Earth is But a Star
Excursions
Through Science Fiction to the Far Future
Edited By Damien
Broderick
The
dark magic of the far future... Science is there in the background: the Age of
Man is over, much like the Age of Great Reptiles...
Brian W. Aldiss, Foreword
Deep
Time: the ultimate frontier, tomorrow’s most romantic landscape. Our sun is a
vast, sullen wheel hanging on the horizon. Beings walk the dying world in its
red light, but few are human. Robots return from the edges of the galaxy to
mourn their lost ancestors. Mages weave plots, their science so advanced it is
indistinguishable from magic. In the vastness of eternity, Earth is but a star.
Earth
is But a Star presents
a dazzling array of heavyweight contributors gathered around an issue which is
both timely and topical in its field, but which at the same time explores
concepts that are genuinely universal.
The
title Earth is But a Star is borrowed
from John Brunner’s substantial 1958 novella, which is one of the highlights
of this anthology. Other stories from classic science fiction writers such as
Jack Vance, Arthur C. Clarke and Poul Anderson are complemented by more recent
pieces from authors such as Pamela Zoline, C. J. Cherryh and others. The essays
deal with variations on the remote future. Now that it seems that the universe
is expanding endlessly rather than slowing, this open alternative can be read
either as cosmic ‘heat death’ or some kind of fertile eternity.
How
can and might science fiction deal with such perspectives? Earth is But a Star examines this topic in depth for the first time.
author
details
Born
in Melbourne, Australia, in 1944, Damien was educated at Monash and Deakin
Universities and is now a freelance writer based at the University of Melbourne.
He is several times winner of the Ditmar Award, the winner of the Aurealis Award
and runner up in the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.
Damien
has previously published several books including The Spike, Striped Holes, The Zeitgeist Machine: Australian Science
Fiction and The Judas Mandala. He
is one of Australia’s best known science fiction writers and is a regular
contributor to ‘The Australian’.
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian W. Aldiss
Poul Anderson
Michael Andre-Driussi
Stephen Baxter
Elizabeth Billinger
Russell Blackford
Claire Brialey
Damien Broderick
John Brunner
C. J. Cherryh
Arthur C. Clarke
John Clute
Bruce Gillespie
Stanislaw Lem
Rosaleen Love
Walter Minkel
Yvonne Rousseau
Anders Sandberg
Robert Silverberg
Brian Stableford
Olaf Stapledon
Alice Turner
Jack Vance
Paul Voermans
A. E. van Vogt
Jo Walton
Robert Moore Williams
Gene Wolfe
George Zebrowski
Pamela Zoline
ISBN: 1 876268 54 9
153 x 225mm
480pages