Showing results by narrator "William Hope" in All Categories

Could a robot ever show true creativity? Is it wise to trust self-driving cars? Will robotic body parts transform human beings into machines? Will organic technology allow robots to become human? Featuring Dr. Susan Calvin, Donovan and Powell, and the detective Elijah Baley, hero of the Robot novels, this is the ultimate collection of short stories from a genius of the genre.

Returned to Earth, Ellen Ripley learns that a colony has been established on LV-426, the planet where the crew of the Nostromo found the original Alien. But contact with the colonists has been lost, so she must accompany a unit of colonial marines to discover their fate. And to destroy any Aliens found on the planet known as Acheron. This is a groundbreaking sequel by science fiction legend Alan Dean Foster, with the wonderful characters and rapid-fire action that make Aliens one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

The last Isaac Asimov science fiction collection which contains all of his previously uncollected stories. Gold is Isaac Asimov's last science fiction collection‚ one containing all of his uncollected SF stories that had never before appeared in book form. Gold is the final and crowning...

First published fifteen years ago, shortly after his death, inside this collection are some of the finest short stories of science fiction writing from one of the genre’s greatest writers, Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov was the Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the founder of...

What happens when a robot begins to question its creators? What would be the consequences of creating a robot with a sense of humour? Or the ability to lie? How do we truly tell the difference between man and machine? In I, Robot, Asimov sets out the Three Laws of Robotics - designed to protect humans from their robotic creations - and pushes them to their limits and beyond.

Humans have kept honey bees in hives for millennia, yet only in recent decades have biologists begun to investigate how these industrious insects live in the wild. The Lives of Bees is Thomas Seeley’s captivating story of what scientists are learning about the behavior, social life, and survival strategies of honey bees living outside the beekeeper’s hive - and how wild honey bees may hold the key to reversing the alarming die-off of the planet’s managed honey bee populations.

Twenty of the finest science fiction short stories from one of the genre’s greatest writers, Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov was the Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the founder of robot ethics, and one of the world’s most prolific authors of fiction and non-fiction. Asimov’s short fiction has been enjoyed by millions for more than half a century. Many of the stories in this collection are classics of the genre, including ‘Ring Around the Sun’, which follows two self-declared best pilots on their journey from Earth to Venus, passing within twenty-two million miles of the Sun.

Sailing on a boat by yourself out at sea and out of sight of land can be exhilarating or terrifying, compelling or tedious - sometimes it can be all of these things just in one morning. It is an adventure at odds with our normal, sociable lives, carried out floating on a medium wholly inimical to our existence. But the deep ocean is also a remarkable place on which to think. Richard King's enormously engaging and curious book is about the debt we owe to solo sailors: women and men, young and old, who have set out alone.

If you loved The Passage, World War Z, The Martian or Interstellar: this is a must-read thriller for you. * * * Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Read by William Hope, Christopher Ragland, Andy Secombe, Charlie Anson, Eric...

One hot, humid day in July 1944, the Gestapo abducted 15-year-old Henry and his mother, forcing them onto cramped cattle cars in the Łódź Polish Ghetto. Like so many Jews before them, they had been selected to disappear–they were being sent to Auschwitz.

Brought to you by Penguin. A shopping mall where droids sell organs harvested from street trash... A murderous imaginary friend... A psychotic composer drafting music from pain... All in a day's work for the Lawman of the Future. Edited by and with an introduction by Dredd veteran Michael...

Twenty-four of the Buddha's most distinguished disciples are brought to life in ten chapters of rich narration. They include monks who were very close to him throughout his life, including Sariputta and Mahamoggallana; his cousin and companion Ananda; his principal women disciples, including the nun Isidasi and his lay disciple, the courtesan Ambapali; and the serial killer Angulimala, whose character was transformed after meeting the Buddha.

Ben Koenig is a ghost. He doesn't exist any more. Six years ago it was Koenig who headed up the US Marshal's elite Special Ops group. They were the elite unit who hunted the bad guys - the really bad guys. They did this so no one else had to. Until the day Koenig disappeared. He told no one why and he left no forwarding address. For six years he became a grey man. Invisible. He drifted from town to town, state to state. He was untraceable. It was as if he had never been.

How could robots be used in a time of war? Could a robot be raised like a child? Could we allow them to have children of their own? Is there any human profession that could never be performed by a robotic replacement? In The Rest of the Robots, robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan return to investigate many more puzzling anomalies and catastrophic malfunctions.

Mars. The red planet. A new frontier for humanity: a civilisation where humans can live in peace, lord and master of all they survey. But this isn't Space City from those old science-fiction books. It's more like Hell City, built into and from a huge crater. There's a big silk canopy over it, feeding out atmosphere as we generate it, little by little, because we can't breathe the air here. I guess it's a perfect place to live, if you want to live on Mars. At some point I must have wanted to live on Mars, because here I am.

Glasgow, 2025. Dr Amanda Maclean is called to treat a young man with a mild fever. Within three hours, he dies. The mysterious illness sweeps through the hospital with deadly speed. This is how it begins. The victims are all men. Dr Maclean raises the alarm, but the sickness spreads to every corner of the globe. Threatening families. Governments. Countries. Can they find a cure before it’s too late? Will this be the story of the end of the world - or its salvation?

It's 1959, and Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one-time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Pennsylvania, beginning a thousand-mile journey that he hopes will free him from his mediocre life.

On the planet of Solaria, Spacers live in almost complete isolation, tended by robot servants and disgusted by the thought of human contact. And yet, one of their number has been beaten to death. Incapable of solving the crime, the authorities of the Outer Worlds seek help from Earth – from renowned detective Elijah Baley. Partnered once again with the robot Daneel Olivaw, Baley travels to this strange new world and uncovers a plot that could change the relationship between humans and robots for ever.

When a shocking murder and abduction on the streets of London leads investigators to him, Ben Koenig has no idea at first why the highest echelons of the CIA would need his help. But then he realises he knows the woman who carried out the killings. Ten years earlier, without being told why, he was tasked with helping her disappear. Far from being a deranged killer, she is the gatekeeper of a secret that could take down the West, so for years she has been in hiding. Until now.

A collection of 98 enthralling and pulse-quickening stories, spanning five decades, venerates the remarkable imagination of J. G. Ballard. With a body of work unparalleled in twentieth-century literature, J. G. Ballard is recognized as one of the greatest and most prophetic writers in the world. With the much-hailed release of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, readers now have a means to celebrate the unmatched range and mesmerizing cadences of a literary genius.