The debut collection from Mark Leyner, "I Smell Esther Williams" includes characters that range from suburbanites to Charo, aesthetes to Marianne Faithfull.

A secret sect of blond, blue-eyed Russians claims to have been "awakened" by a block of ice from outer space. They begin to distribute the ice around the world, but questions remain about the organization's disturbing origins. Author Vladimir Sorokin is a famous member of Russia's underground literary scene who has, in the post-Soviet world, risen into the mainstream. ICE is a stellar example of Sorokin's thrilling explorations of paranoia, fascism, religion, and culture.

In these three interlocked stories examining politics, science, and the nature of knowledge, 299 years after all the members of an ill-fated mutiny have disappeared, an archaeologist develops a theory that may explain the strange monolith structure that is discovered on Pluto.

The lead singer of the rock band Lo/Rez wants to marry a computer personality construct, a decision that causes shock waves around the planet. A member of the Seattle branch of his fan club travels to Japan to determine whether the horrible rumor is true. However, can someone really marry a hologram? Is she real? And what does "real" mean anyway in the not-so-distant future?

Dan Simmons, author of the sweeping science fiction Hyperion saga, borrows liberally from the fertile mythology of Homer's ILIAD in this first installment of an epic SF duology, set in a far distant future. The plot consists of three discrete, but thematically related, storylines. On a terraformed Mars, the Trojan War rages, presided over by awesome beings resembling the Greek gods who derive their powers from technology so sophisticated it may as well be magic. On Earth, a group arises from the decadent, uneducated scraps of humanity and struggles to reclaim forgotten knowledge left behind by the more evolved, vanished post-humans. Meanwhile, a group of moravecs--semi-organic, intelligent machines from the inner moons of Jupiter--journey to Mars to investigate a series of odd images they've picked up via remote observation of the planet.

The second half of Clive Barker's massive tome about the spiritual alignment of planet Earth in a centuries-old war that has defined the meta-universe known as "Imajica."

The second half of Clive Barker's massive tome about the spiritual alignment of planet Earth in a centuries-old war that has defined the meta-universe known as "Imajica."

This marvelous hybrid of cynical time-travel novel and tragic romance is the initial volume in a projected seven-book series about Dr. Zeus, or the Company, as it is also known. The Company is a corporation from the year 2355 that utilizes time travel to preserve and subsequently "discover" the treasures of the past, upon which it turns a fat profit. As the people of that far future time find traveling to those days uncomfortable and distasteful, it recruits its operatives from orphans rescued in the past--who are, of course, suitably grateful. The Company pulls 19-year-old Mendoza out of the fetid dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition and trains her to be a botanist. Genetically and mechanically altered to become an immortal cyborg, the 19-year-old Mendoza is sent to the home of Sir Walter Iden in 1544 to save a strain of holly that will eventually be used to cure cancer. Having spent many years in a technologically advanced environment surrounded by other cyborgs, she is frightened and contemptuous of the unmodified, ignorant "mortals." That's why she's so shocked when she falls in love with one of them....

During the 1800s, several inventors manage to extend the capabilities of Charles Babbage's proto-computer, using it to predict the future and, where it suited them, to alter it. Almost two hundred years later, those alterations begin to collapse, threatening the fabric of late-20th-century culture.

Londoner Jack Chambers travels to Chicago to hear the will of his estranged--and rather strange--father. Though most of the estate is willed to a half sister he didn't know he had, Jack receives a bizarre book--written in invisible ink--that purports to reveal the secrets of disappearing. A New York Times Notable Book for 2000.

Londoner Jack Chambers travels to Chicago to hear the will of his estranged--and rather strange--father. Though most of the estate is willed to a half sister he didn't know he had, Jack receives a bizarre book--written in invisible ink--that purports to reveal the secrets of disappearing. A New York Times Notable Book for 2000.

The atevi are humanoid aliens who allow Earth humans to occupy the island of Mospheira. Only one, Bren Cameron, has been allowed to leave the island and move among the atevi. While Bren is trying to teach atevi cultural courtesies to his fellow colonists, Tabini, the powerful atevi leader who has sponsored Bren, suffers an attack from rebel atevi forces who are conspiring with another human, the ambitious Deanna Hanks. This is the third installment in Cherryh's "Foreigner" series.

A vampire named Louis tells his life story to a young reporter. While initial reviews of this book were unfavorable, it has nevertheless become something of a contemporary classic in neo-Gothic literature.

In this bizarre world, the control of the Elevators Inspectors is sought by two rival groups, the Empiricists (traditional technicians) and the Intuitionists (who feel the elevators' psychic vibrations). One of the Intuitionists, Lila Mae Watson, who is black, is suspected of negligence when one of her approved elevators malfunctions, as a result of which her life is disrupted by false accusations, physical attacks, and a troubling romance.