Search Worlds Without End

By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep... They even built humans.

Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.

Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.

What is human? What is a machine? How do they differ? Or do they?

In these 15 stories about robots and androids, Philip K. Dick asks these questions. The answers differ with each story--in the fictional world and in the exploring mind of Dick the only certainty is change--but the author establishes some guidelines: "To be human, one must maintain his intellectual and spiritual freedom at all costs. He must refuse obedience to any ideology; he must remain unpredictable, unfettered by patterns and routines."

Table of Contents:

• Second Variety - (1953) - novelette
• War Game - (1959) - short story
• The Defenders - (1953) - novelette
• The Electric Ant - (1969) - short story
• Autofac - (1955) - novelette
• Impostor - (1953) - short story
• The Little Movement - (1952) - short story
• The Exit Door Leads In - (1979) - short story
• Frozen Journey - (1980) - short story
• A Game of Unchance - (1964) - novelette
• The Last of the Masters - (1954) - novelette
• The Preserving Machine - (1953) - short story
• Sales Pitch - (1954) - short story
• Service Call - (1955) - novelette
• To Serve the Master - (1956) - short story

It's been called the greatest novel ever written. Now, Tolstoy's timeless saga of love and betrayal is transported to an awesomer version of 19th-century Russia. It is a world humming with high-powered groznium engines: where debutantes dance the 3D waltz in midair, mechanical wolves charge into battle alongside brave young soldiers, and robots--miraculous, beloved robots!--are the faithful companions of everyone who's anyone.

Restless to forge her own destiny in this fantastic modern life, the bold noblewoman Anna and her enigmatic Android Karenina abandon a loveless marriage to seize passion with the daring, handsome Count Vronsky. But when their scandalous affair gets mixed up with dangerous futuristic villainy, the ensuing chaos threatens to rip apart their lives, their families, and--just maybe--all of planet Earth.

The Altar on Asconel

Whether or not he had wanted to turn back at the last minute, he couldn't have - the wave of dirty, hungry people carried him helplessly along in their fervour reach the temple. Like dope addicts, he told himself, they don't even care about themselves, only about the thing that is inside the temple!

He remembered the day ten years ago when his older brother had been made a Warden of Asconel, a prosperous and happy planet, and he and his other brothers had left in the interests of their people. Now they returned to a world where a fanatical cult had usurped the Warden's chair, and men and women were offering themselves up as human sacrifices to Belizuek - whoever or whatever that being from beyond the galaxy was...

I'll find out, he told himself grimly, when I enter these doors...

Android Avenger

All of a sudden I was moving faster than usual. The other passengers standing on the subway platform seemed rooted to their places. It took me only seconds to reach the top of the six flights of stairs, and then I was out of the station and moving down Fulton Street at better than forty miles an hour!

What was happening to me? It was as though I were the helpless passenger in a runaway car. Something else had assumed control and was guiding me.

My body turned into an office building and raced down the corridor to a room where a man was sitting at a console. He'd begun to swing around in his chair when my mouth opened, and a thin, blood-red ray shot out, cleaving the man from head to abdomen.

Then it was over. My mouth closed, and I stood there, stunned. Up to today I was Bob Tanner, an average, sane Citizen. Now what was I, man or murder machine?

It is the future, and while the world has changed, crime has not. When an influential lawyer is brutally murdered at the top of the Beanstalk, a towering exo-atmospheric elevator serving as Earth's hub of interplanetary trade, Detective Rick Harrison reluctantly accepts the case. Harrison's investigation soon leads him from the sprawling megapolis of New Angeles to the distant moon base of Heinlein, where he searches for clues amongst an uncooperative assortment of bioroids, clones, and disgruntled human laborers. But Harrison quickly finds himself at the center of an ever-deepening conspiracy, and is faced with the one question he never expected: What is the true definition of humanity?

Free Fall is the first novel based on Fantasy Flight Games's Android, conveying a dystopian world of technology and corruption. This rich universe is masterfully brought to life by a New York Times Bestselling author.

It is the future, and while the world has changed, crime has not. A tangled web of lies and corruption surrounds the New Angeles headquarters of Jinteki, a massive mega-corporation that leads the industry in cloning technology. When corporate watchdog and media blogger Tallie Perrault stumbles upon evidence of a shocking coverup, she begins to unravel a conspiracy with world-changing implications. Now, Perrault must share her story with veteran NAPD detective and troubled psychic Caprice Nisei. But can these two women uncover the truth before it's too late?

When a talented New Angeles Detective wakes up in bed with a woman whose name he can't recall, this seemingly harmless mystery indicates a much larger problem. After all, as one of the few bioroids in the New Angeles Police Department, Drake 3GI2RC isn't accustomed to forgetting... or even sleeping. But his personal issues are forced to wait when he and his human partner Shelley Nolan are assigned a high-profile murder investigation - one that will change his world! The wealthy CEO of IdentiKit, a successful android manufacturer, has been found dead in his hotel room. Now, what begins as just another murder in downtown New Angeles quickly escalates into a tangled web of intrigue, love, and betrayal, as Drake and his partner work to solve this brutal crime before the killer strikes again. Drake's investigation will lead him through the darkest corners of a conspiracy that reaches up the Beanstalk and out to the bustling industry of Mars... then right back to the woman of his dreams. Set in the dystopian future of the Android universe, Golem tells a story of murder, manipulation, and mystery in a world where humanity and technology collide.

Book Two of The Identity Trilogy Investigate the World of Android with Detective Drake 3GI2RC. n the future, the world has changed, but crime has not. Mimic is set in the gritty, cyber-noir world of Android. The story of New Angeles Detective Drake 3GI2RC continues as he navigates the tangled web of lies and corruption that lie in wait around every corner. Set in the Android universe and following the events of Golem, Mimic continues the story of New Angeles Detective Drake 3GI2RC after he has been reassigned to the moon with a new partner. Drake is not your average Bioroid. First, he's one of the New Angeles Police Department's few android cops, and second, he's haunted by the memories of another man, Simon Blake. Still struggling with questions about his identity, Drake continues to seek answers about his identity: where does his programming end, and his own personality begin?

Drake 3GI2RC is wanted for a murder he did not commit. Haunted by another mans memories, the NAPDs most infamous android cop must quickly uncover the truth of his own past. Unfortunately, his search has taken him from the familiar New Angeles streets to the politically volatile planet Mars. Will Drake find answers before he is caught in the midst of an interplanetary civil war?

Rebel is the third and final installment of The Identity Trilogy, a series based in the near-future dystopian world of Android. In it, Mel Odom concludes his tale of murder, intrigue, and what it means to be human.

Contents:

• 5 - "A" as in Android - (1951) - shortstory
• 19 - Voices in the Void - (1951) - novelette
• 49 - The Double Occupation - (1955) - novelette
• 89 - No-Risk Planet - (1955) - novelette
• 111 - The Music of the Spheres - (1956) - shortstory
• 124 - Code of the Bluster World - (1956) - shortstory
• 142 - All Flesh Is Brass - (1952) - shortstory
• 155 - It's Raining Frogs - shortfiction
• 188 - Anything Your Heart Desires - (1951) - shortstory
• 204 - Black Eyes and the Daily Grind - (1952) - shortstory
• 222 - The Impossible Weapon - (1952) - shortstory
• 240 - From Hidden Worlds - (1951) - novelette
• 277 - Pen Pal - (1951) - shortstory
• 295 - My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon - (1956) - shortstory

Table of Contents:

• Foreword (Asimov's Choice: Astronauts & Androids) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Lorelei at Storyville West - (1977) - shortstory by Sherwood Springer
• Quarantine - (1977) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• No Room in the Stable - (1971) - shortstory by A. Bertram Chandler
• A Many Splendored Thing - (1977) - shortstory by Linda Isaacs
• Immigrant to Desert-World - (1977) - poem by Ruth Berman
• Omit Flowers - (1977) - shortstory by Dean McLaughlin
• Louisville Slugger - (1977) - shortstory by Jack C. Haldeman, II
• Minster West - (1977) - novelette by William E. Cochrane
• Is Physics Finished? - (1977) - essay by Milton A. Rothman
• Good Taste - (1976) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• When There's No Man Around - (1977) - shortstory by Stephen Goldin
• In Darkness Waiting - (1977) - novelette by Stephen Leigh
• Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot - Twice! - [Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot (2) - 1] - (1977) - shortstory by Reginald Bretnor [as by Grendel Briarton ]
• Joelle - (1977) - novella by Poul Anderson

Was Andas an android - or the rightful Emperor, held prisoner on a distant planet while an android impersonated him on the Empire's throne world? Was Tallhasseee Mitford a modern archaeologist suffering from strange delusions, or has an ancient Egyptian ankh somehow hurled her personality far back in the mists of time to a Nubian kingdom where she is now a warrior princess named Ashake, caught up in a struggle between the gods of Egypt? Two very different heroes in the grip of forces beyond control, beyond comprehension, both destined to be the only hope of doomed civilisations...

This is the omnibus edition of the two books in the Psychocrat duology, Android at Arms and Wraiths of Time.

Awaking from a mind-frozen state, Andas Kastor must discover if he is the rightful human Emperor of Inyanga or an evil android double.

The mysterious planet Pelorus stared out of Main Mission Control's star-scanning screen like a monstrous orange unblinking eye. Is it daring Alpha to make the first move?

Or is Pelorus -- millions of light years from Mother Earth -- their long-awaited new home?

The Alphans make their fateful choice, and they are thrust into the heart of an android world where superhuman beings wield bizarre weapons. Their only chance of rescue is to trust a humanoid tribe whose friendly smiles hide a secret of devastating impact.

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most... unusual... way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: A type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony.

To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinare, who with the help of Brian Javna, a childhood friend turned artificial intelligence, scours the earth looking for the rare creature. And they find it, in the unknowing form of Robin Baker, pet store owner, whose genes contain traces of the sheep DNA.

But there are others with plans for the sheep as well: Mercenaries employed by the military. Adherents of a secret religion based on the writings of a 21st century science fiction author. And alien races, eager to start a revolution on their home world and a war on Earth.

To keep our planet from being enslaved, Harry will have to pull off the greatest diplomatic coup in history, a grand gambit that will take him from the halls of power to the lava-strewn battlefields of alien worlds. There's only one chance to get it right, to save the life of Robin Baker -- and to protect the future of humanity.

John Scalzi visits the universe of his bestselling novel The Android's Dream for this exclusive short story, featuring fan favorite character Judge Nugan Bufan Sn -- a brilliant alien jurist whose misanthropy and lack of social graces is matched only by his futile, unrequited for the game of golf. When he hits the links at the abysmal Dulles Woods golf course, the unexpected happens: He begins to play well. But there are more hazards on the course for Sn than just sand traps and disaffected caddies...

Long a staple of Scalzi's live readings, "Judge Sn Goes Golfing" has never seen print until now. Read what you've been missing.