Dominant aliens allow humans to the stars only as mercenaries. Swordsman Kana and his comrades, betrayed by Central Command, march across hostile planet Fronn. Star Rangers 1953, The Last Planet 1955. 4K years later, telepath Kartr and Patrollers crash on a beautiful unknown yet familiar world and seek the source of a beacon to safety.

    Clarke (Astounding Science Fiction May'46)2 Menace from Earth by Robert A. Heinlein (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Aug'57)3 Code Three by Rick Raphael (Analog Feb'63)4 Hunting Problem by Robert Sheckley (Galaxy Sep'55)5 Black Destroyer by A. E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science Fiction July'39)6 Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber (Galaxy Dec'51)7 Thy Rocks and Rills by Robert Ernest Gilbert (If Sep'53)8 Gun for Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp (Galaxy Mar'56)9 Goblin Night by James H. Schmitz (Analog Apr'65)10 Only Thing We Learn by C. M. Kornbluth (Startling Stories July'49)11 Trigger Tide by Wyman Guin (as Norman Menascoe Astounding Science Fiction Oct'50)12 Aliens by Murray Leinster (Astounding Science Fiction Aug'59)13 All the Way Back by Michael Shaara (Astounding Science Fiction July'52)14 Last Command by Keith Laumer (Analog Jan'67)15 Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell (as Don A. Stuart Astounding Science Fiction Aug'38)16 Quietus by Ross Rocklynne (Astounding Science Fiction Sep'40)17 Answer by Frederic Brown (Angels and Spaceships 1954)18 Last Question by Isaac Asimov (Isaac Asimov: The Complete .. #1 1956)19 Cold Equations by Tom Godwin (Astounding Science Fiction Aug'54)20 Shambleau by C. L. Moore (Wierd Tales Nov'33)21 Turning Point by Poul Anderson (If May'53)22 Heavy Planet by Lee Gregor (Astounding Science Fiction Aug'39)23 Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper (Astounding Science Fiction Feb'57)24 Gentle Earth by Christopher Anvil (Astounding Science Fiction Nov'57)25 Environment by Chester S. Geier (Astounding Science Fiction May'44)26 Liane the Wayfarer by Jack Vance (The Dying Earth 1950)27 Spawn by P. Schuyler Miller (Wierd Tales Aug'39)28 St. Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson 29 Thunder and Roses by Theodore Sturgeon (Astounding Science Fiction Nov'47)

    The bestselling saga of Falkenberg's legion, complete in one huge volume, this contains stories that were originally published in four parts as "Falkenberg's Legion, Prince of Mercenaries, Go Tell the Spartans" and "Prince of Sparta."

    Includes PartnerShip by Anne McCaffrey with Margaret Ball and The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey with Mercedes Lackey complete with a cover by Tom Kidd.

    And the thousands of devotees of the series now have a book that will be a goldmine of information, background details, and little-known facts about the Vorkosigan saga. Included are an all-new interview with Bujold as well as essays by her on crafting the Vorkosigan universe, articles on the biology, technology and sociology of the planet Barrayar, appreciations of the individual novels by experts, maps, a complete timeline of the series, and more. Readers can't get enough of the Vorkosigan series and they'll jump at the chance to read this story behind the stories. Baen has a new novel in the Vorkosigan series under contract.

    . .

    Stardance: Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance. Starseed: Years later, another dancer of genius faced the end of her career when her body failed her, and Rain McLeod followed Shara into space. If she joined with a symbiotic lifeform that would let her live without artificial protection in the vacuum of space, she would take a quantum leap in human evolution. Starmind: Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as a shaper of visual effects and music for the world's most famous zero-gravity dance company in High Orbit. But his beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod. And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things-small miracles-are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race-and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers-find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago, a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.

    Samantha and the man soon find themselves on the run.

    . . a 10,000-year history of man on Earth and in space!Contents:· Neutron Star [Beowulf Shaeffer] · nv If Oct ’66 · A Relic of Empire · nv If Dec ’66 · At the Core [Beowulf Shaeffer] · ss If Nov ’66 · The Soft Weapon · nv If Feb ’67 · Flatlander [Beowulf Shaeffer] · nv If Mar ’67 · The Ethics of Madness · nv If Apr ’67 · The Handicapped [“Handicap”] · nv Galaxy Dec ’67 · Grendel [Beowulf Shaeffer] · nv *

    Genellan -- the sole refuge for a ship's crew and a detachment of spacer marines, abandoned by a fleet fleeing from alien attackers. Now winter is coming, and the savage bear people are returning, bent on destroying every human -- but not before stealing the secret of hyperlight drive, the key to interstellar flight . . . .

    Jeanie first met McAndrew on a routine run to Titan and quickly learned he was a genius of the caliber of Newton or Einstein. When McAndrew invented a space drive that let frail humans survive hundreds of gravities of acceleration, he disappeared while testing it, and Jeanie had to find him, using a trail of cryptic messages he had left behind.That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, in spite of the gray hairs that Jeanie began accumulating as a result of McAndrew's impractical nature and his talent for getting himself into trouble with much more practical villains, such as... A mass-murderer of several million people A highly-placed government official whose life McAndrew saved, but in an embarrassing way, and who consequently wants to kill both him and Jeanie The ruler of a slower-than-light spaceship that left Earth a long time ago, giving it time to develop some very strange customs by the time McAndrew and Jeanie visited it.And there are still more adventures of this spacegoing odd couple in The Compleat McAndrew.Publisher's Note: Part of this book was previously published as One Man's Universe.

    Hogan here gives his thousands of readers a generous serving of high-quality SF, along with a look behind the scenes. Read how a young girl raised by robots learned her true destiny. Travel in time to learn that inventors are always misunderstood, even Og, the caveman. Worried about the idea of cloning? Hogan will really have you worrying. And much more.

    Richard Seaton acquires rights to his discovery from the government and commercializes it with the aid of his friend, millionaire inventor Martin Crane. When a former colleague tries to steal the invention, not only the future of Dr. Seaton and his allies, but ultimately the entire world hangs in the balance!The first of the great "space opera" science fiction novels, The Skylark of Space remains a thrilling tale more than 80 years after its creation."With the exception of the works of H. G. Wells, possibly those of Jules Verne -- and almost no other writer -- it has inspired more imitators and done more to change the nature of all the science fiction written after it than almost any other single work." -- Frederik Pohl

    Set in the aftermath of the Dominion War, Avatar heralds both a new threat and a discovery which will profoundly affect the lives of all the crew. Meantime in Abyss, Dr. Julian Bashir faces his darkest nightmare when Section 31, the black ops division of Starfleet, tries to compel him to eliminate one of their own. And in Demons of Air and Darkness, Colonel Kira Nerys and some unexpected allies fight to close down the alien Gateways and avert destruction on a planetary scale. Dark secrets, divided allegiances, treachery and, ultimately, hope - these four tales are Deep Space Nine at its best.

    . . Alastair Reynolds burst onto the SF scene with the Arthur C. Clarke Award-shortlisted REVELATION SPACE, British Science Fiction Award-winning CHASM CITY, and REDEMPTION ARK. Now experience the phenomenal imagination and breathtaking vision of 'The most exciting space opera writer working today' (Locus) in these two tales of high adventure set in the same universe as his novels. The title story, 'Diamond Dogs', tells of a group of mercenaries trying to unravel the mystery of a particularly inhospitable alien tower on a distant world; 'Turquoise Days' is about Naqi, who has devoted her life to studying the alien Pattern Jugglers.