Search Worlds Without End

The pythons had entered into Mankind. No man knew at what moment he might be Possessed!

On Christmas the world's freedom died. Every man, woman and child lay in the grip of fear, for no one knew at what moment his nearest friend or a casual stranger might suddenly be possessed by some brutal mind... and begin to murder and destroy. For Chandler it was worse than for most. He was both victim and executioner. He had suffered himself, and he had committed a violent crime while under the strange domination. Accusing of hoaxing he was driven from his home. He wandered the world and found it smashed like a spoiled child's plaything?now Chandler was in the very presence of the destroyers! But what could one person do against such power -- the power of gods!

Two thousand years after Pompeii's destruction, a thriller of upheaval - volcanic and political - as only SF Grandmaster Frederik Pohl can write it!

With a keen eye for the humanity in any situation, science fiction icon Frederik Pohl has crafted a compelling new novel of a not-too-distant future we can only hope is merely science fiction.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. it gave so little warning that Pompeiians were caught unawares, and many bodies were preserved in volcanic ash. Two thousand years later, in 2079, Pompeii is a popular theme park eagerly anticipating Il Giubeleo, the Jubilee celebration of the great anniversary. But Vesuvius is still capable of erupting, and even more threatening are terrorists who want to use the occasion to draw attention to their cause by creating a huge disaster. As the fateful day draws near, people from all over the world - workers, tourists, terrorists - caught in the shadow of the volcano will grapple with upheaval both natural and political.

Table of Contents:

• Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus - (1956)
• The Ghost-Maker - (1954)
• Let the Ants Try - (1949)
• Pythias - (1955)
• The Mapmakers - (1955)
• Rafferty's Reasons - (1955)
• Target One - (1955)
• Grandy Devil - (1955)
• The Tunnel Under the World - (1955)
• What to Do Until the Analyst Comes

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Mars-Tube - (1941)
• Trouble in Time - (1940)
• Vacant World - (1940)
• Best Friend - (1941)
• Before the Universe - (1940)
• Nova Midplane - (1940)
• The Extrapolated Dimwit - (1942)
• Afterword

Two novel omnibus.

DRUNKARDS WALK: Cornut was a master teacher - respected, successful. his life well rewarded in past accomplishments and rich in the promise of achievements to come. Yet he was waging a bitter battle with a savage, bewildering drive to self-destruction.

But when he really began to probe the reasons for his "madness," the battle with himself became insignificant beside the power his new information could release.

If he could live that long...

THE AGE OF THE PUSSYFOOT: Forrester had no obligations.
He didn't have to think about whether his wife had enough money because he no longer had a wife. All his debts were paid - or forgiven - centuries ago.

He had nothing to worry about.

Or so he thought.

Then the joymaker - the marvelous contraption invented while he was in the deep freeze - informed him that he was in danger and that a hunting license was already out on him.

In a perfect world, suddenly everything had gone wrong!

When a mysterious alien spacecraft approaches the Earth and demands to speak with the President of the United States, then destroys a large Pacific island to demonstrate its strength and seriousness, you'd expect the President to talk. Problem is, there is no President - not even a United States. China rules the Americas, and to most people "US" and "USSR" are just quaint abbreviations in historical dictionaries. But the aliens prove unreasonable about accepting substitutes. . .

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Day Million - (1966)
• The Deadly Mission of P. Snodgrass - (1962)
• The Day the Martians Came - (1967)
• Schematic Man - (1969)
• Small Lords - (1957)
• Making Love - (1966)
• Way Up Yonder - (1959)
• Speed Trap - (1967)
• It's a Young World - (1941)
• Under Two Moons - (1965)

This short story originally appeared in Rogue, Feb/March 1966 and was reprinted in SF Impulse, October 1966. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• World's Best Science Fiction: 1967, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr
• Nebula Award Stories Two (1967), edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison
• Backdrop of Stars (1968), edited by Harry Harrison
• A Science Fiction Argosy (1972), edited by Damon Knight
• Alpha 3 (1972), edited by Robert Silverberg
• Bio-Futures (1976), edited by Pamela Sargent
• Decade the 1960s (1977), edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison
• The Road to Science Fiction 3: From Heinlein to Here (1979), edited by James Gunn
• The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction (1980), edited by Robert Silverberg
• Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder (1987), edited by Robert Silverberg
• The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (1993), edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery
• The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF (1994), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer
• The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventures to the Far Future (2000), edited by Gardner Dozois
• The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3 (2001), edited by Frederik Pohl
• Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology (2012), edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly
• The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

The story is included in the collections Day Million (1970), The Best of Frederik Pohl (1975) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

Read the full story for free at the Baen website.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Digits and Dastards) - (1966)
• The Children of Night - (1964)
• The Fiend - (1964)
• Earth Eighteen - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Father of the Stars - (1964)
• The Five Hells of Orion - (1963)
• With Redfern on Capella XII - (1955)
• How to Count on Your Fingers - (1956)
• On Binary Digits and Human Habits - (1962)

He was a master teacher—respected, successful, his life well rewarded in past accomplishments and rich in the promise of achievements to come.

And yet he was fighting a bitter battle with a savage, bewildering drive to self-destruction.

But when he really began to probe the reasons for his "madness," the battle with himself became a puny thing beside the power his new information could release.

If he could live that long.

This novelette originally appeared in Omni, October 1982. It can also be found in the anthologies The 1983 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, The Best Science Fiction of the Year #12 (1983), edited by Terry Carr, and The Third Omni Book of Science Fiction (1985), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story is included in the collection Midas World (1983).

Hugo Award wining novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1985. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986), edited by Gardner Dozois
• The 1986 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha
• The New Hugo Winners, Volume II: (1986-88) (1992), edited by Isaac Asimov
• The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century (1998) edited by Martin H. Greenberg
• Armageddons (1999) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
• The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF (2010), edited by Mike Ashley

It is included in the collection Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

Read the story for free at the Baen website.

Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, and Charles Sheffield share a collection of original stories and essays that speculate on what the world will be like fifty years from now and discuss the sociological and technological implications of their expectations.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Charles Sheffield
• 2042: A Cautiously Pessimistic View - (1991) - essay by Ben Bova
• Thy Kingdom Come - (1993) - novella by Ben Bova
• A Visit to Belinda - essay by Frederik Pohl
• What Dreams Remain - novella by Frederik Pohl
• Report on Planet Earth - essay by Charles Sheffield
• The Price of Civilization - (1992) - novelette by Charles Sheffield
• Democracy in America in the Year 2042 - essay by Jerry Pournelle
• Higher Education - novella by Jerry Pournelle and Charles Sheffield

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Horace L. Gold - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Gold on Galaxy - essay by H. L. Gold
• Coming Attraction - (1950) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• To Serve Man - (1950) - shortstory by Damon Knight
• Memoir (To Serve Man) - essay by Damon Knight
• Betelgeuse Bridge - (1951) - shortstory by William Tenn
• From a Cave Deep in Stuyvesant Town — A Memoir of Galaxy's Most Creative Years - essay by William Tenn
• Cost of Living - (1952) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Memoir of Galaxy Magazine - essay by Robert Sheckley
• The Model of a Judge - (1953) - shortstory by William Morrison
• Memoir (The Model of a Judge) - essay by William Morrison
• The Holes Around Mars - (1954) - shortstory by Jerome Bixby
• Memoir (The Holes Around Mars) - essay by Jerome Bixby
• Horrer Howce - (1956) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• Memoir (Horrer Howce) - essay by Margaret St. Clair
• People Soup - (1958) - shortstory by Alan Arkin
• Memoir (People Soup) - essay by Alan Arkin
• Something Bright - (1960) - shortstory by Zenna Henderson
• The Lady Who Sailed The Soul - (1960) - novelette by Cordwainer Smith and Genevieve Linebarger
• The Deep Down Dragon - (1961) - shortstory by Judith Merril
• Memoir (The Deep Down Dragon) - essay by Judith Merril
• Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night - (1961) - novelette by Algis Budrys
• Memoir: Spilled Milk - essay by Algis Budrys
• The Place Where Chicago Was - (1962) - novelette by Jim Harmon
• Memoir (The Place Where Chicago Was) - essay by Jim Harmon
• The Great Nebraska Sea - (1963) - shortstory by Allan Danzig
• Memoir (The Great Nebraska Sea) - essay by Allan Danzig
• Oh, to Be a Blobel! - (1964) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
• Memoir (Oh, To Be a Blobel!) - essay by Philip K. Dick
• Founding Father - (1965) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• Memoir (Founding Father) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Going Down Smooth - (1968) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• Memoir (Going Down Smooth) - essay by Robert Silverberg
• All the Myriad Ways - (1968) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• Memoir (All the Myriad Ways) - essay by Larry Niven
• The Last Flight of Dr. Ain - (1969) - shortstory by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Memoir (Galaxy Book Shelf) - essay by Algis Budrys
• Galaxy Book Shelf (Galaxy, September 1969) - (1969) - essay by Algis Budrys
• Slow Sculpture - (1970) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• Memoir (Slow Sculpture) - essay by Theodore Sturgeon
• About a Secret Crocodile - (1970) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Memoir (About a Secret Crocodile) - essay by R. A. Lafferty
• Cold Friend - (1973) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• Memoir (Cold Friend) - essay by Harlan Ellison
• The Day Before the Revolution - (1974) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Gift of Garigolli - (1974) - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl
• Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - (1976) - novelette by John Varley
• Note (Overdrawn at the Memory Bank) - essay by John Varley
• Horace, Galaxyca - essay by Alfred Bester
• Index to Galaxy Magazine

Caution! You are about to enter a world...

...where all engineering ingenuity has been employed for public spectacles of torture and death.

...where the stock market operated with pari-mutuel machines.

...where a court clerk transcribes testimony on punch cards, then feeds it to a jury machine.

...where the dream real-estate development of today has become a cracked-concrete savage jungle.

In this world, young lawyer Charles Mundin battles a great combine of corporate interest--battles them in board meetings and in dark alley--in a struggle that lays bare some brutal promises about the future... promises we are beginning to make right now.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Epoch (1975), edited by Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg. It is also included in the collections Pohlstars (1984) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

By the Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of "Gateway", this novel centres around Sandy Washington, a young man who has been raised on a spaceship by aliens. The Hakh'li have done everything to give Sandy an earth-type boyhood. Now they are returning him to Earth.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Science-Fiction Games - (1976)
• In the Problem Pit - (1973)
• Let the Ants Try - (1949)
• To See Another Mountain - (1959)
• The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass - (1962)
• Golden Ages Gone Away - (1972)
• Rafferty's Reasons - (1955)
• I Remember a Winter - (1972)
• The Schematic Man - (1969)
• What to Do Until the Analyst Comes - (1956)
• Some Joys Under the Star - (1973)
• The Man Who Ate the World - (1956)
• SF: The Game-Playing Literature - (1976)

The discovery of another habitable world might spell salvation to the three bitterly competing power blocs of the resource-starved 21st century; but when their representatives arrive on Jem, with its multiple intelligent species, they discover instead the perfect situation into which to export their rivalries. Subtitled, with savage irony, 'The Making of a Utopia', Jem is one of Frederik Pohl's most powerful novels.

Contents:

• vii - Introduction: Jupiter the Giant - essay by Isaac Asimov
• xv - Preface: Jupiter at Last - essay by Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl
• 1 - Bridge - [Cities in Flight] - (1952) - novelette by James Blish
• 39 - Victory Unintentional - [Jovians - 2] - (1942) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 65 - Desertion - [City] - (1944) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• 81 - The Mad Moon - (1935) - novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• 111 - Heavyplanet - (1939) - short story by Milton A. Rothman (variant of Heavy Planet)
• 125 - The Lotus-Engine - (1940) - short story by Raymond Z. Gallun
• 149 - Call Me Joe - (1957) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• 193 - Habit - (1939) - short story by Lester del Rey
• 211 - A Meeting with Medusa - [A Meeting with Medusa - 1] - (1971) - novelette by Arthur C. Clarke

When Comet Sicara brushed near enough to strip the ozone layer from the Earth's atmosphere, civilization effectively ended - in fact, life on Earth was nearly extinguished. But the underwater cities survived, and some heavily protected land enclaves held on as well. When the "ozone summer" years were ending, submarine captain Ron Tregarth rediscovered his lost love, Graciela Navarro. But their triumph against all odds was only the beginning, for the alien known as the Eternal stood between them and threatened to destroy all they held dearest. The Eternal's goal was to absorb the minds of every living thing, to create a death-in-life to enslave the planet.

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, March 1979. The story was later incorporated in the fixup novel The Cool War (1981).

Table of Contents:

• The Fire-Bringer
• The Midas Plague - (1954)
• The Servant of the People - (1982)
• The Man Who Ate the World - (1956)
• The Farmer on the Dole - (1982)
• The Lord of the Skies
• The New Neighbors - (1983)

Mars was harsh and unforgiving, but for the colonists who called it home, its future was as bright as the comets that hung in the night sky, for locked in those icy bodies were the water and gases that would make Mars live again, mined from the vast Oort Cloud beyond Pluto. Young Dekker DeWoe yearned to become an Oort miner. But when he finally arrived on Earth to begin training, the mining project was abruptly canceled. Then he began to hear rumors of a plan to force the restoration of the mining -- a plan that would result in the deaths of millions . . .

In a major science fiction event, Nebula Award winners Poul Anderson, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, David Brin, Nancy Kress, and Frederik Pohl join forces--under the editorship of Robert Silverberg--to create a triumph of world-building: Murasaki, a science fiction novel in six parts. Murasaki is completely based in hard science and what we know of the Murasaki star system--which actually exists.

Authors Poul Anderson and Frederik Pohl painstakingly constructed the working mechanics of a real star system, projecting the atmosphere, geology, chemistry, flora, and fauna of the two planets on which the work is set. They and four more of America's best science fiction authors--known for their "hard" speculative fiction--used Pohl and Anderson's essays (included as appendixes to this book) as source material to create this amazing story of the earliest human explorations of the twenty-third century--an epic tale of discovery, conflict, and resolution told by the masters of imaginative writing.

Murasaki, star HD 36395... where the gristmill of Darwinism produced two vastly different alien ecologies on two closely revolving planets, circling each other since scouring lightning storms stirred them to life billions of years ago. The two planets are Genji, violent and reckless, filled with a variety of winged life; and Chujo, a cooling world of ancient, crumbling cities, slowly going through its glacial death throes. Both planets are host to intelligences that are strange in ways Man can only guess at...and the planets have an eerie connection that will soon come to fruition after the first human explorers arrive. Exceeding light-speed for twenty years and decelerating by plasma exhaust drive, the first ship bearing humans arrives at Murasaki. The wealth, pride, and future of nations depend upon the outcome as the first contact team sets foot on a Murasaki-system world--while the hope of mankind, a planet capable of supporting human life, awaits the first explorer to touch the strangely colored alien soil....

Contains:

• Introduction (Murasaki) - essay by Robert Silverberg
• The Treasures of Chujo - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• Genji - novelette by David Brin
• Language - novelette by Poul Anderson
• World Vast, World Various - novella by Gregory Benford
• A Plague of Conscience - novelette by Greg Bear
• Birthing Pool - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Appendix A: Design for Two Worlds (Murasaki) - essay by Poul Anderson
• Appendix B: Murasaki's Worlds (Murasaki) - essay by Frederik Pohl

This guard smelled trouble and it could be counted on to come-for a nose for trouble was one of the many talents bred here! A classic novella about the future of law enforcement by Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master Frederik Pohl.

This story originally appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1957. It can also be found in the collections The Case Against Tomorrow (1957) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

The story of a philanthropic foundation used as a front by alien beings secretly monitoring Earth. Nolly Stennis - former opera singer turned accountant - hears of two performers who sign contracts with Narabedla and vanish. He investigates but is transported to one of Aldebaran's moons.

The overcrowded Earth isn't room enough for Evesham Giyt, a solitary and brilliant computer hacker who yearns for the long-gone frontiers of the past. Chasing stories of unspoiled beauty and endless possibility, he takes a leap across the stars to the rugged colony world of Tupelo and soon finds himself a respected member of the community and mayor of the colony's human population.

Humanity isn't the first race to colonize Tupelo: as mayor, Giyt is part of a council of races trying to peacefully coexist despite wildly disparate cultures and traditions. But as Giyt learns to like his alien neighbors, he begins to realize that his fellow humans may have other plans for Tupelo, plans that don't include peace but do include lots of dead aliens. It will be up to Giyt to crack the human conspiracy and carve out a future for all of Tupelo... before it gets him killed!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Stories of the Sixties - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Critical Mass - (1962) - novelette
• The World of Myrion Flowers - (1961) - shortstory
• The Engineer - (1956) - shortstory
• A Gentle Dying - (1961) - shortstory
• Nightmare with Zeppelins - (1958) - shortstory
• The Quaker Cannon - (1961) - novelette
• The 60/40 Stories - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Trouble in Time - (1940) - shortstory
• Mars-Tube - (1941) - novelette
• Epilogue to The Space Merchants - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Gravy Planet (excerpt) - shortfiction
• The Final Stories - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Mute Inglorious Tam - (1974) - shortstory
• The Gift of Garigolli - (1974) - novelette
• The Meeting - (1972) - shortstory

In a future where medical science has all but eliminated death, vid star Rafiel is faced with his own demise and learns many poignant lessons about life as he struggles with this reality.

An alien creature holds the inhabitants of Earth captive, an intergalactic explorer is hired to find the reason why a lunar mining operation is plagued by suspicious accidents, and a band of rebels plots to overthrow the rulers of Venus.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1982)
• Figurehead - (1982)
• Red Moon of Danger - (1951)
• Donovan Had a Dream - (1947)

Frederik Pohl, the bestselling author of The Boy Who Would Live Forever, is famous for his novels, but first and foremost, he is a master of the science fiction short story. For more than fifty years he has been writing incisive, entertaining SF stories, several hundred in all. Even while writing his bestselling triple-crown (Hugo, Nebula, Campbell Award) novel Gateway and the other Heechee Saga novels, he has always written short fiction.

Now, for the first time, he has gathered together the best of his many stories. Spanning the decades, these tales are in their way a living history of science fiction. Because Frederik Pohl has been on the frontlines of the field since the halcyon days of the late 1930s, and has written short stories in every decade since. And because he has always been a keen observer of the human condition and the world that is shaped by it, his stories reflect the currents of political movements, social trends, major events that have shaken the world...

Yet at their core, all his stories are most acutely concerned with people. All sorts of people. Some are people you'll love, some you'll hate. But you will need to find out what happens to the people who inhabit these stories. Because Frederik Pohl imbues his characters with a depth and individuality that makes them as real as people you see every day. Of course, he also employs a mind-boggling variety of scientific ideas and science fictional tropes with which his characters must interact. And he does it all with seemingly no effort at all. That's some trick. Not everyone can do that... but that's why he was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by his peers in the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Here are his two Hugo Award winning stories, "Fermi and Frost" and "The Meeting" (with C. M. Kornbluth), along with such classic novellas as the powerful "The Gold at the Starbow's End" and "The Greening of Bed-Stuy," and stories such as "Servant of the People," "Shaffery Among the Immortals," and "Growing Up in Edge City," all finalists for major awards. And dozens of other wonderful tales, like "The Mayor of Mare Tranq" and the provocative "The Day the Martians Landed" and many others.

Altogether, a grand collection of thought-provoking, entertaining science fiction by one of the all-time greats!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by James Frenkel
• "The Merchants of Venus", Worlds of If, July/August 1972
• "The Things That Happen", Asimov's, October 1985
• "The High Test", Asimov's, June 1983
• "My Lady Green Sleeves", Galaxy, February 1957
• "The Kindly Isle", Asimov's, November 1984
• "The Middle of Nowhere", Galaxy, May 1955
• "I Remember a Winter", Orbit 11, Damon Knight (ed.), 1972
• "The Greening of Bed-Stuy", F&SF, July 1984.
• "To See Another Mountain", F&SF, April 1959
• "The Mapmakers", Galaxy, July 1955
• "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair", F&SF, October 1983
• "The Celebrated No-Hit Inning", Fantastic Universe, September 1956
• "Some Joys Under the Star", Galaxy, November 1973
• "Servant of the People", Analog, February 1983
• "Waiting for the Olympians", Asimov's, August 1988
• "Criticality", Analog, December 1984
• "Shaffery Among the Immortals", F&SF, July 1972
• "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", Galaxy, February 1960
• "Saucery", F&SF, October 1986
• "The Gold at the Starbow's End", Analog, March 1972
• "Growing Up in Edge City", Epoch, Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg (eds.), 1975
• "The Knights of Arthur", Galaxy, January 1958
• "Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct", Analog, January 1994
• "The Meeting" (in collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth), F&SF, November 1972
• "Let the Ants Try", (as by James MacCreigh) Planet Stories, Winter 1949
• "Speed Trap", Playboy, November 1967
• "The Day the Martians Came", Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison (ed.), 1967
• "Day Million", Rogue, February/March 1966
• "The Mayor of Mare Tranq", The Williamson Effect, Tor, 1996
• "Fermi and Frost", Asimov's, January 1985
• Afterword : Fifty Years and Counting

A collection of short stories by the award-winning American science fiction writer, Frederik Pohl. They range from the lighthearted "The High Test" to the longest of the collection, "The Sweet, Sad Queen of the Grazing Star", a sinister story involving business and mobster rivalry.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1984)
• The Sweet, Sad Queen of the Grazing Isles - (1984) - novella by Frederik Pohl
• The High Test - (1983) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair - (1983) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Second Coming - (1983) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Enjoy, Enjoy - (1974) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Growing Up in Edge City - (1975) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• We Purchased People - (1974) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Rem The Rememberer - (1977) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• The Mother Trip - (1975) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• A Day in the Life of Able Charlie - (1976) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• The Way It Was - (1977) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Introduction to the Translation (The Wizard-Masters of Peng-Shi Angle) - essay by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
• The Wizard-Masters of Peng-Shi Angle - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• Notes (The Wizard-Masters of Peng-Shi Angle) - essay by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre

The Company was a powerful, efficient, and monstrous insurance organization that controlled the entire world, scientifically regulating everything in life: war, epidemics, one-a-day food pills and test-tube sex...all through the use of its patented, terrifying human deep-freeze vault.

Claims Adjuster Wills, a great believer in the Company, begins to have second thoughts when he meets beautiful and sorrowful Rena, whose radical father lies in a frozen subterranean vault.

Contents:

• vii - Introduction (A Dialogue) (Science Fiction Discoveries) - essay by Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl
• 1 - Starlady - novelette by George R. R. Martin
• 31 - The Never-Ending Western Movie - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• 51 - The Age of Libra - shortstory by Scott Edelstein
• 69 - To Mark the Year on Azlaroc - shortstory by Fred Saberhagen
• 85 - An Occurrence at the Owl Creek Rest Home - novelette by Arthur Jean Cox
• 123 - The Force That Through the Circuit Drives the Current - shortstory by Roger Zelazny
• 131 - Deathrights Deferred - shortstory by Doris Piserchia
• 147 - Error Hurled - novel by Babette Rosmond

Something Was Very Wrong, Out There Among The Stars... The interstellar transport had touched down on six other colony worlds - and all six had been devoid of human life. Where was everybody? It was almost as if humankind, when separated by cosmic distances from Mother Earth, could not survive.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It orginally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, February 1983. The story can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year #13 (1984). It is included in the collections Midas World (1983) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1972. The story can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Award Stories Eight (1973), edited by Isaac Asimov and The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 20th Series (1973). It is included in the collections The Gold at the Starbow's End (1972) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

First they Cracked The Codes

The big electronic calculators that handled math codes, production lines, found it simple to decipher the small but racy vocabularies of the animals.

then man had achieved the age-old dream: He could respond when his dog struggled to tell him something, and he cold tell that foolish sheep that if he didn't act right he'd be mutton; and, being man, he could create the wildest, craziest secret weapon for the war that is man's heritage but not that of the new, now-articulate minorities.

The electronic brain machines have broken codes, translated one human language into another, and have now turned their memory banks to the problems of deciphering animal languages. The first practical application of this is to tell the sheep to eat the weeds in the potato patch, but to leave the potatoes alone. This, however, is only the beginning.

The nature of animals is that they are expendable. When a prolundged "cold" war has created a manpower shortage so acute that Boy Scouts are being drafted, the navy, characteristically resourceful, turns to other available materials. To an Annapolis graduate, veteran of several "cold" strikes himself, a serious-minded; man willing to do anything the nave expects of him, this presents problems in ethics only surmounted by the baffling confusion of the T.O. of hos command. for instance, how valuable could a seal be as a guided missile? Who's responsible when monkeys take over the running of a submarine?

THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST

The crew of the Constitution--scientists cum astronauts--had been carefully screened for extremely high intelligence and superb physical qualities. They were to be the first explorers sent to another stellar system. There they would explore the planet Alpha-Aleph and then return. They were the toast of the world press--true heroes, for they were to go where no man had gone before.

Or so they thought.

Dr. Dieter von Knefhausen knew otherwise--for there was no planet, no place to go...and no place from which to return. Knefhuasen had planned it that way. Of course, Knefhausen realized his plan wasn't exactly ethical. But then, he knew the ends often justify the means.

And Knefhausen's plan worked better then even he had ever hoped!

Eager for a home of their own, the crew of Nordvik, an antiquated trading ship, decide to set up camp on Slowyear, a rarely visited planet whose population must live underground during bitter winters lasting five Earth-years.

Scientists and psychics are predicting eruptions and earthquakes that could devastate half the earth, caused by a rare conjunction of the planets. It's called SYZYGY.

A ruthless land speculator decides to make a quick killing by starting a panic. Then others cash in on the Syzygy Effect for their own greed: a crackpot cult preaching doom, a politician out for votes, a quack scientist out to make the headlines.

When California is paralyzed by brush fires and flash floods, hysteria explodes. Only a dedicated scientist and a beautiful NASA astrophysicist can prevent massive destruction. But they're up against forces that will stop at nothing to keep the truth from getting out.

In this collaborative novel of international science fiction, Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull have compiled nineteen facets of a single dilemma, the fantastic situation oh human beings and aliens coexisting in one body. Each story's plot is organized around this single theme, but the voices that color each telling come from all corners of the world.

Table of Contents:

• Report From the Planet Earth - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Last Word - essay by Elizabeth Anne Hull
• Sitting Around the Pool, Soaking Up the Rays - (1984) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• The Thursday Events - shortstory by Ye Yonglie
• User Friendly - shortstory by Spider Robinson
• Life as an Ant - shortstory by André Carneiro
• Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes - (1986) - novelette by S. P. Somtow
• S Is for Snake - shortstory by Lino Aldani (trans. of S come serpente)
• The Divided Carla - novelette by Josef Nesvadba (trans. of Rozštepená Karla 1985)
• The View from the Top of the Tower - (1986) - shortstory by Harry Harrison
• Don't Knock the Rock - shortstory by A. Bertram Chandler
• The Owl of Bear Island - shortstory by Jon Bing (trans. of Ugle på Bjørnøya)
• Contacts of a Fourth Kind - shortstory by Ljuben Dilov (translation form Russian original 1985)
• Infestation - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• In the Blink of an Eye - shortstory by Carlos Maria Federici
• Particularly Difficult Territory - shortstory by Janusz A. Zajdel (trans. of Wyjatkowo trudny teren)
• Time Everlasting - shortstory by Sam J. Lundwall
• The Middle Kingdom - shortstory by Tong Enzheng and Elizabeth Anne Hull
• On the Inside Track - novelette by Karl Michael Armer (trans. of Umkreisungen)
• The Legend of the Paper Spaceship - (1983) - novelette by Tetsu Yano (translation for Japanese original 1978)
• We Servants of the Stars - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Notes on Contributors - essay by uncredited

A colossal force is about to alter history, code name: Vulcan, a classified military project off the shores of Hawaii - where a volcano lies dormant at the bottom of the sea but about to be come a living hell.

Table of Contents:

• The Abominable Earthman - (1961)
• We Never Mention Aunt Nora - (1958)
• A Life and a Half - (1959)
• Punch - (1961)
• The Martian Star-Gazers - (1963)
• Whatever Counts - (1959)
• Three Portraits and a Prayer - (1962)

MAN ALIVE

Charles Forrester was out of the deepfreeze. It had taken several centuries to bring him back to life.

But what a life it was!

The 26th Century offered pleasure at the flip of a button -- everything from gourmet food to stupendous sex right there for the asking. And for a rich man like Forrester, the possibilities of delight were endless.

Of course, everything else was endless too. But by the time Forrester realized that he had had enough of a good thing -- even too much! -- he realized that he would somehow have to kill himself if he were ever to survive!

It was the Age of the Pussyfoot

Contents:

• "The Midas Plague" - Galaxy Science Fiction April '54
• "The Census Takers" - The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Feb. '56
• "The Candle Lighter" - Galaxy Science Fiction March '55
• "The Celebrated No-Hit Inning" - Fantastic Universe Sep. '56
• "Wapshot's Demon" - Science Fiction Stories July '56
• "My Lady Green Sleeves" - Galaxy Science Fiction Feb. '57

A breakthrough in quantum physics has shattered the boundaries between alternate worlds. History is in chaos as billions of possible futures collide.

As a conquering army mounts an invasion of neighoboring realities, a handful of men and women from a dozen different timelines risk their lives to safeguard an infinity of worlds.

Blending thrilling suspense with brilliant scientific speculation, Frederik Pohl's THE COMING OF THE QUANTUM CATS is a triumph of the imagination by a Hugo and Nebula winning master of science fiction.

Fred Pohl, multiple winner of science-fiction's top awards, presents a breathtaking romp through the energy-poor world of the 2020s - a gripping chase-intrigue novel with a highly unlikely stand-in for James Bond.

One day, the Reverend Hornswell Hake had nothing worse to contend with than the customary power shortages and his routine pastoral chores, such as counseling the vivacious Alys Brant - and her husbands and wife. At nearly forty, his life was placid, almost humdrum.

The very next day, Horny Hake was first enlisted as an unwilling agent of the Team - secret successor to the long-discredited CIA - and then courted by an anti-Team underground group. In practically no time at all, Horny and Alys were touring Europe on a mission about which he knew zip, except that it was a new move in the Cool War, the worldwide campaign of sabotage that had replaced actual combat.

For the team and its opponents, though, the Cool War could be as perilous as any hot one, as Horny Hake discovered when he came up against

*Leota, lovely leader of the underground cabal, dedicated to destroying the Team;

*Yosper, the Bible-thumping, foul-mouthed nonogenarian killer;

*The Reddi twins, professional terrorists who turned up in the oddest places at the worst times and always managed to make Horny's life miserable;

*And Pegleg, master of such lethal toys as the Bulgarian Brolly and the Peruvian Pen.

Picaresque and fast-moving, THE COOL WAR is also a deeply ironic, often hilarious, yet thought-provoking look at where we could be, some forty years from now.

Henry Steegman is hardly "Mr. Personality" aboard the Mars-bound Algonquin 9. Yet it is he who bungles upon the spectacular Macy's-like city beneath the Red Planet's crust. For better or worse, the name Steegman will be immortalized by a discovery that will transform millions of lives.

For a struggling screenwriter, the Martian beings could mean a big story, big bucks, headlines...and more women than any many his size has ever known...

For an exhiled Russian rocket man, the are a possible route to America's space program, and the land of opportunity...

For a flying-saucer faker of flickering fame, the possibilities are out of this world.

In a brilliant near-future look at the human condition, Frederick Pohl has honed his satire-sharp science fiction to a steely new edge.

Table of Conents:

• A Martian Christmas - (1987)
• Introduction (The Day the Martians Came) - essay by James E. Gunn
• From the New York Times "Martians Lack Language But Possess Organized Society" - (1988)
• Sad Screenwriter Sam - (1972)
• "NBC Nightly News": "Ferdie Dead" - (1988)
• The View from Mars Hill - (1987)
• Scientific American: "Martian Polar Wanderings" - (1988)
• Saucery - (1986)
• New Scientist: "Mars at the British Ass." - (1988)
• The Beltway Bandit - (1988)
• The President's News Conference - (1988)
• Too Much Loosestrife - (1987)
• "Oprah Winfrey" - (1988)
• Iriadeska's Martians - (1986)
• Notes from the British Interplanetary Society - (1988)
• The Missioner - (1988)
• Time Magazine: "We Wait with Eagerness and Joy" - (1988)
• Across the River - (1988)
• The Day After the Day the Martians Came - (1967)
• Huddling - (1988)

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna - (1937)
• The Dweller in the Ice - (1941)
• The King's Eye - (1941)
• It's a Young World - (1941)
• Daughters of Eternity - (1942)
• Earth, Farewell! - (1943)
• Conspiracy on Callisto - (1943)
• Highwayman of the Void - (1944)
• Double-Cross - (1944)

Locus Award winning and Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1972. The story can also be found in the anthologies Best Science Fiction for 1972, edited by Frederik Pohl, The 1973 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, Analog 9 (1973), edited by Ben Bova, The World Treasury of Science Fiction (1989), edited by David G. Hartwell and The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume Three (2001), edited by Frederik Pohl. It is included in the collections The Gold at the Starbow's End (1972) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

Table of Contents:

• The Gold at the Starbow's End - (1972)
• Sad Solarian Screenwriter Sam - (1972)
• Call Me Million - (1970)
• Shaffery Among the Immortals - (1972)
• The Merchants of Venus - (1972)

This short story originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, November 1984. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Genometry (2001), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

Read the full story for free at the Baen website.

The final work from the brightest star in science fiction's galaxy. Arthur C Clarke, who predicted the advent of communication satellites and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey completes a lifetime career in science fiction with a masterwork.

30 light years away, a race known simply as the One Point Fives are plotting a dangerous invasion plan, one that will wipe humankind off the face of the Earth...

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, a young astronomy student, Ranjit Subramanian, becomes obsessed with a three-hundred-year-old theorem that promises to unlock the secrets of the universe. While Ranjit studies the problem, tensions grow between the nations of the world and a UN taskforce headed up by China, America and Russia code-named Silent Thunder begins bombing volatile regimes into submission.

On the eve of the invasion of Earth a space elevator is completed, helped in part by Ranjit, which will herald a new type of Olympics to be held on the Moon. But when alien forces arrive Ranjit is forced to question his own actions, in a bid to save the lives of not just his own family but of all of humankind.

Co-written with fellow grand master Frederik Pohl, The Last Theorem not only provides a fitting end to the career one of the most famous names in science fiction but also sets a new benchmark in contemporary prescient science fiction. It tackles with ease epic themes as diverse as third world poverty, the atrocities of modern warfare in a post-nuclear age, space elevators, pure mathematics and mankind's first contact with extra-terrestrials.

A collection of Frederik Pohl's short stories, including:

• The Man Who Ate The World
• The Wizards of Pung's Corners
• The Waging Of Peace
• The Snowmen
• The Day The Icicle Works Closed

Hugo Award winning short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1972. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year #2 (1973), edited by Terry Carr, Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Second Annual Collection (1973), edited by Lester del Rey, and The Hugo Winners, Volume 3: (1970-75) (1977), edited by Isaac Asimov. It is included in the collections Our Best: The Best of Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth (1987) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

This novella originally appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1954. It has been anthologized in Spectrum 1 (1961) edited by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B (1973) edited by Ben Bova, The Seven Deadly Sins of Science Fiction (1980) edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh, and collected in The Case Against Tomorrow (1957) and The Best of Frederik Pohl (1975).

A race of turtle-like creatures conquers Earth, imposing a gentler set of values on humankind, outlawing destructive technology, and denying the validity of human scientific theories. When their home planet disappears into a black hole, however, the aliens' only hope for the future hinges on the possibility that humanity's flawed sciences might contain a glimmer of truth. Two veteran sf authors combine their strengths to produce a novel that both explains and explores the "mysteries" of modern science.

Barry di Hoa had the good life on the Moon: steady work and the love of a good woman. But a rival slipped him a mickey, and he next awoke aboard Gerald Tscharka's ship as it neared the colony planet, Pava, eighteen light-years away.

Pava was the frontier, complete with earthquakes, primitive conditions and hard physical work. The local "doctor" wouldn't treat Barry's little manic-depressive problem without medicine from the Moon. And the Millernarist colonists, who thought suicide was cool fun, didn't thrill him.

Then he made friends with the leps. The large, caterpillar-like, odd-speaking gentle beasts were helping the humans to fashion a life on their planet. In their strange way, they knew things about Pava that might make the difference in the colony's survival. He started to believe he could really enjoy life in this fragile paradise. Except Tscharka was up to soemthing bad, something that would change eveyrthing. Barry knew only he could stop the mad captian, and the captain knew it, too. What neither knew was whether Barry could be manic enough to do it.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (The Wonder Effect) - (1962) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Critical Mass - (1962) - novelette
• A Gentle Dying - (1961) - shortstory
• Nightmare with Zeppelins - (1958) - shortstory
• Best Friend - (1941) - shortstory
• The World of Myrion Flowers - (1961) - shortstory
• Trouble in Time - (1940) - shortstory
• The Engineer - (1956) - shortstory
• Mars-Tube - (1941) - novelette
• The Quaker Cannon - (1961) - novelette

Wan-To was the oldest and must powerful intelligence in the universe, a being who played with star systems as a child plays with marbles. Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice.

The colonists of Newmanhome first suffered the effects of Wan-To's games when their planet's stars began to shift, the climate began to cool down, and the colony was forced into a desperate struggle to survive.

Viktor Sorricaine was determined to discover what force had suddenly sent his world hurtling toward the ends of the universe. And the answer was something beyond the scope of his imagination -- even if he lived for 4000 years...

Table of Contents:

• The Haunted Corpse - Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. '57
• The Middle of Nowhere - Galaxy Science Fiction May '55
• The Gentle Venusian ("The Gentlest Unpeople") - Galaxy Science Fiction June '58
• The Day of the Boomer Dukes - Future #30 '56
• Survival Kit - Galaxy Science Fiction May '57
• The Knights of Arthur - Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. '58
• To See Another Mountain - The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction April '59

Table of Contents:

• Mars by Moonlight - (1958)
• The Richest Man in Levittown - (1959)
• The Seven Deadly Virtues - (1958)
• The Martian in the Attic - (1960)
• Third Offense - (1958)
• The Hated - (1958)
• I Plinglot, Who You? - (1959)

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in If, September 1965. The story can also be found in the anthology The Second If Reader of Science Fiction (1968). It is included in the collection Day Million (1970).

The Earth has forcibly been taken from its orbit. It began with an extra-terrestrial pyramid on top of Mt. Everest. And then a "runaway planet" took the Earth as its binary. And now harsh generations have passed since the inhabitants last saw the light of their sun, Sol. Society has grown rigid. The meek lambs have inherited the Earth, even it's a very poor Earth, indeed. It's a hard world for all. But Glenn Tropile is no lamb and if his citizens finds out he's a wolf, it will be the wolf that goes to slaughter.

First edition, hardcover. Retrospective anthology; most works have a forward by the story's author.

Contents:

• Introduction by Frederik Pohl
• As IF Was in the Beginning by Larry T. Shaw
• The Golden Man (1954) by Philip K. Dick
• The Battle (1954) by Robert Sheckley
• Last Rites (1955) by Charles Beaumont
• Game Preserve (1957) by Rog Phillips
• The Burning of the Brain (1958) by Cordwainer Smith
• The Man Who Tasted Ashes (1959) by Algis Budrys
• Kings Who Die (1962) by Poul Anderson
• Fortress Ship (1963) by Fred Saberhagen
• Father of the Stars (1964) by Frederik Pohl
• Trick or Treaty (1965) by Keith Laumer
• Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1966) by R. A. Lafferty
• Neutron Star (1966) by Larry Niven
• This Mortal Mountain (1967) by Roger Zelazny
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1967) by Harlan Ellison
• Driftglass (1967) by Samuel R. Delany
• The Holmes-Ginsbook Device (1968) by Isaac Asimov
• Down in the Black Gang (1969) by Philip José Farmer
• The Reality Trip (1970) by Robert Silverberg
• The Nightblooming Saurian (1970) by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Occam's Scalpel (1971) by Theodore Sturgeon
• Construction Shack (1973) by Clifford D. Simak
• Time Deer (1974) by Craig Strete
• Afterword: Flash Point, Middle by Barry N. Malzberg

Favorite Stories from Forty Years As a Science Fiction Editor.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Nine Billion Names of God (1953) story by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Moon Moth (1961) novelette by Jack Vance
• The Man with English (1953) story by Horace L. Gold
• Into the Darkness (1940) novelette by Ross Rocklynne
• The Halfling (1943) novelette by Leigh Brackett
• Strange Playfellow (1940) story by Isaac Asimov
• Space-Time for Springers (1958) story by Fritz Leiber
• Emergency Refueling (1940) story by James Blish
• The Coldest Place (1964) story by Larry Niven
• The Life Hater/Berserker (1964) story by Fred Saberhagen
• The Embassy (1942) story by Donald A. Wollheim aka Martin Pearson
• The Last Flight of Dr. Ain (1969) story by James Tiptree Jr.
• Sweet Dreams, Melissa (1968) story by Stephen Goldin
• Street of Dreams, Feet of Clay (1967) story by Robert Sheckley
• Among the Bad Baboons (1968) novelette by Mack Reynolds
• Slow Tuesday Night (1965) story by R.A. Lafferty
• The Pain Peddlers (1963) story by Robert Silverberg
• At the Mouse Circus (1971) story by Harlan Ellison
• The Rull (1948) novelette by A.E. van Vogt
• The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (1962) novelette by Cordwainer Smith
• The Monster (1951) story by Lester del Rey
• Oh, to Be a Blobel! (1964) novelette by Philip K. Dick
• Let There Be Light (1940) story by Robert A. Heinlein
• Without Doubt (1941) story by Robert A. Heinlein & Elma Wentz
• A Gentle Dying (1961) story by Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth
• The Great Slow Kings (1963) story by Roger Zelazny
• Old Testament (1964) story by Jerome Bixby
• Eco-Catastrophe! (1969) story by Paul R. Ehrlich
• Guinevere for Everybody (1955) story by Jack Williamson
• A Bad Day for Vermin (1964) story by Keith Laumer
• Excerpt from Dragon Lensman (1980) fiction by David A. Kyle
• Excerpt from Dhalgren (1974) fiction by Samuel R. Delany
• Excerpt from The Short-Timers (1979) fiction by Gustav Hasford
• Interstellar Way-Station (1941) story by Wilson Tucker
• The Report on the Barnhouse Effect (1950) story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Afterword (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Paperbacks: 1971-1978 (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Galaxy & If Years: 1960-69 (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Anthologies (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Pulps: 1939-43 (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Fanzines: 1933-39 (1982) by Frederik Pohl

Classic Science Fiction

Here in one superlative volume 17 Science-Fiction tales by a master storyteller.

"The Midas Plague" - They had committed the greatest crime: failure to consume enough! So their punishment was to consume more and more and more....

"The Day the Icicle Works Closed" - The world was facing total unemployment, and the people had only one thing left to hock, their bodies!

"Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus" - There was peace on Earth. But joy to all men? Well, that was another matter!

"The Martian in the Attic" - What's the value of a real, live Martian? Duniop was determined to find out - and he did!

"Tunnel Under the World" - Things are not always what they seem, in fact. Not even what they seem to seem!

And lots more!

Table of Contents:

• A Variety of Excellence - (1975) - essay by Lester del Rey
• The Tunnel Under the World - (1955)
• Punch - (1961)
• Three Portraits and a Prayer - (1962)
• Day Million - (1966)
• Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus - (1956)
• We Never Mention Aunt Nora - (1958)
• Father of the Stars - (1964)
• The Day the Martians Came - (1967)
• The Midas Plague - (1954)
• The Snowmen - (1959)
• How to Count on Your Fingers - (1956)
• Grandy Devil - (1955)
• Speed Trap - (1967)
• The Richest Man in Levittown - (1959)
• The Day the Icicle Works Closed - (1960)
• The Hated - (1958)
• The Martian in the Attic - (1960)
• The Census Takers - (1956)
• The Children of Night - (1964)
• What the Author Has to Say About All This - (1975) - essay by Frederik Pohl

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Inconstant Moon - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
• The Sunset, 2217 A. D. - novelette by Ryu Mitsuse
• Mother in the Sky With Diamonds - (1971) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Conversational Mode - (1972) - short story by Grahame Leman
• Sheltering Dream - (1972) - short story by Doris Piserchia
• At the Mouse Circus - (1971) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• Silent in Gehenna - (1971) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• Too Many People - (1971) - novelette by H. H. Hollis
• The Easy Way Out - (1971) - novelette by John Brunner
• The Gold at the Starbow's End - (1972) - novella by Frederik Pohl

Earth, 2031: Alien contact.

Signals are received: a crude depiction of creatures pantomiming the cataclysmic destruction of the universe.

Soon after, scientists note unusual radiation emanating from an abandoned Earth-orbital observatory. When a group of scientists and astronauts board the observatory to investigate, they are taken prisoner. An unsuspecting Earth has just become part of a vast interstellar war.

For the human prisoners, this minor skirmish in a vast war becomes a fantastic adventure. The hunters become the hunted, the prey the predators, and nothing is as it seems. The only sure thing is that the winners will rule eternity at...The Other End of Time.

The aliens aren't coming. They're here.

We've captured some of them. Are they our saviors, or are they out to destroy us? We've seen no spaceships, received no ultimatums--but the aliens may have a more insidious plot....

Government agent Dan Dannerman and astronomer Patrice Adcock were kidnapped by the aliens and have been returned in altered states, cloned and implanted with strange devices. To what end?

Before the reasons behind their abduction can be made clear, a wave of extremist threats and terrorist attacks sweeps the globe. Are the attacks a reaction to the aliens' arrival--or a part of their plan? A race around the earth and into space begins, as humankind desperately tries to prevent the aliens from establishing a beachhead no Earth.

The siege has begun.

Dan Dannerman has been through hell. Caught in the middle of an interstellar war that will end only with the death of the universe, he's been captured by aliens who call themselves the Beloved Leaders, cloned repeatedly, torn from his wife, and brutally tortured.

Sitting in a prison cell on an alien world, slowly going mad, Dan is finally freed by the Horch, the sword enemies of the Beloved Leaders. The time has finally come for Dannerman to strike back--but at whom?

Trusting neither side, Dannerman must somehow convince the Horch to send him back to Earth so he can warn humanity of the approaching alien menace. But when he finally returns he finds an Earth far stranger than he can possibly imagine, an Earth that already has two Dan Dannermans--an Earth already under seige by the Beloved Leaders...

Contains:

• For Love by Algis Budrys
• Come Into My Cellar By Ray Bradbury
• The Tail-Tied King by Avram Davidson
• Crime Machine by Robert Bloch
• Return Engagement by Lester del Ray
• Earthmen Bearing Gifts by Frederic Brown
• Rainbird by R. A. Lafferty
• Three Portraits and a Prayer by Frederik Pohl
• Something Bright by Zenna Henderson
• On the Gem Planet by Cordwainer Smith
• The Deep Down Dragon by Judith Merrill
• The King of the Vity by Keith Laumer
• The Beat Cluster by Fritz Leiber
• An Old Fashioned Bird Christmas By Margaret St. Clair
• The Big Pat Boom by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

• The Varieties of the Science-Fiction Experience - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Comic Inferno - (1963) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
• The Big Engine - (1962) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• A Day on Death Highway - (1963) - novelette by H. Chandler Elliott
• The End of the Race - (1964) - shortstory by Albert Bermel
• The Lonely Man - (1963) - novelette by Theodore L. Thomas
• A Bad Day for Vermin - (1964) - shortstory by Keith Laumer
• Dawningsburgh - (1962) - shortstory by Wallace West
• And All the Earth a Grave - (1963) - shortstory by C. C. MacApp
• Hot Planet - (1963) - shortstory by Hal Clement
• Final Encounter - (1964) - novelette by Harry Harrison
• If There Were No Benny Cemoli - (1963) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
• Critical Mass - (1962) - novelette by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (The Ninth Galaxy Reader) - (1965) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• An Ancient Madness - (1964) - novelette by Damon Knight
• The King of the Beasts - (1964) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• The Watchers in the Glade - (1964) - novelette by Richard Wilson
• Jungle Substitute - (1964) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
• How the Old World Died - (1964) - shortstory by Harry Harrison
• The Children of Night - (1964) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• To Avenge Man - (1964) - novelette by Lester del Rey
• The Monster and the Maiden - (1964) - shortstory by Roger Zelazny
• A Flask of Fine Arcturan - (1965) - shortstory by C. C. MacApp
• Wrong-Way Street - (1965) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• Wasted on the Young - (1965) - shortstory by John Brunner
• Slow Tuesday Night - (1965) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty

Table of Contents:

• Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night - (1961) - novelette by Algis Budrys
• An Elephant for the Prinkip - (1960) - shortstory by Joseph Wesley
• The Place Where Chicago Was - (1962) - novelette by Jim Harmon
• Heresies of the Huge God - (1966) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Devil Car - [Sam Murdock] - (1965) - shortstory by Roger Zelazny
• The Tunnel Under the World - (1955) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• Auto-da-Fe - (1961) - shortstory by Damon Knight
• Door to Anywhere - (1966) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• The Primitives - (1966) - novelette by Frank Herbert
• If You Were the Only - (1953) - shortstory by Richard Wilson
• "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - (1965) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: How to Spot the Good Ones - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Time Trawlers - (1968) - shortstory by Burt K. Filer
• The Sharing of Flesh - (1968) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• Nightwings - (1968) - novella by Robert Silverberg
• Among the Bad Baboons - (1968) - novelette by Mack Reynolds
• Behind the Sandrat Hoax - (1968) - novelette by Christopher Anvil
• One Station of the Way - (1968) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Sweet Dreams, Melissa - (1968) - shortstory by Stephen Goldin
• When I Was Very Jung - (1968) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Jinn - (1968) - shortstory by Joseph Green
• Find the Face - (1968) - shortstory by Ross Rocklynne

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1966) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• When Time Was New - (1964) - novelette by Robert F. Young
• Father of the Stars - (1964) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• The Life Hater - (1964) - short story by Fred Saberhagen
• Old Testament - (1964) - short story by Jerome Bixby
• The Silkie - (1964) - novelette by A.E. van Vogt
• A Better Mousetrap - (1963) - short story by John Brunner
• Long Day in Court - (1963) - short story by Jonathan Brand
• Trick or Treaty - (1965) - novelette by Keith Laumer
• The 64-Square Madhouse - (1962) - novelette by Fritz Leiber

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1968) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Time-Tombs - (1963) - novelette by J.G. Ballard
• Under Two Moons - (1965) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• Masque of the Red Shift - (1965) - novelette by Fred Saberhagen
• Toys for Debbie - (1965) - short story by David A. Kyle
• The Foundling Stars - (1966) - short story by Hal Clement
• At the Core - (1966) - novelette by Larry Niven
• The Billiard Ball - (1967) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• In the Arena - (1963) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• Die, Shadow! - (1963) - novelette by Algis Budrys
• The Forest in the Sky - (1967) - novelette by Keith Laumer

Ill luck made Roger Torraway the subject of the Man Plus Programe, but it was deliberate biological engineering which turned him into a monster -- a machine perfectly adapted to survive on Mars. For according to computer predictions, Mars is humankind's only alternative to extinction. But beneath his monstrous exterior, Torraway still carries a man's capacity for suffering.

Forty years after the mission that put cyborg Roger Torraway on the surface of Mars, human colonists have far outstripped his antique mechanical adaptations. Roger is now the old man of the hills, wandering the unexplored areas and only rarely visiting the new underground warrens. A looming political crisis brings Demeter Coghlan, daughter of a Texas political dynasty, to the Red Planet. There she joins fortunes with Torraway to save the colony and resolve the human/machine nexus that was formed in Frederik Pohl's seminal book Man Plus.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: A Guide to the Perplexed - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Persistence of Vision - (1978) - novella by John Varley
• Stone - (1978) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye - (1977) - novelette by Charles L. Grant
• Science Fiction: 1938 - essay by Isaac Asimov
• The Future of Science Fiction - essay by Norman Spinrad
• An Excerpt from Dreamsnake - shortfiction by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Little Green Men from Afar - (1976) - essay by L. Sprague de Camp
• Cassandra - (1978) - shortstory by C. J. Cherryh
• Seven American Nights - (1978) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• The Nebula Winners, 1965-1978 - essay by uncredited

Omnibus edition contains:

• Farthest Star - (1975)
• Wall Around a Star - (1983)

There was no shortage of danger on Cuckoo.

20,000 light years away, the enormous flat surface of Cuckoo travelling at one-sixth the speed of light aimed arrow-straight at the galaxy.

Sun One sent the space probe Aurora with a crew of replicates, both human and alien, to intercept. It was a doomed ship.

Yet from that mission came Ground Station One, peopled by tachyon transmission, its crew impatient to explore the menace of Cuckoo.

Towards them flee a young nomadic wingman, a redbearded giant, and a replicate Ben Yale Pertin intent only on survival, until a frightened girl screams for help...

He was a reluctant passenger on a voyage to save the galaxy...

Butterflylike aliens had brought Earth into the galactic culture. But she was a poor relation, valued only for the living human human bodies she rented out for whatever purposes her nonhuman customers desired.

Then Cuckoo was discovered. Millions of miles in diameter, less dense than air, it had a solid surface that was home to many races - including a species of Man. And that was odd, for Cuckoo was from another galaxy!

Suddenly, one human, a linguist, became very important. If Jen Babylon could solve the mystery of Cuckoo's records he might raise humanity's standing among the older races - but he might also save the galaxy!

Here is Venus, Inc., a two-in-one volume containing the 1952 classic, The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, and The Merchants' War, Pohl's brilliant new sequel to the previous masterpiece - a blistering satirical vision of Earth's foreseeable future, when advertising has gone mad, and society is divided into those who sell and the lowly consumers who buy . . and buy . . .and buy. It is a civilization in which no one eats natural foods, artificially cultivated meat cells provide all protein, soft drinks are laced with "harmless" addictives to ensure product loyalty - and onle the Conservationist rebels, or Consies, battle the status quo, waging an underground war against the powerful, exploitative advertising agencies that run the world.

It is the 20th Century, an advertisement-drenched world in which the big ad agencies dominate governments and everything else. Now Schoken Associates, one of the big players, has a new challenge for star copywriter Mitch Courtenay. Volunteers are needed to colonise Venus. It's a hellhole, and nobody who knew anything about it would dream of signing up. But by the time Mitch has finished, they will be queuing to get on board the spaceships.

The witty sequel to Frederik Pohl's & C. M. Kornbluth's legendary science fiction classic The Space Merchants, written 30 years later.

Great advertising agencies still dominate the world and control all governments and every aspect of human behavior. When a handful of renegades on Venus zealously opposes the so-called "benefits" of the hucksters' paradise, it seems inevitable that the all-powerful account executives of Earth will stop at nothing, not even war, to force the rebels to submit.

But the Veenies have a plan.../p>

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1960) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? - (1953) - novelette by Gerald Kersh
• The Advent on Channel Twelve - (1958) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Disappearing Act - (1953) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• Twin's Wail - (1959) - novelette by Elizabeth Mann Borgese
• Country Doctor - (1953) - novelette by William Morrison
• Daybroke - (1958) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• The Deep Range - (1954) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• A Cross of Centuries - (1958) - shortstory by Henry Kuttner
• The Man with English - (1953) - shortstory by Horace L. Gold
• Sparkie's Fall - (1959) - shortstory by Gavin Hyde
• Space-Time for Springers - (1958) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Dance of the Dead - (1955) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• The Happiest Creature - (1953) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• It's a Good Life - (1953) - shortstory by Jerome Bixby

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1954) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Little Men - (1954) - novella by Jessamyn West
• For I Am a Jealous People! - (1954) - novella by Lester del Rey
• To Here and the Easel - (1954) - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
• About the Authors - (1954) - essay

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Note - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Country Doctor - novelette by William Morrison
• Dominoes - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Idealist - shortstory by Lester del Rey
• The Night He Cried - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Contraption - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
• The Chronoclasm - shortstory by John Wyndham
• The Deserter - shortstory by William Tenn
• The Man with English - shortstory by H. L. Gold
• So Proudly We Hail - shortstory by Judith Merril
• A Scent of Sarsaparilla - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• Nobody Here But-- - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• The Last Weapon - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• A Wild Surmise - shortstory by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• The Journey - shortstory by Murray Leinster
• The Nine Billion Names of God - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Time for a Change: A Statement on Science Fiction - essay

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Note - (1953) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Disappearing Act - (1953) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• The Clinic - (1953) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Congruent People - (1953) - shortstory by Algis Budrys
• Critical Factor - (1953) - shortstory by Hal Clement
• It's a Good Life - (1953) - shortstory by Jerome Bixby
• A Pound of Cure - (1953) - shortstory by Lester del Rey
• The Purple Fields - (1953) - shortstory by Robert Crane
• F Y I - (1953) - shortstory by James Blish
• Conquest - (1953) - shortstory by Anthony Boucher
• Hormones - (1953) - shortstory by Fletcher Pratt
• The Odor of Thought - (1953) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• The Happiest Creature - (1953) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• The Remorseful - (1953) - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Friend of the Family - (1953) - shortstory by Richard Wilson
• About Frederik Pohl - essay

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Note - (1955) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• It's Such a Beautiful Day - (1955) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• The Strawberry Window - (1955) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• The Deep Range - (1954) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Alien - (1955) - novelette by Lester del Rey
• Foster, You're Dead - (1955) - shortstory by Philip K. Dick
• Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? - (1953) - novelette by Gerald Kersh
• Dance of the Dead - (1955) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• Any More at Home Like You? - (1955) - shortstory by Chad Oliver
• The Devil on Salvation Bluff - (1955) - shortstory by Jack Vance
• Guinevere for Everybody - (1955) - shortstory by Jack Williamson

Table of Contents:

• A Pinch of Stardust - (1958) - essay by Frederik Pohl
• A Cross of Centuries - shortstory by Henry Kuttner
• The Advent on Channel Twelve - shortstory by C. M. Kornbluth
• Space-Time for Springers - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Man Working - shortstory by Richard Wilson
• Helping Hand - novelette by Lester del Rey
• The Long Echo - shortstory by Miriam Allen deFord
• Tomorrow's Gift - shortstory by Edmund Cooper
• Idiot Stick - shortstory by Damon Knight
• The Immortals - novelette by James E. Gunn

Table of Contents:

• Trouble with Treaties - novelette by Katherine MacLean and Tom Condit
• A Touch of Grapefruit - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• Company Store - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• Adrift on the Policy Level - shortstory by Chan Davis
• Sparkie's Fall - shortstory by Gavin Hyde
• Star Descending - shortstory by Algis Budrys
• Diplomatic Coop - shortstory by Daniel F. Galouye
• The Scene Shifter - shortstory by Arthur Sellings
• Hair-Raising Adventure - shortstory by Rosel George Brown

Table of Contents:

• Danger! Child at Large - (1959) - novelette by Charles Cottrell
• Twin's Wail - (1959) - novelette by Elizabeth Mann Borgese
• The Holy Grail - (1959) - shortstory by Tom Purdom
• Angerhelm - (1959) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith
• The Dreamsman - (1959) - shortstory by Gordon R. Dickson
• To Catch an Alien - (1959) - shortstory by John J. McGuire
• Press Conference - (1959) - shortstory by Miriam Allen deFord
• Invasion from Inner Space - (1959) - novelette by Howard Koch

An interstellar trilogy--complete in one volume. Earth in the near future is governed by the Plan of Man--a complex set of laws enforced by a worldwide computerized security network, necessary for the survival of humankind. Or, so the authorities say. But one man knows better...

Table of Contents:

• The Reefs of Space - (1964)
• Starchild - (1965)
• Rogue Star - (1969)

Far beyond the orbit of Pluto, half-mythical bodies circle the Solar System - the Reefs of Space, unknown, shrouded in mystery, the goal of human conquest, the obsession of the Plan of Man, tyrannical ruler of Earth.

Machine Major Boysie Gann had been assigned to duty far beyond Pluto, on Polaris Station, one of the artificial sun-satellites protecting the inner planets - and Earth - from the Reefs of Space. For the Starchild had sent an ultimatum to Earth, calling on the Plan of Man to relinquish its total control over humanity under threat of frightful reprisals... and as proof of his powers, the Starchild had threatened to extinguish the sun and a dozen near stars for a period of time.

But Boysie didn't know anything about the Starchild. All he knew was his job - to find out who on Polaris Station was violating the Plan of Man. He found out - and before he could do anything about it, he was captured, marooned on a Reef, and accused of being the Starchild himself! To survive, Boysie had to find out who, or what, the Starchild might be.

And all he knew for sure was that the Starchild did in fact have the power to stop the sun if he wanted to!

Man and sun can become one... an unstoppable combination of energy and intellect. But what happens when a rogue star falls in love with a human women? Is there any way passion can be fulfilled? Molly Zaldivar discovered the terrifying answer when she was picked to join with an almost god-like being she regarded an unnatural monster.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction the First - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Introduction the Second - essay by Carol Pohl
• ...And Then There Were None - (1951) - novella by Eric Frank Russell
• The Liberation of Earth - (1953) - shortstory by William Tenn
• Old Faithful - (1934) - novelette by Raymond Z. Gallun
• Placet Is a Crazy Place - (1946) - shortstory by Fredric Brown
• Wings of the Lightning Land - (1941) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• The Little Black Bag - (1950) - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
• A Matter of Form - (1938) - novella by H. L. Gold

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Science Fiction: The Great Years, Volume II) - (1976) - essay by Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl
• 9 - The Rull - [Rull] - (1948) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
• 49 - And Be Merry... - (1950) - shortstory by Katherine MacLean
• 77 - The Sack - (1950) - shortstory by William Morrison
• 105 - Mewhu's Jet - (1946) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• 155 - Time Is the Traitor - (1953) - novelette by Alfred Bester
• 185 - Columbus Was a Dope - (1947) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• 191 - When Time Went Mad - (1950) - novella by Dirk Wylie and Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr.

This novella originally appeared in two installments in Amazing Stories, Fall 1999 and Amazing Stories, Winter 2000. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventeenth Annual Collection (2000), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Harwell and Kathryn Kramer. It was later incorporated into the novel The Boy Who Would Live Forever (2006).

Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe... and on reaches of unimaginable horror. When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is... in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!

In Book Two of the Heechee Saga, Robinette Broadhead is on his way to making a fortune by bankrolling an expedition to the Food Factory--a Heechee spaceship that can graze the cometary cloud and transfor the basic elements of the universe into untold quantities of food. But even as he gambles on the breakthrough technology, he is wracked with the guilt of losing his wife, poised forever at the "event horizon" of a black hole where Robin had abaondoned her. As more and more information comes back from the expedition, Robin grows ever hopeful that he can rescue his beloved Gelle-Klara Moynlin. After three and a years, the factory is discovered to work, and a human is found aboard. Robin's suffering may be just about over....

After millennia had passed, Mankind discovered the Heechee legacy (an alien culture that fled to the reative safety of a black hole) -- in particular an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft. Robinette Broadhead, who had led the expedition that unlocked the many secrets of Heechee technology, is now forced once more to make a perilous voyage into space -- where the Heechee are waiting. And this time the future of Man is at stake....

At last--the ultimate book in the renowned Heechee Saga! Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all powerful alien race intent on the utter destruction of all intelligent life reappears after eons of silence, and threatens the lives of all heechee and humans.

Even Robin, virtually immortal and with unlimited access to millennia of accumulated data, cannot discover how to stop these aliens. It began to seem that only a face to face meeting could determine the future of the entire universe....

The Heechee were perhaps the greatest and most tantalizing mystery the human race had ever known. The first Heechee artifacts were uncovered on Venus, and in the beginning they were treated as nothing more than costly souvenirs and curiosities for tourists from Earth and Mars. But when an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft was discovered, suddenly the Heechee universe was thrown wide open, giving birth to the Gateway Corporation and bringing untold riches to the adventurers who risked the unknown to see where those Heechee spacecraft would take them. Many of those brave souls never returned. The ones who did brought back technological wonders that transformed life on Earth -- but of the Heechee themselves there was no sign...

The Gateway Trip, lavishly illustrated by artist Frank Kelly Freas, presents the tales of those perilous journeys and marvelous discoveries, as those intrepid pioneers followed the trail of the elusive Heechee and changed the course of human history forever!

In 1977 Frederik Pohl stunned the science fiction world with the publication of Gateway, one of the most brilliantly entertaining SF novels of all time. Gateway was a bestseller and won science fiction's triple crown: the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial awards for best novel. Now, more than twenty-five years later, Pohl has completed a new novel set in the Gateway universe. The Boy Who Would Live Forever has a sense of wonder and excitement that will satisfy those who loved Gateway and will delight new readers as well.

In Gateway, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space-station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core where they now lived in peace. Now, in The Boy Who Would Live Forever, humans with dreams of life among the stars are joining the Heechee at the core, to live there along with those humans and Heechee whose physical bodies have died and their minds stored in electronic memory so that their wisdom passes down through the ages.

Their peace is threatened by the Kugel, who may yet attack the core. But a much greater threat is the human Wan Enrique Santos-Smith, whose blind loathing of the Heechee fuels an insane desire to destroy them and, incidentally, every living being in the galaxy.

Stan and Estrella, two young people from Earth, went to Gateway looking for adventure, and found each other. They settle among the Heechee on Forested Planet of Warm Old Star Twenty-Four, never suspecting that they may be the last best hope to save the galaxy. But with allies like Gelle-Klara Moynlin--one of the galaxy's richest women, who isn't content to just have money, but wants to use her wealth for good, and machine mind Marc Antony-a wonderful chef to thousands of living and stored clients, they are destined to contend with Wan's terrible plan. Frederik Pohl has woven together the lives of these and other memorable characters to create a masterful new novel.

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. The Grand Master Award is given to a living author for a lifetime's achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy. Frederik Pohl, an eminent figure in SF, has been authorized by the SFWA to edit an anthology in three big volumes featuring substantial selections of the work of all the first fifteen Grand Masters. Volume One, presenting the first five writers to receive the award, features the fiction of:

Robert A. Heinlein
Jack Williamson
Clifford D. Simak
L. Sprague de Camp
Fritz Leiber

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Robert A. Heinlein 1907-1988 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Roads Must Roll - (1940) - novelette by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Year of the Jackpot - (1952) - novelette by Robert A. Heinlein
• Jerry Was a Man - (1947) - novelette by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Farthest Place - (1992) - essay by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Long Watch - (1949) - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
• Recommended Reading by Robert A. Heinlein - essay by uncredited
• Jack Williamson b. 1908 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• With Folded Hands ... - (1947) - novelette by Jack Williamson
• Jamboree - (1969) - short story by Jack Williamson
• The Mañana Literary Society - (1984) - essay by Jack Williamson
• The Firefly Tree - (1997) - short story by Jack Williamson
• Recommended Reading by Jack Williamson - essay by uncredited
• Clifford D. Simak 1904-1988 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Desertion - (1944) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• Founding Father - (1957) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• Grotto of the Dancing Deer - (1980) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• Recommended Reading by Clifford D. Simak - essay by uncredited
• L. Sprague de Camp b. 1907 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• A Gun for Dinosaur - (1956) - novelette by L. Sprague de Camp
• Little Green Men from Afar - (1976) - essay by L. Sprague de Camp
• Living Fossil - (1939) - short story by L. Sprague de Camp
• Recommended Reading by L. Sprague de Camp - essay by uncredited
• Fritz Leiber 1910-1992 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Sanity - (1944) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• The Mer She - (1978) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• A Bad Day for Sales - (1953) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• Recommended Reading by Fritz Leiber - essay by uncredited

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (or SWFA)?and the Grand Master Award is given by the SWFA to a living author for a lifetime's achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.

Frederik Pohl, one of the world's finest SF authors and editors, has been authorized to edit an anthology in three large-format volumes featuring substantial selections of the work of all the first fifteen Grand Masters. These are the seminal writers within the modern SF field, those whose works are of dominant importance and lasting influence.

Volume Two, presenting the second five writers to receive the award, offers fiction by Andre Norton, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, and Ray Bradbury.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Andre Norton b. 1912 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Andre Norton - essay by uncredited
• Mousetrap - (1954) - short story by Andre Norton
• Were-Wrath - (1984) - novelette by Andre Norton
• All Cats Are Gray - (1953) - short story by Andre Norton
• Serpent's Tooth - (1987) - novella by Andre Norton
• Arthur C. Clarke b. 1917 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Arthur C. Clarke - essay by uncredited
• Rescue Party - (1946) - novelette by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Secret - (1963) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• Reunion - (1971) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Star - (1955) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• A Meeting With Medusa - (1971) - novelette by Arthur C. Clarke
• Isaac Asimov 1920-1992 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Isaac Asimov - essay by uncredited
• The Last Question - (1956) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• It's Such a Beautiful Day - (1955) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• Strikebreaker - (1957) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• The Martian Way - (1952) - novella by Isaac Asimov
• Alfred Bester 1913-1987 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Alfred Bester - essay by uncredited
• Disappearing Act - (1953) - short story by Alfred Bester
• Fondly Fahrenheit - (1954) - novelette by Alfred Bester
• Comment on Fondly Fahrenheit - (1970) - essay by Alfred Bester
• The Four-Hour Fugue - (1974) - short story by Alfred Bester
• Hobson's Choice - (1952) - short story by Alfred Bester
• Ray Bradbury b. 1920 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Ray Bradbury - essay by uncredited
• The City - (1950) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• The Million-Year Picnic - (1946) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• All Summer in a Day - (1954) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• There Will Come Soft Rains - (1950) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• The Affluence of Despair - (1998) - essay by Ray Bradbury

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented, by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. The Grand Master Award is given to a living author for a lifetime's achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.

Frederik Pohl, an eminent figure in science fiction, has been authorized by the SFWA to edit an anthology in three big volumes featuring substantial selections of the work of all the first fifteen Grand Masters. These are the seminal writers of the modern SF field, whose works are of dominant importance and influence. This series of collections is a permanent record of greatness in SF.

Volume Three, presenting the last five writers to receive the Grand Master award, features the fiction of Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl, Damon Knight, A. E. Van Vogt, Jack Vance.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Lester del Rey 1915-1993 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Lester del Rey - essay by uncredited
• The Faithful - (1938) - short story by Lester del Rey
• The Pipes of Pan - (1940) - short story by Lester del Rey
• The Coppersmith - (1939) - short story by Lester del Rey
• For I Am a Jealous People! - (1954) - novella by Lester del Rey
• Frederik Pohl b. 1919 - essay by Elizabeth Anne Hull
• Recommended Reading by Frederik Pohl - essay by uncredited
• Let the Ants Try - (1949) - short story by Frederik Pohl
• The Tunnel Under the World - (1955) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• Day Million - (1966) - short story by Frederik Pohl
• The Gold at the Starbow's End - (1972) - novella by Frederik Pohl
• Damon Knight - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Damon Knight - essay by uncredited
• The Handler - (1960) - short story by Damon Knight
• Dio - (1957) - novelette by Damon Knight
• Not With a Bang - (1950) - short story by Damon Knight
• I See You - (1976) - short story by Damon Knight
• Masks - (1968) - short story by Damon Knight
• A. E. van Vogt 1912-2000 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by A. E. van Vogt - essay by uncredited
• Black Destroyer - (1939) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
• Far Centaurus - (1944) - short story by A. E. van Vogt
• Vault of the Beast - (1940) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
• Dear Pen Pal - (1949) - short story by A. E. van Vogt
• Jack Vance b. 1916 - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Recommended Reading by Jack Vance - essay by uncredited
• Sail 25 - (1962) - novella by Jack Vance
• Ullward's Retreat - (1958) - novelette by Jack Vance
• The Miracle Workers - (1958) - novella by Jack Vance

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1984. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Awards 20 (1985), edited by George Zebrowski. It is included in the collections The Years of the City (1984) and Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories (2005).

In the New York City of the next century, twin domes over Manhattan control extremes of weather, illegal hang-gliding is common, and many old problems have been solved--but the rage of some Gothamites cannot be controlled.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• When New York Hit the Fan - novella
• The Greening of Bed-Stuy - (1984) - novella
• The Blister - (1984) - novella
• Second-Hand Sky - novella
• Gwenanda and the Supremes - novella

When Jim Eden's uncle, the inventor of a valuable undersea device, disappears while testing a new undersea mining process, Eden heads for the undersea mining colony to investigate on his own.

Table of Contents:

• Undersea Quest - (1954)
• Undersea Fleet - (1956)
• Undersea City - (1958)

A MISSING RELATIVE....

Something of value was buried beneath the underwater dome city of Marinia... something that had already cost one man's life, caused another man's kidnapping and gravely affected still another man's future.

Expelled from the Sub-Sea Academy on trumped-up charges, Jim Eden wasn't about to wait around to prove his innocence. As soon as he learned that his uncle mysteriously disappeared while mining uranium at the bottom of hazardous Eden Deep, Jim knew what he had to do...and that he had to do it fast.

So he headed for the vast dome city -- location of the great mining colony at the bottom of the sea -- to pick up any clues to his uncle's disappearance. But once he had entered the undersea metropolis, the wrong people had his number...and they were determined that Jim would sink forever without a trace.

MONSTERS OF THE DEEP....

Everyone at the academy knew that sea serpents were, without doubt, silly superstitions. Everyone but David Craken, that is. This young cadet from Marinia had been born and raised four miles beneath the waves, and he knew that more than rich new fuel sources and precious stones lay in wait for the men who dared invade this last frontier.

But when David dived into the depths at thirteen hundred feet and disappeared -- only to reappear, drifting offshore months later -- his friend Jim Eden learned there was more truth to certain superstitions than he cared to believe. On a strange and hazardous journey, Jim and the men of the sub-Sea Academy suddenly found themselves up against the dangerous creatures of the deep -- and embroiled in a life-against-life adventure they would never forget!

It was the most dreaded of all undersea phenomena. If strong enough, it would set up chain-reaction pressures that could shatter any dome and cost inestimable lives. But the Krakatoan Dome has been specifically designed to cope with the tremors of its seaquake-prone area. The trouble was, all of a sudden, there were more quakes than any of the experts had counted on... quakes that no one could possibly have forecast because they hadn't come from natural causes.

The Sub-Sea Academy had assigned Cadet Jim Eden to the KRakatoan Dome to find out what was going on, and for very special reasons. First, he was more at home in the underwater world than most anyone else. But, even more important, they sent Jim because his uncle was suspected of being the heinous saboteur!