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Earl Dumarest, now a vanquished and captive mercenary, is offered the choice of surrender to the fearsome Cyclan or the chance of freedom by the beautiful and ruthless Lady Delphine. The risks are terrifying - but has Dumarest a choice?

Intent on finding the legendary world of Terra - Earth - the planet of his birth; pursued by the brilliant and ruthless megalomaniac race, the Cyclan, whose secret key to Galactic domination only he possesses; trapped on a plague ship hurtling through a universe determined to destroy it, and captained by a madman - Earl Dumarest is tempted by the irresistible but fatal promise of Delphine.

The choice is simple - to abandon his dreams or perish by them, just as they promise fulfilment.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Lou Aronica and Shawna McCarthy
• Voices of the Kill - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• This Is the Year Zero - shortstory by Andrew Weiner
• Proselytes - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• The Fort Moxie Branch - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
• PrayerWare - shortstory by Jack Massa
• Mannequins - novelette by Charles Oberndorf
• Moments of Clarity - shortstory by Elissa Malcohn
• A Gift of the People - shortstory by Robert Sampson
• The Last Rainmaking Song - shortstory by Jeff Mariotte
• Tinker to Evers to Chance - shortstory by Steven Bryan Bieler
• The Farm System - shortstory by Howard V. Hendrix
• Ghost Ship - shortstory by Walton Simons
• Philippa's Hands - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Reflections in a Magnetic Mirror - shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason
• Listening - novelette by Ronnie Seagren
• My Year with the Aliens - novelette by Lisa Goldstein
• Oz - shortstory by Lewis Shiner
• Dead Men on TV - shortstory by Pat Murphy
• Once in a Lullaby - novelette by Fred Bals
• My Imaginary Parents - shortstory by Terry L. Parkinson
• Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge - shortstory by James Morrow
• Beyond the Seventh Sphere - novelette by Aaron Schutz
• Magister Rudy - novelette by Richard Grant
• The Thing Itself - shortstory by Michael Blumlein
• Journals of the Plague Years - novella by Norman Spinrad

Ranging from the unforeseen consequences of an angelic invasion (Robert Sampson's "A Plethora of Angels") to a poignant last visit by a modern-day Frankenstein's monster to its former home (Alan Rodgers's "Frankenstein Goes Home"), the 27 original stories in this collection provide a varied sampling of some of the best writers in speculative fiction. Contributions by established authors including Vonda N. McIntyre, Patricia A. McKillip, David Brin, and Greg Bear as well as new authors David Cleary, Joseph Gangemi, Marcos Donnelly, Deborah Million, and Mike Kallenberger testify to the continued strength of the genre. -- Library Journal

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Full Spectrum 2) - essay by Lou Aronica
• 'Saurus Wrecks - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Whistle - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
• Attitude of the Earth Toward Other Bodies - shortstory by James Sallis
• Malheur Maar - shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
• The Boy in the Tree - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• All Our Sins Forgotten - shortstory by David Ira Cleary
• The Painted Man - shortstory by Joseph Gangemi
• A Plague of Strangers - shortstory by Karen Haber
• The Giving Plague - (1988) - shortstory by David Brin
• Re: Generations - novella by Mike McQuay
• Silver - novelette by Steven Spruill
• As A Still Small Voice - shortstory by Marcos Donnelly
• Then I Sleeps and Dreams of Rose - shortstory by Deborah Million
• A Plethora of Angels - shortstory by Robert Sampson
• Strange Attractors - shortstory by Lori Ann White
• Barbara Hutton Toujours - shortstory by Gay Partington Terry
• The Gamemaker - novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• An Excerpt from The Confession of the Alchemist Edward Dee, Who Was Burnt in the City of Findias on the Planet Paracelsus, 1437 PIC (Post Imperial Colonial Period) - shortstory by Michaela Roessner
• The Doorkeeper of Khaat - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Dogs Die - shortstory by Michael Kallenberger
• Rain, Steam and Speed - shortstory by Steven Popkes
• Close to Light - shortstory by Charles Oberndorf
• Shiva - shortstory by James Killus
• Sleepside Story - (1988) - novella by Greg Bear
• Frankenstein Goes Home - shortstory by Alan Rodgers
• The Edge of the World - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• The Part of Us That Loves - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson

Ursula K. Le Guin and Poul Anderson are the best known of the 22 talented contributors to this diverse and richly imaginative collection, the third in a series of speculative fiction anthologies.

In "Desert Rain," Mark L. Van Name and Pat Murphy give a high-tech variation on the familiar relationship triangle: a man named Jeff, a woman named Teresa and a prototype of a computerized home management system named Ian, a caring kind of guy who could "steal your heart."

In Wolfgang Jeschke's "Loitering at Death's Door" (translated from the German), coming back from the dead isn't all it's cracked up to be, when Kristos Katsuranis returns as a "really lousy copy" of his former self.

An Afrikaner realizes what it means to be black in South Africa when he becomes invisible to other whites in Michael Bishop's "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana."

In Ted Chiang's "Division by Zero," a brilliant mathematician's world begins to crumble when she discovers she can prove, irrefutably, that one equals two.

The people of Earth learn a lesson in humanity when they detect a sign of life on another planet: an SOS from "alien, but cute" beings, in Norman Spinrad's "The Helping Hand." -- Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Full Spectrum 3) - essay by Lou Aronica
• Daughter Earth - shortstory by James Morrow
• Dogstar Man - shortstory by Nancy Willard
• Prism Tree - shortstory by Tony Daniel
• Desert Rain - novella by Mark L. Van Name and Pat Murphy
• Precious Moments - shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Lethe - novelette by Peg Kerr
• Lake Agassiz - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
• Transfusion - shortstory by Joëlle Wintrebert (trans. of Transfusion 1988)
• The Dark at the Corner of the Eye - shortstory by Patricia Anthony
• Tracking the Random Variable - shortstory by Marcos Donnelly
• Division by Zero - shortstory by Ted Chiang
• Matter's End - (1989) - novella by Gregory Benford
• Newton's Sleep - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Helping Hand - shortstory by Norman Spinrad
• Fondest of Memories - shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson
• Loitering at Death's Door - novelette by Wolfgang Jeschke (trans. of Nekromanteion 1985)
• Rokuro - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• Police Actions - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
• Black Glass - novelette by Karen Joy Fowler
• Chango Chingamadre, Dutchman, & Me - shortstory by R. V. Branham
• Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana - (1989) - novella by Michael Bishop
• Snow on Sugar Mountain - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• When the Rose Is Dead - novelette by David Zindell

The editors of Full Spectrum have gathered here original speculative fiction that is astonishing both in range and quality. From medieval sorcery to dystopian futures, from computer-generated virtual realities to space research outposts, from idol worship to scientific philosophy, the volume shows off the best of well-known (Stephen Donaldson, Ursula Le Guin) and not so well-known SF and fantasy authors.

Dave Smeds conjures a future where regeneration and eternal youth are made possible through biotechnology; his story tells what happens to a dysfunctional mother and daughter in a world where suicide is a hobby and murder a misdemeanor. A. R. Morlan's men and women have changed social roles due to a disease that has reduced male births to less than 15%. David Brin and L. Timmel Duchamp also weigh in with reproduction stories, Brin through a highly technical story of a future in which cloning has made men unnecessary, Duchamp through a tale of an infectious hermaphrodite from another world. The focus on women throughout and the general excellence of the stories should give this volume broad appeal. -- Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

• Fragments from the Women's Writing - essay by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Fragments from the Women's Writing - poem by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Motherhood, Etc. - (1993) - novelette by L. Timmel Duchamp
• The Saints - (1993) - shortstory by Bonita Kale
• The Best Lives of Our Years - (1993) - shortstory by A. R. Morlan
• Embodied In Its Opposite - (1993) - shortstory by John M. Landsberg
• Foreigners - (1993) - shortstory by Mark Rich
• The Googleplex Comes and Goes - (1993) - shortstory by Del Stone, Jr.
• The Beauty Addict - (1993) - novella by Ray Aldridge
• In Medicis Gardens - shortstory by Jean-Claude Dunyach (trans. of Dans les jardins Médicis 1986)
• The Woman Who Loved Pigs - (1993) - novella by Stephen R. Donaldson
• The Story So Far - (1993) - shortstory by Martha Soukup
• Suicidal Tendencies - [Nanodocs] - (1993) - novelette by Dave Smeds
• The Mind's Place - (1993) - novelette by Gregory Feeley
• Ah! Bright Wings - (1993) - novelette by Howard V. Hendrix
• Vox Domini - (1993) - novelette by Bruce Holland Rogers
• The Erl-King - (1993) - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• The Death of John Patrick Yoder - (1993) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Human, Martian - One, Two, Three - (1993) - novelette by Kevin J. Anderson
• What Continues, What Fails ... - (1991) - novelette by David Brin
• Roar at the Heart of the World - (1993) - shortstory by Danith McPherson

The fifth in a series of award-winning anthologies offers twenty-eight diverse, all-original stories by the genre's brightest new talents, including William Barton, Richard Bowes, Karen Joy Fowler, and Gene Wolfe.

Table of Contents:

• Simply Indispensable - novelette by Michael Bishop
• The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom: (Hommage à Heinlein) - novelette by Jonathan Lethem
• Evita, Among the Wild Beasts - shortstory by S. A. Stolnack
• The Music of What Happens - novelette by Howard V. Hendrix
• A Belly Full of Stars - shortstory by Michael Gust
• Cool Zone - shortstory by Pat York
• Of Silence and Slow Time - shortstory by Karawynn Long
• The Breakthrough - shortstory by Paul Park
• Shimabara - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• What Dreams are Made On - novelette by Mark Bourne
• Which Darkness Will Come Upon Us? - shortstory by John M. Landsberg
• Wonders of the Invisible World - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of 'Tribes of the Pacific Coast' - shortstory by Neal Stephenson
• The Sixty-Third Anniversary of Hysteria - shortstory by Lisa Mason
• When a Man's an Empty Kettle - novelette by William Barton
• The Dead Eye of the Camera - shortstory by Jean-Claude Dunyach (trans. of Sous l'oeil mort de la caméra 1986)
• Tale of the Blue Spruce Dreaming (Or, How to Be Flesh) - novelette by Jean Mark Gawron
• The Question Eaters - shortstory by Tricia Sullivan
• Homecoming - shortstory by Doug Beason
• The Massive Quantities of Ice - shortstory by William John Watkins
• Hearts and Flowers - shortstory by Lawrence Watt-Evans
• Goddoggit - shortstory by Emily Devenport
• Saving Face - shortstory by Andy Lane
• Ruby - (1995) - shortstory by Alan Rodgers
• Where the Shadows Rise and Fall - shortstory by Pat MacEwen
• Fountains in Summer - shortstory by Richard Bowes
• A Fruitful Harvest - shortstory by Lauren Fitzgerald
• The Ziggurat - novella by Gene Wolfe

Criminologist Harmony Black is a witch with a loaded Glock. Her partner, Jessie Temple, is packing fierce lupine heat. Together, they're part of Vigilant Lock, an elite FBI black ops group dedicated to defeating criminals with supernatural connections. But when they uncover a demonic conspiracy in the highest ranks of the government, it appears that everything Harmony and her friends have worked for, fought for, and risked their lives for might be a lie.

Framed for a casino massacre, Harmony and Jessie are on the run--in the real world and in their own. From the seedy casinos of Atlantic City to the steamy bayous of Louisiana and the imposing facades of Washington, DC, there's not a soul on earth they can trust.

The only way they can clear their names is to take down the conspiracy from within and uncover the truth behind a secret that both the government and the powers of hell want to keep buried.

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of ten brilliant stories by such masters as Frederik Pohl, Robert Sheckley, and Robert Heinlein.

The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Contents:

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• The Midas Plague by Frederick Pohl
• Limiting Factor by Clifford D. Simak
• The Executioner by Algis Budrys
• Null-P by William Tenn
• The Homing Instinct of Joe Vargo by Stephen Barr
• Special Flight by John Berryman
• Inanimate Objection by H. Chandler Elliot
• Pilgrimage to Earth by Robert Sheckley
• Unhuman Sacrifice by Kathleen MacLean
• By His Bootstraps by Robert Heinlein (as Anson MacDonald)

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• Beyond Bedlam by Wyman Guin
• Bridge by James Blish
• Resurrection by A. E. van Vogt
• Second Variety by Philip K. Dick
• Sense from Thought Divide by Mark Clifton
• The Feeling of Power by Isaac Asimov
• There is a Tide by Brian W. Aldiss
• Vintage Season by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (as Lawrence O'Donnell)

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• The Voices of Time by J. G. Ballard
• The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke
• Dreams are Sacred by Peter Philips
• Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon
• Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester
• Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson
• We Would See a Sign by Mark Rose
• Exploration Team by Murray Leinster

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• Unreal Estates (essay) by Brian Aldiss, Kingsley Amis and C. S. Lewis
• The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
• Gadget vs. Trend by Christopher Anvil
• Such Stuff by Christopher Anvil
• The Sellers of the Dream by John Jakes
• The Large Ant by Howard Fast
• Barrier by Anthony Boucher
• The Great Nebraska Sea by Allan Danzig
• Compassion Circuit by John Wyndham
• A Planet Named Shayol by Cordwainer Smith
• Into the Shop by Ron Goulart
• The Secret Songs by Fritz Leiber
• Stranger Station by Damon Knight
• Hot Planet by Hal Clement
• The Choice by Wayland Hilton-Young

What is the magic of science fiction?

It is a mode in which new and exciting ideas can be dramatized. It is a vehicle that throws the tendencies of our own society into startling relief; a medium in which human beings can be sharply satirized, and also warned of what they may become; a stage as large as space and time on which mankind may be seen acting under the stresses of undreamed-of social, psychological, and physical pressures; above all, a refreshing and necessary outlet for our sense of wonder.

So say novelist Kingsley Amis and poet Robert Conquest, science fiction addicts from boyhood, who triumphantly prove their contention in this dazzling collection of brilliant stories. The stories in Spectrum exhibit excellent writing, humor, and satire as well as high adventure, terror, and stunning ingenuity. An illuminating introduction by the editors adds to the pleasure of a wonderfully varied and richly entertaining volume.

Table of Contents

• Introduction by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest
• Student Body by F. L. Wallace
• Big Sword by Pauline Ashwell (as Paul Ash)
• The Far Look by Theodore L. Thomas
• Grandpa by James H. Schmitz
• Commencement Night by Richard Ashby
• Mother of Invention by Tom Godwin
• Crucifixus Etiam by Walter M. Miller Jr.
• Noise Level by Raymond F. Jones

\

It is the 147th century.

In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.

In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament's most closely kept secret.

Lycaste, a lovesick recluse outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.

Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.

Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament--the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.

From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, The Promise of the Child is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.

The universe is in disarray. Rebellions against the immortal Amaranthine are spreading, worlds and moons have fallen, and the Emperor is missing. An ancient being has reawoken and claimed the throne. And the most important invention in the history of time itself has been stolen.

And amidst this chaos, lives continue. A pair of sisters and one small child flee across a world they know nothing of. An outcast, hunted by his tormentors, is caught up in the machinations of a petty warlord. An imprisoned AI creates empires of its own in the building to which it is confined, and seeks an escape.

It is the 147th century. The mighty era of Homo Sapiens is at an end.

In the Westerly Provinces of the Old World, the hunt is on for the young queen Arabis, and the beast that holds her captive. In the brutal hominid Investiture, revolution has come. The warlord Cunctus, having seized the Vulgar worlds, invites every Prism to pick a side. In the Firmament, once the kingdom of the Immortal Amaranthine, all ships converge on the foundry of Gliese. The grandest battle in the history of mammalian kind has begun.

Perception, ancient machine spirit, must take back its mortal remains in a contest for the Firmament itself. Ghaldezuel, now the Grand Marshal of Cunctus' new empire, must travel to the deepest lagoon in the Investiture, a place where monsters dwell. Captain Maril, lost amongst the Hedron Stars, finds himself caught between colossal powers the likes of which he'd never dreamt.

And for Aaron the Long-Life, he who has waited so very, very long for his revenge, things are only getting started...

The third book in the Web Shifter's Library series returns to the adventures of Esen, a shapeshifting alien who must navigate the perils of a hostile universe.

Here Be Monsters

Something malevolent lurks in deep space, something able to pluck starships from their course and cause their crews to vanish.

It has a purpose: to use those ships to mark an unmistakable boundary. A warning.

It has an interest: Botharis, the planet where Esen and Paul have established the All Species' Library of Linguistics and Culture. Home to Veya Ragem, whose ship was the first to trespass.

Esen and Paul will need every resource, every friend and even foes, if they're to discover who--or what is behind this before more are lost. Once they do, Esen plans to use her abilities to comprehend and reason with this new species. What she doesn't know? There truly are monsters. And they wait for you in the dark.

Just ask Evan Gooseberry.