Search Worlds Without End

Hugo and Locus Award winning and Nebula and Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1997. There are no other publications of the novella but the text was later incorporated into the novel Chronospace (2001).

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2000. The story is included in the collection American Beauty (2003).

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Mishegos - essay by Allen Steele
• Agape Among the Robots - shortfiction
• Her Own Private Sitcom - shortfiction
• Green Acres - (1999) - novelette
• Missing Time - (1996) - shortstory
• Graceland - shortfiction
• Jake and the Enemy - shortstory
• Warning, Warning - (2000) - shortstory
• The Fine Art of Watching - novelette
• A Walk Across Mars - shortfiction
• Tom Swift and His Humongous Mechanical Dude - shortfiction

In the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile classics, crafted with a modern sensibility

Jamey Barlowe has been crippled since childhood, the result of being born on the Moon. He lives his life in a wheelchair, only truly free when he is in the water. But then Jamey's father sends him, along with five other kids, back to the Moon to escape a political coup d'etat that has occurred overnight in the United States. Moreover, one of the other five refugees is more than she appears.

Their destination is the mining colony, Apollo. Jamey will have to learn a whole new way to live, one that entails walking for the first time in his life. It won't be easy and it won't be safe. But Jamey is determined to make it as a member of Lunar Search and Rescue, also known as the Rangers. This job is always risky but could be even more dangerous if the new US president makes good on her threat to launch a military invasion. Soon Jamey is front and center in a political and military struggle stretching from the Earth to the Moon.

Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele's Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy.

Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan's legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.

This is classic, epic science fiction and engaging character-driven storytelling, which will appeal to devotees of the genre as well as fans of current major motion pictures such as Gravity and Interstellar.

Curt Newton has spent most of his life hidden from the rest of humankind, being raised by a robot, an android, and the disembodied brain of a renowned scientist. This unlikely trio of guardians has kept his existence a closely guarded secret after the murder of Curt's parents.

Curt's innate curiosity and nose for trouble inadvertently lead him into a plot to destabilize the Solar Coalition and assassinate the president. There's only one way to uncover the evil mastermind--Curt must become Captain Future.

With the permission of the Edmond Hamilton estate, Allen Steele revives the exciting adventures of Captain Future.

When two 24th-century chrononauts travel back in time, they inadvertently disrupt the voyage of the Hinden-burg-causing it to land successfully. Now, lost in a parallel universe, their mistake will be felt by every single human being.

This short story originally appeared in Pirate Writings, #10 1996. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 2 (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell. The story is included in the collection All-American Alien Boy (1997).

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, November-December 2019.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, May/June 2023.

Read the full story for free here.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Old Mars (2013), editd by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld, #134, November 2017. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection Tales of Time and Space (2015).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Allen Steele has won two Hugo Awards, a Nebula nomination, the Locus Award, the Asimov's Readers Award and the 1998 Science Fiction Chronicle Readers Award. Now, he presents a novel in which mankind's future lies not among the stars...but beneath the waves.

Tethys--the world's first completely self-sufficient undersea research station. It is the stepping stone to a new frontier of life on Earth. Within this oasis of technology are those who seek to unlock the mysteries of the unknown deep. But they are not alone...

A collection of fascinating short stories and science articles from a respected writer includes his first published story, the popular Diamondback Jack trilogy, and several nonfiction pieces written when he was a science reporter.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Weird Scenes From the Beach Party - (1992) - essay
• On the Road: Eulogy - (1986) - essay
• Walking on the Moon - (1992) - short story
• Free Beer and the William Casey Society - (1989) - novelette
• The Return of Weird Frank - (1991) - novelette
• Sugar's Blues - (1992) - novelette
• Live from the Mars Hotel - (1988) - short story
• On the Road: Pakachoag Hill - (1985) - essay
• Goddard's People - (1991) - novelette
• John Harper Wilson - (1989) - short story
• Science Fact: L. G. M. - (1988) - essay
• Hapgood's Hoax - (1990) - short story
• On the Road: Waiting for the End of the World - (1985) - essay
• Winter Scenes of the Cold War - (1989) - short story
• On the Road: Can You Count the Angels Dancing on a Pin? - (1992) - essay
• Trembling Earth - (1990) - novella

An edge of your seat hard SF adventure as colonists on a new world find that nothing is what they expected and that travelling to a distant star is far more dangerous than they'd ever imagined...

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2001. The story can aslo be found in the anthology, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2002), edited by Gardner Dozois. In a slightly different from, the novelette is incorporated in the novel Coyote (2002).

Hugo Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2010 and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #99 December 2014. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (2011), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Sex and Violence in Zero-G: The Complete "Near Space" Stories, Expanded Edition (2012).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Mid-December 1995. The story can also be found in the anthology The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It is included in the collection All-American Alien Boy (1996).

In a broken city, a newspaper editor risks everything for the story of a lifetime

It takes only minutes for the earthquake to demolish St. Louis. The city's oldest structures crumble, its finest bridge collapses into the Mississippi, and the observation deck of the famous arch falls to earth, killing five. Seven months later, all those who can afford to leave have gone, abandoning the poor, sick, and desperate to scrap for survival. Gerry Rosen, a reporter for the Big Muddy Inquirer, isn't going anywhere. Whether thriving or ruined, this is his town.

After months of reporting on the earthquake's aftermath, with electricity, security, and food in short supply, Rosen stumbles on something that takes his breath away. Beneath the rubble of old St. Louis lurks a stunning government conspiracy, the details of which are almost too dangerous to print. Rosen goes underground, running from the army in a desperate attempt to save his city--and his life.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, March-April 2019.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2020.

On mankind's last mission to the moon, a killer comes along for the ride

Since the first manned spaceflight in 1944, NASA has conquered the outer atmosphere, explored Mars, and placed nuclear missiles on the moon. But funding for interstellar adventures--military or otherwise--has dried up. Now, NASA is planning a final lunar mission to pack up the remnants of man's first extraterrestrial colony. The nuclear missiles are meant to be shot into the sun, but someone onboard the USS Conestoga would prefer to see them fired toward Earth.

The night before the mission launch, one of the astronauts is kidnapped from his hotel room and replaced with a surgically altered body double. By the time the other astronauts uncover the deception, the Conestoga is too far from home for NASA to help. On the surface of the Moon, a decades-old conspiracy has reached its final stage, and Earth's fate hangs in the balance.

With a gift for visionary fiction that "would make Robert A. Heinlein proud" (Entertainment Weekly) three-time Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele now imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: what if the race to space had occurred in the early days of WWII?

It's 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Fuehrer to abandon the V2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the U.S. Work on the rocket--called Silbervogel--begins at Peenemunde. Though it is top secret, British intelligence discovers the plan, and brings word to Franklin Roosevelt. The American President determines that there is only one logical response: the U.S. must build a spacecraft capable of intercepting Silbervogel and destroying it. Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fuel rocket, agrees to head the classified project.

So begins a race against time--between two secret military programs and two brilliant scientists whose high-stakes competition will spiral into a deadly game of political intrigue and unforeseen catastrophes played to the death in the brutal skies above America.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2015. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2014. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015), edited by Gardner Dozois.

A new science fiction epic from the national bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author.

Expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet and facing charges of grand theft, Jules Truffant agrees to sign up as shuttle pilot aboard the freighter Pride of Cucamonga in exchange for amnesty. After botching Pride's mission to RhoCorenae and upsetting an alien culture in the process, Jules must take part in a voyage across the galaxy to place a probe squarely in the path of a black hole as it plows through an inhabited star system.

The two-time Hugo Award-winner expands the universe of his Coyote saga.

The danui, a reclusive arachnid species considered the galaxy's finest engineers, have avoided contact with the Coyote Federation. Until, that is, the danui initiate trade negotiations, offering only information: the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life-a massive sphere, composed of billions of hexagons.

But when the Federation's recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their new partners...

The EASS Galileo disappeared decades ago while investigating an unidentified object, code-named Spindrift. Now the Galileo's shuttle has returned carrying three surviving expedition members, who still appear to be the same age they were when they departed. They report that they have, indeed, made contact with an extraterrestrial race-and become enmeshed in a conflict that brought them face to face with the most apocalyptic force in the galaxy.

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2001. There are no other known publications but the novella is incorporated in the fix-up novel Coyote (2002).

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, May 2003. The story can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 9 (2004), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It was incorporated in the novel Coyote Rising (2004).

"The master of science-fiction intrigue" (Washington Post) returns to the Coyote universe.

The planet of Coyote has become the last, best hope of humankind, but it has also become the principal point of contact with the hjadd, the alien race encountered by a European starship many years earlier. Although the hjadd have built an embassy near the original colony, they remain a mystery.

And as the colonists make preparations to explore the rest of the new world, ex-convict Hawk Thompson discovers more about the hjadd than anyone has learned before-and his knowledge will change human history...

"The best space colonization saga to come along in decades" (Rocky Mountain News) continues.

The unexpected arrival of a ship from Earth after their long isolation from their home world leaves the inhabitants of Coyote both hopeful and wary. The lone passenger brings news-both good and bad.

The good news is that there was a survivor of the long-ago explosion of the Robert E. Lee and he is living still on Earth, in the ruined city called Boston. The bad news is that the person responsible for that act of terrorism is also still alive-and somewhere on Coyote...

Coyote marks a dramatic new turn in the career of Allen Steele, Hugo Award-winning author of Chronospace. Epic in scope, passionate in its conviction, and set against a backdrop of plausible events, it tells the brilliant story of Earth's first interstellar colonists-and the mysterious planet that becomes their home.

The crime of the century begins without a hitch. On July 5th, 2070, as it's about to be launched, the starship Alabama is hijacked-by her captain and crew. In defiance of the repressive government of The United Republic of Earth, they replace her handpicked passengers with political dissidents and their families. These become Earth's first pioneers in the exploration of space. Captain R.E. Lee, their leader. Colonel Gill Reese, the soldier sent to stop Lee. Les Gilles, the senior communications officer, a victim of a mistake that will threaten the entire mission. Crewman Eric Gunther, who has his own agenda for being aboard. His daughter, Wendy, a teenager who will grow up too quickly.

Jorge and Rita Montero, ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. And their son Carlos, who will become a hero in spite of himself. After almost two-and-a-half centuries in cold sleep, they will awaken above their destination: a habitable world named Coyote. A planet that will test their strength, their beliefs, and their very humanity. In Coyote, Allen Steele delivers a grand novel of galactic adventure-a tale of life on the newest of frontiers.

The continuing epic of Earth's first space colonists--and their fight against a repressive government to reclaim their world in the name of freedom.

The revolution that won Coyote's independence from Earth is 20 years past. Coyote's aging computers, aircraft, and medical equipment are badly in need of replacement. And the colony's survival is in question. Now the colony's hard-won independence depends on the descendants of Coyote's original settlers-versus help from Earth that may be more of a detriment than a boon.

Former freedom fighter Carlos Montero, now in his fifties and burdened with the responsibilities of leadership. Manuel Castro, the Savant and former Lieutenant Governor of New Florida, now a hermit who may hold the key to the survival of those whose company he has renounced. Jonas Whittaker, the genius inventor haunted by the loss of the wife and daughter he sacrificed to save. And Morgan Goldstein, an entrepreneur seeking to exploit Coyote's natural resources-even if it means ruining the planet itself.

As Coyote's future hangs in the balance, a larger question looms: can the human race settle a new world without bringing forward the problems of the world it left behind?

Table of Contents:

• An Introduction to Allen Steele - essay by Kevin J. Anderson
• Introduction: Coming of Age - essay by Allen Steele
• Walking on the Moon - (1992)
• Free Beer and the William Casey Society - (1989)
• The Return of Weird Frank - (1991)
• Sugar's Blues - (1992)
• The Flying Triangle - (1998)
• Live from the Mars Hotel - (1988)
• The War Memorial - (1995)
• Zwarte Piet's Tale - (1998)
• The Weight - (1995)
• Kronos - (1996)
• The Death of Captain Future - (1995)
• The Exile of Evening Star - (1999)
• 0.0G Sex: A User's Guide - (1999)
• Working for Mister Chicago - (1995)
• Shepherd Moon - (1994)
• Appendix #1: "Near Space" Timeline - essay by Allen Steele
• Appendix #2: Space Station and Spacecraft Designs - interior artwork by Allen Steele

Hugo Award winning and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October 1995. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection (1996), edited by Gardner Dozois, The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century (2001), edited by Harry Turtledove and Martin H. Greenberg and The Space Opera Renaissance (2006), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It is included in the collection Sex and Violence in Zero-G (1999).

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appears in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 1998. The story is included in the collection Sex and Violence in Zero-G: The Complete 'Near Space' Stories (1999).

Winner of the Locus Best First Novel Award

Popeye Hooker knows that space isn't all it's cracked up to be. A former fisherman who takes a job building low orbital stations to escape a failed relationship, he finds that in space, construction work is still a grind. And when they aren't building the space stations that will usher humanity into the stars, Sam Sloane and the rest of the beamjacks get high, blast the Grateful Dead, and stare through telescopes at the world they left behind. But life in orbit is about to get much more interesting.

Nestled among the life support equipment that keeps them alive and the entertainment systems that keep them happy, the beamjacks find something astonishing. Turns out, their home isn't just a space station -- it's a giant antenna designed to spy on every inhabitant of Earth. It's the greatest privacy invasion ever perpetrated, and the beamjacks won't stand for it.

They may not be pioneers, but these roughnecks are about to become revolutionaries.

Sheriff John Bigthorn's job of keeping the peace on "Clarke County," Earth's first orbiting space colony, seems simple enough--until a frantic young woman fleeing her gangster boyfriend seeks refuge there, bringing with her a secret that holds the key to the colony's destruction or liberation.

A tale of subversion and riot on a moon-based mining operation. The author also wrote "Orbital Decay", "Clarke County" and "Space".

The Face. The City. We saw them first in 1976, when the Viking probe flew by the rust-colored desert planet of Mars. Now, the questions will be answered.

"This is the story of the last day of my life, and everything that happened after that." Back in print after a decade, A King of Infinite Space is the final volume of Allen Steele's award-winning Near-Space series, and a cult-favorite among readers. Ranging from a Lollapalooza concert of 1995 to the asteroid belt of 2099, it's the tale of a young man who dies, becomes reborn, and crosses the solar system in search of his lost love... and grows to be a better man, despite himself.