by David Wingrove. Book 4, The stone within (1993)
Publication history Originally published between 1988 and 1999, Wingrove planned the series as nine books (three trilogies), but after publication of the seventh volume Wingrove's publisher insisted that the series be concluded in the next (eighth) volume, Marriage of the Living Dark. In February 2011 Corvus / Atlantic Books began a re-release of the entire Chung Kuo saga, recasting it as twenty books with approximately 500,000 words of new material. This includes two brand new prequel novels, Son of Heaven (released February. 2011 in e-book and March 2011 in hardback) and Daylight on Iron Mountain and a significant restructuring of the end of the series to reflect Wingrove's original intentions.[1][2] The two prequels cover events between 2045 and 2100 AD, telling the story of China's rise to power. Originally, only one prequel novel was planned for September 2010.[3] News of the additional prequel volume and a delayed release schedule was announced on the Interstellar Tactics blog.[2] Original release The Middle Kingdom (1989) The Broken Wheel (1990) The White Mountain (1992) The Stone Within (1993) Beneath the Tree of Heaven (1994) White Moon, Red Dragon (1994) Days of Bitter Strength (1997) The Marriage of the Living Dark (1999) Re-release[edit] The twenty books in the re-release schedule were planned to be published at regular intervals between February 2011 and June 2015.[2][3] After The White Mountain was published, the publishers discontinued the series because of poor sales. No future volumes are planned. Son of Heaven (February 2011) Daylight on Iron Mountain (November 2011) The Middle Kingdom (August 2012) Ice and Fire (December 2012) The Art of War (March 2013) An Inch of Ashes (July 2013) The Broken Wheel (November 2013) The White Mountain (March 2014) Monsters of the Deep The Stone Within Upon a Wheel of Fire Beneath the Tree of Heaven Song of the Bronze Statue White Moon Red Dragon China on the Rhine Days of Bitter Strength The Father of Lies Blood and Iron King of Infinite Space The Marriage of the Living Dark Reception[edit] Reviews of the original eight-book series praised its scope and detailed worldbuilding, comparing it to Frank Herbert's Dune series, James Clavell's Shōgun and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. The Washington Post declared the series was "one of the masterpieces of the decade." However, in 1990, the New York Times felt that Wingrove's vision of a Chinese-dominated future was unlikely and "ungrounded in historical process."[4] One reviewer felt the final volume was so "nigh-incomprehensible" that it warranted a review of "a fake concluding novel."[5]
L. P. Davies
A bizarre other world occupying the same space as ours... a place shrouded in pulsating nightmarish mists that lived and killed... where thoughts could become realities and realities were irrelevant... where primitive Toparians battled telepathic Vorteds for survival... and where three desperate aliens from earth raced against time that had no meaning to save the future...
C.J. Cherryh
One of science fiction's greatest writers -- a three-time Hugo Award winner -- introduces an all-new universe for the first time in decades. An innocent desert world is trapped between two hostile interstellar empires.One of the most renowned figures in science fiction, C. J. Cherryh has been enthralling audiences for nearly thirty years with rich and complex novels. Now at the peak of her career, this three-time Hugo Award Winner launches her most ambitious work in decades, Hammerfall, part of a far-ranging series, The Gene Wars, set in an entirely new universe scarred by the most vicious of future weaponry, nanotechnology. In this brilliant novel -- possibly Cherryh's masterwork -- the fate of billions has come down to a confrontation between two profoundly alien cultures on a single desert planet.
A.D. Nauman
In the future world of Scorch, America is run by a “corporacracy.” Three conglomerates have taken control not by force but by manipulating common beliefs and values through the media, and particularly by playing on Americans’ fears of Big Brother. Consumerism and privatization have run amok in this landscape of flashing screens and subtle brainwashing, a world where even city streets and public schools are run by big business. This is a darkly comic first novel of a dystopian future, with echoes of 1984 and Brave New World.
Nnedi Okorafor
"Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York's Tower 7. She is an 'accelerated woman'--only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix's abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7. Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7's refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realize that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape. But Phoenix's escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity's future"--