Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2002. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 8 (2003), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The story is included in the collections The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008 (2008), and At the Human Limit (2011).

Sam Houston Kellington had from boyhood known that he would someday fly to Mars. But what children dream of is often far different in reality from what one could ever imagine. Having been chosen as one of a select crew Kelligan does go to Mars, only to be marooned with a crippled spacecraft, afflicted with a debilitating illness, and abandoned by crewmates. Aided by one brave woman Kelligan must somehow find a way to survive the rigors of the hostile planet and return to Earth before the members of the first manned mission to Mars have all succumbed.

"Think what it would mean! To prove that we aren't alone! To find other worlds, other races -- older and wiser than we are! Out on the moon, I hope to find an answer. If we do pick up a signal from space, it will be the great turning point in our history. It will give our lives a meaning." Yet to make his words good, Adam Cave had to break with his family and society, and pit himself against his own world. But once out there on the far side of the moon, where an isolated band kept pushing Earth's call letters into the void, the picture changed startlingly, shockingly. For Cave learned the truth that had been held back from a placid world for so long....

Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods begins with a genetic engineering program conceived by the Smithwicks, a family of "Creators" who first improve on inadequate Homo sap ("preman") with two laboratory species and then come up with the "stargods." These powerful Frankenstein fabrications, however, send the Creators chasing back to their labs in a last desperate attempt to undo the consequences of their folly. A thousand years later, two "preman" waifs, Davey and Bugler, find unsuspected powers genetically programmed into their minds and bodies, and realize that they are to be the parents of the liberating "ultiman."

Table of Contents:

• Brother to Demons - (1978)
• Brother to Gods - (1978)
• Kinsman to Lizards - (1978)
• Stepson to Creation - (1977)
• Slave to Chaos - (1977)

The unsettling dreams begin for small-town reporter Will Barbee not long after he first meets the mysterious and beautiful April Bell. They are vivid, powerful and deeply disturbing nightmares in which he commits atrocious acts. And, one by one, his friends are meeting violent deaths.

It is clear to Barbee that he is embroiled in something far beyond human understanding, something unspeakably evil. And it intimately involves the seductive, dangerously intoxicating April, and the question, 'Who is the Child of the Night?' When he discovers the answer to that, his world will change utterly.

According to legend, Zorn's distant ancestors had vanquished fiery devils from the Demon Moon. Now, a thousand years later, that bloody red world looms closer every day.

But Zorn knows little of the past. For generations, his family have been Lords of Wolver Riding, flying their winged unicorns to protect the land from werewolves, wyverns and other deadly threats. As Zorn grows, he finds his world increasingly strange. Where did the werewolves come from? How did unicorns fly?

His questions end the day his evil uncle usurps the throne. Torn between ancient fears and modern science, wooed by a seductive temptress and plagued by a demonic priest, Zorn must unlock secrets shrouded in the mists of time - or watch everything he loves be consumed in the hellfire of the...DEMON MOON

Dane Belfast is a young scientist seeking the whereabouts of a missing geneticist and family friend. A visit to the mysterious Cadman Corporation results in his being drugged and whisked off to a secret location called Dragon's Island, where "not-men" and other strange creatures -- as well as human geniuses -- seem to be created. Dane can't tell who to trust in this fast-paced adventure, which is the first novel to use the term "genetic engineering". A ground-breaking novel by the author of DARKER THAN YOU THINK and THE HUMANOIDS.

A genetic experiment gone wrong produces a tiny pink "worm" that matures into a beautiful woman whose superhuman powers propel her toward a unique destiny.

Chemical symbol... atomic number... atomic weight...

Scientific terms for gold... but science can't begin to explain the mystery and magic of gold.

It was gold that lured the 'Secret Legion' - as oddly mixed a group of adventures as any song or story - into the world's most treacherous desert.

And gold they found - a golden man, and exotic golden woman, a huge golden tiger, and an eerie golden snake.

Gold brought them together... gold made them enemies in a battle to the death... gold held the key to the mysterious forces that assailed them.

Jack Williamson, alchemist with words, spins a rare web of adventure, fantasy and science... a gem from the golden age of Weird Tales, now available in book form for the first time.

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.

In the beginning...

...there was Egan Drake, the genius who dreamed of spreading mankind among the galaxies.

Then came Megan, who took on her brother's mantle and made his imaginings real. She gathered around her the finest in their fields - biology and astronautics, computer science and fusion propulsion - and fired them with her vision.

And finally was born The Project: a thousand tiny spacecraft crawling like electromechanical wombs towards the stars, each bearing the genetic seeds for a future colony of man.

And some fell on stony ground, and some fell on fertile ground and some...

The galaxy's inhabited planets are held together by the repressive Eron Company, the apparent holder of the secret to faster–than–light travel through the Tubes, the network linking the scattered worlds together. Mysterious parties have hired the adventurer Horn to assassinate the company's general manager, Garth Kohlnar. Horn completes his mission, and in the ensuing manhunt encounters Wendre Kohlnar, the daughter and now possibly the heir of the dead man.

Escaping through a transdimensional Tube, Horn finds himself on the planet Eron, a world consumed by the Eron Company. There he encounters a corrupt aristocracy, a brewing power struggle over the succession, a covert revolution, and the mystery of who actually knows the secret of the Tubes.

James Gunn and Jack Williamson's Star Bridge marks the return of a classic, high-concept space opera by two SF Grand Masters

When a giant meteor crashes into the earth and destroys all life, the small group of human survivors manage to leave the barren planet and establish a new home on the moon. From Tycho Base, men and woman are able to observe the devastated planet and wait for a time when return will become possible.

Generations pass. Cloned children have had children of their own, and their eyes are raised toward the giant planet in the sky which long ago was the cradle of humanity. Finally, after millennia of waiting, the descendants of the original refugees travel back to a planet they've never known, to try and rebuild a civilization of which they've never been a part.

The fate of the earth lies in the success of their return, but after so much time, the question is not whether they can rebuild an old destroyed home, but whether they can learn to inhabit an alien new world--Earth.

As the final ship of Project Starseed makes its landing on the dead star, the colonists venture out to search the area, only to discover something shocking hidden in the ice, something that will change the world forever.

This short story originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, May 1997. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 3 (1998), edited by David G. Hartwell, and The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 1 (1999), edited by Frederik Pohl. The story is inlcuded in the collection At the Human Limit (2011).

At high noon on May 4th the sun went out. And at that moment the youthful Melvin Dane was thrust into the most amazing adventure ever encountered by a mortal man. For years he had dreamed of a beautiful green-skinned girl, and now that dream of love was to materialize into a threat that held the promise of death for every living being on Earth. To meet the challenge of a blacked-out world, Mel followed a scientific trail that led to dangers undreamed of: a horrific serpent-like creature; a red globe of atomic destruction, murderous zombies, silver globes of sudden death, and strange dragon plants. All of this awaits you in Jack Williamson's powerful novel, "The Green Girl," a true masterpiece from the golden age of science-fiction.

An international agency, COSMOS, is in charge of space exploration in the not very distant future. Odd forms of life have been discovered on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter; there may be a life form on Mercury; and finally something utterly mystifying is discovered on the moon. Three astronauts land and examine an installation that all three perceive as radically different - one sees a heap of gold, one a fort bristling with guns, one a space platform and space craft. They return to Earth with some crystals picked up at the mystery site.

All three soon produce children - the moon children, gifted, precocious, and seemingly damned by the crystals their fathers had handled. Two are eerily beautiful, the third a grotesque monster. And the three soon discover that they are Earth's hope for survival, as interplanetary invasion brings overwhelming alien forces to bear on mankind.

The Moon Era is a novella by Jack Williamson. It originally appeared in Wonder Stories, February 1932.

Jack Williamson, one of the all-time greats of the science-fiction world, presents his very first collection of short stories and novelettes here under the provocative but fitting title of The Pandora Effect.

And a veritable Pandora's Box of time and space and cosmic marvels and mischiefs it is indeed! Included in this new volume are his classic tale of "The Metal Man", a story in the best tradition of A. Merritt and the wonders of lost lands, and such equally famous and path-finding novelettes as "With Folded Hands," which inspired one of his finest novels; "Guinivere for Everybody," anticipating one aspect of computer potential; The Equalizer, a short novel touching on technological utopianism; and many other tales equally striking.

Contents

• Author's Introduction - essay
• The Happiest Creature - [Quarantine] - (1953) - short story
• The Cosmic Express - (1930) - short story
• The Metal Man - (1928) - short story
• The Cold Green Eye - (1953) - short story
• Guinevere for Everybody - (1955) - short story
• With Folded Hands... - [Humanoids] - (1947) - novelette
• The Equalizer - (1947) - novella

To win the right to a name, he fought without weapons in the deadly arena of Nggongga - only to be cheated of his prize. Branded a criminal, he sought refuge with the Benefactors, a mysterious interplanetary fellowship, and from them he at last learned the truth about his heritage.

As Blacklantern he was born again - and the galaxy itself became the arena for his vengeance. A gladiator still, his purpose took him to the ends of the cosmos, to seek out and finally face a terrifying and relentless evil that threatened countless worlds...

Before the Glory of Greece, Crete ruled the known world - and kept it enslaved by black magic! The evil of Minos held sway, protected by three unconquerable walls. First is the fleet that they call the wooden wall. Then there is a giant of living brass - he is the second wall. Then there is another barrier about the power of Minos, the Wall of Wizardry. Theseus, the tall Achean, the man they called Captain Firebrand, vowed to scale and destroy all three, and to rid the world of the evil yoke of Crete.

But Minos had other defences besides the walls, and many ways to attack as well...

When his reporter brother is murdered, Clay Barstow ravels to a small Kentucky town to investigate and discovers a hotbed of conspiracy. As the number of suspects mounts, the truth remains hidden behind a storm of lies, and soon he finds himself framed for murder and hunted by the murderous local militia.

Everything centers around a new technology hinted at in the notes of Clay's brother, something called the silicon dagger -- a technology of astonishing power. As Clay desperately seeks his brother's killer and the secrets of the silicon dagger, he finds that it may just allow the people of this small town to do what no one has dared in a hundred and fifty years -- declare independance from the United States of America....

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.

A dark mystery has been buried beneath the sands of the Sahara desert since the beginning of time. In a basement in New Mexico, four poker buddies find reason to believe that a startling secret is out there.

These four amateur adventurers are about to uncover the key that could unlock the vast reaches of the universe.

A sudden burst of curiosity propels mild-mannered English professor Will and his three friends to the Sahara to excavate a site where radar has evidently detected trilithic stones hidden beneath the sand. There they stumble upon an ancient artifact that will change their lives, and the world, forever... a gateway between planets, linking Earth to distant worlds where they will discover wonders and terrors beyond imagining.

Jack Williamson, the dean of science fiction writers, weaves an exciting tale that takes the friends to the far corners of the universe. One leads an oppressed people to freedom. Another uncovers clues that could identify a long-dormant civilization of immortal beings. Now each traveler must play a crucial role in unraveling an ancient mystery, the solution to which may reveal the true origins of the human race.

If they can just survive their journeys back to Earth.

The men of Earth were on the verge of breaking into space. The first of their manned moon rockets was on its way to Luna. Now, after ten thousand years, the celestial Watchers were forced to a decision.

Were the Earth people ready to join in the civilizations of sapce - or should they be turned down and wiped out with solar fire?

THE TRIAL OF TERRA had begun!

The men of Earth were on the verge of breaking into space. The first of their manned moon rockets was on its way to Luna. Now, after ten thousand years, the celestial Watchers were forced to a decision.

Were the Earth people ready to join in the civilizations of space - or should they be turned down and wiped out with solar fire?

THE TRIAL OF TERRA had begun!

Hugo and Nebula Award winning novella.

Generations of clones on the moon chronicle the recovery of mother Earth, which has been destroyed and deserted. Eons have passed and a new generation of clones discover that their own base on the moon had been destroyed in the past and then rediscovered and rebuilt by the man known as Sandor Pen.

In the meantime the remnants of humanity have just started unlocking the mysteries of interstellar flight, but over the years their memory of old Earth has faded... a memory Sandor Pen intends to reignite.

The story was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2000. It can also be found in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2003 edited by Nancy Kress. It is included in the collection Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer (2004).

The Worlds of Jack Williamson celebrates the 100th birthday of one of the Grand Masters of science fiction. While Jack Williamson passed away in 2006 at the age of 98, his incredible body of work continues to be enjoyed by legions of fans and admirers. Assembled in this centennial tribute are several unpublished stories: The Moon Bird, The Forbidden Window, The Golden Glass, and a film treatment from 1957, The Planets are Calling. Also included are several classics in the Williamson canon such as the original novella-length version of Darker Thank You Think; Minus Sign, an unreprinted seetee story of anti-matter and terraforming; and a tale with the first use of psionics, The Man from Outside. Contemporary stories include The Hole in the World, Afterlife, and The Luck of the Legion, the last Legion of Space adventure. Included are four essays from academics and scholars who have studied Williamson s works, as well as Dr. Williamson s 1957 Master s Thesis, A Study of the Sense of Prophecy in Modern Science Fiction. Fellow Grand Masters of science fiction Frederik Pohl and James Gunn provide introductory remarks on reading, knowing, collaborating with, and admiring Jack Williamson.

Table of Contents:

• "Jack" - essay by Frederik Pohl
• "Worlds of Jack Williamson" - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Moon Bird - novella by Jack Williamson
• The Forbidden Window - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• The Golden Glass - novelette by Jack Williamson
• Darker Than You Think - (1940) - novella by Jack Williamson
• Darker Than He Thought: The Psychonalysis of Jack Williamson - essay by Alan C. Elms
• Minus Sign - (1942) - novella by Jack Williamson
• The Man from Outside - (1951) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• A Study of the Sense of Prophecy in Modern Science Fiction - essay by Jack Williamson
• The Planets are Calling - novelette by Jack Williamson
• Jack Williamson: The Comedy of Cosmic Evolution - (1976) - essay by Alfred D. Stewart
• Tricentennial Century - novella by Jack Williamson
• The Humanoid Universe - (1980) - novelette by Jack Williamson
• The Hole in the World - (1997) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• Afterlife - (2002) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• The Luck of the Legion - (2002) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• A Christmas Carol - (2007) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• Queens Of Space - essay by Vicky L. Medley
• Collecting Jack Williamson: Master of Wonder - essay by Richard A. Hauptmann
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments

Astronaut Ben is lost - a million miles from Earth! His last message: "Strange life forms here... we're under attack...!"

Jeff sets off to rescue him, but soon his own crippled starship is caught in the same eerie web of a monstrous creature from outer space!

Telling much more than the story of a single man's life and work, this autobiography is an amazing look at the entire 20th century from the eyes of one of the greatest voices in science fiction. This story of a man plagued with a perpetual sense of wonder at the world around him begins with Williamson's youth and his family's struggle to survive on farms in the arid southwestern United States. Early attempts at education, the publication of his first story, his service in the Pacific during World War II, and his eventual success in the genre of science fiction are all detailed to tell the life of this Hugo Award–winning author.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Into the Eighth Decade) - essay
• 7 - With Folded Hands - [Humanoids] - (1948) - novelette (variant of With Folded Hands... 1947)
• 71 - The Happiest Creature - [Quarantine] - (1953) - short story
• 91 - Jamboree - (1969) - short story
• 105 - The Mental Man - (1988) - short story

Table of Contents:

• Jack Williamson: The Pathfinder - essay by Frederik Pohl
• The Metal Man - (1928) - shortstory
• Dead Star Station - (1933) - novelette
• Nonstop to Mars - (1939) - novelette
• The Crucible of Power - (1939) - novelette
• Breakdown - (1942) - novelette
• With Folded Hands - (1948) - novelette
• The Equalizer - (1947) - novella
• The Peddler's Nose - (1951) - shortstory
• The Happiest Creature - (1953) - shortstory
• The Cold Green Eye - (1953) - shortstory
• Operation: Gravity - (1953) - shortstory
• Guinevere for Everybody - (1955) - shortstory
• Jamboree - (1969) - shortstory
• The Highest Dive - (1976) - shortstory
• Afterword - essay by Jack Williamson

The Paradox Men

Set after the Third Great War, North and South America are united into one country: Imperial America. A slave state run by a small noble elite who flaunt their wealth by using, and abusing, the one commodity that only the rich can have: human labour. But working underground, persecuted by the police, is an organization dedicated to the overthrow of government and the existing way of life and the establishment of freedom.

The Society of Thieves was the only organization that flouted authority in America Imperial: they robbed the rich to buy freedom for the slaves. They were well equipped and trained for their job and had friends and informers in high places ready to reveal where the wealth of the nobles was hidden. And Alar was the best Thief of them all - for he had senses not found in ordinary men, senses that accurately warned him when danger was near. But Alar had amnesia and did not know his true identity though sometimes he sensed that there was a purpose in his actions that was not entirely his own volition.

When Keiris, wife of the Imperial Chancellor saw him, she sensed that he was something special and helped him to elude pursuit even though it put her own life in danger. And in trips to the Moon and even the Sun itself, Alar begins to see what part he is destined to play in the struggle for men's freedom.

Dome Around America

What new menace was besieging mankind's last refuge?

The Earth had been stripped bare of the atmosphere and water, its surface left an airless and lifeless desert...except for America. A dome of energy had been erected around the U.S. in the nick of time and only within this vast transparent dome could men and women live in safety. Until the moment Barry Thane spotted a moving thing outside the dome!

Something was there where only Death reigned. Something that was spying on the dome, trying to break in and destroy Earth's last oasis! But what was it...and why?

Barry's single-handed struggle with the unknown, his own break-out into the outside world of airless terror, makes one of the most exciting novels that Jack Williamson, master of science fiction, has ever written.

Somewhere, eons past, the seekers had begun as weapons - cyborg war machines. Nuclear explosions and powerful lasers meant little to them, for each was larger than ten battleships and subsisted on a diet of heavy metals, preferably radioactive. Soon the seekers began their own Lifeburst, flying to nearby stars, evolving, eating, destroying...

Our solar system was next.

From the depths of space the Seeker had come, to make the Solar system her nest. The invader was defeated, but not before the Earth was ravaged, its technology destroyed and its inhabitants reduced to barbarism. Mankind's only chance for salvation lay with the alien Eldren - but the Eldren considered humanity primitive and savage, and so they withheld their help.

Young Benn Dain hoped to prove humanity's worth on Mazeway, a planetary doublet whose twin worlds, Blade and Stone, were a testing ground for Eldren young. For Roxane Kwan and Diego Bolivar, Mazeway was a path to control of the dying Earth, and Dain's quest was not part of their plans. But the Game of Blade and Stone was not designed for humans, and to survive, they would have to work together to fathom the depths of alien minds and the subtle traps of Eldren way...

On the far planet Wing IV, a brilliant scientist creates the humanoids--sleek black androids programmed to serve humanity.

But are they perfect servants--or perfect masters?

Slowly the humanoids spread throughout the galaxy, threatening to stifle all human endeavor. Only a hidden group of rebels can stem the humanoid tide...if it's not already too late.

Fist published in Astounding Science Fiction during the magazine's heyday, The Humanoids--sceince fiction grand master Jack Williamson's finest novel--has endured for fifty years as a classic on the theme of natural versus artificial life.

The Legion of Space, the fate of the universe is in their hands....

They are the Legion, fighters of the Revolution, sworn to defend the new democracy against all foes. But an alien solar system threatens the human planets with terror, deadly treason, and the conquering Medusae - slimy, tentacled, merciless.

Now John Star and his Legionnaires must rescue the beautiful woman who guards AKKA - The ultimate, the only weapon that can save the Universe... if they survive the Belt of Peril, where death and madness lurk!

In this, the second of Jack Williamson's Legion of Space series, the reader will encounter such marvels as a spaceship twelve million miles long... the secret weapon that controls the universe... a superhuman traitor to all mankind... and of course, the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers in all of science fiction, the Legionnaires of Space themselves.

Thrill to their breathtaking adventures as they defy mortal peril and fantastic danger in the fight against the dread powers of the invincible Cometeers and a monstrous threat to the security of the Solar System...

VENGEANCE IN SPACE

"I am omnipotent and omniscient. I want every man on every planet to shudder and grow pale when he thinks of Me. For I have suffered fross injuries that must be avenged..."

This cryptic message--and a loathsome serpentine trademark--were the only clues the Legion had to the identity of Mankind's most evasive and horrible enemy. Meanwhile, He/It had meticulously begun to destroy the world...

She was a woman whose secret gift challenged the deadly serets of the Great Hawkshead Nebula!

Contains two short stories in the Legion Universe: The Legion of Time and Aftwer World's End.

The hope of a future utopia hangs literally on a thread of probability. Instead, armageddon lies almost certainly in the future of humanity. Only the Legion of Time can alter the future course of history. Only Denny Lanning can decisively help them. But to do so, he must first die--for the Legion is composed of dead men--and second, he must kill one of the two women that he loves. . .

After World's End, a short novel, is another saga of time-adventure, also included in this volume. An American astronaut helplessly orbits the solar system as millennia pass. And on Earth, humanity's bright future is destoryed by war with an enemy they themselves created.

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!

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.

This is the inaugural volume in the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

The nine stories in this volume (three of which are full-length novels!) are drawn from classic pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories, Science Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories, and Astounding Stories of Super-Science.

Supplementing these stories are rare editorials and letters to the editors of Amazing Stories, Science Wonder Stories, and Astounding Stories. Also included is a lengthy foreword by fellow Grand Master Hal Clement with an afterword by Jack Williamson.

Table of Contents:

• "Jack Williamson, Speculator" by Hal Clement
• "Scientifiction, Searchlight of Science" (Amazing Stories Quarterly,
• "The Metal Man" (Amazing Stories, Dec '28)
• The Girl from Mars (with Miles J. Breuer) (SF Series, #1, 1929)
• "The Alien Intelligence" (Science Wonder Stories, Jul, Aug '29)
• "The Second Shell" (Air Wonder Stories, Nov '29)
• "The Green Girl" (Amazing Stories, Mar, Apr '30)
• "The Cosmic Express" (Amazing Stories, Nov '30)
• "The Birth of a New Republic" (with Miles J. Breuer) (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Win '30)
• "The Prince of Space" (Amazing Stories, Jan '31)
• "The Meteor Girl" (Astounding Stories of Super-Science, Mar '31)
• "Afterword" by Jack Williamson

This second volume continues the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Drawn from such classic pulp magazines as Astounding Stories, Wonder Stories, and this volume features ten tales, four never published in book form, including novel-length adventure, Amazing Stories,The Stone from the Green Star. Also included are Williamson's letters and contest entries to the editors of the SF magainzes of the early 30's.

The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by noted writer Harlan Ellison, Wolves of Darkness imparts the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "And Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, a Man Who Needs No Introduction” by Harlan Ellison
• "The Lake of Light" (Astounding Stories Apr ’31)
• "Through the Purple Cloud" (Wonder Stories May ’31)
• "The Doom from Planet 4" (Astounding Stories Jul ’31)
• "Twelve Hours to Live!" (Wonder Stories Aug ’31)
• "The Stone from the Green Star" (Amazing Stories Oct ’31 & Nov '31)
• "Wolves of Darkness" (Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror Jan ’32)
• "The Moon Era" (Wonder Stories Feb ’32)
• "The Pygmy Planet" (Astounding Stories Feb ’32)
• "Red Slag of Mars" (w/Laurence Schwartzman) (Wonder Stories Quarterly Spr ’32)
• "The Lady of Light" (Amazing Stories Sep ’32)
• Afterword by Jack Williamson

This third volume continues the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Drawn from such classic pulp magazines as Astounding Stories, Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, Amazing Stories, and Thrilling Mystery, this volume features sixteen tales (including a novel-length adventure, "Xandulu"), seven of which have never been published in book form.

The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by author, and long-time friend of Williamson, Ray Bradbury, Wizard's Isle contains the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "Jack Williamson, Friend!” by Ray Bradbury
• "The Electron Flame" (Wonder Stories Quarterly Fll ’32)
• "The Wand of Doom" (Weird Tales Oct ’32)
• "In the Scarlet Star" (Amazing Stories Mar ’33)
• "Salvage in Space" (Astounding Stories Mar ’33)
• " 'We Ain’t Beggars' " (New Mexico Quarterly Review Aug ’33)
• "The Plutonian Terror" (Weird Tales Oct ’33)
• "Dead Star Station" (Astounding Stories Nov ’33)
• "Terror Out of Time" (Astounding Stories Dec ’33)
• "The Flame from Mar"s (Astounding Stories Jan ’34)
• "Invaders of the Ice World" (Weird Tales Jan ’34)
• "Born of the Sun" (Astounding Stories Mar ’34)
• "Xandulu" (Wonder Stories Mar ’34, Apr '34, May 34)
• "Wizard’s Isle (Weird Tales Jun ’34)
• "The Galactic Circle" (Astounding Stories Aug ’35)
• "Islands of the Sun" (Astounding Stories Sep ’35 & Oct '35)
• "Grey Arms of Death" (Thrilling Mystery Dec ’35)
• Afterword by Jack Williamson

This fourth volume continues the publishing program to collect the stories of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Drawn from such classic pulp magazines as Astounding Stories, Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Thrilling Mystery, this volume features sixteen tales (including four novel-length adventures, "Dreadful Sleep," "The Blue Spot," "Released Entropy," and the original magazine text of The Legion of Time), seven of which have never been published in book form.

The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by author, and critic, Edward Bryant, Spider Island contains the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "American Gods, American Dreaming" by Edward Bryant
• "The Ruler of Fate" (Weird Tales, Apr, May, Jun '36)
• "Death’s Cold Daughter" (Thrilling Mystery, Sep '36)
• "The Great Illusion" (with Eando Binder, Edmond Hamilton, Raymond Z. Gallun, and John Russell Fearn) (Fantasy Magazine, Sep '36)
• "The Blue Spot" (Astounding Stories, Jan & Feb '37)
• "The Ice Entity" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Feb '37)
• "Spider Island" (Thrilling Mystery, Apr '37)
• "The Mark of the Monster" (Weird Tales, May '37)
• "The Devil in Steel" (Thrilling Mystery, Jul '37)
• "Released Entropy" (Astounding Stories Aug, Sep '37)
• "Dreadful Sleep" (Weird Tales, Mar, Apr, May '38)
• "The Infinite Enemy" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Apr '38)
• "The Legion of Time" (Astounding Stories, May, Jun, Jul '38)
• Afterword" by Jack Williamson

The fifth volume of a project to collect, in order of original publication, the short fiction of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Volume Five includes twelve stories from 1938 to 1940, and a foreword by author and popular culture expert Frank M. Robinson. Included are two true rarities: two stories that originally appeared under the pen-name Nils O. Sonderlund. These stories, originally appearing in MARVEL TALES, were considered "too sexy" to appear under Williamson's own name!

An appendix reprints rare commentaries on this volume's contents as they originally appeared in the pulp magazines. The author provides an afterword commenting on the genesis of these stories, and reflecting on the economic and cultural mood of the nation during the early years of American Science Fiction.

Table of Contents:

• "Foreword" by Frank M. Robinson
• "The Chivaree" (Portales Daily News, Sep 13, ’38)
• "The Dead Spot" (Marvel Science Stories, Nov ’38)
• "Nonstop to Mars" (Argosy Weekly, Feb 25 ’39)
• "After World’s End" (Marvel Science Stories, Feb ’39)
• "The Crucible of Power" (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb ’39)
• "Passage to Saturn" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun ’39)
• "Star Bright" (Argosy Weekly, Nov 25 ’39)
• "The Fortress of Utopia" (Startling Stories, Nov ’39)
• "The Angel from Hell" (Marvel Tales, Dec ’39)
• "As In the Beginning" (Future, Mar ’40)
• "Hindsight" (Astounding Science-Fiction, May ’40)
• "Mistress of Machine-Age Madness" (Marvel Tales, May ’40)
• "Afterword" by Jack Williamson

The ambitious program to collect the short fiction of Grand Master Jack Williamson continues! Of the 10 tales in this collection drawn from classic pulp magazines--Unknown, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Super Science Stories, Marvel Stories, Comet, Argosy Weekly, Startling Stories, and the rare fanzine Stardust (three of which are full-length novels!)--nearly half have never been reprinted before.

Featured is the original novella-length version of "Darker Than You Think" and the magazine texts of "The Reign of Wizardry" and "Gateway to Paradise" (previously published as Dome Over America.) Also included is Williamson's afterword with his recollections on the genesis of these tales and the pre-World War II science fiction field.

Like previous volumes in this series, the full-color endpapers reproduce the original magazine covers (with artwork by pulp masters including Belarski, Cartier, Rogers, Bergey and Scott) of the stories herein, and the binding is designed to match the 1940s editions of Williamson's works published by Fantasy Press. The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by author, editor, collaborator, and long-time friend of Williamson (and fellow Science Fiction Grand Master), Frederik Pohl, Gateway to Paradise contains the sense of wonder from the early years of American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "Foreword" by Frederik Pohl
• "The Reign of Wizardry" (Unknown, Mar, Apr, May '40)
• "The Sun-Maker" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun '40)
• "The Crystal of Death" (Stardust, Aug '40)
• "The Girl in the Bottle" (Super Science Stories, Sep '40)
• "Racketeers in the Sky" (Argosy Weekly, Oct 12, 1940)
• "Ashes of Iron" (Stardust, Nov '40)
• "Darker Than You Think" (Unknown, Dec '40)
• "The Star of Dreams" (Comet, Mar '41)
• "The Iron God" (Marvel Stories, Apr '41)
• "Gateway to Paradise" (Startling Stories, Jul '41)
• "Afterword" by Jack Williamson

The ambitious program to collect the short fiction of Grand Master Jack Williamson continues! The 15 tales in this penultimate volume cover Williamson's entry into the US Army in 1942 through to his very successful effort to integrate into the post-WWII science fiction market.

Featured is the 1948 3-part serial "...And Searching Mind," which Williamson re-wrote into his most famous work, The Humanoids. Other classics in this volume include the first "Humanoids" story, "With Folded Hands..."; "Breakdown," set in the same universe as his novel co-authored with James Gunn, Star Bridge; and his much-reprinted classic, "The Equalizer." Appearing in either book-form or hardcover for the first time are "Cold Front Coming," "Hocus-Pocus Universe," "The Hitch-Hiker's Package," and "You Can't Beat a Marine." Also included is Williamson's afterword with his recollections on the genesis of these tales and the World War II-era science fiction field.

As with previous volumes in this series, the full-color endpapers reproduce the original magazine covers (with artwork by pulp masters including Hubert Rogers, Earle K. Bergey and Frank R. Paul) of the stories herein, and the binding is designed to match the 1940s editions of Williamson's works published by Fantasy Press. The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by legendary author, editor, and long-time friend of Williamson (and fellow Science Fiction Grand Master), Robert Silverberg, With Folded Hands... And Searching Mind represents the changing state of mid-20th Century American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "Foreword" by Robert Silverberg
• "Backlash" (Astounding Science Fiction, Aug '41)
• "Breakdown" (Astounding Science Fiction, Jan '42)
• "Conscience, LTD." (Unknown, Aug '43)
• "Cold Front Coming" (Blue Book, Jun '45)
• "The Equalizer" (Astounding Science Fiction, Mar '47)
• "With Folded Hands..." (Astounding Science Fiction, Jul '47)
• "...And Searching Mind" Astounding Science Fiction, Mar, Apr, May '48)
• "The Moon and Mr. Wick" (Comet, Sum '50)
• "The Cold Green Eye" (Fantastic, Mar/Apr '53)
• "Hocus-Pocus Universe" (Science Stories, Oct '53)
• "Operation Gravity" (Science Fiction Plus, Oct '53)
• "The Hitch-Hiker's Package" (Fantastic Universe, May '54)
• "Guinevere for Everybody" (Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, 1954)
• "You Can't Beat a Marine" (El Portal, May '56)
• "Beans" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov '58)
• "Afterword" by Jack Williamson

The ambitious program to collect the short fiction of Grand Master Jack Williamson concludes!

As with previous volumes in this series, the full-color endpapers reproduce the original magazine covers (with artwork by masters including Virgil Finlay, Jim Burns, Luis Royo and Vincent Di Fate) of the stories herein, and the binding is designed to match the 1940s editions of Williamson's works published by Fantasy Press. The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing each story's original cover art.

With a foreword by award-winning author and long-time friend of Williamson, Connie Willis, At the Human Limit represents the changing state of mid-20th Century American Science Fiction and concludes the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Table of Contents:

• "Foreword" by Connie Willis
• "Second Man to the Moon" (Fantastic, April 1959)
• "The Masked World" (Worlds of Tomorrow, October 1963)
• "Jamboree" (Galaxy Magazine, December 1969)
• "The Highest Dive" (Science Fiction Monthly, January 1976)
• "Farside Station" (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, November/December 1978)
• "...All Ye Who Enter Here" (Stellar Science Fiction #6)
• "A Break for the Dinosaurs" (Speculations, 1983)
• "Space Family Smiths" (JD Journal, 1983)
• "At the Human Limit" (The Planets, 1985)
• "The Mental Man" (Amazing Stories, October 1988)
• "The Bird's Turn" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 1992)
• "Venus Is Hell" (Omni, October 1992)
• "The Litlins" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1993)
• "The Fractal Man" (VB Tech Journal, July 1996)
• "The Firefly Tree" (Science Fiction Age, May 1997)
• "The Hole in the World" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 1997)
• "The Purchase of Earth" (Science Fiction Age, July 1998)
• "The Story Roger Never Told" (Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny, 1998)
• "The Pet Rocks Mystery" (Alien Pets, 1998)
• "Miss Million" (Amazing Stories, Winter 1999)
• "Eden Star" (Star Colonies, 2000)
• "Nitrogen Plus" (Asimov's Science Fiction, October/November 2001)
• "Afterlife" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2002)
• "The Planet of Youth" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 2002)
• "Shakespeare & Co." (Shelf Life, 2002)
• "The Man From Somewhere" (Asimov's Science Fiction, October/November 2003)
• "Black Hole Station" (Space Stations, 2004)
• "Devil's Star" (Visions of Liberty, 2004)
• "Dream of Earth" (Amazing Stories, November, 2004)
• "The Half Men" (Absolute Magnitude, May 2005)
• "The Cat That Loved Shakespeare" (Chronicle, August 2005)
• "Ghost Town" (Weird Tales, July 2005)
• "The Mists of Time" (Millennium 3001, 2006)
• "A Christmas Carol" (The Worlds of Jack Williamson, 2008)

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!