Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1973. It has been anthologized several times, and can be found in the collection Before... 12:01... and After.

It was the basis for an Academy Award-nominated 1991 short film as well as a 1993 television movie.

Before 12:01 and After is a collection of science fiction, fantasy, mystery and horror stories by Richard A. Lupoff, collecting the best of his short fiction from his long writing career. It contains the following stories:

• "Mr. Greene and the Monster"
• "BOOM!"
• "Incident in the 14th St. BMT"
• "After the Dreamtime"
• "12:01 P.M."
• "Venus-Ah, Venus!"
• "With the Evening News"
• "Saltzman's Madness"
• "God of the Naked Unicorn"
• "Nebogipfel at the End of Time"
• "Mort in Bed"
• "Stroka Prospekt"
• "Two Sort-Of Adventures"
• "Blinky Henderson Again"
• "The Digital Wristwatch of Philip K. Dick"
• "Snow Ghosts"
• "Triptych"
• "The House on Rue Chartres"
• "The Doom That Came to Dunwich"
• "The Woodstock West Killer"
• "Easy Living"
• "Dogwalker"
• "A Funny Thing Happened..."

When the Chester A. Arthur, the world's first and only coal/steam/paddlewheel-propelled spaceship rose into the skies over Buffalo Falls, Pa., who would have expected what followed?

Will Professor Thintwhistle and his crew be able to return to earth? Will Miss Taphammer ever find them? Will Jefferson Jackson Clay's foul plot succeed? And what of the King of the Cats?

Lisa is a 12-year-old girl with all the worries and troubles and angst of any normal girl just beginning the slow transition into womanhood. Her mother is gone, so she has only her father - a man who doesn't really know how to talk to a young girl about personal things - to advise her. She's frightened by the changes that are happening to her body - the budding breasts, the hint of a menstrual cycle, the stiff black hairs that appear on the back of her hands and the way her nails twist to look like claws during the full moon. Is this normal? And if not, how is she different, why is she different, and why doesn't her dad want her to go to the harvest moon dance?

When unworldly fantasist H.P. Lovecraft was approached by crafty fanatic George Sylvester Viereck to write an American Mein Kampf, the bait was almost irresistible.

If Lovecraft would lend his pen and his Anglo-Saxon stock to the fascist cause, Viereck would arrange the publication in proper book form of a volume of his stories, hitherto scattered in pulp magazines.

Whilst the famous horror writer had some pretty obnoxious political opinions, his friends didn't really believe he knew what deep waters he was getting himself into. And so began a concerted effort to keep H.P. Lovecraft out of the clutches of the forces of darkness that were to plunge the world into war...

Parker had always been an outcast. Even in the ordinary world he knew so well, he had had to fight for survival. And when he found himself thrust suddenly, jarringly into another universe where everything was different, he had to learn to stay alive... and to make instant decisions when any wrong move might lead to instant death.

He should have died to begin with. But when he awoke, he found himself facing not just one new world, but three.

Relore, primitive but strangely appealing.

Par'z, exotic, sensual.... perhaps fatal?

Teras, where science was being reborn, with all its hope... and all its fearful menace.

None of these was home. Each offered attractions and perils. and in each a woman begged him to stay.

Parker learned, finally, that he couldn't go home again. But from these three totally different worlds, could he create one in which he could live?

CAN FREDDIE FONG FINE SAVE THE WORLD? IF SO, SHOULD HE?

These are the questions that may or may not be the core of this extremely odd novel of the 1985. What the Israeli hyponuclear submarine Traif, Mavis Montreal the groupie, the giant cavern under the earth, Upchuck the Barbarian, and the Sacred Locomotive have to do with it all is hard to figure out. But entertaining - so who need to figure?

"If you have any interest at all in satire, science fiction's new wave, the '60s, pop music, comic books, or the picaresque tradition of literature, this book is for you... 32 years after its composition, this roaring tiger of a book still has the capacity to shock, amuse, enlighten, and provoke, more so than many a "bold, experimental novel" published just yesterday to waves of praise by the short-sighted and historically illiterate. This is a book that spits in the face of death and despair." -- Paul Di Filippo

Red O'Reilly is among three prisoners being transported by car with a guard and a social worker on a rainy night in contemporary California. Suddenly, in a flash, the car is off the road and into the middle of a jungle - which disappears as the rain ceases, leaving them stranded in a trackless desert!

After a trek across the desert, evidently on an alien planet far from earth, they discover a strange, ruined city inhabited by a race of vampire aliens - whom they must battle for survival.

Through realms of oriental splender and superhuman conflict, a beautiful woman warrior and a fierce man-god journey to challenge a being more awesome than the gods for a magical sword that holds the power of death . . . and the key to enlightenment.

Hugo Award-nominated Related Work

From modest beginnings to the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, Xero was a fascinating and controversial convergence of writers, artists, and a burgeoning fan community. Collected here from Pat & Dick Lupoff's legendary fanzine are an array of excellent essays, memoirs, and ongoing debates on science fiction, mysteries, comic books, and popular culture as well as the revolving letters of comment that are virtual forerunners of the Internet.

Highlights of The Best of Xero include Harlan Ellison's prescient take on the movie Psycho, Donald Westlake's humorous denouncement of the science-fiction field, James Blish's nostalgic look back on his scriptwriting stint for the Captain Video serial, Lin Carter's spot-on parody of Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels; and Don Thompson's detailed analysis of the origins of ultrapowerful and mysterious comic-book heroes Dr. Fate and The Spectre.

The Best of Xero also features original comics and illustrations from Xero and an introduction by film critic and Xero contributor Roger Ebert.

GENOCIDE - IN THE NAME OF LOVE

Across the planet, only a handful of giant, overcrowded, domed cities exist - cities like Norcal, where multiple marriages are recommended and drug-taking is encouraged.

Across the planet, everyone waits for the reclamation of a lost technology that can save them. Everyone, that is, except for the members of the Order of St Jerome in Norcal. The Order of St Jerome believes in peace, in morality, in two-person marriages and old-fashioned values.

The trouble is, in the name of love the Order of St Jerome has decided to sacrifice the Earth...

"Did you know that DNA extracted from a laboratory mouse and injected into the cells of a common fruit fly has produced eyes on the legs of that fly? Eyes, young miss, eyes. Think of what you've just read."

Lovecraftian stories are the bread and butter of the true horror fan.

During his lifetime, Lovecraft himself encouraged other writers to develop stories in the vein we now call Lovecraftian: horror, based around the idea that Earth had been colonized by malign aliens in the remote past, long before mankind arose and became civilized, who eventually became worshipped and feared as evil Gods by their human servitors.

Eventually these aliens had been "banished" to another dimensional limbo by a benign Elder Race, but might one day return to reclaim the Earth "when the stars are right."

That deep seated unease threads through this collection of Richard. A Lupoff's short stories that seem to share a common universe.

Contents:

• 5 - Introduction (The Doom That Came to Dunwich) - essay by Philip Harbottle
• 11 - Acknowledgements (The Doom That Came to Dunwich) - essay by uncredited
• 13 - The Doom That Came to Dunwich - (1996) - short story
• 32 - The Secret of the Sahara - (2005) - novelette
• 58 - The Turret - (1995) - novelette
• 89 - The Peltonville Horror - (2004) - short fiction
• 105 - The Devil's Hop Yard - (1978) - novelette
• 121 - Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley - (1982) - novelette
• 160 - Brackish Waters - (2005) - novelette
• 189 - The Adventure of the Voorish Sign - (2003) - novelette
• 214 - Nothing Personal - (2010) - short story

Is Buddy Satvan the creator of the cartoon superhero Diamond Sutro? Or is Sutro the creator of Buddy Satvan, the mightiest crusader in the universe? Are these two men, or six? Are they real, or figments of someone's imagination? A challenging journey to the other side of reality that adds up to a triple-play powerhouse of time, telepathy, and extrasensory shock!

Novelization of the Pilot episode.

During a space mission, Astronaut Buck Rogers is flash frozen due to an accident. He is awakened 500 years later on a severely different Earth. He is chosen to aid a special defense organization in the fight to protect Earth from her many enemies.

Join the Greatest of all space warriors on the most incredible quest of his star-crossed career... through the terrifying wilds of Anarchia, ruins of twenty-fifth-century Earth, on an impassioned search for his own descendants! To the desolate remains of the Great Salt Lake, where ancient secrets are held...and the power-mad Kane crouches in ambush! To the asteroid Beta-Where Theo, Buck's trusted compuvisor, is prisoner of the Draconians, who have hatched a scheme to conquer the Universe! To the sin-filled supercity of Villus, where man's every sensual wish is an android's command... and the voluptuous Princess Ardala has big plans for Buck! To the rescue-ship of Wilma Deering and a spectacular chase through star warp, on an escape mission like none Buck has ever seen... not, that is, until he became Buck Rogers - That Man on Beta.

These twelve science fiction stories comprise a wealth of genres, from mystery to science fiction to autobiographical fiction. Included is a Sherlock Holmesian mystery, a Walter Mitty-like escape into the world of software, and a Cthulhu Mythos tale in the Lovecraft tradition. Among the varied plot lines are a tale of book-collecting in the distant future, the story of a gambler who faxes Lady Luck, and a detective's account of his work on a moon of Mars.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword: This World, These Worlds
• Black Mist
• The Second Drug
• At Vega's Taqueria
• I Don't Tell Lies
• Mr. Greene and the Monster
• The Monster and Mr. Greene
• Lux Was Dead Right
• The Child's Story
• The Tootsie Roll Factor
• Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley
• Mr. Tindle Departs
• Mr. Tindle Returns
• Discovery of the Ghooric Zone - March 15, 2337

These 13 tales twist the conventions of science fiction, mystery, horror, humor, and adventure into one gripping collection. In "Green Ice" unassuming Mr. Ino is assigned to recover a missing extraterrestrial artifact, believed to be from the icy moon of Europa. "The Devil's Hop Yard" is a sequel to H. P. Lovecraft's classic "The Dunwich Horror." The perils of being a too-avid book collector are illustrated in "Whatever Happened to Nick Neptune." A most peculiar visit to the bathroom and its ramifications on the safety of the sun yields the story "Stream of Consciousness."

Table of Contents:

• Foreword: No Long White Beard
• Green Ice
• News from New Providence
• 31.12.99
• You Don't Know Me, Charlie
• A Freeway for Draculas
• The Devil's Hop Yard
• Stream of Consciousness
• Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin
• Jubilee
• The Heyworth Fragment
• Whatever Happened to Nick Neptune?
• Old Folks at Home
• The Turret

The Bision Edition is the fourth edition. Each edition was revised and expanded.

So, just how was Tarzan created? Eager to know the inside story about the legendary John Carter and the amazing cities and peoples of Barsoom? Perhaps your taste is more suited to David Innes and the fantastic lost world at the Earth's core? Or maybe wrong-way Napier and the bizarre civilizations of cloud-enshrouded Venus are more to your liking? These pages contain all that you will ever want to know about the wondrous worlds and unforgettable characters penned by the master storyteller Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Richard A. Lupoff, the respected critic and writer who helped spark a Burroughs revival in the 1960s, reveals fascinating details about the stories written by the creator of Tarzan. Featured here are outlines of all of Burroughs's major novels, with descriptions of how they were each written and their respective sources of inspiration. This Bison Books edition includes a new foreword by fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, a new introduction by the author, a final chapter by Phillip R. Burger, as well as corrected text and an updated bibliography.

Contents:

• 2 - Edgar Rice Burroughs and His Most Famous Creations - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 7 - Preface (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1965) - essay by Henry Hardy Heins
• 24 - Introduction to the Centennial Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff
• 28 - Introduction to Second Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1968) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff (variant of Introduction to this Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure))
• 46 - John Carter Battles Green Men of Barsoom - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 76 - David Innes, Hyaenodons, and Man-Apes of Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 119 - The Land That Time Forgot - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 127 - A Scene from The Moon Men - (1965) - interior artwork by Reed Crandall
• 130 - A Scene from The Red Hawk - (1965) - interior artwork by Reed Crandall
• 162 - Carson Napier and the Klangan of Amtor - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 197 - David Innes, Jubal the Ugly One, Dian the Beautiful - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 219 - A Mahar casts her sinister spell - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta (variant of "She moved as one in a trance straight toward the reptile." 1973)
• 240 - Jacket Design for a Proposed Edition of Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 272 - David Innes Faces a Labyrinthodon in Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 286 - David Innes, a Hydrophidian, Ja the Mezop - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 305 - Bibliography (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1965) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff
• 313 - A Checklist of Edgar Rice Burroughs Books - (1965) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff

This is a classic 'shared world' fantasy series.

Plunging into a vast prison that spans a planet, Clive Foliott faces a fantastic world of dwarves, cyborgs and aliens unlike anything he has ever imagined. It is a multi-levelled collection of beings from the hidden folds of time and space. Trapped somewhere inside is Neville Foliott, Clive's twin brother and no creature in the Dungeon will stop Clive from finding him!

Anyone who has followed the adventures of Clive and Neville Folliot and their companions will be waiting for the final installment in this series, in which the heroes at last escape the confines of the mysterious Dungeon.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology New Dimensions IV (1974), edited by Robert Silverberg. The story is included in the collection Before... 12:01... and After (1996).

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It origianlly appeared in the anthology New Dimensions Science Fiction Number 5 (1975), edited by Robert Silverberg. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year #5 (1976), edited by Terry Carr and the collection Deep Space (2009).

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions (1972), edited by Harlan Elison. There are no other know publications available at this time.

The last thing computer circuit planner Daniel Kitajima remembered was being hit by a crane at an orbital construction site. Waking up 80 years later - in 2089 - he found that most of his body had been destroyed... but he had survived.

A group of doctors had constructed an artificial body that gave him superhuman strength, the ability to survive without food or air, the powers of radar and infrared vision.

All Daniel wanted was to resume a normal life. But his new-found strengths had attracted the attention of powerful people with a devastating secret - that the solar system only has a few centuries to live...

TECHNOLOGY'S GREATEST TRIUMPH. HUMANKIND'S LAST HOPE...

Daniel Kitajima was a creature of mind and machine. His artificial limbs were endowed with super-human strength, his perceptual abilities enhanced with telescopic vision, radar and infrared. With proper care, he would live forever - except for one grim inevitable fact...

The Solar System itself was about to be destroyed. The sun was heating up, scorching Earth's deserts and transforming its polar icefields into quagmires. The entire galaxy was in danger. And nothing human could halt the oncoming disaster.

But Daniel Kitajima was not exactly human...

ANTARCTIC SAVAGES - PREHISTORIC MASTODONS - FLYING FORTRESSES - PARALYSING RAY GUNS - GRYPHONS - WATER-WITCHES - LOST CONTINENTS - WONDERFUL FLYING MACHINES... AND MORE!

Coming soon - the most fantastic contest ever conceived: An airplane race pitting Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and Howard Hughes against Manfred von Richthofen (the Bloody Red Baron), his kid brother Lothar and Princess Irina Lvova of Russia!

Which team will be the first to complete the never-before-attempted round-the-poles flight?

Warning: On this doughnut-shaped alternate Earth it is impossible to fly off the edge!

On the other side of the sun, opposite our earth, is a world we never see Counterearth. In every way it's identical to ours...almost!

Albert Einstein, Juan (and Eva) Peron, Babe Didrickson and Sir Oswald Mosley are off on a wild race to Counterearth. It's all action and excitement against a historical background - in fact against two historical backgrounds - detailed enough to intrigue any history buff. It's January 1942; Cordell Hull is President of the United States; and the good guys take off in their spaceship, Manta, from the deck of the SS Titanic, steaming back from Liverpool to New York with thousands of New Year's revellers on board.