering more than two dozen reviews and commentaries that are sure to enlighten and entertain, possibly infuriate, even make you laugh.

From carefully measured views on J.R.R. Tolkien to Brin's infamous, outraged rant about the Star Wars saga, to unusual appraisals of familiar and unfamiliar works, you are guaranteed to come away with perspectives you never imagined before.

As readers, we have enjoyed Brin's fiction - the Uplift universe, books like Sundiver and Earth. Now venture into the mind and world of the journey into the mind of one of the most popular authors alive today, and see what he sees through stranger eyes.

The time is long overdue to present the work of Japanese science fiction and fantasy writers to the world in English. The first book in a planned series, Speculative Japan presents a selection of outstanding works of Japanese science fiction and fantasy in English translation... and a glimpse into new worlds of the imagination. Drawing on the talents of some of the most famous and respected fiction writers of Japan, this anthology will guide you to new dimensions of wonder. First released at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan, it is now available worldwide.

By the year 2137 Europe has become a largely forgotten, savage wilderness. Fierce bands of hunters rove the crumbling ruins of once mighty, war-ravaged cities. On the other side of the Atlantic a prosperous Pan-American Federation has emerged, claiming all lands and seas between the 30th and 175th longitudes and forbidding contact with the rest of the world. All who cross beyond thirty are sentenced to death."" "Beyond Thirty" is the story of Captain Jefferson Turck and the crew of his aero-submarine, who through accident and sabotage are forced beyond the thirtieth longitude and embark on an epic quest to rediscover the legendary lands of the Old World. Their adventures stand as one of Edgar Rice Burroughs's most imaginative and subtly crafted tales. Burroughs wrote the story in 1915 in reaction to the growing horrors of the First World War, and his devastating vision of its consequences provides a haunting and enduring warning for the twenty-first century.

WINNER OF THE HUGO, LOCUS AND NEBULA AWARDS Under the caverns of Mercury, the Sundiver Mission prepares for a momentous voyage: a journey into the blazing inferno of the sun, to seek our destiny in the cosmic order of life. For in a universe where no species can reach sentience without being 'uplifted' by a patron race, only humanity - it seems - may have climbed to the stars unaided. This is a feat that puzzles and even angers some of the ancient, mighty Galactic Clans. Now, in a saga that warps from Earth to the far-reaches of five galaxies, the greatest mystery of all may be explained . . . This omnibus contains the first three novels in David Brin's classic and award-winning science fiction series, the Uplift Saga: SUNDIVER, STARTIDE RISING and THE UPLIFT WAR.

The intrepid Professor Lindenbrock embarks upon the strangest expedition of the nineteenth century: a journey down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the Earth's very core. In his quest to penetrate the planet's primordial secrets, the geologist--together with his quaking nephew Axel and their devoted guide, Hans--discovers an astonishing subterranean menagerie of prehistoric proportions. Verne's imaginative tale is at once the ultimate science fiction adventure and a reflection on the perfectibility of human understanding and the psychology of the questor. As David Brin notes in his Introduction, though Verne never knew the term "science fiction," Journey to the Centre of the Earth is "inarguably one of the wellsprings from which it all began."