Search Results for: those-who-watch

‘The explosion was painfully bright against the dark backdrop of the moonless New Mexico sky. To those who looked up at that precise moment – and there were many who happened to look up – it was as though a new star had momentarily blossomed in blue-white incandescence.’

Only three human beings would ever know that the blinding flash in the sky on that night in 1982 was an exploding flying saucer. Only they would learn the truth about THOSE WHO WATCH – about the alien observers who came into this world in a crash landing from the stars. THOSE WHO WATCH is the strange, seductive story of three accidental colonists from outer space whose chance encounter with Earth brought revelation to three earthly counterparts – and triggered interplanetary conflict. It is a remarkable story by one of science fiction’s most remarkable writers.

For millennia, humankind and the other intelligent races had studied the bizarre and unfathomable constructs of the legendary beings known as Builders. But for all that study, they were still no closer to figuring out who – or what – the Builders had been, or where they had gone. Then, on the world called Quake, in the midst of the violent planetary upheaval that was Summertide, a small group of humans and aliens witnessed the culmination of all those years of watching and waiting: the planet Quake opened up, and something came out – and it looked as if, at long last, the discovery of the Builders themselves was at hand.


All her life, Darya Lang had dreamed of finding the Builders, whose artifacts she had single-handedly catalogued for the rest of the universe. Troubleshooter and adventurer Hans Rebka had his own dreams of unraveling the mystery of those artifacts. To Louis Nenda and the Cecropian Atvar H’sial, the Builder artifacts represented a once-in-a-lifetime shot at untold wealth. And close behind them came the others: Councilor Julius Graces, who did not trust anyone to make first contact unassisted; the slavesJ’merlia and Kallik, who craved only a reunion with their masters; and the embodied computer E.C. Tally, charged with finding out just what the rest were up to.


The trail that began at Quake led to unexpected Builder artifacts full of traps for the unwary and answers for those who knew how to ask the questions. But the biggest question of all would remain an enigma, while their search unleashed the greatest threat to civilization ever imagined…

Rex Morris belonged to the master class which ruled the entire world by brain power or brutality, depending on which was needed. He should have functioned perfectly in the rigid totalitarian society of the future where every thought, word, and action was controlled by the superstate, where everyone was watched night and day by the Great Eye of the internal security forces.

It was a strange world, but the rewards were great for those who belonged to the right caste. Morris had all the qualifications – yet he didn’t belong. Nonconformity could mean liquidation – but he was prepared to take the risk!

When Sarah McKensie’s parents are murdered, the young girl is saved by a mother wolf and raised in the pack. Part Mowgli, part Tarzan of the Apes, Sarah becomes the Wild Angel of the Sierras, rescuing those in need, while eluding her parents’ killer, a man who still wants to see her dead.

An amazing young savage, Sarah lives with the wolves, hunts with the wolves, fights for dominance in the pack. She watches people from a distance, but she does not think of herself as one of them. She belongs to the pack. How can such a child be reclaimed for civilization?

Sarah’s struggle for survival brings together a fascinating assortment of characters: Max Phillips, who found her parents’ bodies and never gave up the search for the missing child; Audrey North, Sarah’s aunt, who wants nothing more than to find her niece; and, ultimately, a young Temperance missionary, Professor Serunca’s travelling circus, and a mysterious itinerant fortune-teller named Gitana.

Sheri Tepper, one of the foremost science fiction writers in the world, gives us an exciting, evocative and thought-provoking tale where science and magic meet head-on. A group of colonists, waking every few hundred years to see what’s been happening on the planet they fled to from a dying Earth, watch as the systems and rules they set in place so long ago become debased and decayed.

The corrupt leaders govern by oppression, but technological resources run low and the knowledge of how to replace them is lost in the mists of time. Instead, the power-hungry leaders turn to sorcery of the blackest kind, kindled by pain and despair.

And when they launch a religious crusade to wipe out all those who won’t conform to the government’s ever-more-stringent dictates, not even the original colonists – the new gods – are safe from the ravaging sorcery-fuelled armies of the righteous . . .

Jonga and Krull had a routine job in the solar system defence organisation. Week after week and year after year they checked the asteroids. 23rd century astronomy had accurately charted 2,812 of those miniature worlds, compared with the 1,539 that are known to-day.
Suddenly a new asteroid appears, and a survey expedition under Squadron-leader Gregg Masterson, is sent out to investigate. They expedition fails to return, and when the watching asteroid observation corps make another anxious check, they find that the mysterious planetoid has disappeared as mysteriously as it came. A second expedition is launched under General Rotherson himself. An expedition that finds the wreckage of the survey ships, and the bodies of every man except Gregg Masterson.
Where is the missing Squadron leader?
Who is the terrible ageless asteroid man? So strong that he can control the destinies of a planet. What is the beautiful Princess Astra of Altain doing in the labyrinth below the surface of the asteroid?

Lost for more than four hundred years, the Scepter of Mercy lies beyond the reach of the kingdom of Avornis, in the lands corrupted by the Banished One. Cast from heavens to an earthy exile, the Banished One seeks to use the scepter to reclaim his godhood. But the intertwined destiny of the two very different men may interfere with his ascension…

Lanius is the only son of King Mergus of Avornis. But he is the son of the king’s seventh wife – and therefore illegitimate in the eyes of church and state. After the king’s death, the council of regents takes advantage of the irregular succession to use young Lanius as their figurehead while they rule behind the scenes.

Grus is a captain in the King’s navy, a man of common origins, as well as common sense. He is charged with guarding Avornis’ border against her enemies – including those who live in thrall of the Banished One. He’s watched his homeland weaken under careless rulers – and fears for the future as disturbing visions torment his dreams.

Now both Lanius and Grus must decide what’s best for the kingdom – before the influence of the Banished One spreads to their people as well.

And so begins the quest for the Scepter of Mercy…

Innumerable explanations have been put forward for the phenomena, known popularly as U.F.O’S and Flying Saucers. Eminent psychologists explain them as purely mental phantasmagoria – symptomatic of mankind’s age-old desire for “saviours from the sky”.

Enthusiastic arm-chair cosmonauts regard them as irrefutable proof that super intelligences from Out There are watching the Earth. A few un-scrupulous publicity seekers and practical jokers cash in on the public’s curiosity and weird stories of little green men and pink ants go the rounds.

Amateur military tacticians decide that the saucers are either out new secret weapons or the experimental weapons of some alien power.

Interest rises and falls. The Great Debate continues.

There are some other possibilities . . . and the implications of some are so horrifying that mere monsters from Beyond would be a pleasant anti-climax. This mature, challenging novel is not recommended for those who like to think of the everyday world in terms of permanence and security with humanity safely established at the head of creation.

Elspeth Jermyn came dangerously close to the truth, and slowly but surely gathered a small group of helpers together. They worked in strictest secrecy against the Saucer Phenomena and the invidious menace behind it . . . if they failed, life would have no real meaning.