Just about everyone's had a day when they've wished it were possible to send an alternate self to take care of unpleasant or tedious errands while the real self takes it easy. In Kiln People, David Brin's sci-fi-meets-noir novel, this wish has come true. In Brin's imagined future, folks are able to make inexpensive, disposable clay copies of themselves. These golems or "dittos" live for a single day to serve their creator, who can then choose whether or not to "inload" the memories of the ditto's brief life. But private investigator Albert Morris gets more than he, or his "ditective" copies, bargain for when he signs on to help solve the mysterious disappearance of Universal Kilns' co-founder Yasil Maharal—the father of dittotech.

Brin successfully interweaves plot lines as numerous as our hero's ditectives and doggedly sticks to the rules of his created dittotech while Morris's "realflesh" and clay manifestations slowly unravel the dangerous secret behind Maharal's disappearance. As Brin juggles his multiple protagonists and antagonists, he urges the reader to question notions of memory, individualism, and technology, and to answer the schizoid question "which 'you' is 'you?'" Brin's enjoyment is evident as he plays with his terracotta creations' existential angst and simultaneously deconstructs the familiar streetwise detective meme—complete with a multilayered ending. Overall, Kiln Peopleis a fun read, with a good balance of hard science fiction and pop sensibility. —Jeremy Pugh

The C++ programming language is enjoying a resurgence of popularity. The combination of the proven Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days book with the best-selling Microsoft 6.0 compiler makes this package the perfect starter kit for new C++ programmers! Each of the 21 lessons consist of a full day's activities as you learn the in's and out's of C++ programming. You will be able to verify you are learning C++ by answering the questions within the book. Also use the assessment exam to see how well you have learned or what you need to review.

Comes with the most popular C++ Compiler, Microsoft's Introductory Edition 6.0 CompilerThe one-stop solution for learning the most widely accepted and rapidly growing object-oriented languageTest your C++ programming knowledge with the pre- and post-assessment testing productCD-ROM contains DJGPP C/C++ compiler for Windows 3.1 and DOS 3.31 and testing products

A PC-oriented guide to using ISDN, highly focused on hardware, software, and implementation. Contains comparative descriptions of PC adapter cards, ISDN Modems and Network Termination Devices, Ethernet ISDN Bridges and Routers, and commercial and shareware ISDN software. Despite the amount to information they've packed into this book, Tittle and James still manage to keep the book fairly non-technical in tone and approach.

"They don't make 'em like that any more!" say fans of the classic juvenile SF novels, Alexei Panshin's Rite of Passage(1968) and the run of Robert A. Heinlein novels that begins with Rocket Ship Galileo(1947) and ends with Podkayne of Mars(1963). Except—John Barnes has made one like that: The Sky So Big and Black. The book's brilliant teenage protagonist, hard science, brisk pace, didactic moments, and strong characterization make it clear that Barnes is working consciously in the tradition of Panshin and Heinlein (especially Heinlein's Red Planet[1949] and Podkayne of Mars). Like his models, Barnes does a superb job. The Sky So Big and Blackis a classic. Read it, and give it to any smart, perhaps-outcast young reader whom you want to infect with the science fiction meme.

Terpsichore "Teri" Murray lives on Mars, an eco-prospector-in-training and the daughter of a widowed ecospector. Instead of gold, ecospectors seek underground rivers and gas pockets, which they blast to the Martian surface in hopes of earning fabulous wealth. The ecospector life is hard, primitive, dangerous, and perhaps doomed to extinction, as the Martian atmosphere thickens and the genetically engineered "Mars-form" humans increase their population. An Earth-form human, Teri doesn't want to give up ecospecting, which she loves as much as she hates the city and school where she's forced to spend part of every year. But she finds herself with new, far more ominous worries when a devastating planetwide disaster isolates the colonies from one another, strands Teri in the Martian outback with several injured young children, and opens the entire planet to attack by One True, the collective intelligence that rules Earth in a terrifyingly total dictatorship. —Cynthia Ward

From the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Grandmaster, a new novel of classic science fiction adventure

Mystery, discovery, and wonder on a cosmic scale are the core of Anderson’s latest novel. Lissa, a human Earth woman, and her partner, “Karl,” a giant alien academic who resembles Tyrannosaurs—are interstellar archaeologists investigating the remote and uncharted planet Jonna. There, they seem to have hit the jackpot. For on that distant world they’ve discovered an immense artifact that may have been left by the mysterious beings called the Forerunners. This race predated all the known cultures in the starfaring galaxy and vanished long before any other intelligent species had taken to the stars.

But Lissa and Karl aren’t the first to have made the discovery on Jonna. On the far-off world the archaeologists cross paths with the two freebooters whose plans for motives towards the arcane object are not purely scientific. Their discovery may be the best preserved relic of the ancient beings yet found. Other artifacts from the Forerunners—once reverse engineers—have revolutionized entire fields of technology, reaping huge financial rewards. If the same holds true for this newest discovery, Lissa realizes, only she and Karl stand between the seemingly friendly freebooters and what could be the treasure of a lifetime.

According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter—the world's only totally reliable guide to the future—the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea...