Search Worlds Without End

ALL FOR NAUGHT collects a novella and a novelette: "Naught for Hire" and "Naught Again."

"Naught for Hire" is a quirky, action-packed, comedy set just a few years from now. Nick Naught, private eye, walks down some strange mean streets as he tries to stay ahead of the killers on his tail and tries to cope in a world where all the irritations we have with technology are magnified. Gadgets act up in big ways, including voice operated machines that talk back to people. Nick Naught winds up on a hit list, but he doesn't even realize it at first, because the "accidents" are so much like his normal hazardous life. Annette Taylor, Nick's former lover, shows up in his office shortly after she runs into trouble too.

"Naught Again" follows Nick's adventures as he looks into trouble at the local cryogenics lab.

ALL FOR NAUGHT satirizes the daily frustrations with malfunctioning technology, devices that always seems to fail right when we need them most, and machinery that must have been designed by committee. It lampoons everything from pompous lawyers and the IRS to digital watches and endless lines at the drivers license bureau. It's filled with laugh-out-loud situations that everyone can identify with. Dilbert could relate.

Ex-investigative reporter Dan Kettering watches the Martian telecast showing the aircraft crash that killed someone close to him: his brother. The police convince Dan to get back in the news business, but not as a reporter. This time around he's got a new face, a new name, and he's a driver. Dan resisted the police at first, but one factor changes his mind. The crash that killed his brother wasn't necessarily an accident. His undercover assignment puts him close to Janet Vincent, one of the reporters on the team that uncannily seems to reach almost every disaster scene before their competition.

When a private eye undergoing a moral crisis uncovers a long-buried starship that's still occupied by nasty aliens, he and woman he loves have to overcome them to survive.

Ben Takent is a private eye on a hot, dusty world at the edge of the civilized galaxy. When he's asked to find out who is stealing artifacts from a 10,000-year-old archaeological dig in the desert, he reluctantly takes the case. Then, when it becomes clear that the artifacts are pointing to an ancient alien spacecraft, the stakes in the case go up--way up.

When aliens abduct New York City, carrying it into space inside a huge dome, the citizens trapped inside must find out why, what they can do to save themselves... and to save the dozens of other cities which the aliens have stolen from other planets.

A stunning tour-de-force of science fiction storytelling, with gripping action, believable characters, and a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Cal Donley regains consciousness on the orbital colony Daedalus. It's a beautiful place, home for more than a million people, but Cal doesn't remember leaving Earth. In fact, he can't remember his name or most of the past dozen years.

He's had his memory blanked at a Forget-Me-Now memory erasure shop -- Why? And why is he covered in dried blood that isn't his?

It's early in the new millennium, and the outer reaches of our solar system have been explored. Vast orbital stations the size of middle-sized countries dot the system, filled with thriving colonies. Mankind has grown to fill the void and is poised to colonize the stars. The universe seems to be a stable, comfortable place - and the only voices to echo through space have been human.

Until now.

A fast-moving entity the size of a small moon has entered our solar system. Is it a ship? A new life form? An alien probe sent to destroy other sentient races?

Lieutenant Commander Alis Mary Nussem is one of the humans who will go forth to discover what this mystery is. Disfigured in a devastating ship accident, more machine than woman, Nussem agrees to the dangerous mission. She is eager to make a difference and somehow reclaim the humanity that she lost.

What she doesn't bargain for is the sudden appearance of Lieutenant Karl Stanton, a man whose life seems to resemble Job's - and who was directly responsible for the accident that nearly killed Nussem. These two very different people will be thrown together on an odyssey that will force them to reevaluate the rules that they have lived by all their lives.

And what they find will change mankind's universe forever....

Aboard the hyperspace liner Redshift, the first sign of trouble is the apparent suicide of a passenger. When first officer Jason Kraft discovers that she was murdered, Kraft wants to know why. Before long, a desperate group of people tries to use the hyperspace craft for their evil purposes, and Kraft is the only person in their way.

From the PASSENGER GUIDE. WARNING: Read This Guide Before Boarding the Redshift.

The environment aboard a hyperspace craft is quite safe as long as you are careful. The management reminds you that the speed of light on board this craft is ten meters per second, or about 30 million times slower than what you are used to. This means you will frequently encounter relativistic effects and optical illusions...

A man returning for a high school reunion on a distant colony finds an old flame in trouble--trouble that he's uniquely qualified to deal with.

Brother Sammy Wants YOU! In prison. For something you haven't done yet.

Aided by a device that provides glimpses of the future, Mike Cavantalo, a loyal government employee, learns that soon he will be on the list of known political criminals. Uncle Sammy wants him.

First published in 1984 by Ace Books, SCAPESCOPE is John E. Stith's first novel.

Partially set in a future version of the underground NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex, where the author once worked as an Air Force officer.