The Pit and the Pendulum Edgar Allan Poe http://www.feedbooks.com/book/801 en 1842 Short Fiction Horror "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story is deemed guilty for an unnamed crime and put into a completely dark room. He passes out while trying to determine the size of the room. When he wakes up, he realizes there is a large, deep pit in the middle of the room. He loses consciousness again and awakens strapped on his back, unable to move more than his head. He soon realizes there is a large blade-like pendulum hanging above him, slowly getting closer to cutting through his chest. He finds a way to escape but the walls of his prison start to move and close in on him, pushing him closer and closer to falling into the pit. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The traditional elements established in popular horror tales at the time are followed but critical reception has been mixed. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/801.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/801.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/801.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/801.mobi The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe http://www.feedbooks.com/book/762 en 1846 Short Fiction Horror "The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque of Amontillado") is a short story, written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book. The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly sometime during the eighteenth century) and concerns the deadly revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive – in this case, by immurement. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/762.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/762.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/762.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/762.mobi The Masque of the Red Death Edgar Allan Poe http://www.feedbooks.com/book/789 en 1842 Short Fiction Horror "The Masque of the Red Death", originally published as "The Mask of the Red Death", is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842. The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his abbey. He, along with many other wealthy nobles, has a masquerade ball within seven rooms of his abbey, each decorated with a different color. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. When Prospero confronts this stranger, he falls dead. The story follows many traditions of Gothic fiction and is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, though some critics advise against an allegorical reading. Many different interpretations have been presented, as well as attempts to identify the true nature of the disease of the "Red Death." http://www.feedbooks.com/book/789.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/789.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/789.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/789.mobi The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe http://www.feedbooks.com/book/814 urn:isbn:0553212281 en 1843 Short Fiction Horror Gothic "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by cutting it into pieces and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards. It is unclear what relationship, if any, the old man and his murderer share. It has been suggested that the old man is a father figure or, perhaps, that his vulture eye represents some sort of veiled secret. The ambiguity and lack of details about the two main characters stand in stark contrast to the specific plot details leading up to the murder. The story was first published in James Russell Lowell's The Pioneer in January 1843. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is widely considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and one of Poe's most famous short stories. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/814.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/814.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/814.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/814.mobi Sterling, Bruce 1954 en 1 12940 Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which defined the cyberpunk genre. In 2003 he was appointed Professor at the European Graduate School where he is teaching Summer Intensive Courses on media and design. In 2005, he became "visionary in residence" at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Source: Wikipedia Stross, Charles 1964 en 3 27433 Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born Leeds, October 18, 1964) is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His works range from science fiction and Lovecraftian horror to fantasy. Stross is sometimes regarded as being part of a new generation of British science fiction writers who specialise in hard science fiction and space opera. His contemporaries include Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod and Liz Williams. Obvious inspirations include Vernor Vinge, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling, among other cyberpunk and postcyberpunk writers. His first published short story, "The Boys", appeared in Interzone in 1987: his first novel, Singularity Sky was published by Ace in 2003 and was nominated for the Hugo Award. A collection of his short stories, Toast: And Other Rusted Futures appeared in 2002. Subsequent short stories have been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and other awards. His novella "The Concrete Jungle" won the Hugo award for its category in 2005. Most recently, Accelerando won the 2006 Locus Award for best science fiction novel, was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the year's best science fiction novel, and was on the final ballot for the Hugo Award in the best novel category. Glasshouse is on the final ballot for the Hugo Award in the best novel category. In the 1970s and 1980s, Stross published some role-playing game articles for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the White Dwarf magazine. Some of his creatures, such as the death knight, githyanki (borrowed from George R. R. Martin's book, Dying of the Light), githzerai, and slaad were later published in the Fiend Folio monster compendium. In addition to working as a writer of fiction he has worked as a technical author, freelance journalist, programmer, and pharmacist at different times. He holds degrees in Pharmacy and Computer Science. Rogue Farm, a machinima film based on his 2003 short story of the same title, debuted in August 2004. He is one of the Guests of Honour at Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) in March 2008. Source: Wikipedia Doctorow, Cory 1971 en 25 310711 Cory Doctorow (born July 17, 1971) is a blogger, journalist and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is in favor of liberalizing copyright laws, and a proponent of the Creative Commons organisation, and uses some of their licenses for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, Disney, and post-scarcity economics. Source: Wikipedia Klein, Joshua en 1 3220 Roo'd Joshua Klein http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1947 en 2004 Novels Science Fiction "Roo'd is geek-addled cyberpunk fiction at its finest, about a teenage boy with two prosthetic legs and a band of misfit body-modders, shamanistic computer hackers, and pharmaceutically psychotic bioscientists. But it's also an exploration of someone coming to grips with what they truly love to do - and what it means to do it in a confusing world of shades of gray." Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1947.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1947.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1947.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1947.mobi Accelerando Charles Stross http://www.feedbooks.com/book/228 urn:isbn:0441014151 en 2005 Novels Science Fiction The book is a collection of nine short stories telling the tale of three generations of a highly dysfunctional family before, during, and after a technological singularity. It was originally written as a series of novelettes and novellas, all published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine in the period 2001 to 2004. The first three stories follow the character of "venture altruist" Manfred Macx starting in the early 21st Century, the second three stories follow his daughter Amber, and the final three focus largely on her son Sirhan in the completely transformed world at the end of the century. According to Stross, the initial inspiration for the stories was his experience working as a programmer for a high-growth company during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/228.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/228.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/228.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/228.mobi Little Brother Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2466 urn:isbn:0765319853 en 2008 Novels Young Readers Science Fiction Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself. Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2466.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2466.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2466.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2466.mobi Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/194 urn:isbn:076530953X en 2003 Novels Science Fiction Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.Now, though, the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents, and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war.... Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/194.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/194.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/194.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/194.mobi When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/335 urn:isbn:1560259817 en 2006 Short Fiction Science Fiction The heroic exploits of "sysadmins" — systems administrators — as they defend the cyber-world, and hence the world at large, from worms and bioweapons. Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/335.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/335.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/335.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/335.mobi I, Robot Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/337 urn:isbn:1560259817 en 2005 Short Fiction Science Fiction "I, Robot" is a science-fiction short story by Cory Doctorow published in 2005. The story is set in the type of police state needed to ensure that only one company is allowed to make robots, and only one type of robot is allowed. The story follows single Father detective Arturo Icaza de Arana-Goldberg while he tries to track down his missing teenage daughter. The detective is a bit of an outcast because his wife defected to Eurasia, a rival Superpower. Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/337.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/337.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/337.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/337.mobi The Machine Stops E. M. Forster http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073 urn:isbn:0233991670 en 1909 Short Fiction Science Fiction The Machine Stops is a short science fiction story. It describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual lives in isolation in a 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Most humans welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and are threatened with "Homelessness". Eventually, the Machine apocalyptically collapses, and the civilization of the Machine comes to an end. This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.mobi Printcrime Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/334 en 2006 Short Fiction Science Fiction Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/334.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/334.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/334.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/334.mobi Eastern Standard Tribe Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/217 urn:isbn:0765310457 en 2004 Novels Science Fiction A comedy of loyalty, betrayal, sex, madness, and music-swapping Art is an up-and-coming interface designer, working on the management of data flow along the Massachusetts Turnpike. He's doing the best work of his career and can guarantee that the system will be, without a question, the most counterintuitive, user-hostile piece of software ever pushed forth onto the world. Why? Because Art is an industrial saboteur. He may live in London and work for an EU telecommunications megacorp, but Art's real home is the Eastern Standard Tribe. Instant wireless communication puts everyone in touch with everyone else, twenty-four hours a day. But one thing hasn't changed: the need for sleep. The world is slowly splintering into Tribes held together by a common time zone, less than family and more than nations. Art is working to humiliate the Greenwich Mean Tribe to the benefit of his own people. But in a world without boundaries, nothing can be taken for granted-not happiness, not money, and most certainly not love. Which might explain why Art finds himself stranded on the roof of an insane asylum outside Boston, debating whether to push a pencil into his brain.... Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/217.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/217.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/217.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/217.mobi Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town Cory Doctorow http://www.feedbooks.com/book/260 urn:isbn:0765312808 en 2005 Novels Science Fiction Alan is a middle-aged entrepeneur in contemporary Toronto, who has devoted himself to fixing up a house in a bohemian neighborhood. This naturally brings him in contact with the house full of students and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment of stress, reveals to him that she has wings--wings, moreover, which grow back after each attempt to cut them off. Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two. His father is a mountain; his mother is a washing machine; and among his brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls. Now two of the three nesting dolls, Edward and Frederick, are on his doorstep--well on their way to starvation, because their innermost member, George, has vanished. It appears that yet another brother, Davey, who Alan and his other siblings killed years ago, may have returned...bent on revenge. Under such circumstances it seems only reasonable for Alan to involve himself with a visionary scheme to blanket Toronto with free wireless Internet connectivity, a conspiracy spearheaded by a brilliant technopunk who builds miracles of hardware from parts scavenged from the city’s dumpsters. But Alan’s past won’t leave him alone--and Davey is only one of the powers gunning for him and all his friends. Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/260.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/260.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/260.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/260.mobi Blindsight Peter Watts http://www.feedbooks.com/book/976 urn:isbn:0765312182 en 2006 Novels Science Fiction Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown. Two months of silence, while a world holds its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn't want to meet? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed, and the fainter one she'll do any good if she is. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge. You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. But you'd give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them... Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/976.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/976.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/976.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/976.mobi