Recommendations based on "Laugh Lines"

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning. . . .From the Trade Paperback edition.

Critics have compared the engrossing space operas of Peter F. Hamilton to the classic sagas of such sf giants as Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. But Hamilton’s bestselling fiction—powered by a fearless imagination and world-class storytelling skills—has also earned him comparison to Tolstoy and Dickens. Hugely ambitious, wildly entertaining, philosophically stimulating: the novels of Peter F. Hamilton will change the way you think about science fiction. Now, with Pandora’s Star, he begins a new multivolume adventure, one that promises to be his most mind-blowing yet.The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport “tunnels” known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star . . . vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him.Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship’s mission for its own ends,.Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth . . . and humanity itself.Could it be that Johansson was right?

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years.What would happen if the world were ending?A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant.

In a future universe in which a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, Straumli realm scientists use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon and unwittingly unleash a power capable of destroying the universe.

The action is on the page, on your device, and out of this world! This multiplatform series is part sci-fi, all action-adventure. And you don’t have long to wait—six books are coming all in one year!Earth is in danger! The only things that can save our planet are six essential elements scattered throughout the galaxy. And it is up to the Voyagers—a team of four kids and an alien—to gather them all and return to Earth.It isn’t just the Voyagers out in space—they’ve got company in the form of Team Omega. Omegas have their own reasons for wanting the elements—and they’ll do anything to win. The third planet, Aqua-Gen, has unbelievable new challenges in store. Sea monsters, pirates . . . Both teams better know how to swim.Do you have what it takes to be a Voyager? Find out at VoyagersHQ.com.

The greatest threat to humanities survival is about to emerge from the depths of space. This bundle includes the first three books in New York Times bestselling author Ian Douglas’ Star Carrier series. There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point. But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary. To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last. Includes: Earth Strike, Centre of Gravity and Singularity.

As the crippled starship Trumpet drifts in space, its drives sabotaged from within by a crewman tainted with an alien mutagen, a deadly game is being played out on a satellite near Earth in the headquarters of the UMC Police. In the wake of a suicide attack in the chambers of the Governing Council for Earth and Space, UMCP Director Warden Dios is preparing to expose the secret machinations of the Dragon, the corrupt head of the United Mining Companies. But Dios's own dangerous actions are about to come to light and may precipitate all-out war with the Amnion, leaving Dios - and all humanity - to pay a terrible price for what could be termed treason. Thought dead in space, Trumpet broadcasts to any ship in range the formula of the mutagen's antidote - a drug the UMC has suppressed for its own sinister purposes. A small band of battered survivors, these fugitives hold the key to Earth's future: Morn Hyland, a former UMCP cop whose obsession with the Amnion has grown so fierce she is becoming something even her son doesn't recognize; Angus Thermopyle, cyborg tool of the UMCP, released from his cybernetic enslavement and now testing the boundaries of his new freedom; Ciro Vasaczk, tormented by the damage done him by the Amnion mutagen - and by the damage he himself has done Trumpet while in thrall to the drug. Their escape from the Calm Horizons will prove to be only a temporary triumph if the alien combat craft survives its battle with the UMCP ship Punisher and returns to the Amnion with the antidote's formula - and the key to the destruction of all human life. Morn Hyland can see just one way out of their situation. As Min Donner and Punisher close in on the disabled Trumpet to arrestthe fugitives, Morn prepares for a desperate gamble. To commandeer the police craft by any means necessary...and take it back to Earth. As Dios in Earth's orbit and Morn in deep space each make dire, far-reaching decisions, the Amnion act with swift fury, and suddenly Earth stands threatened with fiery destruction.

Discover the first three books in the ground-breaking 21st century hard-science fiction saga by James P. Hogan: INHERIT THE STARS The skeletal remains of a human body are found on the moon. His corpse is 50,000 years old, and nobody knows who he was, how he got there, or what killed him. THE GENTLE GIANTS OF GANYMEDE A long-ago wrecked ship of alien giants is discovered by Earth's scientists on a frozen satellite of Jupiter. Then, spinning out of the vastness of space, a ship of the same strange, humanoid giants has returned.... GIANTS' STAR Humans finally thought they comprehended their place in the universe...until Earth found itself in the middle of a power struggle between a benevolent alien empire and a cunning race of upstart humans who hated Earth!

What would it be like if Jesus had come to another planet?Oriannon is living the good life on the bright side of Corista, a small planet circling three suns. But things get crazy for the teen when a new music teacher arrives at her school with strange songs and even stranger ideas. Soon Oriannon is pressured to spy on her teacher, Jesmet, by using her powers to record everything she sees and hears.Could Jesmet really be a faithbreaker, like Oriannon's friend Margus says? She's not so sure, but her life is turned upside-down when she loses her way on the dark side of the planet and is taken in by an odd, cliff-dwelling people. And when her new friends face a deadly threat, can the once self-centered Oriannon follow her heart. . . and save half the planet?Program Summary Field: Those who live in lush comfort on the bright side of the small planet Corista have plundered the water resources of Shadowside for centuries, ignoring the existence of Shadowside's inhabitants, who are nothing more than animals. Or so the Brightsiders have been taught. It will take a special young woman to expose the truth--and to help avert the war that is sure to follow.

2057. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclearpowered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. But when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has many surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome...