Stephen Baxter

The multi-award winning Infinity Project undertakes its seventh and final voyage in the imagination of the finest science fiction authors alive…Infinity’s EndHumanity has made the universe home. On the outskirts of the solar system, beyond the asteroid fields, deep in space, under the surface of planets, in the ruins of fallen civilisations, in the flush of new creation: life finds a way.From intelligent velociraptors to digital ghosts; from a crèche on an asteroid to an artist using a star system as a canvas, this is a future where Earth’s children have adapted to every nook and cranny of existence.This is life on the edge of the possible.Featuring astonishing tales from Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Naomi Kritzer, Paul McAuley, Seanan McGuire, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Justina Robson, Kelly Robson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lavie Tidhar, Peter Watts, Fran Wilde and Nick Wolven.

Thousands of years ago, a massive colony ship arrived at the Hearth - the celestial birthplace of millions of planets, ranging from habitable earth-like worlds to unimaginable hellscapes of pressure and heat. Using lightsails to navigate, humanity has spread itself across dozens of these worlds. But they have also forgotten their beginnings, where they came from... and a terrible secret is about to be unveiled. For Commander Ulla Breen, on her first tour of duty aboard a patrol sail-ship, the universe is about to change around her. Attacked by an unknown and unthought-of enemy, she and her fellow crewmembers will face slavery, punishment and death - and so will their home planets. Because someone else has seen the richness of the inner Hearth, and plans to take it for themselves. A new enemy, but one who seems disturbingly familiar. And perhaps knows more about the history of the Hearth than even Ulla and her crew.Faced with a complete upheaval of all she thought she knew, Ulla must survive long enough to come up with a plan - one which will unite all the disparate elements of the Hearth, and perhaps discover the reason why humanity came to Hearthspace in the first place . . .

Thousands of years ago, a massive colony ship arrived at the Hearth - the celestial birthplace of millions of planets, ranging from habitable earth-like worlds to unimaginable hellscapes of pressure and heat. Using lightsails to navigate, humanity has spread itself across dozens of these worlds. But they have also forgotten their beginnings, where they came from... and a terrible secret is about to be unveiled. For Commander Ulla Breen, on her first tour of duty aboard a patrol sail-ship, the universe is about to change around her. Attacked by an unknown and unthought-of enemy, she and her fellow crewmembers will face slavery, punishment and death - and so will their home planets. Because someone else has seen the richness of the inner Hearth, and plans to take it for themselves. A new enemy, but one who seems disturbingly familiar. And perhaps knows more about the history of the Hearth than even Ulla and her crew.Faced with a complete upheaval of all she thought she knew, Ulla must survive long enough to come up with a plan - one which will unite all the disparate elements of the Hearth, and perhaps discover the reason why humanity came to Hearthspace in the first place . . .

When Rab was a baby, his mother made a decision which would change his life. She feared he would be sent to work in the hellish mines of Mercury, to eke out his life until he was worn out, all in the name of maintaning the defense of the Solar Sytem. But when her desperate attempt to flee with her 2 year old failed, she took a desperate step to save him. She cut off his hand.Decades later, Rab has been spared the physical hardships he can no longer endure, and is now based on the Mask, the all-encompassing structure which hides the Solar Sytem from alien eyes. And it is during his watch that a spaceship arrives, one which has travelled for a hundred years from a long-forgotten colony planet. If they pierce the Mask, everything humanity has created will be left open to the alien threat. But this strange ship, bearing an offshoot of the species, may bring something else with them. Hope.

Making Domesday presents a fresh interpretation of William the Conqueror's survey of England, made possible by a major collaborative study and a new online edition of Exon Domesday, the earliest of the three original manuscripts to survive from the Domesday survey. The book addresses big questions about pre-modern government, written records, and the use of intelligence in both senses: the minds behind the planning and execution of Domesday, and the information about England that Domesday gathered. It characterizes Exon as the surviving part of the 'working papers' of one of the writing offices that over a period of ten weeks in summer 1086 dealt with all seven 'circuits' (regional groupings of shires) of the Domesday survey. The circuit offices had the task of recasting the manorial descriptions assembled in an earlier stage of the survey into an interim form intended for further redaction as Great Domesday Book by rearrangement, rewording, and abbreviation. A new deep understanding of the codicology and palaeography of Exon underpins every part of the analysis, and offers a model of documentary production for royal government at an exceptionally early period in western Europe. Part I describes and analyses each Exon text in unprecedented detail; Part II places Domesday in context and in broad comparative perspective, ranging across and beyond the Latin West. The dual approach provides a new interpretation of Domesday and a deeper understanding of both the Domesday survey and Domesday Book. It emerges that the survey was even more complex than we had dared to imagine, involving the production of different kinds of text intended to meet a range of fiscal and political needs. It is also clear that the survey was immediately effective, transforming the politics of land in a newly conquered society. Domesday has always been thought awesome, as its very name shows; Making Domesday contends that it was also a feat of intelligent government deployed by an aggressive and ambitious regime. As such it speaks to broader concerns with the colonial domination of conquered societies through the purposeful collection of systematic statistical information.

When Rab was a baby, his mother made a decision which would change his life. She feared he would be sent to work in the hellish mines of Mercury, to eke out his life until he was worn out, all in the name of maintaning the defense of the Solar Sytem. But when her desperate attempt to flee with her 2 year old failed, she took a desperate step to save him. She cut off his hand.Decades later, Rab has been spared the physical hardships he can no longer endure, and is now based on the Mask, the all-encompassing structure which hides the Solar Sytem from alien eyes. And it is during his watch that a spaceship arrives, one which has travelled for a hundred years from a long-forgotten colony planet. If they pierce the Mask, everything humanity has created will be left open to the alien threat. But this strange ship, bearing an offshoot of the species, may bring something else with them. Hope.

When Rab was a baby, his mother made a decision which would change his life. She feared he would be sent to work in the hellish mines of Mercury, to eke out his life until he was worn out, all in the name of maintaning the defense of the Solar Sytem. But when her desperate attempt to flee with her 2 year old failed, she took a desperate step to save him. She cut off his hand.Decades later, Rab has been spared the physical hardships he can no longer endure, and is now based on the Mask, the all-encompassing structure which hides the Solar Sytem from alien eyes. And it is during his watch that a spaceship arrives, one which has travelled for a hundred years from a long-forgotten colony planet. If they pierce the Mask, everything humanity has created will be left open to the alien threat. But this strange ship, bearing an offshoot of the species, may bring something else with them. Hope.

For the past eight years NewCon Press has been showcasing the talent of British and British-based science fiction authors via our Best of British SF anthologies. This award-winning series is curated by editor Donna Scott, who each year faces the daunting task of selecting the very best short stories from what is invariably a strong field.Best of British Science Fiction 2023 represents one of the strongest anthologies yetTable of Contents: Introduction - Donna Scott Detonation Boulevard - Alastair Reynolds Vermin Control - Tim Lees Personal Satisfaction - Adrian Tchaikovsky The Scent of Green - Ana Sun Gauguin's Questions - Stephen Baxter So Close to Home - Andrew Hook Boojum - Angus McIntyre The Station Master - Lavie Tidhar Art App - Chris Beckett The Blou Trein Suborbirail - L.P. Melling Blue Shift Passing By - David Cleden And if Venice is Sinking - Fiona Moore Muse Automatique - Jaine Fenn Little Sprout - E.B. Siu A Change of Direction - Rhiannon Grist Thus With a Kiss I Die - Robert Bagnall Tough Love - Teika Marija Smits The Brazen Head of Westinghouse - Tim Major Skipping - Ian Watson Pearl - Felix Rose KawitzkyAbout the Authors

Ulmekirjanduse 7. suurmeister 1986. aastast Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) ja moodsa briti ulme superstaar Stephen Baxter (1957) ühendasid 21. sajandi avakümnendil jõud, et luua ulmeromaanide triloogia, mis tõukus Clarke'i ilmakuulsast teosest "2001: kosmoseodüsseia" (2001: A Space Odyssey; 1968, ek. 1999), olles tolle originaalse romaanisarja teemasid edasi arendavaks omamoodi paralleeltsükliks.ÜRO rahuvalvaja Bisesa Dutt on pärast meeletut ajarännuseiklust Esmasündinute loodud puslemaailmas Miris tagasi Londonis aastal 2037 ja päris maailmas pole mingit ajastute segipaiskumist toimunudki. Bisesa on lihtsalt ootamatult sattunud tagasi Londonisse, samasse päeva, mil esimese raamatu seiklused algasid, ainult et bioloogiliselt on tema jaoks möödunud viis aastat. Maad tabab sel päeval esimene päikesetorm ning teadlased arvutavad välja, et järgmine päikesetorm tabab planeeti aastal 2042. Ning sedapuhku hävitaks see Maal kõik elava.Kui nende romaanide pöörastest teadusfantastilistest ideedest aimub vanameister Clarke'i kätt, siis teoste hoogsast ja põnevast sündmustikust tunneb lugeja rohkem ära Stephen Baxteri käekirja. Orpheuse Raamatukogus ilmub peatselt ka "Ajaodüsseia"-triloogia kolmas romaan "Esmasündinud" (2007).

In the year 2255, of all the sentient beings in her universe, it was a woman named Salma, twenty years old, who was the first fully to see the object called Planet Nine. See with her own eyes, albeit moderated by her ship's instruments. If not to recognise what it was, not yet.Not that the object turned out to be a planet, or the 'ninth' of anything. Briefly thought to be a black hole, it suddenly changes, expands and sends a message. There is something waiting on its service. Something not quite human.As the ramifications of this event spread across the fracturing elements of humanity, it is clear that the small crew on the spot are at the centre of the most dramatic discovery in history. But theirs is not the only inexplicable event happening - impossibly, at exactly the same moment, a quasar appeared twenty-five thousand light years away, and now is heating up the solar system.If the enigma of the creation node is not solved quickly, there may be no one left to investigate it . . .

Ulmekirjanduse suurmeister Sir Arthur C. Clarke ja moodsa briti ulme superstaar Stephen Baxter ühendasid 21. sajandi avakümnendil jõud, et luua ulmeromaanide triloogia, mis tõukus Clarke'i ilmakuulsast teosest "2001: kosmoseodüsseia", olles tolle originaalse romaanisarja teemasid edasi arendavaks omamoodi paralleeltsükliks."Ajaodüsseia I. Aja silm" algab sellega, kuidas inimkonda uurima saabunud tulnukate rass paiskab segi meie aegruumi kontiinumi, nii et 1885. aastal Briti India loodepiiril tegutsev nooruke ajakirjanik Rudyard Kipling asetab end korraga vastamisi 2037. aastast pärit helikopteri meeskonna ja ÜRO rahuvalvajatega. Enne veel, kui eri aegadest pärit romaani kangelased jõuavad aru saada, mis õieti on toimunud, kistakse nad verisesse heitlusse Aleksander Suure faalanksite ja Tshingis-khaani mongolihordide vahel iidse Babüloni müüride all...

They have measured the slow pulse of the seasons as the Earth spins its stately annual dance. Their memories stretch back across the million-year cycles of the ice sheets.Their stories tell of the making of the world. And as the millenia have passed, their legends have served them well.And a thousand years from now, on a different world, they will be the difference between life and death, between extinction and a future as long as the past.This new edition collects three of Stephen Baxter's early books together for the first time.

On the far outskirts of the solar system, one small ship is about to discover something amazing. And it wants to talk . . .

In 2145AD John Hackett's adventure is just beginning.In Year 30, Mela's story is coming to a close.Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller - beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back - but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming.A mission which will take him five million years to complete.Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time.Mela's world is coming to an end. Erosion is eating away at the edges of every landmass - first at a rate of ten metres a year, but fast accelerating, displacing people and animals as the rising Tide destroys everything in its path. Putting more and more pressure on the people - and resources - which remain.She and her people have always known that this long-predicted end to their home, one of the Thousand Earths, is coming - but that makes their fight to survive, to protect each other, no less desperate . . . and no less doomed.A beautiful, page-turning story which interweaves the tale of these two characters, separated by both space and time, in a hopeful exploration of humanities' future, this is Stephen Baxter at his best.

How would first contact--on earth, in space, on another planet--transform our understandings of technology, philosophy, and what it means to be human? What kind of cognitive dissonance would society experience, if we discovered a previously unrecognized sentience on Earth? What would life be like if it originated in a frigid ocean beneath an impenetrable shell of ice? Or on a world whose haze obscures any view of the universe beyond? Or on an unfathomable scale in the depths of space? Or . . .Life--beyond us.Dive in as the European Astrobiology Institute presents fifty-four original SF Stories and Science Essays on life, from microbial to macro, from automatic to sagacious. Each speculative story is followed by a professional essay illuminating the scientific underpinnings of the story and providing a new window into the cutting-edge knowledge about exploration for life in the universe.SF STORIES BY: Eugen Bacon, Gregory Benford, Renan Bernardo, Jana Bianchi, Tobias S. Buckell, Eric Choi, Julie E. Czerneda, Tessa Fisher, Simone Heller, Valentin D. Ivanov, Mary Robinette Kowal, Lisa Jenny Krieg (translated by Simone Heller), Geoffrey A. Landis, Rich Larson, Liu Yang (translated by Ladon Gao), Lucie Lukačovičov , Premee Mohamed, G. David Nordley, Malka Older, Deji Bryce Olukotun, Tom s Petr sek, Brian Rappatta, Arula Ratnakar, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Bogi Tak cs, Peter Watts, and B. Zelkovich.SCIENCE ESSAYS BY: Jacques Arnould, William Bains, Jos A. Caballero, Dimitra Demertzi, Martina Dimoska, Tessa Fisher, Dennis H ning, Valentin D. Ivanov, Fabian Klenner, Nina Kopacz, Geoffrey A. Landis, Natuschka Lee, Ania Losiak, Stephen Francis Mann, Connor Martini, Tony Milligan, Philippe Nauny, Julie Nov kov , Erik Persson, Tom s Petr sek, Joanna Piotrowska, Giovanni Poggiali, Amedeo Romagnolo, Stefano Sandrelli, Floris van der Tak, Jan Toman, Sheri Wells-Jensen, and Raymond M. WheelerINTRODUCTION BY: Stephen BaxterFOREWORD BY: Julie Nov kov AFTERWORDS BY: Wolf D. Geppert; Lucas K. Law & Susan ForestEDITED BY: Julie Nov kov , Lucas K. Law & Susan ForestPrevious anthologies by Laksa Media (Strangers Among Us, The Sum of Us, Where the Stars Rise, Shades Within Us, Seasons Between Us) have been recommended by Publishers Weekly, Booklist (American Library Association), Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Locus, Foreword Reviews, and Quill & Quire.