Search Worlds Without End

In Earth Magic, Alexei and Cory Panshin (Hugo-winning authors of The World Beyond the Hill) create a mysterious world of shifting realities, arcane traditions, and memorable characters.

Haldane, son of the Get warlord Black Morca, must flee for his life through a familiar landscape turned strangely alien, aided by a wizard of uncertain abilities and the hazardous favor of the Goddess Libera. His perilous journey will take him to a final battle amidst the standing stones of power of Stone Heath, where he will discover his true destiny.

An exciting, thought provoking tale by critically acclaimed and award-winning masters of the genre.

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

From the early 1940s until his death in 1988, Robert A. Heinlein reigned unchallenged as the most influential contemporary author of science fiction. His first few stories turned the field upside down, and set new standards of narrative and scientific excellence. He was justly credited with introducing narrative techniques which are now taken for granted, but were revolutionary at the time.

This book was the first full-length critical analysis of Heinlein's work and his place in modern science fiction. Like Damon Knight, Mr. Panshin works on the assumption that the ordinary standards of literature apply with full force to science fiction; a vaulting imagination does not excuse bad writing or foolish plotting. In addition there are criteria of narrative technique and scientific plausibility that are peculiar to science fiction. Rigorously applying these standards, Mr. Panshin discusses Heinlein's fiction and analyzes its strengths and weaknesses; he traces the constants and the variables in Heinlein's interests and viewpoints; and he offers a suggestion as to the ultimate significance of Heinlein both in science fiction and in literature as a whole.

Neither adulatory nor carping, this is a study in depth which is both readable and comprehensive. With bibliographies of Heinlein's works up to 1968.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Four Futures (1971), edited by Robert Silverberg. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year #1 (1972), edited by Terry Carr. The story is included in the collection Farewell to Yesterday's Tomorrow (1975).

Table of Contents:

• 3 - The Magic of Their Singing - (1976) - essay
• 11 - The Elizabethan Theatre in 1590 - (1976) - essay
• 19 - The Short History of Science Fiction - (1976) - essay
• 30 - Searching for the Heartland - (1976) - essay
• 37 - The World Beyond the Hill - (1976) - essay (variant of First Chapter: The World Beyond the Hill 1972)
• 53 - Fragmentation - (1976) - essay
• 62 - Science Fiction: New Trends and Old - (1974) - essay
• 79 - The Special Nature of Fantasy - (1976) - essay
• 81 - Reflections and Commentaries - (1976) - essay
• 93 - Reading Heinlein Subjectively - (1976) - essay (variant of Reading Heinlein Subjectively: An Analysis 1974)
• 127 - Time Enough for Love - (1976) - essay
• 196 - "Found in Space" by R. Monroe Weems - (1976) - essay
• 207 - Retrospection - (1976) - essay
• 215 - Fiction and Human Development - (1976) - essay
• 221 - The Unicorn and the Mirror - (1976) - essay
• 231 - Farewell to Yesterday's Tomorrow - (1976) - essay (variant of Forum: Farewell to Yesterday's Tomorrow 1974)
• 238 - Intuition and Mystery - (1976) - essay
• 247 - A New Worldview - (1976) - essay
• 287 - Twentieth Century Science Fiction Writers - (1976) - essay
• 304 - A Bibliography of Twentieth Century Science Fiction and Fantasy - (1976) - essay

Traces the influences of science-fiction writing on western culture's conception of humankind, writings of such authors as Jules Verne and Robert Heinlein.

A small airless planetoid set deep in the heart of the Flammarion Rift. Due to its location, it is a minor hub of commerce within the Sashuite Empire, and though it is equipped with elegant dining rooms and casinos, luxury suites and expensive shops, Wu and Fabricant's GUIDEBOOK claims that Star Well is a dull place to visit and that travellers should avoid layovers if they can. But Wu and Fabricant had not been shown the secret basements, nor told the nature of the things stored there--if they had been, they might still have advised against layovers, but not because Star Well was dull. When our hero Anthony Villiers and his Traggish friend Torve arrive on the scene, it soon becomes evident that the truth must out: that Star Well has reached the end of an era...

The little-known, backwater planet Pewamo seemed an unlikely site for bomb-throwers, pornographers and maniacs- yet ask Admiral Beagle, ever-watchful for the moral safety of his world, and he would tell you that such unsavory individuals were collecting in droves on Pewamo.

Normally Pewamo was the habitat of slumberous vacationers and odd pink clouds that floated idly overhead and didn't bother anybody - but then Anthony Villiers arrived.bringing his obdurately alien companion Torve the Trog, and Pewamo would never be the same again.

Strange sounds were heard regularly in the night. Villiers spoke in riddles when questioned by Admiral Beagle. Torve the Trog rode his speedy red tricycle on obscure missions. And somehow an army gathered around them.

But not even Villiers knew that one of the men he'd attracted was an assassin, sent to kill him...

The third and sadly the last of the documented adventures of Anthony Villiers, gentleman adventurer and his traveling companion, Torve the Trog. I'm not sure I know what goes on in this one, but I don't mind -- and neither will you. The Villiers books are Comedy of Manners set in Space. They are ridiculous, irreverent, and highly amusing.

After the destruction of Earth, humanity has established itself precariously among a hundred planets. Between them roam the vast Ships, doling out scientific knowledge in exchange for raw materials. On one of the Ships lives Mia Havero. Belligerent soccer player, intrepid explorer of ventilation shafts, Mia tests all the boundaries of her insulated world. She will soon be tested in turn. At the age of fourteen all Ship children must endure a month unaided in the wilds of a colony world, and although Mia has learned much through formal study, about philosophy, economics, and the business of survival, she will find that her most vital lessons are the ones she must teach herself.

Published originally in 1968, Alexei Panshin's Nebula Award-winning classic has lost none of its relevance, with its keen exploration of societal stagnation and the resilience of youth.