Search Worlds Without End

In The Crucible of Time, John Brunner creates a true epic of SF invention. Imagine a planet existing in a debris-strewn corner of the galaxy. Cosmic dust and rubble cause an endless succession of ice ages followed by tropical warmth followed by more ice ages, and on and on. Meteors of all sizes plummet to the surface of the planet frequently and burgeoning civilizations have a sad tendency to be wiped out all of a sudden. Society survives, sort of, but the brightest scientists know that to survive long term, the race has to transcend the surface of the planet and become a space-faring species. In a story that spans millennia, a determined group of people take control of their own evolution and build the technological society that will be their way into space. Long before Brian Aldiss's magisterial Helliconia series, even before some of Arthur C. Clarke's grand future visions, John Brunner led the way in imagination and scope of vision.

For each generation, there is a writer meant to bend the rules of what we know. Hugo Award winner (Best Novel, Stand on Zanzibar) and British science fiction master John Brunner remains one of the most influential and respected authors of all time, and now many of his classic works are being reintroduced. For readers familiar with his vision, this is a chance to reexamine his thoughtful worlds and words, while for new readers, Brunner's work proves itself the very definition of timeless.

The Crucible of Power is a 1953 anthology of three science fiction novellas edited by Martin Greenberg.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - The Crucible of Power - (1939) - novelette by Jack Williamson
• 49 - But Without Horns - (1940) - novella by Norvell W. Page
• 157 - Crisis in Utopia - (1952) - novella by Norman L. Knight

Earth is mostly depopulated in the wake of a massive supervolcano, but civilization and culture are preserved in vast orbiting ringstations, as well as in a few isolated traditional communities on Earth. Jana, a young Sardinian woman, is in line to become the next maghiarja (sorceress) by way of an ancient technology that hosts a community of minds. Maro, an ambitious worldship artist, has designs to use the townsfolk as guinea pigs in a brutally invasive psychological experiment. Jana must protect her people and lead them into the future, while deciding whom to trust amongst possible ringstation allies.

Warrantors of Peace: the Federation's daring experiment to prevent war among its members. Each Warrantor, man or woman, is hostage for the government of his native world -- and is instantly killed if that world breaks the peace.

Now Romulans have kidnapped six Warrantors, to foment political chaos -- and then civil war -- within the Federation. Captain Kirk must send Sulu to infiltrate Romulan territory, find the hostages, and bring them back alive -- before the Federation self-destructs.

David R. George's Crucible Trilogy explores the legacy of one pivotal, crucial moment in the lives of the men at the heart of Star Trek - what led them to it, and to each other, and how their destinies were intertwined.

For Doctor Leonard McCoy, life takes two paradoxically divergent paths. In one, displaced in time, he saves a woman from dying in a traffice accident, and in doing so alters Earth's history. Stranded in the past, he struggles to find a way back to his own century. But living an existence he was not meant to, he will eventually have to move on, and ultimately face the shadows born of his lost life. In the other, he is prevented from saving the woman's life, allowing Earth's history to remain unchanged. Returning to the present, he is nonetheless haunted by the echoes of an existence he never lived, and by fears which will bring him full circle to the shadows he never faced.

Spock, displaced in time, watches his closest friend heed his advice by allowing the love of his life to die in a traffic accident, thereby preserving Earth's history. Returning to the present, Spock confronts other such crises, and chooses instead to willfully alter the past. Challenged by the thorny demands of his logic, he will have to find a way to face his conflicting decisions. Once, he preserved the timeline at the cost of Jim Kirk's happiness. Now he is forced to re-examine the fundamental choices he has made for his own life. Unwilling to accept his feelings of loss and regret, he seeks that which has previously eluded him: complete mastery of his emotions. But while that quest will move him beyond his turmoil, another loss will bring him full circle to once more face the fire he had never embraced.

In A Single Moment

...the lives of three men will be forever changed. In that split second, defined paradoxically by both salvation and loss, they will destroy the world and then restore it. Much had come before, and much would come after, but nothing would color their lives more than that one, isolated instant on the edge of forever.

In A Single Moment

...James T. Kirk, displaced in time, allows the love of his life to die in a traffic accident, thereby preserving Earth's history. Returning to the present, he continues a storied career as a starship captain, opening up the galaxy. But as he wanders among the stars, the incandescence that once filled his heart remains elusive.

In A Single Moment

...that haunts James T. Kirk throughout his life, he preserved the timeline at the cost of his happiness. Now, facing his own death, the very fabric of existence collapses across years and light-years, forcing him to race against -- and through -- time itself, until he comes full circle to that one bright star by which his life has always steered.

The fifth volume of a project to collect, in order of original publication, the short fiction of Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.

Volume Five includes twelve stories from 1938 to 1940, and a foreword by author and popular culture expert Frank M. Robinson. Included are two true rarities: two stories that originally appeared under the pen-name Nils O. Sonderlund. These stories, originally appearing in MARVEL TALES, were considered "too sexy" to appear under Williamson's own name!

An appendix reprints rare commentaries on this volume's contents as they originally appeared in the pulp magazines. The author provides an afterword commenting on the genesis of these stories, and reflecting on the economic and cultural mood of the nation during the early years of American Science Fiction.

Table of Contents:

• "Foreword" by Frank M. Robinson
• "The Chivaree" (Portales Daily News, Sep 13, ’38)
• "The Dead Spot" (Marvel Science Stories, Nov ’38)
• "Nonstop to Mars" (Argosy Weekly, Feb 25 ’39)
• "After World’s End" (Marvel Science Stories, Feb ’39)
• "The Crucible of Power" (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb ’39)
• "Passage to Saturn" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun ’39)
• "Star Bright" (Argosy Weekly, Nov 25 ’39)
• "The Fortress of Utopia" (Startling Stories, Nov ’39)
• "The Angel from Hell" (Marvel Tales, Dec ’39)
• "As In the Beginning" (Future, Mar ’40)
• "Hindsight" (Astounding Science-Fiction, May ’40)
• "Mistress of Machine-Age Madness" (Marvel Tales, May ’40)
• "Afterword" by Jack Williamson

The Black Plague. The Pestilence. Disease and death haunt every town and village across 14th century Europe and none are immune from its evil. Some see the devastation of their world as a sign from God for Man's wickedness.

But Brother Thomas Neville sees this swath of death as something much more. Neville is a man beset by demons. Or is it angels? He has had a visitation from none other than the Archangel Michael, who commands Thomas to a mission. This mission will take Neville across the length and breath of the continent in a desperate bid to find the means to stop the minions of Satan who have found a doorway out of Hell and are preparing to venture forth, to try and seize this world in preparation for an assault on Heaven itself.

As Thomas Neville encounters angels and demons, saints and witches, he comes to realize that the armies of God and Satan are arraying themselves for the final battle... and that his soul is to be the battleground.

The question is, has Neville picked the truly good side?

The Middle Ages. Finally, the Black Plague has passed and for a while it seems evil has been defeated. Europe recovers; prosperity returns, trade resumes, and people slowly recover from the effects of the plague. Then, just as the Church relaxes its guard, war spreads across Europe. Widespread heresies challenge the authority of the Church. Revolts and rebellions threaten to topple the established monarchies and overturn the social order of Europe. And then the plague returns, worse than ever.

Thomas Neville, a neurotic warrior-priest, eventually discovers the cause. The minions of the Devil have been scattered throughout European society during the confusion of the Black Death. His task is to discover the identities of these shapeshifters so that the Church can move against them, but it is a dangerous task. These are master shapeshifters, perfect at their craft, and Neville can never be certain of who he should trust.

The world that the former monk Thomas Neville knows is crumbling about him. The Holy Mother Church of Rome is losing its power and men are coming to question the nature of religion and the role of those who rule them by sword and cross.

Thomas knows that it is not merely the dawning of a new time for men to try to think and judge for themselves but it is a direct result of the rift in the fabric of the world, where demons have escaped their prison and are trying to breach the very gates of heaven. The great archangel Michael gave Thomas the task to find the demons who now dwell in human form and expose their evil natures.

To accomplish this he had to turn his back on one set of vows and return to his once lofty noble connections. In doing so, his life is caught up with his childhood friend Harold Bollinbroke, the fair young "Prince Hal"—who might be more (or less) than he seems. And he meets the fair young Margaret, an enigmatic beauty who he takes to wife--not out of love, but as a means to discover if she is one of those who would destroy mankind.

Old friends, a new love, and temptations that will try his conscience. And his very soul.

For Thomas is beginning to think that all that he knows may not be true. Faced with mortal love and friendships that he desperately wants and fears, he knows that time is growing short.

And the choice that he makes will reshape the world.

Sequel to The Course of Empire

When humans and their Jao overlords joined forces in a desperate battle to save the Earth from the malevolent race called the Ekhat, the relationship between the two species was changed forever. Two years later, humans and Jao are learning to work together in an uneasy alliance. Then, in a distant nebula, three Jao ships detect signs of another sentient species during a battle with the Ekhat. Only one of the ships returns, with most of its crew dead or injured.

Earth's Preceptor Ronz suspects the unknown species was actually the Lleix, a name out of the Jao's past, and an ancient shame from the period in their development when they themselves were still ruled by the maniacal Ekhat.

Ronz sends the Lexington, a massive ship built on Earth and crewed by both human and Jao, to investigate. The Lexington dwarfs any ship ever built by the Jao and even outmasses Ekhat ships, which may enable it to survive the attack that destroyed two of the three Jao ships. But if the expedition does find a surviving remnant of the Lleix, will the survivors trust the Jao? And should they?