Martin bring their formidable talents and extraordinarily broad range of expertise to bear on all the mysteries of Known Space.

    Now, the young heir to the Kzinti patriarchy is forced into a desperate wilderness exile as his empire cracks and the contentious Great Prides attempt to rip one another apart while facing war with humanity.

    This is a collection of Heinlein classics--originally published for young readers of the 50's, but great fun for us all.

    Until close observation shows that on this world, nothing is as it seems. Welcome to Xica, where nine scientists from Earth have established first contact with a humanoid civilization. Now all they have to do is live to tell about it. From the author of Greenthieves.

    Once the Empire had ruled the galaxy, linking thousands of worlds with a network of commerce, culture and law... Now, with the Empire gone, only isolated planets remained and they were rapidly sinking into oblivion. Then came Mass, a man driven by a dream of rediscovering the Empire... but to achieve that dream he must find and control the space skimmer, one of the miraculous vessels that had first made the Empire possible...

    The long-stalled space program finally went private and got off the ground. Now the big issue lies with the United Nations of Earth, which refuses to grant independence to the colonies on Luna, Mars, and in the Belt. Civil war could be the result--threatening to tear the elite Star Voyager Academy apart.

    But millennia passed and techniques improved. By the time of the Romans a lucky bolt might impale a file of infantry. By the dreadful 20th century the very existence of the race - we still were earth-bound, then - was at risk. But somehow, even though the weapons grew ever more terrible, that risk was averted and humanity gained first the planets and then the stars. And still the weapons grew, until the very universe has cause to fear the wrath of Man...Contents:Reflex by Larry Niven and Jerry PournelleSpanish Man's Grave by James Warner BellahMarius by Poul AndersonThe Threat by Advisory CommissionEnder's Game by Orson Scott CardA Death in Realtime by R.S. McEnroeOverdose by Spider RobinsonSaul's Death by Joe HaldemanHigh Frontier by Robert A. Heinlein and Lt. General Daniel GrahamTwo Poems by Jon PostDiasporah by W.R. YatesHis Truth Goes Marching On by Jerry PournelleTHOR by Weapons Committee of the Citizens' Advisory Coucil on National Space PolicyThe Defenders by Philip K. DickUnlimited Warfare by Hayford PierceThe Battle by Robert SheckleyMilitary Virtue by Jerry PournelleRanks of Bronze by David DrakeI Am Nothing by Eric Frank RussellCall Him Lord by Gordon R. DicksonQuiet Village by David McDanielStrategy of Technology by Jerry PournelleWidow's Party by Rudyard Kipling

    In Sargasso of Space, the Solar Queen free-traders win exclusive rights to trade with the planet Limbo, but the crew arrives to find most of its surface charred, with little sign of life. They find a valley with life, but others may still lurk. Worse yet, a strange force threatens to cripple the Queen. They must solve the planet's mysteries if they hope to escape with not only tradeable goods, but their lives.In Plague Ship, the Queen travels to Sargol, which promises a wealth of exquisite gems to trade-if the crew can overcome the native feline Salarikis' mistrust. But their troubles have just begun!. When a mysterious illness soon overtakes all the crew except the four youngest, the Galactic Patrol labels the Queen plagued and orders it destroyed on sight. With every ship in the galaxy searching for them, the crew have one chance to save the Solar Queen. But if their bold plan foils it would mean the end of the Solar Queen and its crew!

    And when he defied them again, they hunted him like an animal.Then Devon stumbled on a secret passage in the hills. His whole life changed in that moment. For Devon had accidentally discovered the giant ark that was ferrying not only Cypress Corners but all other Earth cultures to another planet.What Devon did not know was that there had been a terrible accident aboard the spaceship. The gear had been damaged, the crew dead. And the ark and all its worlds were now headed straight for destruction.

    Now their long battle is nearing its climax—and the final battleground is an uncontrolled experimental power plant that threatens the Earth itself! * Night of Delusions: A detective is hired by men claiming to be government agents and given an assignment that may lead to his being hailed as the savior of the nation—or executed for treason. His mysterious clients also give him devices to use in the assignment, devices which seem to be far beyond anything of which human technology is capable. And as he doggedly pursues the case, he finds that the very fabric of reality seems to be changing around him, even to the point that he himself seems never to have existed! * Plus three short novels of equally stunning concepts and breathtaking action.

    The only problem is that the Confederacion needs him as one of its twelve Prime Operators for its secret service, the TBII. The TBII wants him as a spy, thief & assassin. It's not, of course, a problem for the Confederacion, which simply uses immersion therapy & hypnotic personality overlay for Otto's training, then sends him out in deep cover, encased in plastiflesh, on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds. But for him, it's a different matter: what he has to witness & what he's forced to do take a terrible toll. Always he returns to his original self--his conscience stabbed by the memory of all those he'd killed in the service of interstellar harmony.

    Among them: the ruthless head of an entertainment conglomerate who seeks revenge by giving a maniacal artist his ultimate desire - an alien.Damon Eddington will shock the world with his newest composition, the Symphony of Hate. Wrapped within its bizarre music can be found the most tortured of human sounds, combined with the razor-steel screams of a Homeworld alien. Yet the supreme cry continues to elude him and, obsessed with complete his musical creation and controlled by his need for the life-form's harshest voice, Eddington knows that the sound he seeks lies deep inside the ruthless creature he has named Mozart. And he will stop at nothing to free it....

    But now the men who hired them are going to sell them to the enemy...and so begins a novel of adventure in which a band of Star Mecenaries is driven across the face of a planet by enemies bent on their distruction. With only the guns in their hands, this tiny band must battle ships, artillery, treachery, and the most powerful tank in the universe.

    Clarke.Contents:Second DawnIf I Forget Thee, Oh Earth Breaking Strain History Lesson (as "Expedition to Earth" in the British Edition, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954)SuperiorityExile of the Eons Hide-and-SeekExpedition to Earth (as "Encounter in the Dawn" in the British Edition, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954)LoopholeInheritance The Sentinel (basis for 2001)

    Taking place between the events of Coyote Rising and Coyote Frontier, it follows three individuals -- Marie Montero and Lars Thompson, veterans of the recent revolution against Earth, and Manuel Castro, a posthuman Savant who was once the colony world's lieutenant governor -- as they set on a journey to explore Coyote's uncharted regions."Steele's intimate stand-alone novella of the fronrtier planet of Coyote chronicles the redemptive journey of two colony exiles, adding a brilliant brushstroke to the already vast6 and vivid canvas of the Coyote saga ,,, With a sophistication reminiscent of some of the genre's greatest visionaries, Steele has created a must-read for anyone who enjoys thought-provoking SF..." -- Publisher's Weekly