You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Twenty agents of the Galactic Sythesis are missing on the Silent Planet of Kamm--the victims, it seems, of the most powerful death ray the universe has ever known. But how could the primitive technology of the Kammians have produced such a weapon? And why would they unleashed its power against the Sythesis? It's Jan Darzek's mission to find out.
Lloyd Biggie is not only a writer, but also a musician. In THE METALLIC MUSE he has included seven science fiction stories, written over several years, all of which in some way relate to the arts. Thoroughly entertaining and provocative, many of the stories explore the intricate relationship between life and art, and all of them contain very pertinent ideas about present and future experience. Superbly demonstrating their author's depth of insight to the human condition, they offer to all who read them an intriguing blend of accurate analysis and sometimes devastating speculation.
Sweeping through the Small Magellanic Cloud, leaving a trail of ravished worlds and destroyed civilization, is the Udef -- the Unidentified Death Force. The best scientific minds of two galaxies can make nothing of it. The Udef is invisible. No scientific instrument can detect its presence. The only marks of its passing are the screams of its victims and the piles of dead left in its wake. Momentarily safe on the world of Montura, Jan Darzek's strategy against the Udeffalters. He and his assistant Effie have been ordered there by a supreme computer -- that isn't telling why. There is nothing to do on Montura but frantically wheel and deal in its spectacular interworld trading market. Supreme...
A collection of the best science fiction short stories of the 20th century as selected and evaluated by critically-acclaimed author Orson Scott Card. Featuring stories from the genre's greatest authors: Isaac Asimov • Arthur C. Clarke • Robert A. Heinlein • Ursula K. Le Guin • Ray Bradbury • Frederik Pohl • Harlan Ellison • George Alec Effinger • Brian W. Aldiss • William Gibson & Michael Swanwick • Theodore Sturgeon • Larry Niven • Robert Silverberg • Harry Turtledove • James Blish • George R. R. Martin • James Patrick Kelly • Karen Joy Fowler • Lloyd Biggle, Jr. • Terry Bisson • Poul Anderson • John Kessel • R.A. Lafferty • C.J. Cherryh • Lis...
Sinister, invisible forces of a secret mental weapon known only as The Dark are threatening the entire Primores galaxy, several transmitting leaps away from Earth. By the time a bizarre Mr. Smith comes to detective Jan Darzek's New York office, whole planets have been lain waste. Darzak is offered a million dollars by Smith to accept a job that will almost certainly be fatal: identify the incredible power that is about to overwhelm the few remaining planets in the beleagered galaxy, so that these worlds might somehow halt the rampage. A superb science fiction novel by a master of the genre.
Starcombing contains eighty-five newly collected pieces of David Langford's witty commentary on the SF/fantasy scene - columns, articles, reviews, essays, even a few short-short stories from the famous 'Futures' page in Nature. Compulsive reading, crammed with insights and laughs.
Liberty is a recurring theme in science fiction. Here's a volume of explorations of this theme, combining landmark stories from science fiction's golden age with new stories by some of today's top writers, including Hugo winner and Grand Master Jack Williamson; Michael Resnick, winner of four Hugos and a Nebula, and author of the international bestseller, Santiago; Michael A. Stackpole, author of eight New York Times best sellers; best-selling novelist Jane Lindskold, New York Times best-selling author James P. Hogan, Robert J. Sawyer, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year; and more. This stellar crew considers how a government-free society could operate, how a low-tech society might throw off the influence of more "advanced" intruders, how the right to own weapons is fundamental to freedom, and much more. In the future, liberty may be even more threatened than in our present-and this volume suggests very unusual ways of defending and advancing it. . . . At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
STORIES OF ALIEN CONTACT GONE WRONG. Will it be, "Greeting, fellow Sentients" or, "Nice PlanetÊwe'll take itî? These stories from SF greats answer the question, "Are we alone in the universe?" with a resounding, "No, but we wish we were!" When the first contact between humans and aliens from another planet happens, will they say, _Take me to your leader,î or is _Surrender, puny primitive bipedsî more likely? Or maybe, _Hello there, Im selling the latest edition of the Galactic Encyclopedia, and no planet should be without a set,î might be the first words from the alien visitor. Ever since H.G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds, science fiction writers have speculated on what the first...