A man without a memory named Derec and a mysterious woman now known as Ariel, are trapped on the confusing, surprising and sometimes deadly world of Robot City. Derec learns that Ariel is stricken with a disease that leads to fatal madness, and both are startled to learn that the robots' positronic consciousness has given rise to artistic expressions even as the city itself grows ever more deadly to all of its inhabitants.

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.

A man without a memory, trapped in a city of robots gone wild. At his side, a mysterious woman who claims to know who he is, but refuses to tell him. Together they must find an insane cyborg stalking the streets of Robot City, a time bomb indistinguishable from ordinary robots. The young man's name is Derec. The identity of his femail companion and the location of the cyborg are just two of the mysteries he must solve within the fantastic confines of a most unlikely metropolis.

BEYOND AURORA AWAITS A BRAVE NEW WORLD...OF ROBOTS A man without a memory flees a city of robots gone wild. At his side, a mysterious young woman whose own identity is eroded by an insidious disease. Journeying to Earth, the two must find a way to save her life and learn at last the secret to Robot City, Dr. Avery, and their true identities! Asimov meets Hitchcock in this fast-paced thriller set in the timeline of his robot and Foundation universes. In Robot City, the late science fiction genius challenged a talented group of science fiction writers to resolve the conundrums he set for them in the context of his famous Three Laws of Robotics. This pair of robot mysteries, enhanced with a pair of essays by Asimov himself, reflects the colorful world of thinking robots, subterranean Earth dwellers and witty repartee that characterized the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning landscape of the beloved author of The Caves of Steel and Robots and Empire.

BEYOND AURORA AWAITS A BRAVE NEW WORLD....OF ROBOTS A man without a memory is stranded in a world-enveloping city filled with robots gone wild. At his side is a mysterious young woman who claims to know who he is but refuses to tell him. According to The Three Laws of Robotics,"A robot may not injure a human being," which narrows the suspects dramatically when the robots find a dead human body. The man calls himself Derec; the woman is know as Katherine. Their real identities, along with that of the murder victim and the murderer, are just a few of the life-and-death mysteries the unlikely pair are forced to solve to survive on the fantastic streets of Isaac Asimov's Robot City. The late Isaac Asimov challenged a talented group of science-fiction writers to resolve the conundrums he set for them in this complex robot mystery set early in the timeline of his robot and Foundation universes. You can share your thoughts about Isaac Asimov's Robot City in the new ibooks virtual readers' group at www.ibooksinc.com

Thrust into the ferment of a robotic renaissance, Derec and Ariel see positronic consciousness emerging in new forms of art, music and roboticide! Can they solve the most dangerous puzzle in Robot City? And will this mechanical menace reach its climax before Derec and Ariel can escape?

The big stories -- The skills of the new machines : technology races ahead -- Moore's law and the second half of the chessboard -- The digitization of just about everything -- Innovation : declining or recombining? -- Artificial and human intelligence in the second machine age -- Computing bounty -- Beyond GDP -- The spread -- The biggest winners : stars and superstars -- Implications of the bounty and the spread -- Learning to race with machines : recommendations for individuals -- Policy recommendations -- Long-term recommendations -- Technology and the future (which is very different from "technology is the future").

A man without a memory, in a city of robots gone wild. whose memories of him may be true or false. true identity. compel him to reveal the truth.

He was a New Kind of Soldier, Created for a New Kind of War! Soldier . . . The colony worlds Adirondack and Silvern fell to the Troft forces almost without a struggle. Outnumbered and on the defensive, Earth made a desperate decision. It would attack the aliens not from space, but on the ground¾with forces the Trofts did not even suspect. Thus were created the Cobras, a guerilla force whose weapons were surgically implanted, invisible to the unsuspecting eye, yet undeniably deadly. But power brings temptation . . . and not all the Cobras could be trusted to fight for Earth alone. Jonny Moreau would learn the uses¾and abuses¾of his special abilities, and what it truly meant to be a Cobra. Mercenary . . . If anyone had told Jonny Moreau the Cobras would one day take orders from the alien Troft, he would have laughed without humor. He'd lost too many friends during the Troft war, though the Cobras triumphed in the end. Now, though, the Troft were trading partners¾and they feared what might be a mutual danger: A new race, ruthless and tenacious, that threatened human space as well as Troft. And the offer was five new planets for the overcrowded Cobra worlds. Jonny's son Justin would carry the Moreau name to danger . . . and learn that it takes more than a Cobra father to make a Cobra son. Governor . . . Corwin Moreau is governor of Aventine, but the fact that the Moreau family has held power for so long is beginning to generate bad feelings in the Cobra Worlds Council. But Corwin's niece, Jasmine, faces the greatest challenge. Her only ambition is to become a Cobra¾but no woman has ever been accepted to the Academy or ever will be, if her opponents have their way. Until a mission arises that demands her expertise, and requires that she be given the deadly Cobra implants. Because the enemy, too, knows that there are no female Cobras, and Jasmine can infiltrate without being suspected . . . she thinks. . . . The Complete Cobra Generational Saga, by the New York Times Best-Selling Author At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).