Fantascienza - racconto lungo (46 pagine) - Un essere vivente grande come un sistema solare e con la massa di un piccolo pianeta. E intelligente. Premio Hugo 2010 Quella strana intermittenza nella luce della stella li aveva portati a una scoperta c'era un essere vivente, lì nello spazio. Attorno al sole. Un sottile strato, non più di qualche millimetro, che circondava come una sfera tutta la stella, a 1,4 unità astronomiche di distanza. Un'essere vivente grande come un sistema solare e con la massa di un piccolo pianeta. E intelligente. Ma quando poteva essere intelligente un essere con una quantità di cellule cerebrali equivalente a quella di dieci miliardi di cervelli umani? Canadese, classe 1958, Peter Watts ha vinto il premio Hugo nel 2010 col racconto L’isola, ma c'era già arrivato vicino nel 2006 col romanzo Blindsight . Biologo specializzato nei mammiferi marini, Watts ha sfruttato le sue conoscenze scientifiche nel romanzo con cui ha esordito, Starfish, al quale ha dato finora tre seguiti.

Combining complex science with skillfully executed prose, these edgy, award-winning tales explore the shifting border between the known and the alien. The beauty and peril of technology and the passion and penalties of conviction merge in narratives that are by turns dark, satiric, and introspective. Among these bold storylines: a seemingly humanized monster from John Carpenter’s The Thing reveals the true villains in an Antarctic showdown; an artificial intelligence shields a biologically enhanced prodigy from her overwhelmed parents; a deep-sea diver discovers her true nature lies not within the confines of her mission but in the depths of her psyche; a court psychologist analyzes a psychotic graduate student who has learned to reprogram reality itself; and a father tries to hold his broken family together in the wake of an ongoing assault by sentient rainstorms. Gorgeously saturnine and exceptionally powerful, these collected fictions are both intensely thought-provoking and impossible to forget. Contents "The Things" "The Island" "The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald" "A Word for Heathens" "Home" "The Eyes of God" "Flesh Made Word" "Nimbus" "Mayfly" (with Derryl Murphy) "Ambassador" "Hillcrest vs. Velikovsky" "Repeating the Past" "A Niche" "Outtro: En Route to Dystopia with the Angry Optimist"

Reach For Infinity (Infinity Project, Vol 3) The latest in the Infinity anthology collections edited and comissioned by multiple award-winning anthologist Jonathan Strahan. What happens when humanity reaches out into the vastness of space? The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with a sense of wonder. That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories and lies at the heart of Reach for Infinity: an original collection of new short science fiction from the biggest and most exciting names in the genre. Contents: \* Introduction (Reach for Infinity) (2014) • essay by Jonathan Strahan \* Break My Fall (2014) / novelette by Greg Egan \* The Dust Queen (2014) / novelette by Aliette de Bodard \* The Fifth Dragon (2014) / novelette by Ian McDonald \* Kheldyu (2014) / novelette by Karl Schroeder \* Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses on Mars (2014) / novelette by Pat Cadigan \* Hiraeth: A Tragedy in Four Acts (2014) / shortstory by Karen Lord \* Amicae Aeternum (2014) / shortstory by Ellen Klages \* Trademark Bugs: A Legal History (2014) / shortstory by Adam Roberts \* Attitude (2014) / novelette by Linda Nagata \* Invisible Planets (2014) / shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi \* Wilder Still, the Stars (2014) / novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan \* The Entire Immense Superstructure': An Installation (2014) / shortstory by Ken MacLeod \* In Babelsberg (2014) / shortstory by Alastair Reynolds \* Hotshot (2014) / novelette by Peter Watts \* About the Authors (Reach for Infinity) (2014) • essay by Jonathan Strahan