Search Worlds Without End

A monster travels back in time to destroy a race called Man on a planet called Earth...

A mild-mannered husband is stranded centuries ahead in a world of peep-show barbarism...

A jaded sportsman returns to the prehistoric past to hunt a gigantic brontosaurus...

The governor of a penal space settlement makes the supreme sacrifice for the colony he loves...

Here are startling stories of the future – adventures that soar beyond the barriers of time and space, yet remain perilously close to the boundaries of reality.

Table of Contents:

• T (1956) - short story
• Not for an Age (1955) - short story
• Poor Little Warrior! (1958) - short story
• The Failed Men (1956) - short story
• Carrion Country (1958) - short story
• Judas Danced (1958) - short story
• Psyclops (1956) - short story
• Outside (1955) - short story
• Gesture of Farewell (1957) - novelette
• The New Father Christmas (1958) - short story
• Blighted Profile (1958) - short story
• Our Kind of Knowledge (1955) - short story

Meanwhile, on another side of the Universe. . .

Meet Gem ser'Edreth, a wizard with electronics -- and a freelance thief. Deliberately solitary, unencumbered by family or friends, he immerses himself in his profession, rising to a pinnacle of skill so exalted that the planetary crime boss seeks him out with a commission to steal. Refusing the commission, of course, is his first mistake.

Gem's hidden past proves an unexpected liability and his plants to leave the planet go catastrophically awry. Suddenly embroiled in interplanetary politics, a potential interstellar war, and in possession of an ancient object of power an an unwanted cousin, Gem discovers that the mysterious Witness for the Telios may hold the key to his salvation -- or his undoing.

A showcase of the best of Robin Wayne Bailey's science fiction short work spanning his entire career from some of his earliest stories to some of his most recent.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Keepers of Earth
• 29 - The Golden Cats
• 45 - Shin-Gi-Tai
• 67 - Doing Time
• 85 - Yonada
• 99 - Toy Soldiers
• 143 - Prometheus Bringing Fire
• 161 - Blindfold
• 181 - Angel on the Outward Side
• 203 - The Terminal Solution
• 219 - The Children's Crusade
• 243 - About the Author and Cover Artist (Turn Left to Tomorrow)

After the collapse of civilization Nora and her family live a quiet life in the Midwestern Plains until a great fiery god of the sky descends and makes her an irresistible offer--an offer that will take her away from those she loves forever.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

'Tomorrow I'm going to begin my novel...'

A would-be author has taken time out from life in the city to live in a cabin by a river and write a novel. And not just any novel. A novel that will avoid all the pitfalls and limitations of other novels, a novel that will include everything.

At first these new surroundings are so idyllic that it's hard to find the motivation to get started. And then, in all its brutality, the outside world intervenes...

Ranging constantly backwards and forwards in time and space, Tomorrow becomes a restless search for meaning in a precarious and elusive world.

Two unusual black cheetahs share a mental link, one cat coming from the past to reveal scenes from his life with the young pharaoh Tutankhamen, and one struggling to survive in a future world ravaged by ecological disaster.

The scene is Earth in the near future. The scientific force of the Dictator Syndicate, controlled by five men, has reduced whole segments of the population to mindless robots. Humanitarian dissenters are driven mad... then swiftly murdered. As civilization's end rushes closer, one lone man opposes the forces of darkness... only he can nullify the powerful invention of the evil five!

One of the original novels of post-nuclear holocaust America, The Long Tomorrow is considered by many to be one of the finest science fiction novels ever written on the subject. The story has inspired generations of new writers and is still as mesmerizing today as when it was originally written.

Len and Esau are young cousins living decades after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization as we know. The rulers of the post-war community have forbidden the existence of large towns and consider technology evil.

However Len and Esau long for more than their simple agrarian existence. Rumors of mythical Bartorstown, perhaps the last city in existence, encourage the boys to embark on a journey of discovery and adventure that will call into question not only firmly held beliefs, but the boys' own personal convictions.

Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow

Strange, haunting, bizarre, grotesque... stories to set you shivering, gasping with terror, gaping with wonder... timeless stories selected by RAY BRADBURY

Each - in the remarkable Bradbury tradition - a vivid and unforgettable adventure into the unknown, written by one of the master storytellers of our time... Roald Dahl, Christopher Isherwood, John Steinbeck, Shirley Jackson, John Cheever, E.B. White, Hortense Calisher, Franz Kafka, Ludwig Bemelmans, Raby Bradbury, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and 15 others!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1952) - essay by Ray Bradbury
• The Hour After Westerly - (1947) - shortstory by Robert M. Coates
• Housing Problem - (1944) - shortstory by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Henry Kuttner ]
• The Portable Phonograph - (1941) - shortstory by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
• None Before Me - (1949) - shortstory by Sidney Carroll
• Putzi - (1935) - shortstory by Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Daemon Lover - (1949) - shortstory by Shirley Jackson
• Miss Winters and the Wind - (1946) - shortstory by Christine Noble Govan
• Mr. Death and the Redheaded Woman - (1950) - shortstory by Helen Eustis
• Jeremy In the Wind - (1949) - shortstory by Nigel Kneale
• The Glass Eye - (1944) - shortstory by John Keir Cross
• Saint Katy the Virgin - (1938) - shortstory by John Steinbeck
• Night Flight - (1944) - shortstory by Josephine W. Johnson
• The Cocoon - (1946) - shortstory by John B. L. Goodwin
• The Hand - (1947) - shortstory by Wessel Hyatt Smitter
• The Sound Machine - (1949) - shortstory by Roald Dahl
• The Laocoön Complex - (1937) - shortstory by J. C. Furnas
• I Am Waiting - (1939) - shortstory by Christopher Isherwood
• The Witnesses - (1944) - shortstory by William Sansom
• The Enormous Radio - (1947) - shortstory by John Cheever
• Heartburn - (1951) - shortstory by Hortense Calisher
• The Supremacy of Uruguay - (1933) - shortstory by E. B. White
• The Pedestrian - (1951) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• A Note for the Milkman - (1950) - shortstory by Sidney Carroll
• The Eight Mistresses - (1937) - shortstory by Jean Hrolda
• In the Penal Colony - (1948) - novelette by Franz Kafka
• Inflexible Logic - (1940) - shortstory by Russell Maloney

A collection of humorous quatrains by John Brunner, each with a cartoon by Arthur Thomson (ATom).

Table of Contents:

• John Brunner - essay by Don D'Ammassa
• Android
• Bug-Eyed Monster
• Chemist
• Doctor
• Earthmen
• Flying Saucers
• Genius
• Hypnotist
• Inorganic Matter
• Jovian
• Knob
• Larva
• Mutant
• Neanderthalers
• Oölitic Strata, Oligocene
• Planets
• Question
• Robot
• Spaceship
• Time Paradoxes
• Utopia
• Virgin
• Weather
• Xperiments
• Yeti
• Zoo

Transported through time to an earth of the distant future, Luke Tabor discovers that a genetic disaster has led to overbreeding, and he is coveted to enhance the earth's weakening gene pool.

From the grandmaster of science fiction, a dozen memorable tales filled with wonder and imagination.

Contents:

• 5 - Preface (Reach for Tomorrow) - (1956) - essay
• 11 - Rescue Party - (1946) - novelette
• 43 - A Walk in the Dark - (1950) - shortstory
• 55 - The Forgotten Enemy - (1948) - shortstory
• 63 - Technical Error - (1946) - shortstory
• 83 - The Parasite - (1953) - shortstory
• 97 - The Fires Within - (1947) - shortstory
• 108 - The Awakening - (1942) - shortstory
• 114 - Trouble with the Natives - (1951) - shortstory
• 129 - The Curse - (1946) - shortstory
• 132 - Time's Arrow - (1950) - shortstory
• 149 - Jupiter Five - (1953) - novelette
• 184 - The Possessed - (1953) - shortstory

Science fiction is a vital part of popular culture, influencing the way we all look at the world. TV shows like Star Trek and movies from Forbidden Planet to Inception have influenced scientists to enter the profession and have shaped our futures. Science fiction doesn't set out to predict what will happen - it's far more about how human beings react to "What if?..." - but it is fascinating to see how science fiction and reality sometimes converge, sometimes take extraordinarily different paths.

Ten Billion Tomorrows brings to life a whole host of science fiction topics, from the virtual environment of The Matrix and the intelligent computer HAL in 2001, to force fields, ray guns and cyborgs. We discover how science fiction has excited us with possibilities, whether it is Star Trek's holodeck inspiring makers of iconic video games Doom and Quake to create the virtual interactive worlds that transformed gaming, or the strange physics that has made real cloaking devices possible. Mixing remarkable science with the imagination of our greatest science fiction writers, Ten Billion Tomorrows will delight science fiction lovers and popular science devotees alike.

Table of Contents:

• Nineteen Ninety-Four - (1960) - short story
• The Jar of Latakia - (1954) - short story
• The Brain Child - (1956) - short story
• Repeat Performance - (1958) - short story
• A Question of Time - (1956) - novelette
• Tomorrow's Gift - (1958) - short story
• Judgement Day - (1963) - short story
• The Piccadilly Interval - (1963) - short story
• Death Watch - (1963) - short story
• Welcome Home - (1963) - short story
• The Snow Crystals - (1970) - short story
• Sanctuary - (1970) - short story

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Welcome Home - (1963) - short story
• 18 - Death Watch - (1963) - short story
• 27 - The Piccadilly Interval - (1963) - short story
• 36 - The Mouse That Roared - (1960) - short story
• 45 - Nineteen Ninety-Four - (1960) - short story
• 61 - When the Saucers Came - (1960) - short story
• 75 - The First Martian - (1960) - short story
• 82 - The Lizard of Woz - (1958) - short story
• 93 - The Life and Death of Plunky Goo - (1963) - short story
• 98 - Judgement Day - (1963) - short story
• 108 - Vertical Hold - (1963) - short story
• 115 - The Doomsday Story - (1963) - short story

Table of Contents:

• The Enlightened Ones - novelette
• The Butterflies - (1956) - short story
• M81: Ursa Major - (1956) - short story (variant of The End of the Journey)
• Intruders - (1957) - novelette (variant of Intruders on the Moon)
• The Jar of Latakia - (1954) - short story
• Falcon Chase - (1956) - short story
• The Brain Child - (1956) - short story
• Repeat Performance - short story
• A Question of Time - (1956) - novelette
• Tomorrow's Gift - (1958) - short story

Table of Contents:

• When the Saucers Came - (1960) - short story
• The Life and Death of Plunky Goo - (1963) - short story
• The Enlightened Ones - (1958) - novelette
• The Butterflies - (1956) - short story
• The Lizard of Woz - (1958) - short story
• M81: Ursa Major - (1956) - short story (variant of The End of the Journey)
• Second Chance - (1971) - short story
• Intruders - (1957) - novelette (variant of Intruders on the Moon)
• The Menhir - (1968) - short story
• Introduction (Unborn Tomorrow) - (1971) - essay

A winter's night, Venice, 1815.

A 217-year-old-dog is searching for his lost master.

So begins the journey of Tomorrow, a dog who must travel through the gilded courts of kings and the brutal battlefields of Europe in search of the man who granted him immortality.

But Tomorrow's journey is also a race against time. Danger stalks his path, and in the shadows lurks an old enemy. Before his pursuer can reach him, he must find his master - or lose him forever.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Song of the Soul - essay by Harlan Ellison
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - (1967)
• The Discarded - (1959)
• Deeper Than the Darkness - (1957)
• Blind Lightning - (1956)
• All the Sounds of Fear - (1962)
• The Silver Corridor - (1956)
• "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - (1965)
• Bright Eyes - (1965)
• Are You Listening? - (1958)
• Try a Dull Knife - (1968)
• In Lonely Lands - (1959)
• Eyes of Dust - (1959)
• Nothing for My Noon Meal - (1958)
• O Ye of Little Faith - (1968)
• The Time of the Eye - (1959)
• Life Hutch - (1956)
• The Very Last Day of a Good Woman - (1958)
• Night Vigil - (1957)
• Lonelyache - (1964)
• Pennies, Off a Dead Man's Eyes - (1969)

"The Tomorrow People," was penned by well known author, Judith Merril, who spins a chilling sci-fi tale. Something on Mars was killing people! An ill-fated expedition to the Red Planet vanished without so much as a trace. On another expedition, only one man came back alive. That man was Johnny Wendt, and he was the only man to ever set foot on Mars and return to tell about it. His knowledge could prove to be decisive in the desperate East-West race for outer space superiority. Unfortunately, Johnny Wendt didn't know just exactly what it was that made Mars a death trap...and he didn't know that he'd brought it back with him!

When the United States is destroyed by invading PanAsians, the only hope for the country's survival rests with six men and a newly-developed nuclear weapon.

For the first time, all 21 stories, novellas and novels forming Heinlein's monumental Future History are collected together here in paperback. The great achievement of this meticulous architct-of-the-future's life work lies in his unique gift to a hopeful mankind---our sturggles and our history are glorified by this extension into the far future.

• "Life-Line", 1939; a month before "Misfit"
• "Misfit", 1939
• "The Roads Must Roll", 1940
• "Requiem", 1940
• "'If This Goes On—'", 1940
• "Coventry", 1940
• "Blowups Happen", 1940
• "Universe", 1941
• "Methuselah's Children", 1941; extended and published as a novel, 1958
• "Logic of Empire", 1941
• "'—We Also Walk Dogs'", 1941
• "Space Jockey", 1947
• "'It's Great to Be Back!'", 1947
• "The Green Hills of Earth", 1947
• "Ordeal in Space", 1948
• "The Long Watch", 1948
• "Gentlemen, Be Seated!", 1948
• "The Black Pits of Luna", 1948
• "Delilah and the Space Rigger", 1949
• "The Man Who Sold the Moon", 1950
• "The Menace From Earth", 1957
• "Searchlight", 1962

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Preface (Tomorrow, the Stars) - (1952) - essay by Robert A. Heinlein (variant of Introduction (Tomorrow, the Stars))
• 19 - I'm Scared - (1951) - short story by Jack Finney
• 33 - The Silly Season - (1950) - short story by C. M. Kornbluth
• 49 - The Report on the Barnhouse Effect - (1950) - short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• 63 - The Tourist Trade - (1951) - short story by Wilson Tucker [as by Bob Tucker]
• 74 - Rainmaker - (1949) - short story by John Reese
• 88 - Absalom - (1946) - short story by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Henry Kuttner]
• 104 - The Monster - (1951) - short story by Lester del Rey
• 118 - Jay Score - [Jay Score / Marathon - 1] - (1941) - short story by Eric Frank Russell
• 136 - Betelgeuse Bridge - (1951) - short story by William Tenn
• 155 - Survival Ship - (1951) - short story by Judith Merril
• 165 - Keyhole - (1951) - short story by Murray Leinster
• 183 - Misbegotten Missionary - (1950) - short story by Isaac Asimov (variant of Green Patches)
• 200 - The Sack - (1950) - short story by William Morrison
• 221 - Poor Superman - novelette by Fritz Leiber (variant of Appointment in Tomorrow 1951)

Midway through the 21st century, an integrated global computer network manages much of the world's affairs. A proposed major software upgrade - an artificial intelligence - will give the system an unprecedented degree of independent decision-making, but serious questions are raised in regard to how much control can safely be given to a non-human intelligence. In order to more fully assess the system, a new space-station habitat - a world in miniature - is developed for deployment of the fully operational system, named Spartacus. This mini-world can then be "attacked" in a series of escalating tests to assess the system's responses and capabilities. If Spartacus gets out of hand, the system can be shut down and the station destroyed... unless Spartacus decides to take matters into its own hands and take the fight to Earth.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Introduction (Against Tomorrow) - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 13 - Wanted in Surgery - novelette by Harlan Ellison
• 44 - "All You Zombies--" - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
• 57 - Rainbird - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• 69 - The Peak Lords - short story by Miriam Allen deFord
• 77 - Prototaph - short story by Keith Laumer
• 81 - Broken Image - novelette by Thomas N. Scortia
• 107 - Young Girl at an Open Half-Door - short story by Fred Saberhagen
• 117 - Here Is Thy Sting - novelette by John Jakes
• 164 - Reason for Honor - short story by Robert Hoskins
• 170 - How the Whip Came Back - short story by Gene Wolfe
• 186 - Mektopia! - short story by Richard A. Lupoff
• 198 - Paradise Regained - short story by Theodore R. Cogswell and Theodore L. Thomas
• 207 - Think Only This of Me - novelette by Michael Kurland
• 230 - The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis - short story by Edward Bryant
• 244 - Un Bel Di - novelette by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
• 263 - A Personage of Royal Blood - short story by Willo Davis Roberts
• 279 - Final Examination - short story by Scott Edelstein and Jonathan Phillips
• 283 - Mirror Watch - short story by Alan Brennert

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Strange Tomorrows) - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 10 - Shadow on the Sand - novella by John D. MacDonald
• 106 - The Comedian's Children - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• 158 - Firewater! - novella by William Tenn
• 226 - The Greatest Invention - novelette by Jack Williamson
• 284 - Planetfall - novella by Hal Clement

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Introduction (Swords Against Tomorrow) - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 12 - Demon Journey - (1951) - novella by Poul Anderson
• 66 - Bazaar of the Bizarre - [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• 92 - Vault of Silence - (1970) - novelette by Lin Carter
• 122 - Devils in the Walls - [Brak the Barbarian] - novelette by John Jakes
• 144 - Citadel of Lost Ships - [Venus] - novelette by Leigh Brackett

Table of Contents:

• vii - Introduction (Tomorrow 1) - essay by Robert Hoskins
• 9 - The Civilization Game - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• 34 - Trojan Horse Laugh - novelette by John D. MacDonald
• 82 - The End of the Line - novelette by James H. Schmitz
• 116 - Territory - novella by Poul Anderson
• 167 - The Sickness - novelette by William Tenn

Set in an uncertain, strife-torn future when the first starships of man are traveling across the galaxy--but not without extracting a terrible price from their crews.

The novel's thought-provoking opening line, "Space is deep, Man is small and Time is his relentless enemy," powerfully captures the challenges facing the brave men and women of these vessels--people who must give up their former lives to explore space as entire generations and whole societies come and go on Earth, while those aboard remain essentially untouched by the passage of time in a vessel traveling at nearly the speed of light.

This immersing, remarkably ruthless drama begins when Alan Corday, a naively unseasoned but brialliant young engineer, is shanghaied from the spaceport at New Chicago and taken aboard the "Hound of Heaven"--bound for the stars.

Commanded by a distantly mysterious but charismatic leader by the name of Captain Jocelyn, the "Hound" traverses teh galaxy in an effort to keep a lifeline between Earth and the first colonies in other star systems. But in the time span of a few crossings, conditions on Earth grow gradually worse and more dangerous, while those aboard are increasingly treated as outcasts and a threat to the powers that control the planet.

Against his will, Corday is mercilessly driven by Jocelyn to use his untested intellect and abilities to serve the ship and the beleaguered space colonies. But as events unfold among the turbulent reaches of the galaxy, and during the perilous returns to Earth, Corday discovers a startling truth about his destiny that will give a whole new meaning to man's place in the stars.

Could he hold the world together?

The Vikes were in the saddle riding high - peddling forbidden pleasures, substituting drugs for cocktails, following a twisted path which would permit mankind to escape reality. And only one man stood between them and a world gone mad...

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW is more than a frighteningly dynamic story. It is a savage satire on the perverse thrill-seekers of today - those who turn-on only for drugs, kicks, and sex! A great science-fiction novel that will blow your mind!

The Federation considered itself a technological Utopia - and the innumerable planets under its sway were guaranteed stability by virtue of the time-change teams. For whenever a planetary historian located evidence in the past of any newly found world that it might evolve into a possible menace, a team of seven would be sent to tamper with that world's history. But the seven men that went to Ygone encountered a fate no theorist had projected. They met with immediate ambush, they met with a strangely peaceful culture that could not be fathomed, and they finally were confronted with all the contradictions and temporal knots that the whole system of time-change had to imply.

Somewhere out there in the dark, with both moons in hiding, the Saracen Horde was preparing for a night attack on the Holy Crusade. You could always tell because the Guests were gathering in their flitterboats.

But for the men in the field, that didn't count. It was warfare, it was deadly, and there was a Sacred Cause to be won. That was the real thing.

Or it had been for Corporal Allan until his accident. Then he found he had a dozen warring epochs to fight through before he could win his own sacred cause--the real real thing.

Twenty-three stories from one of speculative fiction's up-and-coming stars, Pushcart and Journey Prize-nominated author Rich Larson.

Welcome to the Tomorrow Factory.

On your left, post-human hedonists on a distant space station bring diseases back in fashion, two scavengers find a super-powered parasite under the waves of Sunk Seattle, and a terminally-ill chemist orchestrates an asteroid prison break.

On your right, an alien optometrist spins illusions for irradiated survivors of the apocalypse, a high-tech grifter meets his match in near-future Thailand, and two teens use a blackmarket personality mod to get into the year's wickedest, wildest party.

This collection of published and original fiction by award-winning writer Rich Larson will bring you from a Bujumbura cyberpunk junkyard to the icy depths of Europa, from the slick streets of future-noir Chicago to a tropical island of sapient robots. You'll explore a mysterious ghost ship in deep space, meet an android learning to dream, and fend off predatory alien fungi on a combat mission gone wrong.

Twenty-three futures, ranging from grimy cyberpunk to far-flung space opera, are waiting to blow you away.

So step inside the Tomorrow Factory, and mind your head.

A JOURNEY OF A BILLION LIFETIMES

There were seventy-two passengers crowded into the metal-walled cabin of the supersonic space craft, with no assurance they would ever see earth again... and fear was contagious.

Suddenly the blood rushed so swiftly to Ralph Sanford's brain that his eyes went out of focus and all was a great, indistinct blur.

But Helen Arcularis remained steadfast: her vision was of other worlds...

The wars across the planets had lasted long enough. There seemed to be no end to the shedding of blood human blood, alien blood. Suspicion and hatred ran too deep between the superpowers, the United States of Earth and the Dracon Chamber.

Then Major Joanne Nicole was captured and rose from prisoner-of-war to confidante of Drac chief Tora Soam. Could she penetrate the strange alien mind, learn its esoteric wisdom, and realize the impossible dream of peace?

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, January 2011. It can also be found in the anthology Lightspeed: Year One (2011), edited by John Joseph Adams.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

A sneak preview of horrors and glories in worlds to come.

Today's top S-F writers open the door to the future!

Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Hugh Hood, Ray Russell, Kris Neville, Walter M. Miller, Jr., Robert Sheckley, Chad Oliver, Charles E. Fritch, George Clayton Johnson, Ron Roulart ...and William F. Nolan

Fantastic, unbelievable stories of MAN AGAINST TOMORROW

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by William F. Nolan
• Special Delivery (1952) - novella by Kris Neville
• The Room (1961) - short story by Ray Russell
• After the Sirens (1960) - short story by Hugh Hood
• I, Dreamer (1953) - short story by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Payment in Full (1950) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• Seventh Victim [Victim] (1953) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• Birthday Present (1955) - short story by Charles E. Fritch
• Transformer (1954) - short story by Chad Oliver
• Mass for Mixed Voices (1954) - short story by Charles Beaumont
• The Freeway (1963) - short story by George Clayton Johnson
• Nobody Starves (1964) - short story by Ron Goulart
• And Miles to Go Before I Sleep (1958) - short story by William F. Nolan

Contains:

• The Ugly Little Boy
• The Last Question
• The Feeling of Power
• Profession
• All the Troubles of the World
• The Dying Night
• The Gentle Vultures
• I'm in Marsport Without Hilda
• Spell My Name with an S
• I Just Make Them Up, See!
• Rejection Slips

Isaac Asimov writes about actual and fictional scientists--from Archimedes in his bath to the alien astronomers on the far planet of Largesh--whose minds and discoveries have shaped our past, present, and future.

Table of Contents:

• xi - Foreword (The Edge of Tomorrow) - essay by Ben Bova
• 1 - Introduction (The Edge of Tomorrow) - [Asimov's Essays: Own Work] - essay
• 4 - Unique Is Where You Find It - [Black Widowers] - (1985) - short story
• 20 - The Eureka Phenomenon - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1971) - essay
• 33 - The Feeling of Power - (1958) - short story
• 44 - The Comet That Wasn't - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1976) - essay
• 57 - Found! - (1978) - short story
• 73 - Twinkle, Twinkle, Microwaves - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1977) - essay
• 85 - Pâté de Foie Gras - (1956) - short story
• 104 - The Bridge of the Gods - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1975) - essay
• 116 - Belief - (1953) - novelette
• 150 - Euclid's Fifth - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1971) - essay
• 162 - The Plane Truth - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1971) - essay
• 174 - The Billiard Ball - (1967) - novelette
• 194 - The Winds of Change - (1982) - short story
• 210 - The Figure of the Fastest - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1973) - essay
• 222 - The Dead Past - (1956) - novelette
• 272 - The Fateful Lightning - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1969) - essay
• 284 - Breeds There a Man? - novelette (variant of Breeds There a Man...? 1951)
• 322 - The Man Who Massed the Earth - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1969) - essay
• 334 - Nightfall - (1941) - novelette
• 371 - The Planet That Wasn't - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1975) - essay
• 383 - The Ugly Little Boy - (1958) - novelette (variant of Lastborn)
• 425 - The Three Who Died Too Soon - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1982) - essay
• 437 - The Last Question - [Multivac] - (1956) - short story
• 451 - The Nobel Prize That Wasn't - [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] - (1970) - essay

Tomorrow's Children: eighteen haunting tales of children in time to come, whne the fantastic has become the commonplace, when witchcraft is a science and creatures from alien planets live next door. Stories by the masters of fantasy and science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Clifford D. Simak, Stephen Vincent Benet, Fritz Leiber, Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

Table of Contents:

• Tomorrow's Children - interior artwork by Emanuel Schongut
• Introduction (Tomorrow's Children) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• No Life of Their Own - (1959) - novella by Clifford D. Simak
• The Accountant - (1954) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• Novice - [Telzey Amberdon] - (1962) - novelette by James H. Schmitz
• Child of Void - (1949) - short story by Margaret St. Clair
• When the Bough Breaks - (1944) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lewis Padgett]
• A Pail of Air - (1951) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• Junior Achievement - (1962) - short story by William M. Lee
• Cabin Boy - (1951) - novelette by Damon Knight
• The Little Terror - (1953) - short story by Murray Leinster [as by Will F. Jenkins]
• Gilead - [The People] - (1954) - novelette by Zenna Henderson
• The Menace from Earth - [Future History] - (1957) - novelette by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Wayward Cravat - (1958) - short story by Gertrude Friedberg
• The Father-Thing - (1954) - short story by Philip K. Dick
• Star, Bright - (1952) - novelette by Mark Clifton
• All Summer in a Day - (1954) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• It's a Good Life - (1953) - short story by Jerome Bixby
• The Place of the Gods - (1937) - short story by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Ugly Little Boy - (1958) - novelette by Isaac Asimov (variant of Lastborn)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow & The Fairy Chessmen is a 1951 collection of two science fiction novellas by Lewis Padgett (pseudonym of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore). It was first published by Gnome Press in 1951 in an edition of 4,000 copies. Both of the novellas originally appeared in the magazine Astounding.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow - (1947) - novella
• 109 - The Fairy Chessmen - novella

Table of Contents:

• Preface (Farewell to Yesterday's Tomorrow) - (1975) - essay
• What's Your Excuse? - (1969) - short story
• The Sons of Prometheus - (1966) - novelette
• The Destiny of Milton Gomrath - (1967) - short story
• A Sense of Direction - (1969) - short story
• How Georges Duchamps Discovered a Plot to Take Over the World - (1971) - short story
• One Sunday in Neptune - (1969) - short story
• Now I'm Watching Roger - (1972) - short story
• Arpad - (1971) - short story
• How Can We Sink When We Can Fly? - (1971) - novelette
• Sky Blue - (1972) - short story and Cory Panshin
• When the Vertical World Becomes Horizontal - (1974) - short story
• Farewell To Yesterday's Tomorrow - (1975) - essay

This short story originally appeared in the collection In the Palace of Repose (2005). It can also be found in the anthology Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

Contents:

• "The Midas Plague" - Galaxy Science Fiction April '54
• "The Census Takers" - The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Feb. '56
• "The Candle Lighter" - Galaxy Science Fiction March '55
• "The Celebrated No-Hit Inning" - Fantastic Universe Sep. '56
• "Wapshot's Demon" - Science Fiction Stories July '56
• "My Lady Green Sleeves" - Galaxy Science Fiction Feb. '57

Table of Contents:

• The Haunted Corpse - Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. '57
• The Middle of Nowhere - Galaxy Science Fiction May '55
• The Gentle Venusian ("The Gentlest Unpeople") - Galaxy Science Fiction June '58
• The Day of the Boomer Dukes - Future #30 '56
• Survival Kit - Galaxy Science Fiction May '57
• The Knights of Arthur - Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. '58
• To See Another Mountain - The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction April '59

Favorite Stories from Forty Years As a Science Fiction Editor.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Nine Billion Names of God (1953) story by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Moon Moth (1961) novelette by Jack Vance
• The Man with English (1953) story by Horace L. Gold
• Into the Darkness (1940) novelette by Ross Rocklynne
• The Halfling (1943) novelette by Leigh Brackett
• Strange Playfellow (1940) story by Isaac Asimov
• Space-Time for Springers (1958) story by Fritz Leiber
• Emergency Refueling (1940) story by James Blish
• The Coldest Place (1964) story by Larry Niven
• The Life Hater/Berserker (1964) story by Fred Saberhagen
• The Embassy (1942) story by Donald A. Wollheim aka Martin Pearson
• The Last Flight of Dr. Ain (1969) story by James Tiptree Jr.
• Sweet Dreams, Melissa (1968) story by Stephen Goldin
• Street of Dreams, Feet of Clay (1967) story by Robert Sheckley
• Among the Bad Baboons (1968) novelette by Mack Reynolds
• Slow Tuesday Night (1965) story by R.A. Lafferty
• The Pain Peddlers (1963) story by Robert Silverberg
• At the Mouse Circus (1971) story by Harlan Ellison
• The Rull (1948) novelette by A.E. van Vogt
• The Ballad of Lost C'Mell (1962) novelette by Cordwainer Smith
• The Monster (1951) story by Lester del Rey
• Oh, to Be a Blobel! (1964) novelette by Philip K. Dick
• Let There Be Light (1940) story by Robert A. Heinlein
• Without Doubt (1941) story by Robert A. Heinlein & Elma Wentz
• A Gentle Dying (1961) story by Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth
• The Great Slow Kings (1963) story by Roger Zelazny
• Old Testament (1964) story by Jerome Bixby
• Eco-Catastrophe! (1969) story by Paul R. Ehrlich
• Guinevere for Everybody (1955) story by Jack Williamson
• A Bad Day for Vermin (1964) story by Keith Laumer
• Excerpt from Dragon Lensman (1980) fiction by David A. Kyle
• Excerpt from Dhalgren (1974) fiction by Samuel R. Delany
• Excerpt from The Short-Timers (1979) fiction by Gustav Hasford
• Interstellar Way-Station (1941) story by Wilson Tucker
• The Report on the Barnhouse Effect (1950) story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Afterword (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Paperbacks: 1971-1978 (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Galaxy & If Years: 1960-69 (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Anthologies (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Pulps: 1939-43 (1982) by Frederik Pohl
• The Fanzines: 1933-39 (1982) by Frederik Pohl

Tomorrow, the funk descends on Manhattan, a noxious cloud which separates the island from the rest of the world and mutates the population. Some generations on, the surviving population exists amid the rubble of modernity, wearing our cast-off clothing, worshipping celebrities as dim gods and using emojis in place or written language. The Island exists in a state of uneasy peace, with each neighborhood an independent fiefdom, protecting itself with scrap metal spears and Molotov cocktails.

But something new has come to the Island, the first tourist in centuries, and this uneasy equilibrium is about to shatter...

A petty thief known as John Smith was arrested for fraudulent behavior in 1877. He tricked women into thinking he was rich, then stole their belongings and vanished. His guilt was obvious.

In 1852, Adler and Adolf Beck's father died on an expedition to a glacier, and their lives separated. One became a respected climate scientist, one a successful opera singer touring the world. Or so he claimed. But both remained in touch, if only to share the mysterious voices only they could hear.

Charles Ramsey also has a twin. It is 2050, and Greg is a journalist reporting on the climate-change inspired conflicts around the world. When Charles is made redundant from his job as a profiler for the police and sent home with a new experimental chip in his head, he is urged by his brother to explore a little-known aspect of their family history.

All of these people are connected. All of their lives will intersect. And the climate of their world will keep on changing.

POWER!

Perhaps the rarest gift in the world is that ability to read the future, to know what will happen to a person, a group, even a country, and when it will happen!

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION

The year is some indeterminate time in the future; Mickey Grant and Anna Enesco are involved in special studies for people who have shown extraordinary ESP talent. Their progress is as frightening as it is incredible.

But when our government sends them on missions that become increasingly dangerous and difficult, are their lives the price of their special pre-knowledge?

The time is the future. The government is a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, mainly concerned with protecting the profits of large corporations. The Movement is a new and non-violent revolutionary group seeking to replace the political mess with a just and scientifically efficient socioeconomic system.

The Movement was staffed by some of the world's greatest intellectuals and scientists; unfortunately, they were amateurs in the business of revolution. The government could call on an army of ruthless professional agents - and they had no scruples about using violence.

NEW YORK CITY, the near future: Mitchell Zukor, a gifted young mathematician, is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm, FutureWorld. The business operates out of a cavernous office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail, and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters. This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming.

As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastrophe--ecological collapse, global war, natural disasters--he becomes obsessed by a culture's fears. Yet he also loses touch with his last connection to reality: Elsa Bruner, a friend with her own apocalyptic secret, who has started a commune in Maine. Then, just as Mitchell's predictions reach a nightmarish crescendo, an actual worst-case scenario overtakes Manhattan. Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit. But at what cost?

At once an all-too-plausible literary thriller, an unexpected love story, and a philosophically searching inquiry into the nature of fear, Nathaniel Rich's Odds Against Tomorrow poses the ultimate questions of imagination and civilization. The future is not quite what it used to be.

In Mission: Tomorrow, science fiction writers imagine the future of space exploration with NASA no longer dominant. Will private companies rule the stars or will new governments take up the call? From Brazilians to Russians to Chinese, the characters in these stories deal with everything from strange encounters, to troubled satellites and space ships, to competition for funding and getting there first. Nineteen stories of what-if spanning the gamut from Mercury to Pluto and beyond.

Table of Contents:
(stories available to read for free online are linked)

• Tombaugh Station - shortfiction by Robin Wayne Bailey (read)
• Excalibur - shortfiction by Jack McDevitt (read)
• The Race For Arcadia - shortfiction by Alex Shvartsman (read)
• A Walkabout Amongst The Stars - shortfiction by Lezli Robyn (read)
• In Panic Town, On The Backward Moon - shortfiction by Michael F. Flynn
• The Ultimate Space Race - shortfiction by Jaleta Clegg
• Orpheus' Engines - shortfiction by Christopher McKitterick
• Around The NEO in 80 Days - shortfiction by Jay Werkheiser
• Iron Pegasus - shortfiction by Brenda Cooper
• Airtight - shortfiction by Michael Capobianco
• Windshear - shortfiction by Angus McIntyre
• On Edge - shortfiction by Sarah A. Hoyt
• Tartaros - shortfiction by Mike Resnick
• Malf - shortfiction by David D. Levine
• Ten Days Up - shortfiction by Curtis C. Chen
• Tribute - shortfiction by Jack Skillingstead
• Rare (Off) Earth Elements - [Sam Gunn] - shortfiction by Ben Bova
• The Rabbit Hole - [The Gift from the Stars] - (2001) - novelette by James E. Gunn
• Sunrise on Mercury - (1957) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg

In the 22nd century, no one has to die of old age any more. The pharmaceuticals division of a large corporation has devised a potion that bestows immortality on a single application, without any need for follow up treatments. The immortality treatment does not and cannot wear off. All it takes is a single dose, and the human will become immortal. However, it has an unusual effect on males that drink it. It effectively neuters them, causing complete cessation of sexual desire and the ability to perform sexually. In this kind of world, many men put off taking the immortality treatment for as long as possible.

However, the main character, Will Carewe, is not yet immortal, and wishes to involve his wife in questions as serious as this one. They have not yet had any children. He is a high ranking employee for a transnational corporation that one day approaches him with a confidential question relating to the discovery of an immortality potion that does the same thing that the current one does, but without the undesirable side-effect of turning off the sex drive in males. The desirability of patenting the process requires the corporation to handle related matters under a cloak of secrecy, but somewhere someone has spilled the beans; competitors will do anything for the magic recipe, especially if this can be done before the patent is filed in the US Patent Office. They will do anything, including bribery, extortion, and murder, to get the information out of the pharmaceuticals lab before the process is made public. The hero of the story, Will Carewe, says he is willing to test the new chemical, even if it backfires and results in permanent sterility and complete loss of physical desire and physical ability. But it appears there is someone out there who is willing to do anything to kill him before he does.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Call Me Dumbo
• 30 - Stormseeker
• 36 - Repeat Performance
• 51 - ... And Isles Where Good Men Lie
• 87 - What Time Do You Call This?
• 95 - Communication
• 120 - The Cosmic Cocktail Party
• 148 - The Happiest Day of Your Life
• 154 - Element of Chance
• 162 - The Weapons of Isher II
• 178 - Pilot Plant
• 240 - Telemart Three
• 251 - Invasion of Privacy

Once man had ruled Earth. His intelligence and skill had multiplied his power a billion times. He was supreme..........

But that was long ago, before technology had become master of its creator. Now a monstruous tyranny had risen, its shadow falling over every moment of every life..........

How could Jones hope to defeat this overwhelming force? What chance had one lone man against the vast tidal wave of unreason about to swallow up all mankind?

JOURNEY BEYOND TOMORROW, tells the tale of a Picaresque journey through an imagined future taken by a naive and innocent man unprepared for the wonders and oddities he encounters. Sheckley examines the present through the distorting lens of a future wonderfully skewed from and yet darkly, hilariously similar to our own world.

Also published under the title The Journey of Joenes.

A man from Earth's distant past is humanity's only hope for a future...

Drake Merlin's wife, the love of his life, is dying of a rare, fatal disease for which there is no cure. Not now, in the 21st century. But surely in the future... For Drake there is only one solution: have Ana's body frozen until she can be cured. And he will go with her into the cryowomb. It is a desperate gamble born of folly, obsession... and love.

Thus begins an epic journey across eons, as Drake is revived again and again, only to find that Ana is beyond help. Millions of years past his first sleep, he learns there is hope for her restoration--at the Omega Point, where the universe collapses, merging past and present.

But first he will be awakened to become humanity's unwilling savior. For an alien menace is laying the solar system to waste, and only an anachronism from the days of human barbarism can save an enlightened race..

BFA winning and WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Dark Terrors: The Gollancz Book of Horror (1995) edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Ninth Annual Collection (1996), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 7 (1996), edited by Stephen Jones. The story is included in the collections What You Make It (1999) and More Tomorrow & Other Stories (2003).

Going well beyond the scope of his UK collection from several years ago, this is the definitive collection of Smith's shorter fiction, as well as his long overdue first US collection. More Tomorrow & Other Stories features 30 of the author's best stories, plus an introduction by award-winning editor Stephen Jones and an afterword by Michael Marshall Smith. A massive book, at almost 500 pages! There are no UK or US trade paperback, trade hardcover, or any other edition currently planned, so once these are gone, they're gone! Wraparound cover art by John Picacio.

Contents:

• Introduction: Alias Smith & Jones, by Stephen Jones
• More Tomorrow
• Being Right
• Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
• Save As...
• The Handover
• What You Make It
• Maybe Next Time
• The Book of Irrational Numbers
• When God Lived in Kentish Town
• The Man Who Drew Cats
• A Place To Stay
• The Dark Land
• To See The Sea
• Two Shot
• Last Glance Back
• They Also Serve
• Dear Alison
• To Receive Is Better
• The Munchies
• Always
• Not Waving
• Everybody Goes
• Dying
• Charms
• Open Doors
• Later
• More Bitter Than Death
• A Long Walk, For The Last Time
• The Vaccinator
• Enough Pizza
• On Not Writing (An Afterword), by M. M. Smith

Contains:

• The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius by Michael Moorcock
• Driftglass by Samuel R. Delany
• Sending the Very Best by Edward Bryant
• Going Down Smooth by Robert Silverberg
• The Garden of Delights by Langdon Jones
• Surface if You Can by Terry Champagne
• Masks by Damon Knight
• Pennies Off a Dead Man's Eyes by Harlan Ellison
• 198 - A Tale of Tomorrow by John Sladek
• Flight Uselesss, Inexorable the Pursuit by Thomas M. Disch
• The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde by Norman Spinrad
• Down the Up Escalation by Brian W. Aldiss
• Circularization of Condensed Conventional Straight-Line Word Images Structures by Michael Butterworth
• The Definition by Bob Marsden
• The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod by Philip Jose Farmer

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing.

When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited.

Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?

The planet is warming up and as the ice caps melt, the great currents of the oceans shift and the Northern Hemisphere is plunged into a new ice age. One scientist has the key to turning back the clock of global warming.

But as Western civilisation succumbs to blizzards and tidal waves and the population of the Northern hemisphere begins a mass exodus south, mankind's only saviour is making a lonely, terror-filled trip north. To a New York disappearing under snowdrifts hundreds of feet high. The city where his son was last heard of.

Yesterday cannot last forever...

A decade has passed since the city of Pittsburgh was reduced to ash.

While the rest of the world has moved on, losing itself in the noise of a media-glutted future, survivor John Dominic Blaxton remains obsessed with the past. Grieving for his wife and unborn child who perished in the blast, Dominic relives his lost life by immersing in the Archive—a fully interactive digital reconstruction of Pittsburgh, accessible to anyone who wants to visit the places they remember and the people they loved.

Dominic investigates deaths recorded in the Archive to help close cases long since grown cold, but when he discovers glitches in the code surrounding a crime scene—the body of a beautiful woman abandoned in a muddy park that he's convinced someone tried to delete from the Archive—his cycle of grief is shattered.

With nothing left to lose, Dominic tracks the murder through a web of deceit that takes him from the darkest corners of the Archive to the ruins of the city itself, leading him into the heart of a nightmare more horrific than anything he could have imagined.

The American edition of this anthology is uncredited. In the UK it Arthur C. Clarke is credited with editing it. Some sources state the actual editing was done by Robert Silverberg.

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Introduction - (1969) - essay by uncredited
• Foreword (1969) - essay by Arthur C. Clarke
• How it Was When the Past Went Away - (1969) - novella by Robert Silverberg
• The Eve of RUMOKO - (1969) - novella by Roger Zelazny
• We All Die Naked - (1969) - novelette by James Blish

What is there to do, when you have the power to do anything? John can fly, he can see through solid objects, he can take over the world and give it back again, but what he's looking for is something else...

This short story can also be found in the anthology Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction (2018), edited by Irene Gallo.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Yesterday and Tomorrow) - (1964) - essay by I. O. Evans
• The Eternal Adam - (1957) - novelette by Jules Verne and Michel Verne (1910)
• The Fate of Jean Morénas - (1964) - shortstory by Jules Verne and Michel Verne (1910)
• An Ideal City - (1964) - shortstory by Jules Verne (1875)
• Ten Hours Hunting - (1964) - shortstory by Jules Verne (1881)
• Frritt-Flacc - (1959) - shortstory by Jules Verne (1884)
• Gil Braltar - (1958) - shortstory by Jules Verne (1887)
• In the Twentyninth Century: A Day in the Life of an American Journalist in 2889 - (1891) - shortstory by Jules Verne
• Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss Me Flat - (1964) - shortstory by Jules Verne (1893)

SECURITY RISK

Jim Carson was Security Chief at the Hart-Ewing plant--and he was very good at his job. That is, he accomplished what he had to unobtrusively. The nature of the job made Carson caution and meticulously thorough. What he brought to his profession was a most thoughtful sensitivity,

So when Carson became uneasy, he knew something was really wrong. And methodically, as usual, he started going over the multitude of details and impressions he had been picking up day-by-day for weeks.

He came up with a most astonishing result!

A Rose for Ecclesiastes Up into the nountains now. Far. The sky was a bucket of ice in which no moons floated. The going became steeper, and the little donkey protested. I whipped him withthe throttle and went on. Up. Up. I spotted a green, unwinking star, and felt a lump in my throat. The encased rose beat against my chest like an extra heart. The donkey brayed, long and loudly, then began to cough. I lashed him some more and he died. I threw the emergency brake on and got out. I began to walk. So cold, so cold it grows. Up here. At night? Why? Why did she do it? Why flee the campfire when night comes on? And I was up, down, around, and through every chasm, gorge, and pass, with my long-legged strides and an ease of movement never known on Earth. Barley two days remain, my love, and though has forsaken me. Why? I crawled under overhangs. I leaped over ridges. I scraped my knees, an elboe. I heard my jacket tear. No answer, Malann? Dou you really hate your people this much? Then I'll try someone else. Vishnu, you're the Preserver. Preserve her, please! Let me find her. Jehovah? Adonis? Osiris? Thammuz? Manitou? Legba? Where is she? I ranged far and high, and I slipped. Stones ground underfoot and I dangled over an edge. My fingers so cold. It was hard to grip the rock. I looked down. Twelve feet or so. I let go and dropped, landed rolling. Then I heard her scream.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1967) - essay by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Furies - (1965)
• The Graveyard Heart - (1964)
• The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth - (1965)
• A Rose for Ecclesiastes - (1963)

also publised as A Rose for Ecclesiastes

Mercenary From Tomorrow

Is the story of 21st Century Earth - a world where work is forgotten, where the masses fight boredom with trank pills and telly, and where it is almost impossible to leave the social class you were born in. You could break the class barrier only by hiring yourself out as a mercenary to fight in the prime-time wars that are fought to keep the telly-viewing public satisfied. That is the only way to move up the ladder - if you could stay alive long enough.

The Key to Venudine

Rodro's men were pushing past, were blundering with reeking weapons into the room to kill and take the princess away.

Lai half stretched up from the princess's restraining arms. The room was empty of other life apart from Sir Fezius and the two knights now lifting their swords, ready to cut down Lai.

A popping noise sounded like a drum bursting. A man appeared in the middle of the room.

One moment he was not there; the next he stood there, holding a bulky stick in his arm, peering about with a white face. He said something that sounded like "Skeet."

The next instant the room resounded with an avalanche roar and a hellfire blast of scorching flame.

This book is a special treat for anyone who likes the unique, the odd, the unusual in literature. For the science fiction fan, the stories here represent some of the finest yarns published by Astounding Science Fiction and the American Boy - two magazines known for their early recognition of this popular genre. For the casual reader, these are stories fresh and new in content and appeal.

The Luck of Ignatz, by that famous science fiction master, Lester Del Rey, will introduce you to a Venusian "zloaht" - a small but strange little beast who keeps his master and himself in hot water. In the Master Minds of Mars, Carl Claudy introduces you to the mighty but inhuman intellect that controls the mysterious red planet. You'll enjoy and be intrigued by the wry twist of humor in Peter van Dresser's By Virtue of Circumference. And in Robert Moore Williams' The Red Death of Mars you'll find a horrifying mystery that springs from deadly red jewels and nearly wipes out the crew of the spaceship Kepler.

The Land of No Shadow, Plum Duff, Kindness, Tongue of Beast and Rocket to the Sun complete the roster of thrillers that make up this "science fiction special." Whether you like to travel into the third dimension; rocket into the unexplored vastness of space or help solve killings that "just couldn't happen" you'll enjoy every page of The Year After Tomorrow.

Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Lester del Rey
• The Luck of Ignatz - (1939) - novelette by Lester del Rey
• The Master Minds of Mars - (1931) - novel by Carl H. Claudy (variant of The Mystery Men of Mars)
• By Virtue of Circumference - (1937) - short story by Peter Van Dresser
• The Red Death of Mars - (1940) - novelette by Robert Moore Williams
• The Land of No Shadow - (1931) - novelette by Carl H. Claudy
• Plum Duff - (1935) - short story by Peter Van Dresser
• Kindness - (1944) - short story by Lester del Rey
• Tongue of Beast - (1939) - short story by Carl H. Claudy
• Rocket to the Sun - (1939) - short story by Peter Van Dresser

Two individuals of the race that replaced humanity in the world of 3,000,000 years hence...explore the past...then return to their world...with one of the last civilzed men…

The Five Way Secret Agent

The world situation has become so confused that a young American living on Negative Income Tax finds himself drafted into an international espionage assignment by no less than 5 opposing interests.

Mercenary From Tomorrow

21st Centure Earth--a world where work is forgotten, where the masses fight boredom with trank pills and telly, and where it is almost impossible to leave the social class you were born in. You could break the class barrier only by hiring yourself out as a mercenary to fight in the prime-time wars that are fought to keep the telly-viewing public satisfied. That is the only way to move up the ladder...if you could stay alive long enough...

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

This man must die - or the futre wil never be!

So Bright the Vision

Collection containing:

• The Golden Bugs - (1960) - novelette
• Leg. Forst. - (1958) - novelette
• So Bright the Vision - (1956) - novelette
• Galactic Chest - (1956) - novelette

The Darkness Before Tomorrow by Robert Moore Williams. Were all humans their guinea pigs?

The Ladder in the Sky by Keith Woodcott (pseudonym for John Brunner). Black magic or unimaginable super-science?

Wren's father takes her on a journey through the dome where she sees the after effects of the destruction caused by her friends and the blue coats who came into the tunnels. What he doesn't realize is that instead of subduing her, he is giving more purpose and fuel to her cause. When he realizes his plan has backfired, he sells Wren and her friends caught inside to the rovers. They manage to escape and add more fuel to the hatred between the rovers and the dome. Wren and her friends from inside the dome and America are caught in the middle as the battle escalates and whoever wins the battle wins the right to life.

It's up to Wren to make both sides see that the only way they can survive is by working together.

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

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

On the verge of extinction, only the gravest imaginable crime against humanity can save it...

A bold new plan seeks to ignite a new Sunspot over Greenhouse, saving the habitat domes crucial to the survival of the Solacian people. But a secret clouds this symbol of much-needed hope: human space is contracting at a startling rate, threatening to wipe out all living worlds including Earth.

The only answer lies in the hands of the founder of the planet Solace: Oskar DeSilvo, seemingly returned from the dead to save the worlds his frauds had doomed to destruction. But as the work begins, agents of the Chronologic Patrol step in to prevent interference with the past even at the risk of dooming humanity.

Thwarted at every turn, DeSilvo and his onetime nemesis, Anton Koffield, propose one last wildly grandiose idea one final, desperate gamble. But if the only choice lies between madness and certain catastrophe is there any choice at all?

This is a mega-collection of four complete novels of the Man of Tomorrow, the Wizard of Science, the protector of the Solar System, and a menace to evil-doers throughout the universe: CAPTAIN FUTURE!

Contents:

• Long Live Captain Future - essay by Chuck Juzek
• The Quest Beyond the Stars (1969) - novel
• Outlaws of the Moon (1969) - novel
• The Comet Kings (1969) - novel
• Planets in Peril (1969) - novel
• The Future of Captain Future (Captain Future, Fall 1942) essay by Oscar J. Friend

Also includes many letters, essays and illustrations.

After twenty-first-century America exploded in the chaos of a nuclear nightmare, a raw new landscape emerged, a world where death and dreams clash. Still, the best of the human spirit endures: the hope, the will to survive. But so does the worst: the greed, tyranny, the easy death. In his enduring odyssey across the hostile world called Deathlands, Ryan Cawdor is a warrior no enemy wants to cross.

An earthquake in the Arkansas dust bowls leaves the companions for dead, until they are all reunited except for armorer J. B. Dix. Alive, though with no memory of the past, he is in the uncertain employ of the ironfisted ruler of a vital outpost along the routes that traverse the wastelands. Duma is the biggest, most dangerous ville in all of Deathlands, where jolt, jack, booze and sex are worth more than human life. Stalking Duma and preparing to attack this orgy of firepower is a crazed band of inbred worshippers of Nagasaki... and their unwilling new sec force led by Ryan Cawdor.

Anthology of stories, essays, poems, and illustrations by the women of early science fiction

For nearly half a century, feminist scholars, writers, and fans have successfully challenged the notion that science fiction is all about "boys and their toys," pointing to authors such as Mary Shelley, Clare Winger Harris, and Judith Merril as proof that women have always been part of the genre. Continuing this tradition, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction offers readers a comprehensive selection of works by genre luminaries, including author C. L. Moore, artist Margaret Brundage, and others who were well known in their day, including poet Julia Boynton Green, science journalist L. Taylor Hansen, and editor Mary Gnaedinger.

Providing insightful commentary and context, this anthology documents how women in the early twentieth century contributed to the pulp-magazine community and showcases the content they produced, including short stories, editorial work, illustrations, poetry, and science journalism. Yaszek and Sharp's critical annotation and author biographies link women's work in the early science fiction community to larger patterns of feminine literary and cultural production in turn-of-the-twentieth-century America. In a concluding essay, the award-winning author Kathleen Ann Goonan considers such work in relation to the history of women in science and engineering and to the contemporary science fiction community itself.

Table of Contents:

• List of Plates
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: New Work for New Women

AUTHORS

• Clare Winger Harris, "The Evolutionary Monstrosity" (1929)
• Leslie F. Stone, "Out of the Void" (1929)
• Lilith Lorraine, "Into the 28th Century" (1930)
• L. Taylor Hansen, "The Man from Space" (1930)
• C. L. Moore, "Shambleau" (1933)
• Dorothy Gertrude Quick, "Strange Orchids" (1937)
• Amelia Reynolds Long, "Reverse Phylogeny" (1937)
• Leslie Perri, "Space Episode" (1941)
• Dorothy Louise Les Tina, "When You Think That... Smile!" (1943)

POETS

• Julia Boynton Green, "The Night Express" (1931)
• Julia Boynton Green, "Evolution" (1931)
• Julia Boynton Green, "Radio Revelations" (1932)
• Virginia Kidd, "Untitled" (1933)
• Leah Bodine Drake, "They Run Again" (1939)
• Leah Bodine Drake, "The Wood-Wife" (1942)
• Leah Bodine Drake, "Sea-Shell" (1943)
• Tigrina, "Defiance" (1945)
• Tigrina, "Affinity" (1945)
• Lilith Lorraine, "Earthlight on the Moon" (1941)
• Lilith Lorraine, "The Acolytes" (1946)
• Lilith Lorraine, "Men Keep Strange Trysts" (1946)

JOURNALISTS

• Ellen Reed, "Natural Ink" (1942)
• Fran Miles, "Oil for Bombing" (1944)
• Henrietta Brown, "Marine Engineering in the Insect World" (1945)
• Lynn Standish, "The Battle of the Sexes" (1943)
• Lynn Standish, "Scientific Oddities" (1945)
• Laura Moore Wright, "Sunlight" (1946)
• L. Taylor Hansen, "Scientific Mysteries: The White Race--Does It Exist?" (1942)
• L. Taylor Hansen, "Scientific Mysteries: Footprints of the Dragon" (1944)
• L. Taylor Hansen, H. Malamud, I. Berkman, and H. Rogovin, "A Protest" (1943)
• L. Taylor Hansen, "L. Taylor Hansen Defends Himself" (1943)

EDITORS

• Mary Gnaedinger, "Editorial Note" (1939)
• Dorothy Stevens Mcilwraith, "The Eyrie" (1940)
• Lilith Lorraine, "Cracks, Wise and Otherwise" (1943)
• Mary Gnaedinger, "The Editor's Page" (1940)
• Mary Gnaedinger, "The Editor's Page" (1943)
• Dorothy Stevens Mcilwraith, "The Eyrie" (1940)
• Dorothy Stevens Mcilwraith, "The Eyrie" (1941)
• Lilith Lorraine, "Training for World Citizenship" (1946)
• Lilith Lorraine, "The Story of Different" (1950)

ARTISTS

• Olivette Bourgeois
• Lucille Webster Holling
• Margaret Johnson Brundage
• Dorothy Louise Les Tina
• Dolly Rackley Donnell

• Conclusion: "Challenging the Narrative, Or, Women Take Back Science Fiction", Kathleen Ann Goonan
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

There is a gala opening for a new exhibition at the Tate Modern - "The Tomorrow Windows." The concept behind the exhibition is simple - anyone can look through a Tomorrow Window and see into the future. Of course, the future is malleable, and so the future you see will change as you formulate your plans. You can the see the outcome of every potential decision, and then decide on the optimum course of action. According to the press pack, the Tomorrow Windows will bring about world peace and save humanity from every possible disaster. So, of course, someone decides to blow it up. There's always one, isn't there? As the Doctor investigates and unravels the conspiracy, he begins a Gulliver's Travels-esque quest, visiting bizarre worlds and encountering many peculiar and surreal life forms...

Conor mac Ardan is now clan chief of the Darini.

Tara's Hill has become a haven and refuge for all those who were made homeless by the barbarian Scálda.

A large fleet of the Scálda's Black Ships has now arrived and Conor joins Eirlandia's lords to defeat the monsters. He finds treachery in their midst...and a betrayal that is blood deep.

And so begins a final battle to win the soul of a nation.

The poet Persimmon Gaunt and the thief Imago Bone had sought only to retire from adventuring and start a family, but they never reckoned on their baby becoming the chosen vessel of the mystical energies of a distant Eastern land. With their son Innocence hunted by various factions hoping to use him as a tool, they kept him safe at the cost of trapping him in a pocket dimension of accelerated time.

Now free, the thirteen-year-old Innocence has rejected his parents and his "destiny" and has made dangerous friends in a barbaric Western land of dragon-prowed ships and rugged fjords. Desperately, Gaunt and Bone seek to track him down, along with their companion Snow Pine and her daughter A-Girl-Is-A-Joy, who was once trapped with Innocence too.

But as the nomadic Karvaks and their war-balloons strike west, and a troll-king spins his webs, and Joy is herself chosen by the spirit of the very land Innocence has fled to, Gaunt and Bone find themselves at the heart of a vast struggle -- and their own son is emerging from that conflict as a force of evil. To save him and everything they know, they turn to a dangerous magical book, The Chart of Tomorrows, that reveals pathways through time. Upon the treacherous seas of history, Gaunt and Bone must face the darkness in each other's pasts, in order to rescue their future.

WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF THE FUTURE?

Who are the men who can, and do, use their imaginations with analytical brilliance to make all possivble futures a reality?

What is the talent, the imaginative power, these men and women bring to their work that makes it possible for them to project themselves thousands of years beyond our time--and to take their readers along with them?

Sam Moskowitz, "science fiction's leading historian," discusses the authors who have contributed most to a picture of worlds the Earth will some day know--the voyages to the stars, the dreamers of dreams, the most exciting writing and writers of our time.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• 1. Edward E. Smith, Ph.D
• 2. John W. Campbell
• 3. Murray Leinster
• 4. Edmond Hamilton
• 5. Jack Williamson
• 6. Superman
• 7. John Wyndham
• 8. Eric Frank Russell
• 9. L. Sprague de Camp
• 10. Lester del Rey
• 11. Robert A. Heinlein
• 12. A.E. van Vogt
• 13. Theodore Sturgeon
• 14. Isaac Asimov
• 15. Clifford D. Simak
• 16. Fritz Leiber
• 17. C.L. Moore
• 18. Henry Kuttner
• 19. Robert Bloch
• 20. Ray Bradbury
• 21. Arthur C. Clarke
• 22. Philip José Farmer
• 23. Starburst, Epilogue

Once he was a hero of the Great War, and then a member of the dreaded Black House. Now he is the criminal linchpin of Low Town. His name is Warden. He thought he had left the war behind him, but a summons from up above brings the past sharply, uncomfortably, back into focus. General Montgomery's daughter is missing somewhere in Low Town, searching for clues about her brother's murder. The General wants her found, before the stinking streets can lay claim to her, too. Dark, violent, and shot through with corruption, this book is a fantastic successor to a much-heralded fantasy debut.

The mystery of the Kennedy assassination has attracted many amateur investigators--but none quite like young Mark Brown, the brilliant but footloose young son of America's leading theoretical physicist. Like others, Mark Brown had only a theory to work on. Unlike others, his theory led him straight into trouble--and into even deeper mystery...

Mark Brown needed help--and that help could only come from Jason Starr and Adam Cyber, the Mind Brothers. The three made up a team of scientific brains unmatched in human history--but the problem they faced was enormous. The complexities included a mysterious artificial satellite and a weird organization called "Sutra" ...and the only thing certain was that at least one of the three would die. The biggest question was whether the Earth would die, too.

In a Disney-dominated future, a transhuman teenager engages in high velocity adventures until he meets the "meat girl" of his dreams and is forced to choose between immortality and sex in one of Cory Doctorow's most daring novellas. Also included in this collection is "Creativity vs. Copyright," a transcript of Doctorow's historic address to the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention, dramatically presenting his controversial case for open-source models not only in information but art as well, and "Outspoken Interview," in which Doctorow reveals the surprising inspirations for his writing.

Table of Contents:

• The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow - (2011)
• "Creativity vs. Copyright" - essay by Cory Doctorow
• Look for the Lake - interview of Cory Doctorow

Download this book for free from the author's website.

"Savages, they're nothing but savages!"
"They must be caught and punished!"
"They must be taught their place!"
"They must be obliterated like the plague!"

So began the reign of terror. Humans, already enslaved, were now to be exterminated. The Dragoons, a band of vicious apes, swore to drive the humans from their land, burn their huts, murder their children, and imprison the last sorry survivors in the Forbidden Zone.

Only Galen, Virdon and Burke stood between the doomed humans and their terrible fate. Only they could expose the Dragoons and their dangerous secret. Only they could keep the apes from destroying an entire race and every remnant of their dead civilization.

But in this desert of brutality, small flames of reason and kindness still flickered. An ape doctor and a frightened blind female become the unwitting aides of human salvation....

Contains the novellizations of the episodes "The Surgeon" based on the teleplay by Barry Oringer, and, "The Deception" based on the teleplay by Anthony Lawrence and Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.

The crews of Jean-Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisko, Ezri Dax, and William Riker unite to prevent a cosmic-level apocalypse--only to find that some fates really are inevitable.

THE FUTURE IS AT WAR WITH THE PAST.

The epic Star Trek: Coda trilogy continues as friends become foes, the Temporal Apocalypse accelerates, and the catastrophe's true cause is revealed.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, December 2015. It can also be found in the anthology Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies (2017), edited by John Joseph Adams. The story is included in the collection So You Want to Be a Robot (2017).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Rydell is on his way back to near-future San Francisco. A stint as a security man in an all-night Los Angeles convenience store has convinced him his career is going nowhere, but his friend Laney, phoning from Tokyo, says there's more interesting work for him in Northern California. And there is, although it will eventually involve his former girlfriend, a Taoist assassin, the secrets Laney has been hacking out of the depths of DatAmerica, the CEO of the PR firm that secretly runs the world and the apocalyptic technological transformation of, well, everything. William Gibson's new novel, set in the soon-to-be-fact world of "Virtual Light" and "Idoru", completes a stunning, brilliantly imagined trilogy about the post-Net world.

An extraterrestrial force suddenly destroys almost all organic matter on Earth and one family survives the immediate consequences and begins the process of building a new world.

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Linton wants one final adventure with her friends before the school holidays are over. Packed in Ellie's parents' land rover they drive to the famously isolated rock pool Eden dubbed 'Hell' by the locals. Returning to their home town of Wirrawee, the seven teenagers realize that something is seriously wrong. Power to the houses has been cut, pets and livestock have been left dead or dying, and most alarmingly of all, everyone's family has vanished. When the hostile armed forces discover that the teenagers are lying low in the vicinity, Ellie and her friends must band together to escape, outwit and strike back against the mysterious enemy that has seized control of their town and imprisoned their friends and loved ones...

Seventeen-year-old Ellie and her friends have survived the invasion, but two of their band are captured: Kevin is imprisoned and Corrie is alive, but in a coma. Homer and Ellie are determined to get them back and to continue their campaign against the enemy. They discover that there are other rebels out there, fighting the invaders - but who are they and can they be trusted? As the pressure grows, can Ellie work out her conflicted feelings for the brilliant, arrogant Homer and the strong, gentle Lee? As war rages, and the enemy closes in, Ellie and her friends must once again fight for their lives... but how many of their band will be left?

A truly involving story about teenagers facing the incredible challenges of warfare, amid the intensity of first love. Would you sacrifice everything to save your country and your family?

Ellie and her friends, an unarmed bunch of amateur teen fighters, have achieved more than they ever thought possible. But it's not enough. The war wages on, their families are in captivity and their country is on its knees. Hiding back in Hell, the friends face a big question: what to do next?

The gang have another success when they manage to rescue Kevin. He returns to them equipped with a new knowledge of explosives. Suddenly the question of what to do next becomes clear - launch an attack on the major enemy target of Cobblers' Bay.

Can Ellie, Homer, Fi, Robin, Lee and Kevin really stage a major military attack on the enemy? And in their attempt to pull it off, what will they have to sacrifice? They have already lost Corrie and Chris; who else will the group have to lose in their desperation to defend their country?

The Third Day, The Frost, draws the reader deeper into the struggle of these ordinary teens attempting to survive in extraordinary times. It is a tense and moving read that will stay with you forever.

Darkness is the friend and enemy of those who hunt by night.

Ellie and her friends have found safety after months of fighting. But the New Zealand Defence Force needs their help to infiltrate occupied Australian territory.

And so the friends must fight on.

If only our country hadn't been invaded. If only we could have carried on the way we used to, watching other people wars on television.

Book 5 of The Tomorrow Series. Ellie and her friends are more determined than ever to make an impact on the enemy. But the constant fighting is beginning to take its toll on the group. Kevin is suffering an emotional breakdown, and the friendship that has kept the gang together for so long is under strain. And while there is no time for love in a time of war, Ellie can't forget her feelings for Lee...

A tale of relentless action and gripping intensity from one of the world's best storytellers.

A year of war. A year of terror. And a year of loss.

Twelve months have passed since the invasion. Ellie has lost friends, she has taken many lives and she is still as disgusted by violence as she is determined to stand up to the invaders.

Now the friends find themselves back in their sanctuary of Hell, caring for a band of feral children whose lives have been destroyed by the war. Meanwhile, the conflict intensifies and the enemy draws closer...

The war is at a turning point. The enemy is growing weaker, and more desperate. And so is Ellie.

As the conflict intensifies around her, she is captured and separated from her friends.

Overwhelmed by all she has lost, Ellie wonders if she has the strength to survive the final conflict - and if she can live with the consequences of everything she has done.

An action-packed adventure and an unforgettable exploration of the emotional impact of war.

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Body Armor: 2000) - essay by Joe Haldeman
• 5 - Contact! - (1974) - short story by David Drake
• 21 - The Warbots - (1968) - short story by Larry S. Todd
• 23 - General Motors Terrain Walker - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 25 - McCauley Walker (Ambulant) - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 28 - Burton Damnthing - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 31 - Christopher Warbot - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 33 - Cuiver (Greedy Nick) Warbot - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 35 - Critter's Gateway Warbot - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 38 - Quicksilver Warbot - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 40 - 2nd Alakar - interior artwork by Larry S. Todd
• 45 - The Scapegoat - [Alliance-Union] - (1985) - novella by C. J. Cherryh
• 93 - The Last Crusade - (1955) - short story by George H. Smith
• 106 - Hired Man - (1970) - short story by Richard C. Meredith
• 122 - Early Model - (1956) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 141 - In the Bone - (1966) - short story by Gordon R. Dickson
• 163 - The Chemically Pure Warriors - (1962) - novella by Allen Kim Lang
• 222 - Right to Life - (1985) - short story by Thomas A. Easton
• 234 - Or Battle's Sound - [Matter Transmitter] - (1968) - novelette by Harry Harrison (variant of No War, or Battle's Sound)
• 256 - Hero - [Mandella] - (1972) - novella by Joe Haldeman

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Supertanks) - essay by Joe Haldeman
• 5 - The Horars of War - (1970) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• 23 - I Made You - (1954) - short story by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• 35 - Encounter - (1979) - novelette by Stephen Leigh
• 55 - The Computer Cried Charge! - (1976) - short story by George R. R. Martin
• 69 - Hangman - [Hammer's Slammers] - (1979) - novella by David Drake
• 125 - Field Test - [Bolo] - (1976) - short story by Keith Laumer
• 149 - An Empty Gift - (1983) - short story by Steve Benson
• 161 - Tank - (1979) - short story by Francis E. Izzo
• 167 - The Tank and Its Wife - (1978) - short story by Arsen Darnay
• 177 - Damnation Alley - (1967) - novella by Roger Zelazny

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Space-Fighters) - essay by Joe Haldeman
• 6 - The Game of Rat and Dragon - [The Instrumentality of Mankind] - (1955) - short story by Cordwainer Smith
• 21 - The Immortal - (1965) - novelette by Gordon R. Dickson
• 58 - City of Yesterday - (1967) - short story by Terry Carr
• 67 - Industrial Accident - (1980) - novelette by G. Harry Stine [as by Lee Correy]
• 87 - Ender's Game - [Ender Wiggin] - (1977) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• 125 - The Claw and the Clock - [Federation of Humanity] - (1971) - novelette by Christopher Anvil
• 148 - Time Piece - (1970) - short story by Joe Haldeman
• 157 - Medal of Honor - (1960) - novelette by Mack Reynolds
• 185 - Wings Out of Shadow - [Berserker (Fred Saberhagen)] - (1974) - novelette by Fred Saberhagen
• 204 - Gambler's War - (1980) - short story by Marcia Martin and Eric Vinicoff
• 221 - Safe to Sea - (1988) - short story by David Drake
• 236 - Empire Dreams - (1985) - novelette by Ian McDonald
• 259 - Stars, Won't You Hide Me? - (1966) - short story by Ben Bova
• 273 - Waiting in Crouched Halls - (1970) - short story by Edward Bryant [as by Ed Bryant]
• 285 - Early Bird - (1973) - short story by Theodore R. Cogswell and Theodore L. Thomas

The aliens have arrived... they've landed their Embassy ship on a platform in New York Harbor, and will only speak with the United Nations. They say that their world is so different from Earth, in terms of gravity and atmosphere, that they cannot leave their ship. The population of Earth has erupted in fear and speculation.

One day Dr. Marianne Jenner, an obscure scientist working with the human genome, receives an invitation that she cannot refuse. The Secret Service arrives at her college to escort her to New York, for she has been invited, along with the Secretary General of the UN and a few other ambassadors, to visit the alien Embassy.

The truth is about to be revealed. Earth's most elite scientists have ten months to prevent a disaster--and not everyone is willing to wait.

Ten years after the Aliens left Earth, humanity succeeds in building a ship, Friendship, to follow them home to Kindred. Aboard are a crew of scientists, diplomats, and a squad of Rangers to protect them. But when the Friendship arrives, they find nothing they expected. No interplanetary culture, no industrial base--and no cure for the spore disease.

A timeslip in the apparently instantaneous travel between worlds has occurred and far more than ten years have passed.

Once again scientists find themselves in a race against time to save humanity and their kind from a deadly virus while a clock of a different sort runs down on a military solution no less deadly to all. Amid devastation and plague come stories of heroism and sacrifice and of genetic destiny and free choice, with its implicit promise of conscious change.

The diplomatic mission from Earth to World ended in disaster, as the Earth scientists discovered that the Worlders were not the scientifically advanced culture they believed. Though they brought a limited quantity of the vaccine against the deadly spore cloud, there was no way to make enough to vaccinate more than a few dozen. The Earth scientists, and surviving diplomats, fled back to Earth.

But once home, after the 28-year gap caused by the space ship transit, they find an Earth changed almost beyond recognition. In the aftermath of the spore cloud plague, the human race has been reduced to only a few million isolated survivors. The knowledge brought back by Marianne Jenner and her staff may not be enough to turn the tide of ongoing biological warfare.