And it had settled squarely on forestry student Jerry Conklin's car, parked next to a fishing stream outside Lone Pine, Minnesota. — The townspeople of Lone Pine were the first to see it- and one of them was the first and only human to shoot at it. He paid for his rashness with instant death.Within hours the press, the government and the public knew something strange had happened in Lone Pine and were beginning to face the incredible possibility that Earth now harbored SOMETHING from outer space. A machine? An intelligent being? There was no way to know.But Jerry Conklin knew. The visitor had scooped him up, held him prisoner for hours, then let him go- and he had sensed its thoughts and feelings. Jerry knew the visitor was a living, intelligent creature.Then more of the giant black boxes descended to Earth, almost all in the United States. And they began eating... and reproducing. The visitors seemed harmless if left alone, but their powers of defense, and their very existence, threatened world stability. The public, the nation's allies- and its enemies- demanded more information. But there was none.Then Jerry followed up on a rumor and made one more discovery. The visitors were paying for their food and lodging with fantastic gifts. And that payment could destroy Earth's civilization.

    An odyssey of discovery, from a shattered society through the solar system with a handful of men and women who ride a cold, hurtling ball of ice to the shaky promise of a distant, unknowable future.

    Also included is an introduction by Herbert describing his personal feelings about the filming of David Lynch's movie version of Dune; Herbert's own favorite short story, Seed Stock and tales from throughout his career, some never before collected.

    For centuries, disease, hunger, poverty and war have been things found only in the history tapes. And applied genetics has given men and women the bodies of athletes and a lifespan of over a century.They should all have been very happy....But Hamilton Felix is bored. And he is the culmination of a star line; each of his last thirty ancestors chosen for superior genes. Hamilton is, as far as genetics can produce one, the ultimate man. And this ultimate man can see no reason why the human race should survive, and has no intention of continuing the pointless comedy.However, Hamilton's life is about to become less boring. A secret cabal of revolutionaries who find utopia not just boring, but desperately in need of leaders who know just What Needs to be Done, are planning to revolt and put themselves in charge. Knowing of Hamilton's disenchantment with the modern world, they have recruited him to join their Glorious Revolution. Big mistake! The revolutionaries are about to find out that recruiting a superman was definitely not a good idea....

    Here's that tired old theme...the lost community of Aztecs who have been cut off in a hidden valley by a landslide centuries ago. Presently they will discover the outside world--our world. The stalwart Aztec maverick may even fall in love with a beautiful white explorer...Of course, any reader of Analog Magazine should know Harry Harrison better than that. There are rumblings, even in the first chapters. The Aztecs are blond--that old Fair God bit again. Someone is feeding the vultures meat from an unspecified source. And surely we're not supposed to accept a snake-headed goddess? Trust Uncle Harry. On page 55, young Chimal follows the goddess through a secret door in the cliffs, with his whole tribe hunting him, & the story turns inside out."--P. Schuyler Miller

    Only one weapon—the terrifying Disruptor— can win the struggle for the Empire Forces. But it is so powerful that unless John uses it correctly it could destroy not only the enemy but the cosmos.Could his 20th Century mind cope with the technology of 200,000 years from now?

    are easy!Contents1 • Time Patrol • [Time Patrol • 1] • (1955) • novelette by Poul Anderson36 • Brave to Be a King • [Time Patrol • 2] • (1959) • novelette by Poul Anderson75 • The Only Game in Town • [Time Patrol • 4] • (1960) • novelette by Poul Anderson104 • Delenda Est • [Time Patrol • 5] • (1955) • novelette by Poul Anderson

    When a celebrated science fiction writer takes to space on his first trip to Mars, he's sure to be in for some heckling from the spaceship crew. But Martin Gibson, man about space, takes it all in his stride. That is, until he lands on the red planet. Once there the intrepid author causes one problem after another as he stumbles upon Mars's most carefully hidden secrets and threatens the future of an entire planet!

    Earthlings are sent to Saturn's largest moon to investigate machines that were left behind centuries ago by an alien race.

    Only a hidden group of rebels can stem the humanoid tide...if it's not already too late.Fist published in Astounding Science Fiction during the magazine's heyday, The Humanoids--sceince fiction grand master Jack Williamson's finest novel--has endured for fifty years as a classic on the theme of natural versus artificial life.Also included in this edition is the prelude novelette, "With Folded Hands," which was chosen for the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

    The aliens put their ship into orbit around the moon, peacably ignoring frantic human excitement, and asked to see someone who knew the stars. Earth sent Bradley Reynolds, 52, officially retired, a man who knew the stars as well as any man could. But the aliens wanted more than Reynolds could give. They wanted to know whether the sun loves us.For Bradley Reynolds, it was the beginning of a life-long quest for alien intelligence, for beings who could speak to him with that wonderful Otherness. On Mars, on Jupiter, on Titan he would find hints of what he sought, and what he would find in the end was a tranformation so glorious as to be far beyond his capacity to dream.

    Technological intrigue-international and intersteller- a hard edged conflict with alien races.Contents:• Ernie • (1979) • Raison D'Etre • (1981) • The Price of Survival • (1981) • Between a Rock and a High Place • (1982) • Houseguest • (1982) • Time Bomb • (1988) • The President's Doll • (1987) • Banshee • (1987)

    Delany's 1976 SF novel, originally published as Triton, takes us on a tour of a utopian society at war with . . . our own Earth! High wit in this future comedy of manners allows Delany to question gender roles and sexual expectations at a level that, 20 years after it was written, still make it a coruscating portrait of the happily reasonable man, Bron Helstrom -- an immigrant to the embattled world of Triton, whose troubles become more and more complex, till there is nothing left for him to do but become a woman. Against a background of high adventure, this minuet of a novel dances from the farthest limits of the solar system to Earth's own Outer Mongolia. Alternately funny and moving, it is a wide-ranging tale in which character after character turns out not to be what he -- or she -- seems.

    Sometimes I even ask myself if all this has really happened, if its pictures dwell in truth in my memory, and not merely in my imagination. In my position as head inspector in the federal police department at Washington, urged on moreover by the desire, which has always been very strong in me, to investigate and understand everything which is mysterious, I naturally became much interested in these remarkable occurrences. And as I have been employed by the government in various important affairs and secret missions since I was a mere lad, it also happened very naturally that the head of my department placed In my charge this astonishing investigation, wherein I found myself wrestling with so many impenetrable mysteries.

    He runs away, taking only a gem-eyed doll he calls Junky, & joins a carnival. Finding acceptance at last, Horty never dreams that Junky is more than a toy, nor does he realize that a threat far greater than his cruel father inhabits the carnival & has been searching for Horty longer than he has been alive.This book was also published as "The Synthetic Man".