Brian W. Aldiss Book order (chronological)

The great drama of life on Helliconia is shaped by its cosmic limitations. In fierce contrasts of climate, whole seasons last for centuries and civilizations rise and fall as the planet orbits the giant sun Freyr every 3000 years. The trilogy won the J.W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Brian Aldiss bietet eine witzige und einfühlsame Geschichte dieses außergewöhnlichen Phänomens, eingebettet in seinen sozialen und literarischen Kontext. Voller faszinierender Einblicke führt uns diese großzügige Erzählung durch Jahrzehnte von Anreizen für die Vorstellungskraft: Flucht in andere Dimensionen, Reisen zu anderen Planeten, verlorene Welten, Utopien, mechanische Kreaturen und intelligente Aliens. Amüsant, intelligent und autoritativ nimmt sie uns mit auf eine Reise durch die Zone, in der Literatur und Wissenschaft in einem ewigen Flirt stehen. Die großen Schriftsteller, die die Science-Fiction hervorgebracht hat, und die Bilder, die zum kulturellen Hintergrund der Gegenwart geworden sind, werden untersucht. Diese umfassende Expedition richtet sich an Enthusiasten und Neulinge gleichermaßen.

It is the summer of the Great Year on Helliconia. The humans are involved with their own affairs. Their old enemies, the phagors, are comparitively docile at this time of year; yet they can afford to wait, to take advantage of human weakness - and of the king's weakness. How they do so brings to a climax this powerfully compelling novel, in which the tortuous unwindings of circumstance enmesh royalty and commoners alike, and involve the three Helliconia continents.

In his electrifying new novel, Brian Aldiss transports his readers one million years into the future - into the company of a utopian race called homo uniformis: Man Alike Throughout. Supremely logical, their thoughts controlled by a centralised nervous system, these utopianists are freed, by a beneficial design called Biocom, from the emotional problems and absurd evolutionary flaws which have always plagued homo sapiens.

Brian Aldiss marked the centenary year of H G Wells' birth with this ingenious novella combining comedy, terror and, intriguingly, late nineteenth-century period charm. In a sleepy East Anglian town we meet Bruce Fox and Gregory Rolles - two young men who have sworn to Think Large in order to distinguish themselves from the masses of Cottersall. When a meteor lands in the pond of a local farm, Gregory seeks the advice of Mr Wells. Nine short stories complete the collection, including the highly autobiographical 'Girl and Robot With Flowers', which was taken up as a seminal story demarcating the new SF from the old.

Ecological disaster has left the English countryside a wasteland. Humanity faces extinction, unless Greybeard and his wife Martha are successful in their quest for the scarcest and most precious of resources: human children.

Brian W. Aldiss - Schijn van leven (Appearance of Life) John Varley - Rood staan bij de geheugenbank (Overdrawn at the Memory Bank) Michael G. Coney - Die goeie ouwe tijd van de vloeibare brandstof (Those Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel) Richard Cowper - Het Hertford-manuscript (The Hertford Manuscript) Lester del Rey - Natuurlijk voordeel (Natural Advantage) Isaac Asimov - Twee honderd jaar mens (The Bicentennial Man, 1976) Joanna Russ - Mijn boot (My Boat) James Jr. Tiptree - Housten, Housten, ontvangt u mij? (Houston, Houston, Do You Read?)

In een oneindig verre toekomst staat de zon stil. De broeihete aarde is overwoekerd door een dodelijke plantenwereld. De mens heeft er geen kans... Met de jongeman genaamd Gren, en het meisje Yattmur, beiden geboren op onze aarde in een ondenkbaar verre toekomst, gaat de lezer een hachelijke ontdekkingstocht beginnen door een wereld waarin het hersenloze plantenrijk alle andere levensvormen heeft verdrongen en vernietigd. Te land, ter zee en zelfs in de lucht.