Cover art by Howard Chaykin
The Descent of Anansi is a 1982 science fiction novel by American writers Steven Barnes and Larry Niven.
The Descent of Anansi is a 1982 science fiction novel by American writers Steven Barnes and Larry Niven.
A space station manufactory attempts to become commercially independent from its government backers by exporting super-strong nanowire that can only be manufactured in free-fall.
Following an attempt to sabotage their first delivery and hijack the cargo, the intrepid crew realizes they can escape the hijackers. Their shuttle Anansi can become a modern-day version of its namesake, an African spider-god, by descending to Earth on a thread.
The physics of tidal forces are explained, and the possibilities of orbital tethers to accelerate payloads into higher orbits (or indeed de-orbit shuttles without retro-rockets) are woven into a hard science fiction thriller.
Dave Langford reviewed The Descent of Anansi for White Dwarf #54, and called it "Fast-moving, predictable, inoffensive." [1]
The Integral Trees is a 1984 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven. Like much of Niven's work, the story is heavily influenced by the setting: a gas torus, a ring of air around a neutron star. A sequel, The Smoke Ring, was published in 1987.
Asimov on Science Fiction (ISBN 0-586-05840-0) is a 1981 non-fiction work by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It is a collection of short essays dealing with various aspects of science fiction. Many of the essays are editorials from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
Valentine Pontifex is a novel by Robert Silverberg published in 1983.
Mindkiller is a 1982 science fiction novel by American writer Spider Robinson. The novel, set in the late 1980s, explores the social implications of technologies to manipulate the brain, beginning with wireheading, the use of electric current to stimulate the pleasure center of the brain in order to achieve a narcotic high.
The Winds of Change and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1983 by Doubleday.
Hello America is a science fiction novel by British writer J. G. Ballard, published in 1981. First edition cover designed by Bill Botten. The plot follows an expedition to a North America rendered uninhabitable by an ecological disaster following an energy crisis.
The Borribles Go For Broke is the second volume of the Borrible Trilogy, written by Michael de Larrabeiti and first published in 1981 by The Bodley Head in the United Kingdom.
Across the Sea of Suns is a 1984 hard science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford. It is the second novel in his Galactic Center Saga, and continues to follow the scientist Nigel Walmsley, who encountered an extraterrestrial machine in the previous book, In the Ocean of Night, aboard an expeditionary spacecraft, searching for life. Eventually Nigel discovers evidence of the major conflict in the galaxy.
Courtship Rite is a science fiction novel by Canadian writer Donald Kingsbury, originally serialized in Analog magazine in 1982. The book is set in the same universe as some of Kingsbury's other stories, such as "Shipwright" (1978) and the unpublished The Finger Pointing Solward.
'X' Stands for Unknown is a collection of seventeen nonfiction science essays written by Isaac Asimov. It was the seventeenth of a series of books collecting essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, these being first published between January 1982 and May 1983. It was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1984.
The Planet on the Table is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Kim Stanley Robinson, published in hardcover by Tor Books in 1986. A British paperback edition appeared in 1987, as well as a Tor paperback reprint; a French translation was issued in 1988. The collection was republished in the 1994 Tor omnibus Remaking History and Other Stories. The collection takes its title from a poem by Wallace Stevens, which provides the book's epigraph.
Helliconia Summer is a novel by Brian Aldiss published in 1983.
Nifft the Lean is a fantasy novel by Michael Shea published in 1982.
When Voiha Wakes is a novel by Joy Chant published in 1983. It is the third book in the House of Kendreth series, following Red Moon and Black Mountain (1970), and The Grey Mane of Morning (1977).
A Theatre of Timesmiths is a science fiction novel by British writer Garry Kilworth, first published in 1984.
In Viriconium is a novel by M. John Harrison published in 1982.
Starburst is a science fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl, published in 1982.
The Lunatics of Terra is a collection of science fiction short stories by John Sladek, published in 1984.
The Glamour is a novel by Christopher Priest published in 1984.
The Years of the City is a novel by Frederik Pohl published in 1984.
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