Audio Spotlight: Algis Budrys


This week, we wanted to draw your attention to four classic sci-fi novels by Algis Budrys: WHO?, ROGUE MOON, MICHAELMAS and HARD LANDING. Each of these is available as an audiobook, published by W. F. Howes. Here are some more details…

WHO? was first published in 1958, and was a finalist for a Hugo Award for Best Novel (1959). It was also nominated for a BSFA 50th Anniversary Award in 2007. In 1974, it was adapted into a movie starring Elliott Gould. Here’s the synopsis…

Set against a backdrop of Cold War paranoia, this futuristic novel about identity and technology is “one of the unrecognized classics of SF” (Locus).

East and West have fused into separate superstates known as the Allied National Government (ANG) and the Soviet International Bloc (SIB). As the Cold War rages, brilliant scientist Lucas Martino works on a top-secret project known only as K-Eighty-eight that could alter the balance of world power. The project goes horribly awry at an Allied research facility near the Soviet border, and Martino is abducted.

After several months of tense negotiations, he returns severely injured from the lab explosion, and under pressure from America, undergoes extensive reconstructive surgery. He has a mechanical arm. His polished metal skull-a kind of craniofacial prosthesis-contains few discernible features. Several of his internal organs are artificial. While his fingerprints are identified as belonging to Lucas Martino, they could be the result of transplant. Is he the real Martino? Or a technologically altered impostor sent by America’s enemies for the purpose of spying and infiltration? Tasked with uncovering the truth, ANG Security Chief Shawn Rogers makes some shocking discoveries.

Narrated in chapters alternating between Rogers and Martino, Who? poses existential questions about the human condition.

Budrys’s acclaimed ROGUE MOON, first published in 1960, was a Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel. It is also available as a SF Masterwork edition. Here’s the synopsis…

A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language must be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths — except the last, now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane, even as he feels the end approaching. And now they think they’ve found their man.

Al Barker has already stared into the face of death-he can handle it again. But Barker won’t merely have to endure the trauma of dying: he will have to endure it over and over again-mentally linked to an ongoing series of duplicates of himself created and sent to the Moon by matter transmission-until the artifact reveals its secret.

With a cast of fascinating characters taking center stage, Rogue Moon is a rare thriller that doesn’t just make you sweat-it makes you think.

Budrys’s MICHAELMAS was amazingly prescient. Published shortly in the (very) early internet era — 1977 — it included science fictional elements that would come to reflect certain technological advances that actually happened. The novel also landed on Locus’s Best SF Novel lists, two years running (1977-8). Here’s the synopsis…

One of the world’s wealthiest and most influential men, journalist Laurent Michaelmas lives in a penthouse overlooking New York City’s Central Park with his superintelligent computer, Domino. He attained his fame and power after hacking into the worldwide computer network. He then went on to use his unique gifts to create a version of the UN that would ensure global peace. In short, he and Domino secretly run the world. But now he has reason for concern.

A Swiss doctor has cured an astronaut believed to have vaporized in a shuttle explosion during an expedition to the outer planets of the solar system. Suspecting that something extraterrestrial is behind this miraculous recovery, Michaelmas uses his immense influence to launch an international investigation. Are there really aliens in their midst? Is the resurrection of a dead man an attempt to cancel history and destroy the world’s precarious balance of power?

Published less than a decade into the internet era, this remarkable science fiction novel foreshadows many of the world’s technological advances.

HARD LANDING was published in 1993, after the author took a bit of a break from longer fiction. It was nominated for Nebula and SF Chronicle Best Novel awards; and also for the Kurd Lasswitz in Germany, for Best Foreign Novel.

A science fiction adventure told from the point of view of aliens who crash-land on Earth and must assimilate in secret — until their human cover is blown Budrys’s final novel opens with the report of a man found electrocuted on suburban train tracks in Shoreview, Illinois. Neville Sealman appeared to be just another commuter, but after his tragic death, no one comes forward to claim his body. And a routine autopsy reveals some disturbing physiological anomalies. Then a spaceship is unearthed in a New Jersey swamp. It’s the stuff of tabloids-except it’s all true.Years earlier, a starship crash-landed on Earth. Its passengers, human in appearance, were forced to go their separate ways in an alien world. No one knows that these otherworldly visitors have been living among the human race-but now their cover could be blown.

Told in the form of an investigation reconstructed through direct and indirect witness testimony, Hard Landing takes the listener into the minds of its four protagonists as they struggle with the far-reaching ramifications of discovery. This is a suspenseful and revelatory novel about the elusive, ever-changing nature of identity.

These novels are also available as eBooks, published by Open Road Media, joined by two others: FALLING TORCH and THE FURIOUS FUTURE.

Prepare for a HARD LANDING tomorrow…


Tomorrow, Blackstone Publishing are due to publish a new audio edition of HARD LANDING by Algis Budrys! Originally published in ??, here’s the synopsis for the classic novel…

A science fiction adventure told from the point of view of aliens who crash-land on Earth and must assimilate in secret — until their human cover is blown

Budrys’s final novel opens with the report of a man found electrocuted on suburban train tracks in Shoreview, Illinois. Neville Sealman appeared to be just another commuter, but after his tragic death, no one comes forward to claim his body. And a routine autopsy reveals some disturbing physiological anomalies. Then a spaceship is unearthed in a New Jersey swamp. It’s the stuff of tabloids — except it’s all true.

Years earlier, a starship crash-landed on Earth. Its passengers, human in appearance, were forced to go their separate ways in an alien world. No one knows that these otherworldly visitors have been living among the human race — but now their cover could be blown.

Told in the form of an investigation reconstructed through direct and indirect witness testimony, Hard Landing takes the listener into the minds of its four protagonists as they struggle with the far-reaching ramifications of discovery. This is a suspenseful and revelatory novel about the elusive, ever-changing nature of identity.

Blackstone has also published three other classic Budrys titles: WHO?ROGUE MOON and MICHAELMAS.

Six of Budrys’s classic books are available as eBooks via Open Road Media: WHO?, FALLING TORCH, ROGUE MOON, THE FURIOUS FUTURE, MICHAELMAS, and HARD LANDING.

In related news, the MIT Technology Review recently ran a lovely profile of Budrys and his work, which you can read here.

‘The fiction Budrys himself began writing as a young man in the 1950s still provides as good evidence as exists that SF can be literary art; at the time, it led his fellow practitioners to regard him as the one among them who was most likely to transform their field into a fully adult literature… Budrys’s science fiction presents an alternative version of the genre–a promise of better possibilities that were never quite realized. Indeed, the bulk of Budrys’s writing was published a half-century ago and isn’t in print, though it’s easily obtainable from online booksellers or brick-and-­mortar secondhand stores. You should make the effort. This is what science fiction can be but hardly ever is.’

Zeno represents Algis Budrys on behalf of the Budrys Estate.

Three more classic Algis Budrys novels out now in Germany!


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Heyne has published three more classic Algis Budrys novels in Germany in eBook format. Here are the details…

First up is ZWISCHEN ZWEI WELTEN, first published as the Hugo Award-nominated WHO? in 1958…

Der Mann aus Metall

Der amerikanische Astrophysiker Lucas Martino arbeitet irgendwo in Europa an einem militärischen Geheimprojekt der Alliierten Nationen. Sein Labor liegt in der Nähe jener Grenze, die den Westen vom Osten trennt. Als eines seiner Experimente schiefgeht und es zu einer Explosion kommt, sind die Rettungskräfte des Ostens als erste zur Stelle. Martino wird monatelang ärztlich behandelt – im anderen Teil der Welt. Als man ihn schließlich aus dem Krankenhaus entlässt und in den Westen zurückbringt, ist er nicht mehr wiederzuerkennen: Dort, wo einst sein Kopf war, befindet sich eine metallische Kugel, und sein linker Arm ist ein mechanisches Wunderwerk. Die amerikanische Spionageabwehr reagiert misstrauisch. Kann es einen unanfechtbaren Beweis dafür geben, dass Martino wirklich Martino ist?

Next up, MICHAELMAS (published in English with the same title, in 1977)…

Die Macht der Information

Lauent Michaelmas ist der mächtigste Mann der Welt, auch wenn er seine Macht nicht offen ausübt. Der Fernsehkommentator liefert stets perfekt recherchierte Berichte ab, die dem weltweiten Medienverbund die höchsten Einschaltquoten einbringen. Ein negativer Kommentar von ihm kann Milliardenprojekte ins Wanken bringen, ein positiver Beitrag Menschen über Nacht berühmt machen. Dass seine Berichte immer perfekt recherchiert sind, besorgt sein Computer Domino. Wo auch immer eine elektrische Leitung hinführt, Domino zapft sie für den Moderator an – bis in die intimste Privatsphäre hinein …

And finally, HARTE LANDUNG, first published as HARD LANDING in 1993…

Der Leichnam eines Mannes wird auf den Schienen einer aufgegebenen U-Bahn-Station gefunden. Der Tote wird als Neville Unruh Sealman identifiziert. Er arbeitete in einem Ingenieursbüro in Chicago und galt als fleißig, aber ungesellig. Seine Obduktion liefert ein unglaubliches Ergebnis: Sealman war kein Mensch. Der Alien musste sich jahrelang unerkannt auf der Erde durchgeschlagen und in einer primitiven, gewalttätigen Gesellschaft jeden Tag um sein Überleben gekämpft haben. Anscheinend gehörte er zur Crew eines abgestürzten Raumschiffes. Doch war er der einzige Überlebende?

Heyne has also published Budrys’s ROGUE MOON, as PROJEKT LUNA (also a Hugo Award-nominee). These novels (and three additional books) are also available in English-language eBooks, published by Open Road Media.

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New Algis Budrys eBooks Out Today!


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Today, Open Road Media publishes six books by Algis Budrys in eBook in the US, including his critically-acclaimed and award-nominated ROGUE MOON, WHO? and MICHAELMAS. The covers are above.

WHO? was adapted into a movie in 1973 (starring Elliott Gould and Trevor Howard). Here’s the synopsis…

East and West have fused into separate superstates known as the Allied National Government (ANG) and the Soviet International Bloc (SIB). As the Cold War rages, brilliant scientist Lucas Martino works on a top-secret project known only as K-Eighty-eight that could alter the balance of world power. The project goes horribly awry at an Allied research facility near the Soviet border, and Martino is abducted. After several months of tense negotiations, he returns severely injured from the lab explosion, and under pressure from America, undergoes extensive reconstructive surgery. He has a mechanical arm. His polished metal skull — a kind of craniofacial prosthesis — contains few discernable features. Several of his internal organs are artificial. While his fingerprints are identified as belonging to Lucas Martino, they could be the result of transplant. Is he the real Martino? Or a technologically altered imposter sent by America’s enemies for the purpose of spying and infiltration? Tasked with uncovering the truth, ANG Security Chief Shawn Rogers makes some shocking discoveries.

Narrated in chapters alternating between Rogers and Martino, Who? poses existential questions about the human condition.

ROGUE MOON, which is published in the UK by Gollancz as a SF Masterwork, is also due to be published in Germany by Heyne in July 2016 (covers below). Here’s the synopsis…

A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language has to be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths. The most recent volunteer survived but is now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane even as he feels the end approaching. Al Barker has already stared into the face of death; he can handle it again. But he won’t merely endure the trauma of dying. Barker will die over and over — even as his human qualities are preserved on Earth.

With its cast of fascinating characters — like brilliant scientist Edward Hawks, who is obsessed with rebirth — Rogue Moon is a rare thriller that doesn’t just make you sweat. It makes you think.

A number of Budrys’s other books and novels are published in the UK by Gollancz’s SF Gateway eBook program.

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New Algis Budrys eBook Editions Next Month


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Next month, Open Road Media will be releasing six Algis Budrys novels as eBooks in the U.S.: ROGUE MOON, WHO?, MICHAELMAS, HARD LANDING, FALLING TORCH, and the anthology THE FURIOUS FUTURE.

Budrys, who passed away in 2008, was a critically-acclaimed and prolific author of science fiction. WHO? and ROGUE MOON were both nominated for Hugo Awards (1959 and 1961, respectively); WHO? was also nominated for a British SF Association Award in 2008; HARD LANDING was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1994.

ROGUE MOON is also published in the UK by Gollancz as part of their SF Masterworks series. The novel will also be published by Heyne in Germany this coming July, as PROJEKT LUNA. Gollancz’s SF Gateway also publishes a number of Budrys’s novels as eBooks in the UK.

Publication Day – Algis Budrys Gateway Omnibus!


BudrysA-GatewayOmnibus2014-BlogToday marks the publication of the first omnibus of the late, great Algis Budrys re-issues from Gollancz‘s SF Gateway project. The omnibus collects three of Budrys’s novels: THE IRON THORN, MICHAELMAS, and HARD LANDING.

Algis Budrys (1931-2008) is one of the golden age Grand Masters of Science Fiction. Between 1954 and 1993, he published eight novels, and multiple collections of short stories and essays. For a short period in the middle of his writing career, he stepped back to focus on a career in advertising and also mentoring – he developed an excellent reputation as one of the best manuscript doctors of the time. His work ranged from science fiction of all stripes – from hard science-fiction, to dystopian future novels. Perhaps his best-known novels are ROGUE MOON (1960) and MICHAELMAS (1977). His writing is widely available as eBooks, and ROGUE MOON is available in print as part of Gollancz’s SF Masterworks series.

Here are the synopses for the novels contained within the omnibus. First, THE IRON THORN (sometimes also known as THE AMSIRS AND THE IRON THORN)…

Honor White Jackson was a human being. But his planet was not Earth, nor his time Now. His world was dominated by a giant Iron Thorn. Beyond the reach of this tower there was supposedly nothing – except a frozen, airless desert where huge winged beasts called Amsirs roamed.

MICHAELMAS

Michaelmas and Domino, man and computer, were linked to each other, and to the complete database of Earth. There they virtually ruled the world. For by making the right subtle manipulations, they had the power to change the course of human destiny.

And last, but by no means least, HARD LANDING

The body was found dead on the tracks, electrocuted. The autopsy confirmed what some had always feared, that we are not alone in the universe – and that even now, some visitors are still at large.

Here’s what critics have said about MICHAELMAS in the past (reviews of his other novels are a little hard to come by online)…

‘Budrys is incapable of writing anything less than a deeply thoughtful book. This one is sometimes a bit aridly written, sometimes fiercely charged, always full of fine invention. One of the season’s more important offerings.’  —  Kirkus on MICHAELMAS (Starred Review)

‘… his three major novels [including] MICHAELMAS — are an achievement of central importance to the SF field, all the more because each tries to do something different, with an approach and structure reshaped each time.’  —  Locus

‘… a tight, taught thriller packed full with wonderful ideas and it’s beautifully written… a great plot and a sense of wonder…’  —  SF Reviews on MICHAELMAS