Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist-cruiser “Selene”, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface, her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the pitiless and unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment.

Apenas algumas ilhas espalhadas num planeta selvagem oceânico, Thalassa era um verdadeiro paraíso. Feliz e tranquilo, o povo de Thassala deleitava-se em viver bem no seu belo e abastado mundo. Envolvdos pelos encantos e recursos do planeta, aqueles colonos não suspeitavam do colossal evento que repentinamente tomaria lugar sobre seus mares. O idílio de Thalassa seria rompido em breve com o aparecimento de Magalhães em sua órbita.Protegida por um escudo de gelo que a cercava, Magalhães tinha a aparência fascinante de um enorme cristal esverdeado e resplandecente. Por dentro do iceberg, artificial, Magalhães uma nave espacial de proporções gigantescas, transportava um milhão de refugiados da Terra em estado de hibernação. Eles eram os sobreviventes dos últimos e alucinados dias da civilização humana em seu planeta de origem.A chegada de Magalhães a Thalassa fatalmente abalaria a calma e segurança dos nativos: a astronave estaria só fazendo uma escala em sua jornada para uma estrela mais distante, como alegou a tripulação, ou a intenção era ficar e estabelecer os passageiros naquele cenário divino?

Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shutout the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rules the stars. But then, as legend had it, the Invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique to break through Diaspar’s stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.

Two of science fiction’s most renowned writers join forces for a storytelling sensation. The historic collaboration between Frederik Pohl and his fellow founding father of the genre, Arthur C. Clarke, is both a momentous literary event and a fittingly grand farewell from the late, great visionary author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.The Last Theorem is a story of one man’s mathematical obsession, and a celebration of the human spirit and the scientific method. It is also a gripping intellectual thriller in which humanity, facing extermination from all-but-omnipotent aliens, the Grand Galactics, must overcome differences of politics and religion and come together… or perish.In 1637, the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat scrawled a note in the margin of a book about an enigmatic theorem: “I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.” He also neglected to record his proof elsewhere. Thus began a search for the Holy Grail of mathematics—a search that didn’t end until 1994, when Andrew Wiles published a 150-page proof. But the proof was burdensome, overlong, and utilized mathematical techniques undreamed of in Fermat’s time, and so it left many critics unsatisfied—including young Ranjit Subramanian, a Sri Lankan with a special gift for mathematics and a passion for the famous “Last Theorem.”When Ranjit writes a three-page proof of the theorem that relies exclusively on knowledge available to Fermat, his achievement is hailed as a work of genius, bringing him fame and fortune. But it also brings him to the attention of the National Security Agency and a shadowy United Nations outfit called Pax per Fidem, or Peace Through Transparency, whose secretive workings belie its name. Suddenly Ranjit—together with his wife, Myra de Soyza, an expert in artificial intelligence, and their burgeoning family—finds himself swept up in world-shaking events, his genius for abstract mathematical thought put to uses that are both concrete and potentially deadly.Meanwhile, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, an alien fleet is approaching the planet at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Their mission: to exterminate the dangerous species of primates known as homo sapiens.

BLAST OFF!"Between the first and last decades of the Twentieth Century lay a gulf greater than the wildest imagination could have conceived. It was the gulf between gunpowder and nuclear bomb, between messages tapped in morse code and global television from the sky, between Queen Victoria, Empress of India, and Kwame Chaka, Supreme President of the African Federation. But above all, it was the gulf between the first hundred-foot flight at Kitty Hawk , and the first billion mile mission to the moons of Jupiter. . . ."This was the beginning of the first version of 2001-the version that never was published. Now at last you can go that first great voyage . . . a trip far different than that of 2001 . . . an adventure in many ways even stranger and more fascinating . . . as you move through time and space toward the extraordinary revelation that awaits you in-THE LOST WORLDS OF 2001ARTHUR C. CLARKEA SIGNET BOOK fromNEW AMERICAN LIBRARYTIMES MIRROR"Sorry to interrupt the festivities, but we have a problem."(HAL 9000, during Frank Poole's birthday party)"Houston , we've had a problem." (Jack Swigert, shortly after playing the Zarathustra theme to his TV audience, aboard Apollo 13 Command Module Odyssey)

Ever done anything for no particular reason at all? Ever feel as if you were arguing with yourself? Do you sometimes get the feeling that you're really two people who are at odds over the basic rights and wrongs of life?Probably you’re merely schizophrenic, and there's nothing to worry about except the prospect of life in a padded cell. But, on the other hand, perhaps. . . ,

'Kill the umpire!" the audience cried — and why shouldn't they? He was on the ball, wasn't he?

Voci di terra lontana (The Songs of Distant Earth) è il titolo di diversi lavori di fantascienza di Arthur C. Clarke, tra cui un racconto breve di fantascienza, e un romanzo del 1986 che portano lo stesso titolo. La storia è ambientata 1800 anni nel futuro, nel distante pianeta oceanico di Thalassa. Thalassa viene popolato da esseri umani tramite una navicella carica di embrioni, partita dalla Terra nel tentativo di salvare la razza umana. Il romanzo comincia con un’introduzione sui Thalassiani; Mirissa, un’attraente biologa marina, e il suo partner, Brant, mentre sono in barca vedono l’arrivo di una nave spaziale. È così che finisce la loro pacifica esistenza, con l’apparizione della Magellano, un’astronave proveniente dalla Terra che contiene un milione di persone ibernate. Gli eventi che portarono la Terra a salvare la razza umana sono spiegati nel libro tramite flash-back. Gli scienziati nel 1967 scoprirono che l’emissione di neutrini dal Sole, un risultato delle reazioni di fusione nucleare, erano molte meno di quelle che avrebbero dovuto essere. Meno di un decennio dopo venne confermato che non era un errore degli strumenti. Il Sole stava per trasformarsi in una nova nel giro di 3600 anni.La tecnologia era abbastanza avanzata da permettere diverse spedizioni di navicelle contenenti embrioni di esseri umani e di altri mammiferi, oltre a robot per crescerli, verso pianeti che erano considerati abitabili. La spedizione di esseri umani vivi non era stata nemmeno presa in considerazione poiché, essendo la velocità della luce un limite insuperabile e le distanze dei pianeti molto elevate, la durata del viaggio sarebbe stata comunque di secoli. Si era deciso quindi di inviare navi cariche di embrioni, dette navi inseminatrici, insieme ad un gruppo di robot che arrivato a destinazione si sarebbe occupato di preparare il territorio e allevare gli esseri umani.