Award-winning epics like the Mars Trilogy and groundbreaking alternative histories like The Days of Rice and Salt have brought Kim Stanley Robinson to the forefront of contemporary science fiction. Mixing subject matter from a dizzying number of fields with his own complex ecological and philosophical concerns, Robinson explores how humanity might pursue utopian social action as a strategy for its own survival. Robert Markley examines the works of an author engaged with the fundamental question of how we—as individuals, as a civilization, and as a species—might go forward. By building stories on huge time scales, Robinson lays out the scientific and human processes that fuel humanity's struggle toward a more just and environmentally stable world or system of worlds. His works invite readers to contemplate how to achieve, and live in, these numerous possible futures. They also challenge us to see that SF's literary, cultural, and philosophical significance have made it the preeminent literary genre for examining where we stand today in human and planetary history.

In his fourth novel, George Mackay Brown takes us to an Orkney torn between its Viking past and its Christian future. Set in the early 11th Century, it tells the story of Ranald Sigmundson, who turns his back on a successful life of political intrigues and battles to design a ship to take him on a journey even greater than the first great voyage of his life, the one to Vinland.

One of the greatest European historical epic comics ever written continues. A DREAM COMES ASHORE Thorfinn's travels have taken him from Iceland to England, Denmark, the distant trading posts of the Byzantine Empire, and back home again. On the journey, he has amassed scars, losses, and sins to atone for, but also found strength in his friends, in his new wife, and in the dream that he's never let go, of a new land free of brutality and slavery. At last, the moment has come to set foot on Vinland--not the misty ideal he has carried there, but the real thing--and to meet the people who have made it their home for generations before Thorfinn's quest began...

Revised and Updated Edition Fleeing the ice clad fjords of his native Greenland just ahead of greedy kinsman who would keep his inheritance from him, Sigtrygg Thorgilsson, half-breed grandson of the storied explorer Leif Eiriksson, seeks his fortune on the shores of North America, last glimpsed by his grandfather some forty years before. Making his way across uncharted waters with a hastily assembled crew of untried men, he quickly learns that the inhabitants of the new land are less than pleased by their presence and that their survival will depend on their ability to carve a place for themselves in the midst of their skeptical hosts. But risking life and limb in a desperate gamble to prove their worth will not be enough as Sigtrygg’s angry kinsmen unexpectedly arrive on the coast to dispute what he has won. Then only the shrewd counsel of an aged viking, and the passion of the woman Sigtrygg left behind, offer a way out of the burgeoning blood feud that threatens to engulf them all—as storm clouds gather in the distance and a defeated enemy prepares to take his revenge. A novel of Vikings and Indians in pre-Columbian North America, The King of Vinland’s Saga reprises the failed settlement history of the Norse on the edge of the North Atlantic in the eleventh century—as Europe lay mired in medieval darkness, its inhabitants still ignorant of the places and peoples that lay just beyond their reach. Book Review: Just put down the above book. If this was your first endeavor, then I am eagerly anticipating your second. The book was fantastic! It was as enjoyable to me as “The Golden Warrior”, “Musashi”, and “With Fire and Sword” and other historical fiction novels that grace my bookshelves (many of which purchased through your recommendation on Amazon). It is nice to read a book and get mad, frustrated, etc. at the characters. Thanks again for a pleasurable read! Pete Giorgianni

Talking bugs, electricity, the founding of empires, hobos, Nazis, whores, violence, drugs, murder, secret cabals, Heaven, Hell--William T. Vollmann is a writer of enormous novels that are stuffed with entire worlds of creation and destruction. This first ever book-length critical study traces his career to date with chapters devoted to each of his novels, as well as his short stories and major nonfiction. Vollmann is a writer of obsessions, and this study concentrates on three of them--freedom, redemption, and prostitution--while arguing that the author that dwells on them is worthy of being called one of our greatest living American writers. Also included are seven interviews spanning the years 1991-2007 that reinforce the persistence of Vollmann's attraction to these themes.

Kim Stanley Robinson has been an ongoing force in the Science Fiction genre for over twenty years, with his novels (Year’s of Rice and Salt, Forty Signs of Rain) crossing over to the mainstream, and routinely appearing on the New York Times best sellers list. During the 80s and early nineties, his short fiction continued to push the boundaries of science fiction, defining the science-focused side of the science fiction genre. Award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan worked with Kim Stanley Robinson to select the stories that make up this landmark volume. In addition to these reprints, The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson features a brand-new short story, "The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942."

WITHIN THE KING’S GRASP As Canute plots to become ruler of the entire Danish world, Thorfinn’s only ambition is to see a harvest profitable enough to buy his own life back. But the fates of prince and slave will come together once again, as Canute plans to seize Ketil Farm from its kindhearted master. What sinister tricks does the have up his sleeve, and could they dash Thorfinn’s hopes for freedom? Meanwhile, Einar’s infatuation with Arnheid takes an unexpected turn when her former husband – an escaped slave – barges onto the farm, insisting she run away with him… "A fascinating, violent, and moving story [that’s] firmly among other timeless classics… Seriously, I don’t know how many different ways I can say this manga is worth reading." -Kotaku

The art of writing great science fiction is that it challenges the imagination, pushing it to extreme limits and in this anthology, selecting some of the best modern science fiction from the last fifty years, twenty leading authors of the genre ask the question 'What if...?' and then give their own very personal views of the changes and surprises which may befall humanity in the centuries to come. In Ulla, Ulla Eric Brown recounts the first manned Martian expedition and discovers that H. G. Wells may have been right after all. In The Infinite Assassin Greg Egan polices the dimensions, seeking those who are taking over their alternate selves. Geoffrey A. Landis takes us into the depths of a black hole in Approaching Perimelasma. Is the ultimate Utopia heaven or hell? Robert Sheckley finds out in the classic A Ticket to Tranai. These and other stories by James White, Eric Frank Russell, Robert Reed, H. Beam Piper and H. Chandler Elliot make this one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking science fiction anthologies in lightyears.