Definire insolito un romanzo di fantascienza, e raccomandarlo come tale ai lettori, può sembrare il colmo dell’ingenuità e del semplicismo. Eppure è proprio quest’aggettivo, insolito, che conviene prima di ogni altro al lungo e straordinario romanzo che presentiamo in questo numero di Natale: insolito per l’intreccio, d’una semplicità, e nello stesso tempo d’una sapienza unica nel dosaggio e nella progressione dei colpi di scena; insolito per l’acutezza dell’osservazione psicologica, superiore non solo a quella della fantascienza media, ma perfino a quella di uno specialista del «mordente» come Sheckley; insolito per la raffinatezza della scrittura, e per l’incredibile spigliatezza con cui affronta le situazioni «sociologiche» più sbalorditive, traendone effetti di un irresistibile realismo; insolito per un umorismo che, senza nuocere alla drammaticità della narrazione, arriva facilmente e senza parere, a vette di alta letteratura; insolito infine e soprattutto, per una carica fantastica che lo qualifica senz’altro, a nostro avviso, come il più nutrito e divertente di tutti i romanzi americani di fantascienza e non di fantascienza, tradotti in Italia quest’anno. Siamo doppiamente lieti, perciò, di poterlo presentare ai nostri Lettori col nostro «Buon Natale»

Попробую немного рассказать что такое EDC и НАЗ. Собственно, все ниже приведенное — мое ИМХО и на академичность не претендую

After ninety-eight percent of the world falls to a cybernetic infection, Eve learns to survive in a world losing its humanity, and discovers what love really is. Also published as The Bane: book one in The Eden Trilogy

She had seen the unspeakable. She would learn the unknowable. Now, she would fight the invincible. In the third and final installment of the Providence series, Nina Grey will marry the wrong man, carry the child that was never supposed to be born, and fight a war she can't win. Faced with the impossible task of protecting his new wife and unborn child against the throes of Hell, Jared Ryel is allowed no mistakes. Pressured to return the Naissance de Demoniac to Jerusalem, he revisits St. Ann's to learn the answers were in front of him all along. Together, they must survive long enough to let their child save them — and the world

Aufgrund eines Berechnungsfehlers bohrt sich das Raumschiff in die Oberfläche des Planeten Eden. Während der Zeit, in der die sechs Besatzungsmitglieder ihr Schiff wieder instand setzen, unternehmen sie einige Expeditionen, und es gelingt ihnen, sich schließlich mit einem der seltsamen Doppelwesen, die diesen Planeten bewohnen, zu verständigen. Die unheimliche Tyrannei, mit der sie auf diese Weise Bekanntschaft machen, veranlaßt sie zu der Überlegung, ob die Edenbewohner befreit werden könnten und sollten — was sie dann aber doch nicht verantworten zu können glauben. „Der Pole Stanislaw Lern gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Science-Fiction-Autoren des Ostblocks — zu Recht. Denn obwohl es offensichtlich ist, daß hier mancherlei höchst irdische Probleme ins Weltall projiziert werden (und dieser utopische Roman einer außerirdischen Zivilisation daher möglicherweise auch seinen politischen Stellenwert hat), obwohl Lems wissenschaftlich-technisches Vokabular einiges an Wissen auch vom Leser fordert — seine Phantasie ist hinreißend und unerschöpflich, seine Kunst, mit unterkühlten Stilmitteln Spannung aufzubauen und Konflikte dramatisch zuzuspitzen, vollendet.“ (Mannheimer Morgen)

Tras un accidentado aterrizaje en la superficie del planeta Edén, los seis miembros de la tripulación de una nave espacial consiguen tomar contacto con las criaturas que lo pueblan, sometidas, a su entender, a una tenebrosa tiranía. Tal es el planteamiento del que parte Stanislaw Lem para enfrentarnos a una realidad ajena y plantear así, más allá de la peripecia del propio relato y de acuerdo con su inquietud por la dimensión filosófica del ser humano, una serie de interrogantes que no nos resultan desconocidos: ¿Es lícito imponer a unos datos objetivos un análisis sesgado inevitablemente por las concepciones y experiencia de otra cultura? ¿Hasta qué punto puede intervenirse en un ámbito extraño atendiendo sólo a motivos, intereses y emociones propios e ignorando la dinámica en que se mueve aquél? Como siempre que nos enfrentamos a otra cultura, a otra civilización, existen como mínimo dos posibles perspectivas, ambas igualmente válidas: la del que observa y la del que es observado. EDEN — publicada en 1974 — nos recuerda esta realidad tan elemental, como a menudo olvidada, dentro de un relato que desborda fantasía y en el que Lem hace gala una vez más de su capacidad fabuladora y su dominio de los recursos literarios

W obliczeniach był błąd. Nie przeszli nad atmosferą ale zderzyli się z nią [...] W jego wyniku rakieta z grupą kosmonautów awaryjnie ląduje na planecie Eden. Ludzie rozpoczynają naprawę statku, a także badanie planety, która okazuje się zamieszkana przez istoty rozumne. Podczas poznawania nowego środowiska kosmonauci odkrywają niezrozumiałe z ziemskiego punktu widzenia rzeczy i zjawiska, np. działającą automatycznie fabrykę, która najpierw produkuje nieznane przedmioty, a następnie je niszczy. Najbardziej jednak niezrozumiały wydaje się Ziemianom system społeczny, w którym egzystują "dubelty" (jak nazwali Edeńczyków). Wiodącą technologią jest bioinżynieria, która za pomocą manipulacji genetycznych usiłuje wytworzyć "lepsza rasę". Wytwory nieudanych eksperymentów są eksterminowane

There is something evil in the air... Everything is new for Bobby Murphy. It is a new school year with a pretty new teacher, Miss Delaney. He and his buddies have just formed a new basketball team, the Edenville Owls. And then there are all these new feelings for his old friend Joanie. Suddenly, their friendship feels different. Times are changing, and as World War II has just come to an end, life in Edenville is no longer so simple — especially for Bobby. The Owls need a leader to take them to the state championships. Joanie has started dating his teammate Nick. And if things aren’t complicated enough, Bobby sees Miss Delaney arguing with a suspicious-looking man. Could he be responsible for the bruises on her face? Bobby senses that Miss Delaney is in real danger, but is there any way for a fourteen-year-old like him to help her? He will have to find it. It is time for Bobby to be strong. There is something evil in the air

Edge begins with a massive and catastrophic shifting of the San Andreas fault. The fears of California someday tumbling into the sea — that have become the stuff of parody — become real. But even the terror resulting from this catastrophe pales in comparison to the understanding behind its happening, a cataclysm extending beyond mankind’s understanding of horror as it had previously been known. The world is falling apart because things are out of joint at the quantum level, about which of course there’s never been any guarantee that everything has to remain stable. Koji Suzuki returns to the genre he’s most famous for after many years of “not wanting to write any more horror.” As expected from Suzuki, the chills are of a more cerebral, psychological sort, arguably more unsettling and scary than the slice-and-dice gore fests that horror has become known in the U.S. Never content to simply do “Suzuki” — as it were — but rather push the envelope on what…

This stand-alone thriller by the author of the Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance novels introduces Corte, an officer of the Strategic Protection Department, an arm of a larger government agency tasked with protecting individuals who have been targeted for abduction or murder (among other crimes). Henry Loving, a brutal “lifter” who specializes in “physical extraction” of information, has apparently targeted a cop, Ryan Kessler. The details are shaky: Corte’s people don’t know why Kessler has been targeted or what information Henry Loving is after. But Corte must do everything in his power to protect Kessler. This is a slightly unusual novel for Deaver. It’s a prolonged cat-and-mouse game-a familiar format to the author’s fans-but the novel is relatively free of Deaver’s customary neck-wrenching plot reversals. He’s got a few tricks up his sleeve, but readers expecting the kind of jaw-dropping, out-of-left-field twists he specializes in might feel a bit cheated. Make no mistake: this is a fine thriller with strong characters and a compelling story. But Deaver devotees need to be forewarned not to look for any showstopping reverse pivots

Violence and tensions along the U.S.-Mexican border have never been higher, sparked by battles between rival drug lords and an increased flow of illegal migrants. To combat the threat, the United States has executed Operation Rampart: a controversial test base in Southern California run by Major Richter and TALON, his high-tech special operations unit. Their success is threatened by a drug kingpin and migrant smuggler named Ernesto Fuerza. In the guise of Mexican nationalist "Commander Veracruz," he causes a storm of controversy on both sides of the border, calling for a revolution to take back the northernmost "Mexican states" — the southwestern United States. His real intention is to make it easier to import illegal drugs across the border. This sets off a storm of controversy that's being stirred to a fever pitch by a popular right-wing radio talk-show host who calls for the complete militarization of the border

Iceland, midwinter: the days are fleeting, the nights endless and detective Magnus Jonson has been sent to an isolated fishing village in the West Fjords to investigate the possible homicide of a road construction worker. Ringed by steep mountains, this bleak village is cut off from the rest of Iceland and from the modern world. The locals are adamant that Iceland’s legendary huldufólk — hidden people — had a hand in the death. Magnus finds their superstition suspicious... As he digs deeper, Magnus discovers that the victim was not a popular man, leading him to suspect that other, more human, passions are at work

There exists a world beyond our own. It is a world of ancient magic and well-guarded secrets, a world of strict laws and harsh punishments for those who betray them, a world inhabited by the Ikati, a race of gifted people who are so much more than they first appear. Brought together by fate in this world of danger and beauty, two people with dark pasts will meet. Morgan is beautiful, smart, sexy…and about to die. Convicted of treason against her shape-shifting kin, she is given one last chance at redemption; discover the hidden lair of the enemy intent on destroying every one of her kind, or forfeit her life. Xander is ruthless, heartless, cold-blooded…and assigned to kill her if she fails in her task. Expecting to feel nothing but contempt for the traitor under his watch, the assassin accompanies Morgan on her search, but as the two race through the heart of Italy while the clock winds down to zero hour, he finds himself drawn into a dangerous web of desire as powerful as it is forbidden. Their passion will test everything they believe in, and endanger the future of the tribe itself. Sensual, edgy, and action-packed, Edge of Oblivion is a must-read for lovers of dark paranormal romance

One extraordinary love. Fleeing false murder charges, Lindsey lands in San Francisco. There she builds a satisfying life until, in the notorious Dark Haven BDSM club, she encounters deVries. Moth, meet flame. A security specialist and occasional mercenary, deVries needs an adorable submissive like a knife to the gut. Hell, she’s not even a masochist. But here she is, all big brown eyes and sweet body and sassy mouth. Loyal. Tough-minded. Honest. Or maybe not, considering her ID is forged. If she thinks to lie to him, she’ll learn better. He’s the Enforcer of Dark Haven—his discipline is absolute, his punishments harsh, and his heart untouched...until now

This story takes place after and contains spoilers for Words of Radiance.  

From the Edge of Apocalypse: Deception Well is a world on the edge, home to an isolated remnant surviving at the farthest reach of human expansion. All across the frontier, other worlds have succumbed to the relentless attacks of robotic alien warships, while hundreds of light years away, the core of human civilization—those star systems closest to Earth, known as the Hallowed Vasties—have all fallen to ruins. Powerful telescopes can see only dust and debris where once there were orbital mega-structures so huge they eclipsed the light of their parent stars. No one knows for sure what caused the Hallowed Vasties to fail, but a hardened adventurer named Urban intends to find out. He has the resources to do it. He commands a captive alien starship fully capable of facing the dangers that lie beyond Deception Well. With a ship’s company of explorers and scientists, Urban is embarking on a voyage of re-discovery. They will be the first in centuries to confront the hazards of an inverted frontier as they venture back along the path of human migration. Their goal: to unravel the mystery of the Hallowed Vasties and to discover what monstrous life might have grown up among the ruins. Edges is a new entry point into the classic story world of Linda Nagata’s The Nanotech Succession. From Karl Schroeder, New York Times Notable author of Ventus, and of Stealing Worlds:

Edible, delicious, delectable. Rachel Langley is more than familiar with those three words in her line of work. After all, she spends her afternoons and evenings creating desserts so divine that your mouth will water and your taste buds will tingle. They aren’t, however, the words she would have ever expected to think of when she locks eyes with a certain lawyer she knows only as Cole. With each encounter, the infuriatingly persistent man becomes more impossible to resist, and edible is the exact word that comes to mind. Crave, demand, covet. Cole Madison knows exactly what he wants, and Rachel Langley is it. From the moment he spotted her at Whipped, he knew he wanted to grab hold and take a bite. However, the woman has enigmatic moves, avoiding him at every turn. But not for much longer. Rachel’s time is up, and as far as Cole is concerned, he’s waited too long for a taste of what he desires. Nothing, including the woman herself, will stop him from consuming what he hungers for. The only question left is: Who will take the first bite?

FROM THE AUTHOR OF The Gone-Away World AND THE FORTHCOMING Angelmaker—AN EXHILARATING ESPIONAGE MURDER-MYSTERY eShort. There has been a strange death in the quiet village of Shrewton: old Donny Caspian has lost his head. In the Copper Kettle tea rooms, Tom Rice, a junior nobody from the Treasury, puzzles over the details of the case. He has been sent by his superiors to oversee the investigation, but is he supposed to help or hinder? At the next table, octogenarian superspy Edie Banister nibbles a slice of cake and struggles not to become Miss Marple. But what is the connection between the two? Who killed Donny Caspian, and why? Taking in Rice’s present and Edie’s daring past, from duels on shipboard to death in back alleys, “Edie Investigates” is a superb short story from the incomparable Nick Harkaway. Also included with this short, the first chapter of Nick Harkaway’s long-awaited new novel Angelmaker

Twelve-year-old Fee is a gifted Korean-American soprano in a boys' choir in Maine whose choir director reveals himself to be a serial pedophile. Fee and his friends are forced to bear grief, shame, and pain that endure long after the director is imprisoned. Fee survives even as his friends do not, but a deep-seated horror and dread accompany him through his self-destructive college days and after, until the day he meets a beautiful young student named Warden and is forced to confront the demons of his brutal past

Finalist for the National Book Award: Through the eyes of a precocious twelve-year-old in a seaside South Carolina town, the world of love, sex, friendship, and betrayal blossoms. Simons Everson Manigault is not a typical twelve-year-old boy in tiny Edisto, South Carolina, in the late 1960s. At the insistence of his challenging mother (known to local blacks as “the Duchess”), who believes her son to possess a capacity for genius, Simons immerses himself in great literature and becomes as literate and literary as any English professor. When Taurus, a soft-spoken African-American stranger, moves into the cabin recently vacated by the Manigaults’ longtime maid, a friendship forms. The lonely, excitable Simons and the quiet, thoughtful Taurus, who has appointed himself Simons’s guide in the ways of the grown-up world, bond over the course of a hot Southern summer. But Taurus may be playing a larger role in the Manigaults’ life than he is willing to let on — a suspicion that is confirmed when Simons’s absent father suddenly returns to the family fold. An evocative, thoughtful novel about growing up, written in language that sparkles and soars, Padgett Powell’s Edisto is the first novel of one of the most important Southern writers of the last quarter century

In the sequel to Powell’s acclaimed debut, Edisto, Simons Manigault is older — if not particularly wiser — and searching for the cure to his restlessness in memory, travel, and forbidden love. Fourteen years after we first met Simons Manigault, our protagonist is newly graduated from Clemson University, bored, unfocused, and idling his summer away at his mother’s home in Edisto, South Carolina. Not yet ready to fully embrace adulthood, Simons finds himself surrendering to cynicism, as well as to the temptations of his “turned-out-well” first cousin, Patricia. To avoid sinking further into his rut, Simons embarks on a road trip through the South. After a disastrous stint as a Corpus Christi fisherman, he exits the Lone Star State, doubling back to the Louisiana bayou to spend some quality time with his former friend and mentor — and his mother’s ex-lover — Taurus. But as even Taurus’s once sought-after wisdom wears thin, Simons begins to suspect that the grass is not greener on the other side — it may be burnt, brown, and dead wherever he goes. Padgett Powell’s literary return to Edisto is as outrageous, witty, and bitingly sharp as its predecessor. Readers who adored their first meeting with Simons Manigault will relish a second helping of his ennui and bad behavior. Newcomers will likewise be heartily glad they made the trip

еврейский русскоязычный писатель, видный деятель сионистского движения. Близкий друг Корнея Чуковского

The retelling of Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park from the point of view of Edmund Bertram - by the author of Mr. Knightley's Diary and Captain Wentworth' Diary. At ten years of age, Fanny Price came to live with Edmund Bertram and his family at Mansfield Park. Far from the brat Edmund expected, Fanny became his closest confidante and dearest friend. But when the fashionable Crawford siblings - Henry and Mary - come to town, they captivate the Bertram family. Henry embarks on a scandalous flirtation with Edmund's sister, who is already betrothed to another, while Edmund is enchanted by Mary's beauty and wit. But when it appears that Mary is not all she seems to be, Edmund will turn to the one woman who has always been at his side to find the happiness he deserves - Fanny

Эта книга середины 19 века. Это путевые заметки одной американской иверки, которая путешествовала в 1867 году от Петербурга вниз по Волге до Царицына, и затем через Дон - Ростов - Азовское море через Крым - Одессу - Кишинёв - Бессарабию - в Австрии она вышла из пределов Российской империи. Вы знаете, Уотсон, временами у неё очень интересные зарисовки жизни в России того времени, в том плане что и современные россияне в массе даже не догадываются что и как было в России того времени - всего лишь 150 лет назад! Память российских гоев ирейзана! У современной российской молодёжи весь странные и мутные представления о русской истории, основнанные на столетнем методическом вранье царских, советских, российских властей. Какие бы не были власти в России - в одном они солидарны! Истинную историю России российские гои знать не должны! Вот почему Холмс хочет внести лепту в раскрытие настоящей истории и подать просто факты о России 150 летней давности глазами непредвзятого путешественника по России

Faina Oržehovska Eduards Grīgs Stāsts Ievērojamu cilvēku dzīve. Norvēģu komponista, pianista un diriģenta dzīves un radošā darba lappuses. Izdevniecība „Liesma" Rīgā 1966 Tulkojusi I. Kalnciema Mākslinieks A. Stankevičs Vinjetes zīmējis G. Filipovskis

When Miss Elizabeth Waterstone encounters the enigmatic Duke of Diable Delamere in the most shocking of circumstances, she is determined to exploit his rakish expertise to the fullest extent. The duke agrees to teach her everything she needs to know, but in return expects to receive her unwitting cooperation to uncover an assassination plot against the monarchy. But Elizabeth is hard to deceive, and the duke finds himself needing more than her innocent skills in his bed. Together they must use their remarkable abilities, to thwart a villain, save the Prince Regent and accidentally and inevitably fall in love

Imagine making poems the way an architect designs buildings or an engineer builds bridges. Such was the ambition of João Cabral de Melo Neto. Though a great admirer of the thing-rich poetries of Francis Ponge and of Marianne Moore, what interested him even more, as he remarked in his acceptance speech for the 1992 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, was "the exploration of the materiality of words," the "rigorous construction of (. .) lucid objects of language." His poetry, hard as stone and light as air, is like no other

It’s been a year of upheaval for Edward Stanton, a forty-two-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome. He’s lost his job. His trusted therapist has retired. His best friends have moved away. And even his nightly ritual of watching Dragnet reruns has been disrupted. All of this change has left Edward, who lives his life on a rigid schedule, completely flummoxed. But when his friend Donna calls with news that her son Kyle is in trouble, Edward leaves his comfort zone in Billings, Montana, and drives to visit them in Boise, where he discovers Kyle has morphed from a sweet kid into a sullen adolescent. Inspired by dreams of the past, Edward goes against his routine and decides to drive to a small town in Colorado where he once spent a summer with his father—bringing Kyle along as his road trip companion. The two argue about football and music along the way, and amid their misadventures, they meet an eccentric motel owner who just might be the love of Edward’s sheltered life—if only he can let her. Endearing and laugh-out-loud funny, Edward Adrift is author Craig Lancaster’s sequel to 600 Hours of Edward

To his mother, Queen Victoria, he was "poor Bertie," to his wife he was "my dear little man," while the President of France called him "a great English king," and the German Kaiser condemned him as "an old peacock." King Edward VII was all these things and more, as Hibbert reveals in this captivating biography. Shedding new light on the scandals that peppered his life, Hibbert reveals Edward's dismal early years under Victoria's iron rule, his terror of boredom that led to a lively social life at home and abroad, and his eventual ascent to the throne at age 59. Edward is best remembered as the last Victorian king, the monarch who installed the office of Prime Minister

Edwin Mullhouse, a novelist at 10, is mysteriously dead at 11. As a memorial, Edwin's bestfriend, Jeffrey Cartwright, decides that the life of this great American writer must be told. He follows Edwin's development from his preverbal first noises through his love for comic books to the fulfillment of his literary genius in the remarkable novel, Cartoons