Biopunk is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on biotechnology. It is derived from cyberpunk, but focuses on the implications of biotechnology rather than information technology. Biopunk is concerned with synthetic biology. It is derived of cyberpunk involving bio-hackers, biotech mega-corporations, and oppressive government agencies that manipulate human DNA. Most often keeping with the dark atmosphere of cyberpunk, biopunk generally examines the dark side of genetic engineering and represents the low side of biotechnology.
Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that has been called the "literature of ideas". It typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, time travel, parallel universes, fictional worlds, space exploration, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific innovations.
S. Andrew Swann is a science fiction and fantasy author living in Solon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where much of his fiction is set. He was born Steven Swiniarski and has published some of his books as Swiniarski, and some as Swann. He has been published by DAW Books and by Ballantine Spectra, a division of Random House.
The first three novels were re-released together as the Moreau Omnibus in 2004. In 2015, the first and fourth novels were released as The Moreau Quartet Volume One, and the other two as The Moreau Quartet Volume Two.
The series is set in the mid-21st century detailing a world after a series of near apocalyptic wars. Moreaus are animal-human hybrids created as soldiers by 21st century governments through genetic engineering. The first three novels form a trilogy, with different main characters, dealing with a covert extraterrestrial invasion of Earth. The fourth novel returns focus to Nohar Rajasthan from the first novel, and deals with a human conspiracy to exterminate the moreau population.
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an organism's genes using biotechnology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. New DNA is obtained by either isolating and copying the genetic material of interest using recombinant DNA methods or by artificially synthesising the DNA. A construct is usually created and used to insert this DNA into the host organism. The first recombinant DNA molecule was made by Paul Berg in 1972 by combining DNA from the monkey virus SV40 with the lambda virus. As well as inserting genes, the process can be used to remove, or "knock out", genes. The new DNA can be inserted randomly, or targeted to a specific part of the genome.
An extraterrestrial or alien is any extraterrestrial lifeform; a lifeform that did not originate on Earth. The word extraterrestrial means "outside Earth". The first published use of extraterrestrial as a noun occurred in 1956, during the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Swann's Hostile Takeover Trilogy is set in the 24th century in the same universe as this series, with minor appearances by moreaus.
Hostile Takeover is a science fiction trilogy written by S. Andrew Swann and published by DAW Books. The series is set in the 24th Century, when humans have settled a variety of colonized worlds connected by wormholes, and established a loose confederacy of powers. The main setting is the Anarcho-capitalist planet of Bakunin. It consists of three books titled Profiteer, Partisan and Revolutionary, which were published between 1995 and 1996 and re-released by DAW in a single volume in 2004.
Swann's Apotheosis Trilogy is set in the 26th century in the same universe, and one of the main characters is Nickolai Rajasthan, a distant descendant.
Forests of the Night
Forests of the Night is a science fictiondetective story set in 2053 in Cleveland, Ohio. The story follows the private detective Nohar Rajasthan, a "moreau", Swann's term for genetically engineered animal people. Nohar is a tiger whose species was engineered to be soldiers in the Indianspecial forces. Nohar is hired by what appears to be a "frank" (a coinage by Swann for genetically engineered humans, a shortening of Frankenstein) to investigate the murder of a conservative anti-moreau political figure. In the course of the investigation Nohar unearths a massive conspiracy involving extraterrestrials attempting to negatively influence the technological growth of the Earth's peoples.
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
A private investigator, a private detective, or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators often work for attorneys in civil and criminal cases.
The tiger is the largest species among the Felidae and classified in the genus Panthera. It is most recognizable for its dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with a lighter underside. It is an apex predator, primarily preying on ungulates such as deer and bovids. It is territorial and generally a solitary but social predator, requiring large contiguous areas of habitat, which support its requirements for prey and rearing of its offspring. Tiger cubs stay with their mother for about two years, before they become independent and leave their mother's home range to establish their own.
Nohar Rajasthan is the son of first-generation tiger hybrids bred for Indian special forces, he has grown up in America as a second-class citizen. He was raised after his mother's death by Mandvi "Manny" Gujerat, a surgeon and moreau mongoose. After spending some time in a moreau youth gang, he worked as a detective in Cleveland. He moves to San Francisco at the end of the novel.
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, trained, and equipped forces, manned with selected personnel, using unconventional tactics, techniques, and modes of employment".
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Cleveland is a major city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. The city proper has a population of 385,525, making it the 51st-largest city in the United States, and the second-largest city in Ohio. Greater Cleveland is ranked as the 32nd-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with 2,055,612 people in 2016. The city anchors the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, which had a population of 3,515,646 in 2010 and is ranked 15th in the United States.
Emperors of the Twilight
Set in 2059, six years after the first book, Emperors stars Evi Isham, a "frank" (genetically engineered human, short for "Frankenstein") who was introduced in the first book. An NSA agent, she is suddenly targeted by a group of moreau assassins, and tries to make contact with their Agency, only to find out she is thought dead and a traitor. Nohar Rajastahn makes a minor appearance.
Specters of the Dawn
Set some time after the second book, Specters stars Angelica "Angel" Lopez, a rabbit moreau also introduced in the first book. Now living in California, she finds a massive conspiracy when investigating the murder of a fellow moreau.
Fearful Symmetries
Subtitled "The Return of Nohar Rajasthan", the book is set 15 years after Forests.
Nohar is living in a cabin in the woods when he is approached by a lawyer to find a missing moreau. Nohar turns the case down and the lawyer leaves. Soon after, the cabin is assaulted by a para-military team. Nohar escapes with his life, and now on the run, he tries to discover why his life was threatened. He is eventually instrumental in uncovering a secret government plot to use an engineered variant of the Ebola virus to exterminate the moreau population, and discovered a son he did not know he had.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, related to the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third- and first-person perspectives in a nonlinear narrative. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology, and Discordianism.
Mad scientist is a caricature of a scientist who is described as "mad" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, taboo or hubristic nature of their experiments. As a motif in fiction, the mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral; may be insane, eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognize or value common human objections to attempting to play God. Some may have benevolent or good-spirited intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental villains.They are often aided by a hunchback lab assistant named Igor.
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from the University of St Andrews. In 1991, he moved to Noordwijk in the Netherlands where he met his wife Josette. There, he worked for the European Space Research and Technology Centre until 2004 when he left to pursue writing full-time. He returned to Wales in 2008 and lives near Cardiff.
Grey aliens, also referred to as Zeta Reticulans, Roswell Greys, or Grays, are purported extraterrestrial beings whose existence is discussed in ufological, paranormal, and New Age communities and who are named for their unique skin color. Forty-three percent of all reported alien encounters in the United States describe Grey aliens. Such claims vary in every respect, including the nature, origins, moral dispositions, intentions, and physical appearances of the encountered beings, though many of them nonetheless share some noticeable similarities. A composite description derived from this overlap would have Greys as small-bodied beings with smooth grey-colored skin, enlarged hairless heads and large black eyes.
Thomas Ligotti is a contemporary American horror author and reclusive literary cult figure. His writings have been noted as being rooted in several literary genres – most prominently weird fiction – and have overall been described by critics such as S.T. Joshi as works of "philosophical horror", often written as short stories and novellas and with similarities to gothic fiction. The worldview espoused by Ligotti in both his fiction and non-fiction has been described as profoundly pessimistic and nihilistic. The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction."
The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat who is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a mad scientist who creates human-like hybrid beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature. Wells described it as "an exercise in youthful blasphemy."
The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by American science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.
The Faded Sun trilogy is a series of science fiction novels set in the Alliance-Union universe of American writer C. J. Cherryh. The series comprises the three novels The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978), The Faded Sun: Shon'jir (1978), and The Faded Sun: Kutath (1979), published by DAW Books. They were re-published in as an omnibus edition in the UK in 1987 and in the U.S. in 2000.
Thomas Burnett Swann was an American poet, critic and fantasy author.
Specter of the Past is the first of the two Hand of Thrawn novels by Timothy Zahn, which follow his Thrawn trilogy.
Dean Koontz's Frankenstein is the collective title of five novels co-written by Dean Koontz. Though technically of the mystery or thriller genres, the novels also feature the trappings of horror, fantasy, and science fiction.
The First Men in the Moon is a scientific romance by the English author H. G. Wells, originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from December 1900 to August 1901 and published in hardcover in 1901, who called it one of his "fantastic stories". The novel tells the story of a journey to the Moon undertaken by the two protagonists, a businessman narrator, Mr. Bedford, and an eccentric scientist, Mr. Cavor. Bedford and Cavor discover that the Moon is inhabited by a sophisticated extraterrestrial civilisation of insect-like creatures they call "Selenites".
Outbound Flight is a novel set in the Star Wars expanded universe, released on January 31, 2006. Written by Timothy Zahn, it is a prequel to Zahn's Thrawn trilogy (1991–93). The book was released by Del Rey, first in hardcover, then in paperback in January 2007. The cover art is by Dave Seeley.
The Foreigner universe is a fictional universe created by American writer C. J. Cherryh. The series centers on the descendants of a ship lost in transit from Earth en route to found a new space station. It consists of a series of semi-encapsulated trilogy arcs that focus on the life of Bren Cameron, the human paidhi, a translator-diplomat to the court of the ruling atevi race. Currently nineteen novels have been published between 1994 and 2018. Cherryh has also self-published two ebook short story prequels to the series, "Deliberations" and "Invitations".
City of Night is a novel released in 2005 by the best-selling author Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman. The book is the second in Koontz's series, entitled Dean Koontz's Frankenstein. The third book in the series, Dead and Alive, was published in 2009.
Brothers of Earth is a 1976 science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It was the second of Cherryh's novels to be published, appearing after Gate of Ivrel, although she had completed and submitted Brothers of Earth first. Donald A. Wollheim, the editor of DAW Books, decided that publishing Gate of Ivrel first would be more commercially desirable, so Brothers of Earth was delayed until the former was released.
Dead and Alive is the third novel in the first trilogy of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. Originally intended to be co-authored by Ed Gorman and Dean Koontz, Koontz opted to write this entry alone.
The Warriors of Spider is a science fiction novel by American writer W. Michael Gear. The first book in the Spider Trilogy, it was first published in 1988. The story is set roughly 600 years in the future, sometime between 2600 and 2700.
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