Webmind--the vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web--has proven its worth to humanity by aiding in everything from curing cancer to easing international tensions. But the brass at the Pentagon see Webmind as a threat that needs to be eliminated.
Caitlin Decter--the once-blind sixteen-year-old math genius who discovered, and bonded with, Webmind--wants desperately to protect her friend. And if she doesn't act, everything--Webmind included--may come crashing down.
Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax, #1)
Robert J. Sawyer
Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter. Solving the language problem and much else is a mini-computer, called a Companion, implanted in the brain of every Neanderthal. A computerized guardian spirit, however, doesn't eliminate cross-cultural confusion; permanent male-female sexuality, rape, and overpopulation are all alien to Ponter. Nor can it help his housemate and fellow scientist back in his world, Adikor Huld, when the authorities charge Adikor with his murder.
Starplex
Robert J. Sawyer
Sono passati vent'anni dalla scoperta dei wormhole, misteriose anomalie del cosmo che permettono di viaggiare nello spazio e nel tempo, e l'esplorazione dell'universo ha raggiunto vette imprevedibili. Durante una missione il comandante Keith Lansing e la sua nave si imbattono in una stella più vecchia dell'universo stesso e in una razza sconosciuta che minaccia una guerra intergalattica. L'unico modo per salvare la Starplex e il suo mondo è entrare nel wormhole per tornare indietro di miliardi di anni e scoprire il segreto della misteriosa stella...
Calculating God
Robert J. Sawyer
An alien shuttle craft lands outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Out pops a six-legged, two-armed alien, who says, in perfect English, "Take me to a paleontologist."
It seems that Earth, and the alien's home planet, and the home planet of another alien species traveling on the alien mother ship, all experienced the same five cataclysmic events at about the same time, including events exactly like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. Both alien races believe this proves the existence of God: i.e. he's obviously been manipulating the evolution of life on each of these planets.