The long-awaited conclusion of the Heorot series from genre legends Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes
Avalon was thriving. The cold sleep colonists from Earth had settled on a verdant, livable world. The fast and cunning predators humans named “grendels” were under control, and the mainland outposts well established. Avalon’s new mainland hydroelectric power station was nearly complete, and when online would compensate for the nuclear power systems lost in the Grendel Wars. Humans would have power, and with power came the ability to make all the necessities for life. They would survive.
They would not survive as a spacefaring people.
What they were losing faster than they knew was the ability to get to space. But unbeknownst to the planet-bound humans, something was moving out there in the stars, decelerating at a rate impossible for a natural object. And its destination was Avalon. The most probable origin was Earth’s Solar System.
This is a novel of first contact—between the human Starborn and the self-named Godsons who followed on, between the first generation of Avalon-born humans and their descendants, and between humans and the almost ineffably alien species native to their new world …
The year is 2085, and humanity has spread throughout the solar system, a stable lunar colony is agitating for independence, and lunar tourism is on the rise...Against this background, professional "Close Protection" specialist Scotty Griffin, fresh off a disastrous assignment, is offered the opportunity of a lifetime: to shepherd the teenaged heir to the Republic of Kikaya on a fabulous vacation. Ali Kikaya will participate in the first live action role playing game conducted on the Moon itself. Having left Luna-and a treasured marriage-years ago due to a near-tragic accident, Scotty leaps at the opportunity.
Live Action Role Playing attracts a very special sort of individual: brilliant, unpredictable, resourceful, and addicted to problem solving. By kidnapping a dozen gamers in the middle of the ultimate game, watched by more people than any other sporting event in history, they have thrown down an irresistible gauntlet: to "win" the first game that ever became "real." Pursued by armed and murderous terrorists, forced to solve gaming puzzles to stay a jump ahead, forced to juggle multiple psychological realities as they do ... this is the game for which they've prepared their entire lives, and they are going to play it for all it's worth.
Dream Park, the ultimate in amusement parks, was about to embark on the greatest game ever: the California Voodoo Game. Across the world bets were being placed; fortunes and reputations hung in the balance. Gaming careers would be made-or destroyed. And the most advanced software package ever invented was going to be tested.But one of the players was a murderer-and worse. Only Alex Griffin, head of Dream Park Security, and Game Master Tony McWhirter guessed the extent of the treachery tainting the Game. Somehow, they had to catch the killer-but above all, the Game must go on ...
A visionary science fiction classic from Larry Niven and Steven BarnesThe Barsoom Project is the direct sequel to 1981's Dream Park. Eviane's first visit to the state-of-art amusement arena Dream Park ended in disaster: the special effects had seemed more real than life ... until the holograms she was shooting with live ammunition turned out to be solid flesh and blood ... and very, very dead.Haunted by the past, rebounding from a lengthy spell in a mental hospital, she has returned to Dream Park to exorcise a nightmare that has become reality. But in Dream Park, nothing is what it seems. The Inuit mythology controlling the images is part of a "Fat Ripper Special" designed to implant new behavioral memes. The players are struggling against the game master, one another, and their own demons. And there is a killer who wants to ensure Eviane never regains her memory ... no matter what it costs.Blending together hard science fiction with virtual reality and RPG-like fantasy games, The Barsoom Project is science fiction at the cutting edge and a classic creation from two of the genre's most beloved writers.
A group of pretend adventurers suit up for a campaign called "The South Seas Treasure Game." As in the early role-playing games, there are dungeon masters, warriors, magicians, and thieves. The difference? At Dream Park, a futuristic fantasy theme park full of holographic attractions and the latest in VR technology, they play in an artificial enclosure that has been enhanced with special effects, holograms, actors, and a clever story line. The players get as close as possible to truly living their adventure.All's fun and games until a park security guard is murdered, a valuable research property is stolen, and all evidence points to someone inside the game. The park's head of security, Alex Griffin, joins the game to find the killer, but finds new meaning in the games he helps keep alive.
The latest spellbinding adventure in Larry Niven's acclaimed collaborations with Steven Barnes
Aros of Azteca and Neoloth-Pteor are the deadliest of enemies: swordsman and sorcerer, locked in mortal combat, who have tried to kill each other more times than either can count. But when the princess Neoloth loves is kidnapped, there is only one plan that offers any hope of rescue ... and that requires passing off the barbarian Aros as a lost princeling and infiltrating the deadliest cabal of necromancers the world has ever seen. They cannot trust each other. They will betray or kill each other the first chance they get. But they're all each other has.
The coauthor of Beowulf's Children strikes out on his own with this novel of mystic revelation and martial arts.
What if the disciplines we know as the martial arts, meditation, and fasting were mere fragments of a greater, more powerful killing art?
What if that hidden discipline could produce in a man the power to manipulate matter and energy at will?
What if the effect on the mind were so deadly that, uncontrolled, the result would be an inhuman killer?
And what if, unknowingly, a young man in modern-day Los Angeles were to stumble onto the secret, setting in motion The Kundalini Equation?
"Barnes gives us characters that are vividly real people, conceived with insight and portrayed with compassion and rare skill-and then he stokes the suspense up to levels that will make the reader miss sleep and be late for work."-Tim Powers, World Fantasy Award-winning author
This novella by three celebrated authors in the science fiction genre is set between the events of The Legacy of Heorot-which Tom Clancy called "outstanding"-and Beowulf's Children.
The oldest children of the settlers on Avalon are now in their late teens and want independence from their parents and guardians. And they especially don't want them around for the initiation ceremony held on Black Ship Island for the younger children just reaching their teens. But when previously unknown creatures make their deadly appearance, things go horribly wrong.
Bestselling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind's first outpost in the farthest reaches of space.
Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise-until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.
"Outstanding!...The best ever, by the best in the field...The ultimate combination of imagination and realism."-Tom Clancy
A powerhouse trio of science fiction greats has united to further explore the planet Avalon, first introduced in their classic novel The Legacy of Heorot.
"Once upon a long, long time ago, our parents and grandparents left a place called Earth. They traveled across the stars in a ship called Geographic to find paradise."
A new generation is growing up on the island paradise of Camelot, ignorant of the Great Grendel Wars fought when their parents and grandparents first arrived on Earth. Setting out to explore the mainland, this group of young rebels feels ready to fight any grendels that get in their way. On Avalon, however, there are monsters that dwarf the ones their parents fought, and as the group will soon learn, monsters also dwell in the human heart.
Avalon does not give up her secrets easily, and some of those mysteries are wicked as sin and blacker than the grave.
"Few writers have a finer pedigree than those here...As one might suspect, Beowulf's Children is seamless...An absorbing, substantial, and finally rather masterful novel."-Los Angeles Times
A powerhouse trio of science fiction greats has united to further explore the planet Avalon, first introduced in their classic novel The Legacy of Heorot.
'Once upon a long, long time ago, our parents and grandparents left a place called Earth. They traveled across the stars in a ship called Geographic to find paradise.'
A new generation is growing up on the island paradise of Camelot, ignorant of the Great Grendel Wars fought when their parents and grandparents first arrived on Earth. Setting out to explore the mainland, this group of young rebels feels ready to fight any grendels that get in their way. On Avalon, however, there are monsters that dwarf the ones their parents fought, and as the group will soon learn, monsters also dwell in the human heart.
Avalon does not give up her secrets easily, and some of those mysteries are wicked as sin and blacker than the grave.
