A masterful evocation of the future of nationhood and technology from the master of British science fiction. A stunning new edition of a modern classic.
‘The titan of science fiction.’– Telegraph
Forty years has passed and ‘Europe’ now refers to vast swathes of the Earth: a unified super-state that has just enacted a successful space mission, landing people on Jupiter’s Moon and spurring the people at home to look at their lives and what they’ve made of the world.
Global warming ravages the planet, where shrunken coasts endure huge tidal attacks while inland ideological wars continue. Technology has advanced to the point where androids assist with menial work – but are conscious enough to be baffled by humanity’s weaknesses. So much is different but very little has changed.
Told through a network of relatives, lovers, friends, a president (and those sent to assassinate him), Super-State looks to the future while exploring the most timeless human challenges with huge wit and precision. A satire skewering best intentions and cynicism alike, written at the start of the new Millennium by the master of British Science Fiction.
About the Author :
Brian Aldiss, OBE, is a fiction and science fiction writer, poet, playwright, critic, memoirist and artist. He was born in Norfolk in 1925. After leaving the army, Aldiss worked as a bookseller, which provided the setting for his first book, The Brightfount Diaries (1955). His first published science fiction work was the story ‘Criminal Record’, which appeared in Science Fantasy in 1954. Since then he has written nearly 100 books and over 300 short stories, many of which are being reissued as part of The Brian Aldiss Collection.
Several of Aldiss’ books have been adapted for the cinema; his story ‘Supertoys Last All Summer Long’ was adapted and released as the film AI in 2001. Besides his own writing, Brian has edited numerous anthologies of science fiction and fantasy stories, as well as the magazine SF Horizons.
Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society and in 2000 was given the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Aldiss was awarded the OBE for services to literature in 2005. He now lives in Oxford, the city in which his bookselling career began in 1947.
Review :
‘Aldiss is a magician’ Sunday Times
‘The titan of science fiction.’ Telegraph
‘Brian Aldiss is one of the most influential – and one of the best – SF writers Britain has ever produced.’ Iain M Banks
‘The best contemporary writer of science fiction.’ Guardian
‘One of the truly prophetic figures of the space age… the colossus of science fiction’
New Yorker
‘Once again he demonstrates the power of his imagination.’ Daily Mail
