Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Steampunk

The Ragged Astronauts

Name: The Ragged Astronauts
Rating: 3.70 (504 reviews)
Author: Bob Shaw

Bob Shaw

3.70 504 Ratings

Ongoing Status

25 Views

Start Reading

Synopsis

Land and Overland—twin worlds a few thousand miles apart. On Land, humanity faces a threat to its very survival—an airborne species, the ptertha, has declared war on humankind and is actively hunting for victims. The only hope lies in migration. Through space to Overland. By balloon.

The Ragged Astronauts—first volume in an epic adventure filled with memorable characters, intense action, engaging notions, exotic locales.

Books similar to The Ragged Astronauts

Shadow & Claw

★ 4.04

Gene Wolfe

The Shadow of the Torturer is the tale of young Severian, an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession -- showing mercy toward his victim.

The Claw of the Conciliator continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic, and learn the truth about his hidden destiny.

The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly, and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Shadow & Claw brings together the first two books of the tetralogy in one volume.

More Than Human

★ 3.93

Theodore Sturgeon

In this genre-bending novel—among the first to have launched sci-fi into the arena of literature—one of the great imaginers of the twentieth century tells a story as mind-blowing as any controlled substance and as affecting as a glimpse into a stranger's soul.

There's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles. There's Baby, who invented an antigravity engine while still in the cradle, and Gerry, who has everything it takes to run the world except for a conscience. Separately, they are talented freaks. Together, they compose a single organism that may represent the next step in evolution, and the final chapter in the history of the human race.

As the protagonists of More Than Human struggle to find out who they are and whether they are meant to help humanity or destroy it, Theodore Sturgeon explores questions of power and morality, individuality and belonging, with suspense, pathos, and a lyricism rarely seen in science fiction.

Dhalgren

★ 3.77

Samuel R. Delany

Nebula Award Reality has come unglued and a mad civilization takes root in Bellona, in this science fiction classic.

A young half–Native American known as the Kid has hitchhiked from Mexico to the midwestern city Bellona—only something is wrong there . . . In Bellona, the shattered city, a nameless cataclysm has left reality unhinged. Into this desperate metropolis steps the Kid, his fist wrapped in razor-sharp knives, to write, to love, to wound.

So begins Dhalgren , Samuel R. Delany’s masterwork, which in 1975 opened a new door for what science fiction could mean. A labyrinth of a novel, it raises questions about race, sexuality, identity, and art, but gives no easy answers, in a city that reshapes itself with each step you take . . .

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Samuel R. Delany including rare images from his early career.

Pirate Sun

★ 3.99

Karl Schroeder

Return to Virga, a bubble universe artificially separated from our own future universe, and the setting of Sun of Suns and Queen of Candesce .

Chaison Fanning, the admiral of a fleet of warships, has been captured and imprisoned by his enemies, but is suddenly rescued and set free. He flees through the sky to his home city to confront the ruler who betrayed him. And perhaps even to regain his lovely, powerful, and subversive wife, Venera, who he has not seen since she fled with the key to the artificial sun at the center of Virga, Candesce.

Schroeder sets a whole new standard for hard SF space opera.

From Here to Timbuktu

★ 4.16

Milton J. Davis

The year is 1870. As the young country of Freedonia prepares to celebrate fifty years of existence, a young bounty hunter by the name of Zeke Culpepper is hired by a wealthy businessman to find a valuable book. In the kingdom of Mali on the continent of Africa, veteran warrior Famara Keita has been assigned to find that same book and bring it back to its rightful owner. And in the newly formed nation of Germany, an ambitious Prussian officer seeks the book as well for its secrets that could make Germany the most powerful nation in the world. The result is an action adventure like no other!

The Hidden Institute

★ 4.07

Brand Gamblin

Rising above your station can be deadly. Cliffy is a child born on the streets of a Neo-Victorian world. Witnesses to a murder, he blackmails a nobleman, receiving a unique bribe. In exchange for his silence, the nobleman introduces him to the Malcolm Rutherford Holden Institute of Regentrification. There, Cliffy learns to walk, talk, and act like a nobleman, so that he may infiltrate high society. But that type of fraud is punishable by death, and when Cliffy uncovers a plot to assassinate a head of state, he's hunted by more than just the aristocracy. Royal intrigue, daring escapes, sub-dermal machines, and bear polo. A grand adventure in a not-so-distant world.

Startide Rising

★ 4.04

David Brin

David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War—a New York Times bestseller—together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind?

The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed in the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret—the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.

The Dune Encyclopedia

★ 4.11

Willis Everett McNelly

From the dust Compiled by Dr. Willis E. McNelly At last. The complete, authorized guide and companion to Frank Herbert's monumental Dune Chronicles. Eight years in the making, filled with original, never-before-published material, THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA reveals all the mystery, savagery and wonder of a remarkable world in panoramic detail. How did Muad'Dib get his name. What are the three ranks of adepts within the Order of Mentats. Who are the Fish Speakers, and what is their link to Duncan Idaho. How does a stillsuit work. What are the hidden origins of the Spacing Guild. Where did the techniques for spice-trance navigation develop. Just a hint of the information contained within the pages of this unique encyclopedia - along with the poetry from the Imperium, Fremen lore, legends, even illustrations of Sardaukar Medals, the Giant Sandworm of Arrakis and more. As Frank Herberts says in his introductory note to this intensively researched, meticulously cross-referenced Here is a rich background (and foreground) for the Dune Chronicles, including scholarly bypaths and amusing sidelights. Some of the contributions are sure to arouse controversy. ... Others round out long speculation. Specialists have had their field day with problems geological, biological, astronomical, and mystical. ... The an enthralling, enlightening volume no DUNE reader will want to be without.