Search Worlds Without End

What if... there is more than one Earth? Sister worlds exist, recognizably alike yet startingly different. And the "gate house" between these worlds is a closely guarded secret of America's fanatical leader...

For President Robinson, the gate house is a military ace-in-the-hole, a last laugh in his ever-more aggressive sparring with the Soviets.

For Senator Endicott, the first man to travel from one Earth to another, the Alternities provide a playground for his most evil, power-crazed fantasies.

But for Rayne Wallace, member of the elite Guards sent to spy on these other worlds, the gates offer a chance to start his life over again.

HOMer-nominated Novel

Twenty years ago, the starship came, bearing gifts of knowledge and truth...

The ship was immediately destroyed. Those who heard the voice in the sky were silenced or killed.

Today, one man will enter the world of the exiled -- and hear their forbidden memories...

When Meer Faschen, a former idealist who now works for the system against which he used to rebel, learns that a friend he had sentenced to exile has died, he sets out to retrieve the body.

It is humanity's most ambitious endeavor-and its most controversial: the Diaspora Project. A city-sized starship that will carry ten thousand men and women, chosen among Earth's billions, to a new life beyond our solar system. For those who are to go, the cost is their families, their loved ones, and the lives they have known. For those who are left behind, there is disappointment, despair, and anger. And for the Homeworld movement, led by the enigmatic Jeremiah, the Project is an abomination that must be stopped at any cost. The theft of Earth's best and brightest children? Or the ultimate destiny of the human race?

In the middle of the 21st century, a team of scientists develops the ultimate protective weapon-a device that causes all nitrate-based bombs and explosives nearby to detonate automatically. It seems like a benevolent invention-one that will protect mankind against weapons of mass destruction. But as the scientists struggle to ensure their invention is used only for peaceful purposes, it becomes increasingly clear that even protective weaponry comes with its own moral trade-offs.

Dr. Jeffrey Horton, the device's lead inventor, must fight to keep the weapon out of violent hands-and soon finds that not even those with the best intentions can be trusted. This riveting story of action, suspense, and science is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat-and turning the page.

Dr. Jonathan Briggs is a gifted neuroscientist researching the existence of the human soul. Working at one of the world's top facilities, he has access to the latest technology. He also has the enthusiastic support of his lover, Alynn Reed, who made her fortune as a creator of virtual reality games that have broken every barrier. Alynn believes in reincarnation, which Jonathan scoffs at -- until he begins to note strange anomalies in his research.

Then Jonathan's life is suddenly, shockingly turned upside down. No longer the dispassionate scientist, he begins a fevered, reckless effort to go beyond belief to proof. Ridiculed by his colleagues and the tabloid media, hounded by the police, Jonathan finds himself in a frenzied race against time, memory, and his own mortality. As he journeys deeper into the labyrinth of the human psyche, he moves nearer the place where past and future intersect, identities mingle, and death is the beginning of the most amazing adventure of all.

BEYOND AURORA AWAITS A BRAVE NEW WORLD... OF ROBOTS

A man without a memory is stranded in a world-enveloping city filled with robots gone wild. At his side is a mysterious young woman who claims to know who he is but refuses to tell him. According to The Three Laws of Robotics,"A robot may not injure a human being," which narrows the suspects dramatically when the robots find a dead human body.

The man calls himself Derec; the woman is know as Katherine. Their real identities, along with that of the murder victim and the murderer, are just a few of the life-and-death mysteries the unlikely pair are forced to solve to survive on the fantastic streets of Robot City.

Contents:

• 3 - Author's Note (Before the Storm) - (1996) - essay by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
• 6 - Before the Storm - (1996) - novel by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
• 249 - Shield of Lies - (1996) - novel by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
• 504 - Tyrant's Test - (1997) - novel by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

It is a time of tranquillity for the New Republic. The remnants of the Empire now lie in complete disarray, and the reemergence of the Jedi Knights has brought power and prestige to the fledgling government on Coruscant. Yesterday's Rebels have become today's administrators and diplomats, and the factions that fought against imperial tyranny seem united in savoring the fruits of peace.

But the peace is short-lived. A restless Luke must journey to his mother's homeworld in a desperate and dangerous quest to find her people. An adventurous Lando must seize a mysterious spacecraft that has weapons of enormous destructive power and an unknown mission. And Leia, a living symbol of the New Republic's triumph, must face down a ruthless leader of the Duskhan League, an arrogant Yevetha who seems bent on a genocidal war that could shatter the fragile unity of the New Republic... and threaten its very survival.

As Leia must deal with a new threat to the fragile alliance that binds the New Republic, Lando becomes a prisoner aboard a runaway spacecraft of unknown origin. The ship is following an unstoppable path to its homeworld, destroyed by Imperial forces. Luke continues his quest to learn more about his mother among the Fallanassi, where his every belief about the use of the Force is about to be challenged. And while Leia ponders a diplomatic solution to the aggression of the fierce Yevetha race, Han pilots a spy ship into the heart of Yevethan space and finds himself a hostage on one of the vast fleet of warships under the command of a ruthless leader.

In the wake of a shattered alliance, the New Republic fights a relentless new enemy in an all-new adventure in the bestselling Star Wars saga...

Faced with an alarming image of Han as a battered hostage of the Yevetha, Chewbacca takes on an urgent mission. Meanwhile, Leia calls upon the Senate to take a stand and eliminate the Yevetha threat -- even at the cost of Han's life. As a former Imperial governor takes his battle to the runaway Qella spaceship, Luke's continuing search for his mother brings him dangerously close to Nil Spaar's deadly forces. And as the Yevetha close in on the forces of the New Republic, Luke takes a desperate gamble with an invisible weapon...

The devastating Food and Fuel Wars have turned once-powerful nations into isolated farming communities. Barter has replaced currency, and scientists-considered responsible for the world's misery-are burned at the stake. Hidden in the Idaho hills, astronomer Allen Chandliss secretly monitors his radiotelescope, listening for signs of intelligent life, hoping that aliens will come and improve things on Earth. For seventeen years he has waited patiently. His patience is about to pay off....

Merritt Thackery knew from boyhood that his only dream was to be part of the Unified Space Survey. He prepared himself with five years of training on an exquisitely boring space tug, and with a speciality in alien linguistics. When his chance finally came, he was more than ready.

But even Thackery's boyhood dreams could not have prepared him for his final mission, beyond the borders of known space: To seek out an unknown enemy and win Earth's freedom at last!

In Empery, a newgalactic empire has coalesced some 60,000 years after the destruction by the alien Mizari. The Unified Worlds, despite eleborate defenses, are devided over the development of a world-wrecking new weapon while the Mizari threat intensifies.