

The Mind belongs to the Culture, a sinister, all-powerful machine combine that ingests whole space empires. Horza, a shape-changing mercenary, is sent to retrieve a Mind (a mind-bogglingly powerful AI with a wry attitude) from Schar’s World, once a jewel in the galaxy’s crown, now a monument to an extinct civilisation. The Left Hand of Darkness won Le Guin both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel. Consequently, nobody here has any idea who they may come to adore. It is only in mating season that they acquire male or female characteristics. What emerges from Ai’s ostensibly objective account – a diplomatic mission gone awry – was, for 1969, one of the strangest love stories in science fiction, and it still has the power to bring a lump to the throat and a dizziness to the head.īlindsided by the unspoken social rules and formal courtesies governing the first court he visits, it takes Ai a while to realise why everyone here is having to be so careful around each other. Neither of the planet’s two main kingdoms seems to want to join the Ekumen’s commonweal, and various misfortunes and misunderstandings have left Ai in a perilous situation. Genly Ai, “first mobile” and emissary of the Ekumen, is reporting back to his home planet from the snowbound world Gethen. The Red Planet as we know it today is the real and tragic hero of Robinson’s peerless future history, and by the end of Blue Mars, it has vanished under all that wet and swarming green – a lifeless memory of the pre-settler past. Soon “Moholes” are drilled to release Mars’s subsurface heat, the atmosphere is thickened, nuclear explosions deep in the permafrost release water to the planet’s surface. But the outcome of the debate is never really in doubt.

Sax Russell (who believes in humanity’s obligation to spread life across the universe) and Ann Clayborne (who thinks changing entire planets at will is inhuman and immoral) articulate arguments that evolve over time, spawning protest movements, political parties and even governments. It is a narrative that spans centuries, populated with memorable characters, and dominated, at least in this first volume, by an argument over whether or not to change Mars out of all recognition. The first of a tightly plotted trilogy, Red Mars (1992) describes, in painstaking detail, the settlement and terraforming of our neighbour planet. 009, an agent mentioned in the film, Spectre (2015).Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Exit Strategy and Network Effect have continued the saga, much to Murderbot’s secret disgust (the poor thing just wants to be left alone to watch box sets).009, an agent mentioned in the film, The World Is Not Enough (1999).009, an agent portrayed by actor and stunt performer Andy Bradford in the film, Octopussy (1983).An apparent 009, an agent present at the "00 Section" briefing in the film, Thunderball (1965).009, an agent who appeared in Acme press and Dark Horse Comics' 1991 graphic novel, Serpent's Tooth.009, an agent mentioned in Semic Press' 1986 comic arc, Dödlig Dubbelgångare.

This 009 is based on 003 of the film, who has recovered a Zorin microchip and the reader must elect to see if it is hidden inside a locket or a ski ticket (having time to only take one). Stine's gamebook, James Bond in Win, Place or Die (1985), which is based on the film A View to a Kill. 009, an agent mentioned in John Pearson's novel, James Bond: The Authorised Biography (1973).009, an agent mentioned in Ian Fleming's novel, Thunderball (1961).
