{"title":"Kurt Vonnegut","description":"Born in 1922, Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, during the saturation bombing which devastated the city near the end of the Second World War, an experience which formed the basis for the novel which made him a world-wide bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five.","products":[{"product_id":"the-sirens-of-titan","title":"The Sirens Of Titan","description":"\u003cb\u003eWelcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spaceship into a  chrono-synclastic infundibulum he is converted into pure energy and only  materializes when his waveforms intercept Earth or some other planet.  As a result, he only gets home to Newport, Rhode Island, once every  fifty-nine days and then only for an hour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut at  least, as a consolation, he now knows everything that has ever happened  and everything that ever will be. He knows, for instance, that his wife  is going to Mars to mate with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the  world. He also knows that on Titan - one of Saturn's moons - is an alien  from the planet Tralfamadore, who has been waiting 200,000 years for a  spare part for his grounded spacecraft . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eA finalist for the 1960 Hugo Award, \u003c\/i\u003eThe Sirens of Titan\u003ci\u003e  was Vonnegut's second novel. It received wide acclaim, and played with  ideas of free will and predestination, themes he continued to explore in  his later works. In 2015, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall  of Fame.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e-\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003ci\u003eThe Sirens of Titan \u003c\/i\u003eis marvellous. It's so funny it made me want to cry' - \u003ci\u003eInfinity Plus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A classic, ripe with wit and eloquence and a cascade of inventiveness' - Brian Aldiss \u003cbr\u003e'His best book . . . He dares not only to ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it' - \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Gollancz","offers":[{"title":"Paperback ( Published 2023-08-24 )","offer_id":47717453693214,"sku":"9781399617222","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback ( Published 1999-09-09 )","offer_id":47642928513310,"sku":"9781857988840","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0571\/2642\/0664\/products\/9781399617222-original.jpg?v=1757209050"},{"product_id":"cats-cradle","title":"Cat's Cradle","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of America's greatest writers gives us his unique perspective on our fears of nuclear annihilation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExperiment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTold with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSolution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding fathers of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to madness. Felix Hoenikker's death-wish comes true when his last, fatal, gift to mankind brings about an end that, for all of us, is nigh.","brand":"Gollancz","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":47642977403166,"sku":"9780575081956","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0571\/2642\/0664\/products\/9780575081956-original.jpg?v=1765004120"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0571\/2642\/0664\/collections\/getimage_f4488e90-0f24-441e-a841-179817ac1fb1.jpg?v=1783232278","url":"https:\/\/store.gollancz.co.uk\/collections\/author-kurt-vonnegut-1.oembed","provider":"Gollancz","version":"1.0","type":"link"}