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Kit Pedler - 1971

A BIOLOGICAL TIME BOMB? "In the shaft leading to the [ventilation] grille a mindless, groping mass of malodorous corruption was thrusting its way silently towards the surface.

Buoyed up by bubbling foam it steadily rose. Single units in an obscene abrogation of normal order divided and made two. Two became four and four, eight. Endlessly supplied with food, each unit absorbed nutrient and in a soft, ancient certainty fulfilled its only purpose — to multiply, to extend and to multiply... "In the Coburg Street control room of the London Underground system, there was a full emergency... In a dozen tunnels, trains ground down to a halt. Hordes of terrified commuters made their way anxiously along dark, musty tunnels to the lights and safety of the next station. There were minor explosions, fires, and the failure of a million wires and cables. As the dissolution of plastic proceeded and accelerated in rate, the elegant order of the system gradually turned into complete chaos. "On the surface, in the freezing December air, the smell of the rotting plastic began to hang permanently in the air. A cloying, wet, rotting smell similar to the smell of long-dead flesh. It filled streets and homes, basements and factories. Traffic lights failed, causing irresolvable jams.... The breakdown of plastic spread into Broadcasting House.... A gas main with polypropylene seals on its pressure regulators erupted into flame.... Plastic cold-water pipes softened, ballooned, and burst, flooding into shops, homes, and restaurants. "Slowly and inexorably, the rate of dissolution increased; failures occurred in increasing succession until, within forty-eight hours, the centre of London had become a freezing chaos without light, heat, or communication."

In the Ocean of Night

Gregory Benford - 1977

Contains Introduction EssayCover Artist: Don Dixon2019: NASA astronaut Nigel Walmsley is sent on a mission to intercept a rogue asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

Ordered to destroy the comet, he instead discovers that it is actually the shell of a derelict space probe - a wreck with just enough power to emit a single electronic signal...2034: Then a reply is heard. Searching for the source of this signal that comes from outside the solar system, Nigel discovers the existence of a sentient ship. When the new vessel begins to communicate directly with him, the astronaut learns of the horrors that await humanity. For the ship was created by an alien race that has spent billions and billions of years searching for intelligent life...to annihilate it.In the Ocean of Night is a 1977 hard science fiction novel by Gregory Benford. It is the first novel in his Galactic Center Saga. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1977. It was first published as a novelette in the May/June 1972 edition of Worlds of If Science Fiction.

Birth of Fire

Jerry Pournelle - 1976

Birth Of Fire is the story of Garrett Pittston, wrongly convicted of murder.

Pittston faces a choice: life in prison, or near-slavery on Mars. Under the appalling conditions imposed by those who run the mines from Earth, Pittston and his fellow workers start a revolution to wrest their freedom from the penal colony. Display advertising in science fiction publications.

Refugee

Piers Anthony - 1983

Vol.

1 RefugeeCALIGULA OF THE STARSThough he was later accused of every crime and sexual perversion in the galaxy, Hope Hubris began as an innocent. Because he defended his older sister against the violent lusts of a wealthy scion, Hope and his peasant family were forced to flee Callisto, one of the moons of Jupiter. Pursued by the bloodthirsty scions across the airless desert, they barely escaped with their lives. The illegal space bubble was overcrowded with refugees, all hoping to reach Jupiter for asylum.But the space travelers had not reckoned on the terrible threat of high space-the pirates, barbaric men who rape, rob, and murder, with no thought but to satisfy their bestial appetites. It will take all Hope's ingenuity to survive, but the atrocities he witnesses will never die. There is only one way he can be rid of them . . . REVENGE

Anything You Can Do ...

Randall Garrett - 1962

What do you do when an alien with exceptional physical abilities crash lands on Earth and leaves a path of death and destruction in its wake? You use biological modification to create an enhanced human able to match the alien in strength and speed.

But is the result still human? Find the answer to this question in Randall Garrett's novel Anything You Can Do...

Dinosaur Planet

Anne McCaffrey - 1978

THE MISSIONThe Exploratory and Evaluation Corps of the Federated Sentient Planets had sent ARCT-10, with its mixed crew of shipbred and planet-bound technicians, to Ireta to catalogue fauna and flora and search for new energy sources.

It was a simple mission. A standard crew.THE PROBLEMKai and his beautiful co-leader Varian, the best xenob-vet in the business, followed all the standard procedures -- but the results of their investigations were totally unexpected. Not only were the planet's creatures larger than anyone had anticipated and the geological finds smaller, but the rescue ship had inexplicably disappeared.THE NIGHTMAREThen suddenly on a world of giant swamp creatures and deadly predators, a curious change had come over many of the members of the ARCT-10 crew... a change that would lead all of them, in one way or another, into the primitive darkness of a future world.

The Best of Edmond Hamilton

Edmond Hamilton - 1977

Here is a collection of some of the finest short fiction penned by one of "fathers" of modern science fiction.

*** These stories were selected (and edited) by his wife Leigh Brackett, an author and a screenwriter. Her screen-writing credits include works on such films as The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, The Long Goodbye and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I*** This collection spans nearly half a century of Edmond Hamilton's work and was selected from a repository of hundreds of stories that he had written over that period.Contents:The Monster-God of Mamurth (1926)The Man Who Evolved (1931)A Conquest of Two Worlds (1932)The Island of Unreason (1933)Thundering Worlds (1934)The Man Who Returned (1934)The Accursed Galaxy (1935)In the World's Dusk (1936)Child of the Winds (1936)The Seeds from Outside (1937)Fessenden's Worlds (1937)Easy Money (1938)He That Hath Wings (1938)Exile (1943)Day of Judgment (1946)Alien Earth (1949)What's It Like Out There? (1952)Requiem (1962)After a Judgement Day (1963)The Pro (1964)Castaway (1969)

Agent of Vega

paperback

James H. Schmitz - 1960

Four closely related science-fiction telepathic spy novellas.First published in Astounding Science Fiction, July 1949, 1950 and 1951 and Galaxy Science Fiction 1950.Fantastic but true!"Having a Daya-Bal as a Zone Agent makes me extremely uneasy," the Executive Scientist said.

"Especially when she's given one of your ultimate space ships.""I can vouch for her," the Galactic Co-ordinator said casually."But supposing another people--like the Daya-Bals--came into possession of one of our ultimate ships. They could duplicate it.""Don't worry--our Agents are psychologically incapable of giving away secrets that could cause us harm.""I know," the Scientist said. "That's why I was surprised to discover that there are two other Daya-Bals secretly aboard our Agent's ship!" (From the back cover)

The Practice Effect

David Brin - 1984

Dennis Nuel is a physicist who, during his research, develops a machine that allows him to explore alternate realities, each of which sport some very strange scientific properties..

Dennis Nuel is a physicist who, during his research, develops a machine that allows him to explore alternate realities, each of which sport some very strange scientific properties.

The Slaves of Heaven

Edmund Cooper - 1974

They were the Night Comers.

No one could say if they were ghosts or gods or devils. They only knew they came from the sky, silver clad, ominous, with a Medusa glance that could freeze a man in his tracks. They stole women and carried them off to heaven, decimating the Earth's population and threatening the survival of the human species.Berry, chief of the Londos clan, frustrated by the uselessness of his tribes' primitive weapons, ventures into the inner circle of the Night Comers and is spirited away in their ship to their home in the stars. There, Berry's fight for survival holds the key to the existence of his own world and that of the Night Comers as well.

The Earth Book of Stormgate

Poul Anderson - 1978

One of the great modern works of the imagination, this book tells of the trader van Rijn and the adventurer Falkayn; it rounds and completes the future history of the Polesotechnic League that spans four thousand years of Earth's interstellar empire; and it chronicles Mankind's encounters with the great-winged Ythri, who kept this record at far Stormgate."Behold these animals from the discovery on through the World-Taking.

They are garnered from different trees, and few of them will seem at once to grow toward the same sun. Yet they do."This is the tale, told afresh, of how Avalon came to settlement and thus our choth to being. This is the tale as told by Terrans, who walk the Earth..."Then read."Contents:Wings of VictoryThe Problem of PainHow to be Ethnic in One Easy LessonMargin of ProfitEsau (also known as Birthright)The Season of ForgivenessThe Man Who Counts (the first appearance of the unedited version of War of the Wing-Men)A Little KnowledgeDay of Burning (also known as Supernova)LodestarWingless (also known as Wingless on Avalon)Rescue on Avalon

Paradise