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Table of Contents:

• On the Embankment - short fiction by Hugh E. Wright
• The Mystery of the Gables - short fiction by Elsie Norris
• The Missing Word - short fiction by Austin Philips
• Phantom Death - short fiction by Charles H. Mansfield and Walter E. Mansfield
• The Wraith of the Rapier - short fiction by Firth Scott
• The Soul of Maddalina Tonelli - short fiction by James Barr
• Haunted! - short fiction by Jack Edwards
• Our Strange Traveller - short fiction by Percy James Brebner
• A Regent of Love Rhymes - short fiction by C. Ranger Gull
• Amid the Trees - short fiction by Francis Xavier
• The River's Edge - short fiction by Mary Schultze
• A Futile Ghost - short fiction by Mary Reynolds
• Ghosts - short fiction by Lumley Deakin
• Kearney - short fiction by Elizabeth G. Jordan
• When Spirits Steal - short fiction by Philippa Forest
• The House of the Black Evil - short fiction by Eric Purves
• The Woman in the Veil - short fiction by E. F. Benson
• The Treasure of the Tombs - short fiction by F. Britten Austin

THE STARLIGHT MAN Algernon Blackwood has been called the central figure in the British supernatural literature of the twentieth century by Michael Dirda in the New York Review of Books. S. T. Joshi referred to him as a master of narrative pacing. He has been labeled one of the most influential supernatural writers of his time by Storm Constantine, author of The Wraeththu Chronicles. In his essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature, H. P. Lovecraft stated that of the quality of Mr. Blackwood s genius there can be no dispute. Writers and reviewers throughout the last 100 years have been extolling the virtues of Algernon Blackwood s tales.

But Blackwood was a rolling stone and kept virtually no papers or private records. When Mike Ashley decided to research Blackwood's life in 1978 he had no idea that over forty years later he would still be researching. A first edition of the biography was published in 2001 but that had to be edited down, and Ashley knew at that time that there were still many unanswered questions. Since then some of those questions have been answered and though there still remains some mystery about Blackwood and maybe that adds to his aura and fascination Ashley has now brought the biography up to date, restoring the text that was removed and adding more of the results of his researches. Here, now, is the most extensive and thorough study of Blackwood's life and works revealing more about the mystic, the adventurer, the innocent, the seeker.

Featuring hard-to-find short stories published between 1873 and 1930, this original anthology spotlights a variety of important sci-fi pioneers, including Ethel Watts Mumford, Edith Nesbit, and Clare Winger Harris. Imaginative scenarios include a feminist society in another dimension, the east/west division of the United States with men and women on opposite sides, a man who converts himself into a cyborg, a drug that confers superhuman qualities, and many other curious situations.

Editor Mike Ashley provides an informative introduction to the stories. Highlights include "When Time Turned" (1901), which centers on a grieving widower who contrives to relive his life backwards; "The Painter of Dead Women" (1910), the tale of a woman in thrall to a Svengali-like character who promises to preserve her beauty forever; "The Automaton Ear" (1876), in which an inventor struggles to create a machine to detect sounds from the distant past; "Ely's Automatic Housemaid" (1899), a lighthearted fable concerning a robot housemaid; and ten other captivating tales.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Forgotten Pioneers - (2015) - essay by Mike Ashley
• When Time Turned - (1901) - shortstory by Ethel Watts Mumford
• The Painter of Dead Women - (1910) - shortstory by Edna W. Underwood
• The Automaton Ear - (1873) - novelette by Florence McLandburgh
• Ely's Automatic Housemaid - (1899) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bellamy
• The Ray of Displacement - (1903) - novelette by Harriet Prescott Spofford
• Those Fatal Filaments - (1903) - shortstory by Mabel Ernestine Abbott
• The Third Drug - (1908) - shortstory by E. Nesbit
• A Divided Republic: An Allegory of the Future - (1887) - shortstory by Lillie Devereux Blake
• Via the Hewitt Ray - (1930) - novelette by M. F. Rupert
• The Great Beast of Kafue - (1917) - shortstory by Clotilde Graves
• Friend Island - (1918) - shortstory by Francis Stevens
• The Artificial Man - (1929) - shortstory by Clare Winger Harris
• Creatures of the Light - (1930) - novelette by Sophie Wenzel Ellis
• The Flying Teuton - (1917) - shortstory by Alice Brown

This third volume in Mike Ashley's study of the science-fiction magazines, focuses on the turbulent years of the 1970s, when the United States emerged from the Vietnam War into an economic crisis. It saw the end of the Apollo moon programme and the start of the ecology movement. This proved to be one of the most complicated periods for the science-fiction magazines. Not only were they struggling to survive within the economic climate, they also had to cope with the death of the father of modern science fiction, John W. Campbell, Jr., while facing new and potentially threatening opposition. The market for science fiction diversified as never before, with the growth in new anthologies, the emergence of semi-professional magazines, the explosion of science fiction in college, the start of role-playing gaming magazines, underground and adult comics and, with the success of Star Wars, media magazines. This volume explores how the traditional science-fiction magazines coped with this, from the death of Campbell to the start of the major popular science magazine Omni and the first dreams of the Internet.

Mike Ashley's acclaimed history of science-fiction magazines comes to the 1980s with Science-Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990. This volume charts a significant revolution throughout science fiction, much of which was driven by the alternative press, and by new editors at the leading magazines. The period saw the emergence of the cyberpunk movement, and the drive for, what David Hartwell called, 'The Hard SF Renaissance', which was driven from within Britain. Ashley plots the rise of many new authors in both strands: William Gibson, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, John Kessel, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker in cyberpunk, and Stephen Baxter, Alistair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton, Neal Asher, Robert Reed, in hard sf. He also shows how the alternative magazines looked to support each other through alliances, which allowed them to share and develop ideas as science-fiction evolved.

The Rise of the Cyberzines concludes Mike Ashley's five-volume series, which has tracked the evolution of the science-fiction magazine from its earliest days in the 1920s to its current explosion via the internet. This series has traced the ways in which the science-fiction magazine has reacted to the times and often led the way in breaking down barriers, for example in encouraging a greater contribution by women writers and stimulating science fiction globally. Magazines have continued to build upon past revolutions such as the 'new wave' and 'cyberpunk', producing a blend of high-tech science fiction and expansive speculative fiction that has broadened the understanding of science and its impact on society. This final volume, which covers the years 1991-2020, shows how the online magazine has superseded the print magazine and has continued to break down barriers, especially for the LGBTQ community and for writers of colour.

Originally conceived as a trilogy, this is the first of five volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. This first volume looks at the exuberant years of the pulp magazines. It traces the growth and development of the science fiction magazines from when Hugo Gernsback launched the very first, Amazing Stories, in 1926 through to the birth of the atomic age and the death of the pulps in the early 1950s. These were the days of the youth of science fiction, when it was brash, raw and exciting: the days of the first great space operas by Edward Elmer Smith and Edmond Hamilton, through the cosmic thought variants by Murray Leinster, Jack Williamson and others to the early 1940s when John W. Campbell at Astounding did his best to nurture the infant genre into adulthood. Under him such major names as Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt and Theodore Sturgeon emerged who, along with other such new talents as Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, helped create modern science fiction. For over forty years magazines were at the heart of science fiction and this book considers how the magazines, and their publishers, editors and authors influenced the growth and perception of this fascinating genre.

This is the second volume, which charts the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. The first volume Time Machines traced the development of the sf magazine from its earliest days and the creation of the first specialist magazine, Amazing Stories. Transformations takes up the story to reveal a turbulent period that was to witness the extraordinary rise and fall and rise again of science. Britain's foremost sf historian, Mike Ashley charts the sf boom years in the wake of the nuclear age that was to see the 'The Golden Age' of Science Fiction with the emergence of magazines such as Galaxy, Startling Stories and Fantastic, as well as authors like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert. He then goes on to explore the bust years of 1954-1960 followed by the renaissance in the 1960s led by the new wave of British authors like Michael Moorcock and J.G. Ballard and the rise in interest of fantasy fiction, encouraged by Lord of the Rings and the Conan books of Robert E. Howard. Transformations concludes with an examination of the new found interest in sf magazines during the late 1960s and the incredibly influential roles Star Treck , the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and, above all, the first manned Moon landing played in transforming the sf magazine.

These ten short stories from the golden age of science fiction feature classic SF writers including H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury and J.G. Ballard, as well as lesser-known writers from the genre. An antique shop owner gets a glimpse of the red planet through an intriguing artefact. A Martian's wife contemplates the possibility of life on Earth. A resident of Venus describes his travels across the two alien planets. From an arid desert to an advanced society far superior to that of Earth, portrayals of Mars have differed radically in their attempt to uncover the truth about our neighbouring planet. Since the 1880s, writers of science fiction have delighted in speculating on what life on Mars might look like and what might happen should we make contact with the planet's inhabitants. In these stories, they reveal much about how we understand our place in the universe.

Contents:

• A Martian Odyssey - [Tweel - 1] - (1934) - novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• The Time-Tombs - (1963) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• The Crystal Egg - (1897) - short story by H. G. Wells
• Crucifixus Etiam - (1953) - short story by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Ylla - [The Martian Chronicles] - (1950) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• Without Bugles - (1952) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• The Forgotten Man of Space - (1933) - short story by P. Schuyler Miller
• The Great Sacrifice - (1903) - short story by Geo. C. Wallis [as by George C. Wallis]
• Measureless to Man - (1962) - novelette by Marion Zimmer Bradley (variant of The Dark Intruder)
• Letters from Mars - [Letters from the Planets - 2] - short story by W. S. Lach-Szyrma (variant of Letters from the Planets: Letter the Second 1887)

Before the Apollo 11 mission succeeded in landing on the Moon in 1969, writers and visionaries were fascinated by how we might get there and what we might find. The Greeks and Romans speculated about the Moon almost 2000 years before H.G. Wells or Jules Verne wrote about it, but interest peaked from the late 1800s, when the prospect of lunar travel became more viable. This anthology presents 11 short stories from the most popular magazines of the golden age of SF, including The Strand Magazine, Astounding Science Fiction, and Amazing Stories, and features classic SF writers as well as lesser-known writers for dedicated fans of the genre to discover.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 31 - Dead Centre - novelette by Judith Merril (variant of Dead Center 1954)
• 67 - A Visit to the Moon - [Stories of Other Worlds - 1] - (1900) - short story by George Griffith
• 93 - Sunrise on the Moon - short fiction by John Munro (variant of Sun-Rise in the Moon 1894)
• 105 - First Men in the Moon (excerpt) - [Cavor] - short fiction by H. G. Wells
• 151 - Sub-Satellite - [Sub-Satellite - 1] - (1928) - short story by Charles Cloukey
• 175 - Lunar Lilliput - (1938) - novelette by William F. Temple
• 221 - Nothing Happens on the Moon - (1964) - short story by Paul Ernst (variant of "Nothing Happens on the Moon" 1939)
• 247 - Whatever Gods There Be - (1961) - short story by Gordon R. Dickson
• 269 - Idiot's Delight - [Troons] - (1958) - novelette by John Wyndham (variant of The Moon A.D. 2044)
• 317 - After a Judgement Day - (1963) - short story by Edmond Hamilton
• 335 - The Sentinel - [A Space Odyssey] - (1951) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke

Sound the sirens! The end is here, and it comes in many forms in this new collection of apocalyptic short stories from the classic age of science fiction. Join humanity on the brink of destruction in 13 doom-laden visions from the 1890s to the 1960s, featuring rare tales from the Library's vaults.

Tales of plague seizing an over-polluted capital, a world engulfed in absolute darkness by some cosmic disaster, and of poignant dreams of a silent planet after the last echoes of humanity have died away.

Extreme climate change, nuclear annihilation, comet strike; calamities self-inflicted and from beyond the steer of humankind vie to deal the last blow in this countdown from the first whisper of possible extinction to the Earth's final sunrise.

"It's a hazardous experiment," they all said, "putting in new and untried machinery."

Caution beware the menace of the machine: a man is murdered by an automaton built for playing chess; a computer system designed to arbitrate justice develops a taste for iron-fisted, fatal rulings; an AI wreaks havoc on society after removing all censorship from an early form of the internet.

Assembled with pieces by SF giants such as Isaac Asimov and Brian W Aldiss as well as the less familiar but no less influential input of earlier science fiction pioneers, this new collection of classic tales contains telling lessons for humankind's gradual march towards life alongside the thinking machine.

The fact that humanity is not alone in the universe has long preoccupied our thoughts.

In this compelling new collection of short stories from SF's classic age our visions of 'other' are shown in a myriad of forms - beings from other worlds, corrupted lifeforms from our own planet and entities from unimaginable dimensions.

Amongst these tales, the humble ant becomes humanity's greatest foe, a sailor awakes in a hellish landscape terrified by a monstrous creature from the deep, an extra-terrestrial apocalypse devastates our world but also brings us together, and our race becomes the unwitting agent of another species' survival. Be prepared to face your greatest fears and relinquish your hold on reality as you confront the menace of the monster.

Contents:

• The War of the Worlds (abridgement) - [The War of the Worlds] - (1920) - short story by H. G. Wells
• The Cloud Men - (1911) - short story by Owen Oliver (variant of The Cloud-Men, Being a Foreprint from the London News Sheet of March 9, 1915)
• The Dragon of St. Pauls - (1899) - short fiction by Reginald Bacchus and C. Ranger Gull
• De Profundis - (1914) - short fiction by Coutts Brisbane
• Dagon - (1919) - short story by H. P. Lovecraft
• In Amundsen's Tent - (1928) - novelette by John Martin Leahy
• King Kong - [King Kong] - (1933) - short story by Draycot M. Dell and Edgar Wallace
• The Monster from Nowhere - (1939) - short story by Nelson S. Bond
• Discord in Scarlet - [Space Beagle] - (1939) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
• Monster - (1950) - short story by John Christopher
• Resident Physician - [Sector General] - (1961) - novelette by James White
• Personal Monster - (1955) - short story by Margaret St. Clair [as by Idris Seabright]
• Alien Invasion - (1954) - short story by Marcia Kamien
• The Witness - (1951) - novelette by Eric Frank Russell

Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction. Removing the bonds of time on a story allows for many interesting possibilities, but it also presents complicated problems and paradoxes.

In this collection, featuring stories from the 1880s to the 1960s, we are taken to the remote future and back to the distant past. We are trapped in an eternal loop and met with visitors and objects from the future. We come face to face with our past selves, and experience the chaos of living out of sync with everyone else in the universe.

These are just some of the thrilling narratives to discover as we unwind the constraints of time.

Contents:

• Introduction (Beyond Time: Classic Tales of Time Unwound) - (2019) - essay by Mike Ashley
• The Clock That Went Backward - (1881) - short story by Edward Page Mitchell
• The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper - (1932) - short story by H. G. Wells
• Omega - (1932) - short story by Amelia Reynolds Long
• The Book of Worlds - (1929) - short story by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
• The Branches of Time - (1935) - short story by David R. Daniels
• The Reign of the Reptiles - (1935) - novelette by Alan Connell
• Friday, the Nineteenth - (1950) - short story by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
• Look After the Strange Girl - (1953) - short story by J. B. Priestley
• Manna - (1949) - novelette by Peter Phillips
• Tenth Time Around - (1959) - novelette by J. T. McIntosh (variant of Tenth Time Round)
• The Shadow People - (1958) - short story by Arthur Sellings
• Thirty-Seven Times - (1957) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• Dial 'O' for Operator - (1958) - novelette by Robert Presslie
• Story Sources (Beyond Time: Classic Tales of Time Unwound) - (2019) - essay by Mike Ashley

Science fiction has always confronted the concerns of society, and its greatest writers have long been inspired by the weighty issue of humanity's ecological impact on the planet. This volume explores a range of prescient and thoughtful stories from SF's classic period, from accounts of exhausted resources and ecocatastrophe to pertinent warnings of ecosystems thrown off balance and puzzles of adaptation and responsibility as humanity ventures into the new environments of the future.

Featuring stories crucial to the evolution of eco-science fiction from Philip K. Dick, Margaret St. Clair, J. D. Beresford and more, this timely collection is a trove of essential reading.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Nature's Warnings: Classic Stories of Eco-Science Fiction) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 21 - Survey Team - (1954) - short story by Philip K. Dick
• 39 - The Dust of Death - [The Doom of London] - (1903) - short story by Fred M. White
• 59 - The Man Who Hated Flies - (1929) - short fiction by J. D. Beresford
• 71 - The Man Who Awoke - [The Man Who Awoke - 1] - (1933) - novelette by Laurence Manning
• 113 - The Sterile Planet - novelette by Nat Schachner (variant of Sterile Planet 1937) [as by Nathan Schachner]
• 145 - Shadow of Wings - short fiction by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding [as by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding]
• 175 - The Gardener - (1949) - short story by Margaret St. Clair
• 191 - Drop Dead - (1956) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• 229 - A Matter of Protocol - [Contact (Jack Sharkey)] - (1962) - short story by Jack Sharkey
• 247 - Hunter, Come Home - (1963) - novelette by Richard McKenna
• 297 - Adam and No Eve - (1941) - short story by Alfred Bester

On Mercury: How do you outrun the dawn and its lethal sunrise?

On Jupiter: When humans transfer their minds into the local fauna to explore the surface, why do they never return?

On Pluto: How long must an astronaut wait for rescue at the furthest reaches of the system?

We have always been fascinated by the promise of space and the distant lure of our fellow planets orbiting the Sun. In this new collection of classic stories, Mike Ashley takes us on a journey from the harsh extremes of Mercury to the turbulent expanses of Saturn and beyond, exploring as we go the literary history of the planets, the influence of contemporary astronomy on the imagination of writers, and the impact of their storytelling on humanity's perception of these hitherto unreachable worlds. Featuring the talents of Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Clare Winger Harris, and more, this collection offers a kaleidoscope of innovative thought and timeless adventures.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction: Solar Tour (Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 19 - Sunrise on Mercury - (1957) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• 41 - The Hell Planet - (1932) - novelette by Leslie F. Stone
• 97 - Foundling on Venus - (1954) - short story by Dorothy de Courcy and John de Courcy
• 117 - The Lonely Path - (1961) - novelette by John Ashcroft
• 175 - Garden in the Void - (1952) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• 221 - Desertion - [City] - (1944) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• 245 - How Beautiful with Banners - (1966) - short story by James Blish
• 261 - Where No Man Walks - (1952) - short story by E. R. James
• 287 - A Baby on Neptune - (1929) - novelette by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. and Clare Winger Harris
• 324 - Wait It Out - [Known Space] - (1968) - short story by Larry Niven

From the enrapturing tales of H. G. Wells to the punishing dystopian visions of 1984 and beyond, the evolution of science fiction from the 1890s to the 1960s is a fascinating journey to undertake. Setting out this span of years as what we can now recognize as the 'classic' period of the genre, Mike Ashley takes us on a tour of the stars, utopian and post-apocalyptic futures, worlds of AI run amok and techno-thriller masterpieces asking piercing questions of the present.

This book does not claim to be definitive; what it does offer is an accessible view of the impressive spectrum of imaginative writing which the genre's classic period has to offer. Towering science fiction greats such as Asimov and Aldiss run alongside the, perhaps unexpected, likes of C. S. Lewis and J. B. Priestley and celebrate a side of science fiction beyond the stereotypes of space opera and bug-eyed monsters; the side of science fiction which proves why it must continue to be written and read, so long as any of us remain in uncertain times.

Astronauts constructing a new space station must avert destruction from a missile sent by an unknown enemy; a generation starship is rocked by revelations of who their secret passengers in the hold truly are; a life or death struggle tests an operating surgeon -- in orbit, with an alien patient never seen before. Since space flight was achieved, and long before, science fiction writers have been imagining a myriad of stories set in the depths of the great darkness beyond our atmosphere.

From generation ships -- which are in space so long that there will be generations aboard who know no planetary life -- to orbiting satellites in the unforgiving reaches of the vacuum, there is a great range of these insular environments in which thrilling, innovative, and deeply emotional stories may unfold. With the Library's matchless collection of periodicals and magazines at his fingertips, Mike Ashley presents a stellar selection of tales from the infinite void above us, including contributions from Judith Merril, Jack Vance, and John Brunner.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Spaceworlds: Stories of Life in the Void) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 19 - Umbrella in the Sky - (1961) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• 47 - Sail 25 - (1962) - novelette by Jack Vance (variant of Gateway to Strangeness)
• 87 - The Longest Voyage - (1967) - novelette by Richard C. Meredith
• 113 - The Ship Who Sang - [The Ship Who...] - (1961) - novelette by Anne McCaffrey
• 139 - O'Mara's Orphan - [Sector General] - (1960) - novelette by James White
• 185 - Ultima Thule - (1951) - short story by Eric Frank Russell
• 207 - The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years - (1940) - novelette by Don Wilcox
• 253 - Survival Ship - (1951) - short story by Judith Merril
• 267 - Lungfish - (1957) - novelette by John Brunner
• 317 - Story Sources (Spaceworlds: Stories of Life in the Void) - essay by Mike Ashley

Assignment 1: Find party responsible for murders by space virus.

Assignment 2: Investigate 'accidental' deaths on orbital solar shield.

Assignment 3: Apprehend criminal possessing short term time machine.

Science fiction meets crime in this new anthology exploring one of the genre's most popular themes: mystery and detection. Pitching detectives against time paradoxes, alien intruders, AI gone bad and psychic mutation are ten stories embodying the exciting range of the sub-genre, rarely given the recognition it deserves in the literary sphere. With fascinating settings such as robot society, asteroid belt space stations, and worlds similar to our own but uncannily altered, these stories are masterpieces of satisfying setups, memorable mysteries, and timeless twists.

Contents:

• Introduction: Crimes Beyond Time - essay by Mike Ashley
• Elsewhen - [Fergus O'Breen] - (1943) - novelette by Anthony Boucher
• Puzzle for Spacemen - (1955) - novelette by John Brunner
• Legwork - (1956) - novelette by Eric Frank Russell
• Mirror Image - [Elijah Baley / R. Daneel Olivaw] - (1972) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• The Flying Eye - [Paul Darraq] - short story by Jacques Futrelle (variant of The Secret Exploits of Paul Darraq, III: The Flying Eye 1912)
• Nonentity - (1955) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• Death of a Telepath - (1959) - short story by George Chailey
• Murder, 1986 - (1970) - novelette by P. D. James
• Apple - [Talents (Anne McCaffrey)] - (1969) - novelette by Anne McCaffrey
• The Absolutely Perfect Murder - (1965) - short story by Miriam Allen deFord

The art of writing great science fiction is that it challenges the imagination, pushing it to extreme limits and in this anthology, selecting some of the best modern science fiction from the last fifty years, twenty leading authors of the genre ask the question 'What if...?' and then give their own very personal views of the changes and surprises which may befall humanity in the centuries to come. In Ulla, Ulla Eric Brown recounts the first manned Martian expedition and discovers that H. G. Wells may have been right after all. In The Infinite Assassin Greg Egan polices the dimensions, seeking those who are taking over their alternate selves. Geoffrey A. Landis takes us into the depths of a black hole in Approaching Perimelasma. Is the ultimate Utopia heaven or hell? Robert Sheckley finds out in the classic A Ticket to Tranai. These and other stories by James White, Eric Frank Russell, Robert Reed, H. Beam Piper and H. Chandler Elliot make this one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking science fiction anthologies in lightyears.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Next Step - essay by Mike Ashley
• Ulla, Ulla - (2002) - short story by Eric Brown
• Deathday - (1991) - novelette by Peter F. Hamilton
• The Infinite Assassin - (1991) - short story by Greg Egan
• Anachron - (1954) - short story by Damon Knight
• Firewatch - (1982) - novelette by Connie Willis
• At the 'Me' Shop - (1995) - novelette by Robert Reed
• Vinland the Dream - (1991) - short story by Kim Stanley Robinson
• A Ticket to Tranai - (1955) - novelette by Robert Sheckley
• The Exit Door Leads In - (1979) - short story by Philip K. Dick
• What Have I Done? - (1952) - short story by Mark Clifton
• Finis - (1906) - short story by Frank Lillie Pollock
• The Last Days of Earth: Being the Story of the Launching of the "Red Sphere" - (1901) - short story by Geo. C. Wallis
• Approaching Perimelasma - (1998) - novelette by Geoffrey A. Landis
• The Pen and the Dark - (1966) - novelette by Colin Kapp
• Inanimate Objection - (1954) - novelette by H. Chandler Elliott
• The Very Pulse of the Machine - (1998) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• High Eight - (1965) - novelette by Keith Roberts
• Shards - (1962) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• Except My Life³ - (1991) - novelette by John Morressy
• Into Your Tent I'll Creep - (1957) - short story by Eric Frank Russell
• A Death in the House - (1959) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• Refugium - short story by Stephen Baxter

Twenty-three spellbinding tales of sorcery, wizardry and witchcraft, of the ceaseless battle between good and evil.

From dark lords and epic clashes between the forces of good and evil to a child's struggle to control magical powers for the first time this wonderfully varied collection comprises stories by the most outstanding writers of fantasy: A. C. Benson, James Bibby, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Louise Cooper, Ralph Adams Cram, Peter Crowther, Esther M. Friesner, Tom Holt, Doug Hornig, Diana Wynne Jones, Michael Kurland, Tim Lebbon, Ursula K. Le Guin, Richard A. Lupoff, Michael Moorcock, John Morressy, Tim Pratt, David Sandner, Lawrence Schimel and Mike Resnick, Darrell Schweitzer, Clark Ashton Smith, Steve Rasnic Tem and Robert Weinberg.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword: Spellbound - essay by Mike Ashley
• Ten Things I Know About the Wizard - (1983) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Villaggio Sogno - novelette by Richard A. Lupoff
• The Game of Magical Death - (1987) - short story by Doug Hornig
• The Infestation - short story by Tom Holt
• The Witch's Bicycle - (2002) - novelette by Tim Pratt
• The Sage of Theare - juvenile - (1982) - novelette by Diana Wynne Jones
• Timekeeper - (1990) - novelette by John Morressy
• The Double Shadow - (1933) - short story by Clark Ashton Smith
• The Rite Stuff - novelette by Michael Kurland
• Master of Chaos - (1964) - short story by Michael Moorcock
• Seven Drops of Blood - (1992) - short story by Robert Weinberg
• To Become a Sorcerer - (1991) - novelette by Darrell Schweitzer
• No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince - (1895) - short story by Ralph Adams Cram
• The Bones of the Earth - (2001) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Closed Window - (1903) - short story by A. C. Benson
• Disillusioned - (1995) - short story by Mike Resnick and Lawrence Schimel
• In the Realm of Dragons - (1998) - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• Forever - novelette by Tim Lebbon
• The Wizard of Ashes and Rain - (2001) - short story by David Sandner
• The Walker Behind - (1987) - short story by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• The Last Witch - short story by James Bibby
• Last Rites (excerpt from Star Ascendant) - (1994) - short fiction by Louise Cooper
• The Eternal Altercation - novelette by Peter Crowther

Jules Verne, one of the founding fathers of science fiction, was the author of such thrilling and perennial favorites as Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, as well as more than sixty other novels of adventure and exploration. One hundred years after his death, this magnificent new collection celebrates Verne's amazing vision. A host of today's top science fiction authors pay homage to Verne's genius with a series of stories inspired by his groundbreaking imagination and original characters.

In this anthology are extraordinary voyages of discovery and adventure from the four corners of the globe, and even within it. Following the tradition of Verne's original tales, Ian Watson tells of a journey deep into the center of the Earth, where Verne himself does battle with occultist Nazis, and Adam Roberts takes us to latter-day California, where a descendant of Verne's character Hector Servadac is preparing for the end of the world as we know it. These and many more compelling adventures add up to an anthology that will introduce a new generation to the wonder of Jules Verne and delight readers already familiar with the master.

Contents:

• Introduction: Return to the Centre of the Earth - (2005) - essay by Mike Ashley
• A Drama on the Railway - (2005) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• Jehan Thun's Quest - (2005) - novelette by Brian Stableford
• Six Weeks in a Balloon - (2005) - shortstory by Eric Brown
• Londre au XXIe Siècle - (2005) - shortstory by James Lovegrove
• Giant Dwarfs - (2005) - novelette by Ian Watson
• Cliff Rhodes and the Most Important Journey: A Land at the End of the Working Day Story - (2005) - novella by Peter Crowther
• The True Story of Barbicane's Voyage - (2005) - novelette by Laurent Genefort (trans. of Le véritable voyage de Barbicane 1999)
• Columbiad - (1996) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• Tableaux - (2005) - novelette by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
• The Secret of the Nautilus - (2005) - novelette by Michael Mallory
• Doctor Bull's Intervention - (2005) - novelette by Keith Brooke
• The Very First Affair - (2005) - novelette by Johan Heliot
• Eighty Letters, Plus One - (2005) - shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt
• The Adventurers' League - novelette by Justina Robson
• Hector Servadac, fils - (2005) - novelette by Adam Roberts
• The Mysterious Iowans - (2005) - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
• Old Light - (2005) - shortstory by Tim Lebbon
• The Selene Gardening Society - (2005) - shortstory by Molly Brown
• A Matter of Mathematics - (2005) - novelette by Tony Ballantyne
• The Secret of the Sahara - novelette by Richard A. Lupoff
• The Golden Quest - (2005) - shortstory by Sharan Newman
• The True Story of Wilhelm Storitz - (2005) - shortstory by Michel Pagel
• The Shoal - (2005) - shortstory by Liz Williams

Here are 25 stories of science fiction that push the envelope, by the biggest names in an emerging new crop of high-tech futuristic SF - including Charles Stross, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton and Neal Asher. High-tech SF has made a significant comeback in the last decade, as bestselling authors successfully blend the super-science of 'hard science fiction' with real characters in an understandable scenario. It is perhaps a reflection of how technologically controlled our world is that readers increasingly look for science fiction that considers the fates of mankind as a result of increasing scientific domination. This anthology brings together the most extreme examples of the new high-tech, far-future science fiction, pushing the limits way beyond normal boundaries.

Table of Contents:

• Extreme Science Fiction - essay by Mike Ashley
• Anomalies - (2001) - short story by Gregory Benford
• ... And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon - (2003) - short story by Paul Di Filippo
• Crucifixion Variations - (1998) - novelette by Lawrence Person
• The Pacific Mystery - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• Flowers from Alice - (2003) - short story by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow
• Merlin's Gun - (2000) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• Death in the Promised Land - (1995) - novella by Pat Cadigan
• The Long Chase - (2002) - short story by Geoffrey A. Landis
• Waterworld - (1994) - novelette by Stephen L. Gillett, Ph.D. and Jerry Oltion
• Hoop-of-Benzene - novelette by Robert Reed
• The New Humans - (1909) - novelette by B. Vallance
• The Creator - (1935) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• The Girl Had Guts - (1957) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Region Between - (1970) - novella by Harlan Ellison
• The Days of Solomon Gursky - (1998) - novella by Ian McDonald
• Wang's Carpets - (1995) - novelette by Greg Egan
• Undone - (2001) - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• Judgment Engine - (1995) - novelette by Greg Bear
• Stuffing - short story by Jerry Oltion

Here is the future of fantasy--25 short stories from top contemporary writers. This collection embraces all the newest forms of fantasy in vogue, from urban fantasy and extreme dystopian fiction, to alternate history and entire new fantasy worlds.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Beyond the Impossible - essay by Mike Ashley
• 5 - Senator Bilbo - short story by Andy Duncan
• 23 - Sandmagic - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• 43 - Dream a Little Dream for Me ... - novelette by Peter Crowther
• 71 - Lost Wax - short story by Leah Bobet
• 81 - Save a Place in the Lifeboat for Me - novelette by Howard Waldrop
• 107 - I Am Bonaro - short story by John Niendorff
• 113 - The Old House Under the Snow - novelette by Rhys Hughes
• 149 - Banquet of the Lords of Night - short story by Liz Williams
• 161 - Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely - short story by David D. Levine
• 171 - Master Lao and the Flying Horror - novelette by Lawrence Person
• 205 - Using It and Losing It - short story by Jonathan Lethem
• 215 - The All-At-Once Man - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• 237 - Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani - short story by William Hope Hodgson
• 257 - Boatman's Holiday - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• 275 - The Detweiler Boy - novelette by Tom Reamy
• 317 - The Fence at the End of the World - short story by Melissa Mia Hall
• 325 - Elric at the End of Time - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• 373 - Cup and Table - short story by Tim Pratt
• 391 - I, Haruspex - novelette by Christopher Priest
• 435 - Radio Waves - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• 461 - Tower of Babylon - novelette by Ted Chiang
• 491 - Jack Neck and the Worry Bird - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
• 513 - The Dark One - novelette by A. A. Attanasio
• 541 - A Ring of Green Fire - short story by Sean McMullen

Many readers are attracted to science fiction for that singular moment when a story expands your imagination, enabling you to see something in a new light. Not all SF works this way! This volume collects the very best of it that does, with 25 of the finest examples of mind-expanding and awe-inspiring science fiction.

The storylines range from a discovery on the Moon that opens up vistas across all time to a moment in which distances across the Earth suddenly increase and people vanish. These are tales to take you from the other side of now to the very end of time - from today''s top-name contributors including Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Robert Silverberg, Gregory Benford and Robert Reed.

Table of Contents:

• vii - Acknowledgments (The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF) - (2009) - essay by uncredited
• ix - Introduction: That Sense of Wonder - (2009) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 1 - Out of the Sun - (1958) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 9 - The Pevatron Rats - (2009) - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• 30 - The Edge of the Map - [Susanna and Ivo] - (2006) - short story by Ian Creasey
• 47 - Cascade Point - (1983) - novella by Timothy Zahn
• 105 - A Dance to Strange Musics - (1998) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• 131 - Palindromic - (1997) - short story by Peter Crowther
• 156 - Castle in the Sky - (2009) - novelette by Robert Reed
• 191 - The Hole in the Hole - [Wilson Wu and Irving - 1] - (1994) - novelette by Terry Bisson
• 224 - Hotrider - (1991) - short story by Keith Brooke
• 237 - Mother Grasshopper - (1997) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• 255 - Waves and Smart Magma - (2009) - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
• 282 - The Black Hole Passes - [Eight Worlds] - (1975) - novelette by John Varley
• 309 - The Peacock King - (1965) - short story by Larry McCombs and Ted White
• 325 - Bridge - [Cities in Flight] - (1952) - novelette by James Blish
• 355 - Anhedonia - (2009) - novelette by Adam Roberts
• 380 - Tiger Burning - (2006) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds (variant of Tiger, Burning)
• 407 - The Width of the World - (1983) - short story by Ian Watson
• 421 - Our Lady of the Sauropods - (1980) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• 438 - Into the Miranda Rift - (1993) - novella by G. David Nordley
• 504 - The Rest Is Speculation - (2009) - short story by Eric Brown
• 524 - Vacuum States - (1988) - short story by Geoffrey A. Landis

Contents:

• The End of All Things - (2010) - essay by Mike Ashley
• When We Went to See the End of the World - (1972) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• The End of the World - (2002) - shortstory by Sushma Joshi
• The Clockwork Atom Bomb - (2005) - shortstory by Dominic Green
• Bloodletting - (1994) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - (2006) - novelette by Cory Doctorow
• The Rain at the End of the World - (1999) - shortstory by Dale Bailey
• The Flood - (1998) - shortstory by Linda Nagata
• The End of the World Show - (2006) - shortstory by David Barnett
• Fermi and Frost - (1985) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Sleepover - (2010) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• The Last Sunset - (1996) - shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis
• Moments of Inertia - (2004) - novelette by William Barton
• The Books - shortstory by Kage Baker
• Pallbearer - (2010) - novella by Robert Reed
• And the Deep Blue Sea - (2005) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bear
• The Meek - (2004) - shortstory by Damien Broderick
• The Man Who Walked Home - (1972) - shortstory by James Tiptree, Jr.
• A Pail of Air - (1951) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Guardians of the Phoenix - (2010) - novelette by Eric Brown
• Life in the Anthropocene - (2010) - shortstory by Paul Di Filippo
• Terraforming Terra - (1998) - novelette by Jack Williamson
• World Without End - (2010) - shortstory by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
• The Children of Time - (2005) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• The Star Called Wormwood - (2004) - shortstory by Elizabeth Counihan

This thought-provoking collection not only takes us into the past and the future, but also explores what might happen if we attempt to manipulate time to our own advantage.

These stories show what happen once you start to meddle with time and the paradoxes that might arise. It also raises questions about whether we understand time, and how we perceive it. Once we move outside the present day, can we ever return or do we move into an alternate world? What happens if our meddling with Nature leads to time flowing backwards, or slowing down or stopping all together? Or if we get trapped in a constant loop from which we can never escape. Is the past and future immutable or will we ever be able to escape the inevitable?

These are just some of the questions that are raised in these challenging, exciting and sometimes amusing stories by Kage Baker, Simon Clark, Fritz Leiber, Paul Levinson, Christopher Priest, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Silverberg, Michael Swanwick, John Varley and many others.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Time After Time - essay by Mike Ashley
• Caveat Time Traveler - (2009) - short story by Gregory Benford
• Century to Starboard - (2004) - short story by Liz Williams
• Walk to the Full Moon - (2002) - novella by Sean McMullen
• The Truth About Weena - (1998) - novelette by David J. Lake
• The Wind Over the World - (1996) - novelette by Steven Utley
• Scream Quietly - (2005) - short story by Sheila Crosby
• Darwin's Suitcase - (2007) - short fiction by Elisabeth Malartre
• Try and Change the Past - (1958) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• Needle in a Timestack - (1983) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• Dear Tomorrow - short fiction by Simon Clark
• Time Gypsy - (1998) - novelette by Ellen Klages
• The Catch - (2004) - novelette by Kage Baker
• Real Time - (1989) - short fiction by Lawrence Watt-Evans
• The Chronology Protection Case - (1995) - novelette by Paul Levinson
• Women on the Brink of a Cataclysm - (1994) - novelette by Molly Brown
• Legions in Time - (2003) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• Coming Back - (1982) - short story by Damien Broderick
• The Very Slow Time Machine - (1978) - novelette by Ian Watson
• After-Images - (1983) - short story by Malcolm Edwards
• "In the Beginning, Nothings Lasts ..." - (2007) - short fiction by Mike Strahan
• Traveller's Rest - (1965) - short story by David I. Masson
• Twember - (2012) - short story by Steve Rasnic Tem
• The Pusher - (1981) - short story by John Varley
• Palely Loitering - (1979) - novelette by Christopher Priest
• Red Letter Day - (2010) - short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch