Search Results for: life-form

When a team of scientists starts to investigate the flora and fauna of the distant planet of Xica, it soon becomes apparent that this is a unique opportunity to study alien life forms. The planet offers a rich and varied eco-system and each of the scientists recognises what this could mean for their individual reputations.
And then, their dreams come true – they establish first contact with a humanoid civilization.
But this is a planet where nature breaks all the rules, where logic falls apart, and where nothing is as it seems. And their dreams turn into a nightmare.

In the 22nd century biofeedback techniques to control by will the processes of one’s own body have reached their ultimate expression: the ability to transform the body into virtually any viable form whatsoever. What began as an innocent technique to reduce anxiety without recourse to drugs has raised fundamental questions about what it is to be human, since form is no longer sufficient nor even relevant.

Enter the Humanity Test: in a future when other techniques can change the forms of animals, so far it has been a guaranteed one hundred percent successful means of determining whether a life form started out as human. But now strange life forms, vicious and bestial, are proliferating throughout the Solar System. They are clearly not human, and clearly their nervous systems are too underdeveloped for them to have been human. But though the beasts threaten havoc and death to all the far flung isolated stations, the simple solution of shooting the varmints is impossible: for life forms that according to the Humanity Test started out human the law is very clear: Thou Shalt Not Kill.

The Humanx Commonwealth: Book Five.

He was smart. He was good. He was backed by the Commonwealth’s best equipment. So what could possibly go wrong?

‘In the midst of life…’ thought Evan Orgel.

A whole lot of life. Alien life-form upon alien life-form, crawling, floating, wriggling, darting and oozing. The entire unexplored surface of the planet Prism was unimaginably alive.

‘…we are in death.’

His death. His Mobile Hostile World suit – the very latest, state-of-the-art, off-world protection gear – had just failed. Attacked in just about the only way its proud makers hadn’t thought of.

So there he lay, a hermit crab trapped in his own armour, while the myriad alien life-forms of prism crawled, floated, wriggled, darted and oozed about him, getting ready to open him up like a tin of upmarket cat food.

Evan Orgell was full of misery.

From the unplumbed depths of new and startling fields of research a man, groping after the truth, contrived a group of life-forms of microscopic size. It was a daring experiment, made possible through the medium of advanced instruments and techniques which offered scope in the realms of micro-dissection. In that respect, then, the operation was successful: life-forms had been created by means of chromosomic manipulation. But the impact of the resulting entities was to have a disturbing effect on the man who made them…

It is the year 2450. Humanity is scattered among the stars, which teem with intelligent life, while the home world has been destroyed by an inadvertent catastrophe two hundred years before. Thus all Earthmen are exiles, and Earth itself is only a memory.

Hydros is a world of great complexity. It has almost no landmass, only a great globe-encompassing ocean with occasional tiny islands. Its seas swarm with apparently intelligent life-forms of a hundred kinds, and one – a bipedal humanoid form – has created a kind of land for itself: floating islands, woven from sea-borne materials, buffered by elaborate barricades against the ceaseless tidal surges that circle the planet.

To Hydros have come an assortment of Earthmen. For them it’s a world of no return: having no form of outbound space transportation. This brilliantly inventive novel tells their story, as they travel across the planet’s endless ocean in search of the mysterious area from which no human has ever returned – the Face of the Waters.




(First published 1991)

An international agency, COSMOS, is in charge of space exploration in the not very distant future. Odd forms of life have been discovered on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter; there may be a life form on Mercury; and finally something utterly mystifying is discovered on the moon. Three astronauts land and examine an installation that all three perceive as radically different – one sees a heap of gold, one a fort bristling with guns, one a space platform and space craft. They return to Earth with some crystals picked up at the mystery site.

All three soon produce children – the moon children, gifted, precocious, and seemingly damned by the crystals their fathers had handled. Two are eerily beautiful, the third a grotesque monster. And the three soon discover that they are Earth’s hope for survival, as interplanetary invasion brings overwhelming alien forces to bear on mankind.

The first manned mission to Mars has been a resounding success, and excitement grows as more new discoveries are made. However, one phenomenon continues to defy rational explanation – the ‘marsmat’ – a complex anaerobic life-form found in the planet’s honeycomb of tunnels.

This raises questions about the nature and meaning of life itself which will lead the curious and the driven to Pluto and beyond, to the cold void at the fringes of the solar system.

In the very far future, when the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere has combined with the nitrogen . . .

When the formerly life-giving seas are now formed of nitric acid . . .

When the very atmosphere itself is corrosive and lethal . . .

Humanity must adapt . . . or perish!

QUARANTINED PLANET

“On Dephene, the native life -form is peculiar and unique. All protoplasmic life is equal to and one with the mimics.” On screen, the shape changed, altered into the shape of a man.

Then it changed. It shrank, dropped, lifted a snouted head in the semblance of a dog. It grew, spread wings and became a large bird which hopped and pecked. The wings vanished and a tall and lovely woman smiled from where the bird had halted. A dozen changes, a score until the mind reeled.

“These Mimics represent a threat to every world in the entire galaxy. Their power of mimicry would enable them to adopt the outward form of rulers and high officials. A man could never be certain that his companion was what he seemed to be.”

When Kennedy went to Delphene the speculation became pure nightmare, for both he and his crew were being duplicated over and over – and so was the worlds-conqueror he sought to block.

His name was Tharg, but he was not of any life form we know today. He lived so long ago that the planet Earth had not yet shaped itself. Lava seas roiled and churned, volcanoes spouted and grew, and heavy clouds hung in the hydrogen atmosphere, leaving the planet’s surface dark and dangerous.

On that world Tharg met his death, or something very much like it. He became a disembodied, totally nonphysical intelligence, cut off from all contact with the life he had known. He ‘slept’ for hundreds of millions of years, unconnected with the world, unthinking, hardly existing.

But then he began to awake – for there was new life on Earth, creatures called ‘human’, and Tharg, knowing an ancient promise from the stars, had to tell them of it. But . . . how?

Astronaut Ben is lost – a million miles from Earth! His last message: “Strange life forms here…we’re under attack…!”

Jeff sets off to rescue him, but soon his own crippled starship is caught in the same eerie web of a monstrous creature from outer space!

Three unique empires threatened by the discovery of alternate life…

The Exchange are consuming the universe’s resources through the powers of their cybernetic leaders.

The Mycohlians are parasitic beings who, like a virus, can invade and take over other life forms.

The Mizlaplan are a brilliant, long-lived race who will use any means possible to spread the word of the Cosmic All.

These three empires, maintaining a delicate balance of power, have very little in common – except a strange, recurring legend of a horned demon. Now, a shocking event will change their lives forever: the discovery of two horned creatures, seemingly lifeless and perfectly preserved…

Seven desperate survivors drifting helplessly in a life-capsule, sight an uncharted world. The anti-grav landing shields are only working spasmodically, but the survivors still land safely.
In this strange, alien environment there is room for vivid, dramatic conflict of personalities. The survivors are at a loss to explain the strange conduct of the humanoid ethnic groups which they find of this strange world. Slowly the horrifying truth begins to dawn on the dwindling band from the capsule.
There are other life forms in evidence on the planet, things which were extinct on earth aeons ago. Yet there is a vital, terrifying difference between the giant reptiles of earthly prehistory and the monsters on this alien world.

Monte Stewart was an extremely intelligent, somewhat contentious anthropologist with a sense of humor and a nonconformist approach to life. As an expert in his field, he was chosen to approach the first apparently human-like form of life ever to be encountered on another planet.

Here was the chance he had been waiting for all his life – an opportunity to make contact, to investigate, to ascertain the facts about an altogether new man-like species, with the added knowledge that the peace of the worlds depended upon the establishment of friendly relations.

But Stewart and his team of experts couldn’t get to first base. They tried for weeks – then vicious unreasoned tragedy struck their camp.

What had gone wrong?

Who were these ‘people’?

Why had they attacked the humans?

Stewart had failed in his mission; but for his own peace of mind he had to discover the answers, and he had to do it alone.

It is the year 2166. Eighty years have passed since the Gene Wars devastated the Earth, decimating the human population and giving rise to myriad new life-forms. Now, among the dolphins of Australia, Jenae Kim stumbles on the information that could mean a new beginning for human civilization: information that the government is determined to keep secret – even if they have to kill her . . .

The continent lay before them, vast areas of it unexplored, its forests, plains, jungle and mountains teeming with forms of life unknown to modern man.

Here the witch-doctors reigned supreme, using their inexplicable and remarkable powers on men and beasts.

The purpose of the safari was mysterious, its members an oddly assorted group of people unlikely to have any sane objective in common . . .

Moon dust that comes alive in an attempt to destroy the invaders from Earth . . .

A diabolical snare set on a fiery star for a desperate inter-galactic fugitive . . .
An alien ‘primitive’ life form that has the last laugh on condescending space-men . . .

This is a perverse Pandora’s box of startling surprises and deadly perils – nine breakthrough stories by one of the most exciting and imaginative talents of SF

By the author of Rogue Male, a classic thriller of the twentieth century.
‘Household … helped to develop the suspense story into an art form’ New York Times

When retired mining engineer Yarrow is disturbed after midnight by Barnabas Fosworth, he assumes that he is just a curious eccentric. But by helping Fosworth in his search for the mysterious girl he seeks, Yarrow soon finds his life inexplicably threatened by a mystical sect who believe that taking life is forgivable, since death is only a transition.

Entombed in a cavern in the Mendips, Yarrow discovers the ancient secrets that have their origins in paleolithic paintings; and it is only through this new knowledge that he can hope to escape a very unpleasant death.

They were trying out a new drive when a cosmic accident took them incalculable light years off course. A miracle of courage and astrogation meant than there were some survivors from the inevitable crash. The ship itself did not escape unscathed. What had been their vehicle became their prison. The buckled lock could not be opened from the inside and they had no other means of getting free. The air was slowly running out.

The planet they had hit was raw and primitive by their own standards, but it did hold intelligent life. One of the natives found the ship. Dare the trapped space travellers hope for a miracle? If they go out what kind of strange life forms would they be involved with? Could they hope to find the kind of raw materials which would get their crippled ship into space again? If not, could they face life sentences on this strange, unknown, primitive world . . . ?

Faced by a thousand fantastic difficulties the astronauts battled untiringly for their right to survive.

For fifteen years, Maria Devane has been desperately, passionately in love with Dante Romano. But Maria knows that Dante can never give everything of himself back – at least not all the time. Every month, Dante shifts shape, becoming a wild animal. He can’t choose when he shifts, the transition is often abrupt, and as he gets older the time he spends in human form is gradually decreasing.

Maria has kept his secret since the beginning, knowing that their love is worth the danger. But when a string of brutal attacks occurs in local parks while Dante is in animal form, Maria is forced to consider whether the lies she’s been telling about her life have turned into lies she’s telling herself . . .

In the year 2135, dangerous alien life forms freed in the destruction of Saturn’s moon Enceladus are making their way towards Earth. A task force spearheaded by Lt. Cmdr. Shaila Jain is scrambling to beat them there while simultaneously trying to save crewmember Stephane Durand, who was infected during the mission to Saturn and is now controlled by a form of life intent on reopening a transdimensional rift and destroying the human race. But Jain doesn’t realize that the possessed Stephane has bigger plans, beaming critical data to other conspirators suspiciously heading not for Earth, but for Venus…

In 1809-a Napoleonic era far different from our own-the French have occupied England with their Corps Eternélle, undead soldiers risen through the darkest Alchemy. Only the actions of Lord Admiral Thomas Weatherby and the Royal Navy have kept the French contained to Earth. But the machinations of old enemies point to a bold and daring gambit: an ancient weapon, presumed lost in the jungles of Venus.

Now, Weatherby must choose whether to stay and fight to retake his homeland or pursue the French to the green planet. And Shaila must decide if it’s possible to save the man she loves, or if he must be sacrificed for the good of two dimensions. In the dark, alien jungles of Venus, humanity’s fate in both dimensions hangs in the balance-forcing past and present to once again join forces against an ancient terror.

Inexplicable electro-magnetic disturbances threw the Avon’s passengers and crew into confusion as their ship was dragged off course. Collision with a huge asteroid seemed inevitable and the Avon was abandoned.
Ferdin escaped in a life capsule and landed – more dead than alive – on the unexpected planetoid. To his surprise, a powerful pseudo-grav generator and a vast atmosphere and humidity plant simulated terrestrial conditions with uncanny accuracy.
The asteroid was inhabited and strangely in-habited at that! There was Rosper – a remote, aloof, scientific genius, whose past held strange secrets. There was his beautiful unbelievably innocent daughter, Darmina, who knew no other home but the strange asteroid; and above all there was a creature called Canbail – apparently some strange life-form indigenous to the asteroid! A particular gestalt involving Ferdin and many others took place under the calculating supervision of the Leira Mark 2, the most frighteningly potent of Rosper’s inventions.

The Day Gabriel Chrome, a failed book sculptor contemplating suicide on the Thames Embankment, stumbled on the suicide bid of the naked Camilla Greylaw, was a day of hopeful redemption for a corrupt and violent world.

For the lovely form that he chanced to preserve was the sole carrier of a contagious venereal disease. A bug which could inhibit the aggressive instinct, rendering total placidity in all humans.

At once Gabriel’s life has new meaning and purpose. To save mankind becomes his hardened ambition. But mankind seems far from hope.

New Arizona a lush, virgin planet teeming with rich vegetation and a vast hoard of mineral wealth. A company had been formed to colonise and exploit it, and the spaceship Titov set out with the Board of Directors and two thousand colonists. And shortly after the trip had begun, the trouble started.

The Board of Directors was only interested in the vast profits that could be made by stripping the planet of its natural resources which could be sold to the highest bidder. Not for them the gradual establishment of a pioneer community, of farmlands and villages.

The Colonists had given up everything by leaving Earth, and they wanted a new planet where they could work, prosper and establish a new and better way of life. They were determined to thwart the directors by any means they could find.

And after landing on New Arizona, someone smashes the radio and sabotages the life-craft. Now the balance is more even – but when a real crisis erupts it seems as if neither side will be alive to win!