So being a Colonial Union officer attached to an interplanetary diplomatic mission sometimes means taking a fall. Literally.

    It was first published in the anthology Far Horizons in 1999.

    Who guides our fate? And can we ever hope to wrest control for ourselves? In this novella, "The Loom of Thessaly" , classical mythology merges with impudent modern spirit into a science fiction legend that speculates upon the nature of reality.

    It doesn't appear as a standalone work, but is included with several collections. The story is a prequel to the events in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and has the young Zaphod Beeblebrox working as a salvage ship operator. He guides some bureaucrats to a crashed spaceship which may be leaking some hazardous materials. The bureaucrats are determined to "make it safe". The comic asides in the story include some of the time travel paradoxes which are a common running theme in Adams' SF work, and plenty of material about lobsters

    Anderson's The Saga of Shadows: The Dark Between the StarsThis is a slightly edited extract from the first quarter of The Dark Between the Stars, corresponding to chapters 1-2, 6-7, 11-12, 17-19, 22-23, 27-28, 37.

    Nine misfit academics on an expedition to find the volcryn, a mythic race of intersteller nomads, and the only ship available for this strange quest is the Nightflyer, a cybernetic wonder with a never-seen captain...Nine innocents are about to find themselves in deep space, trapped with an insane murderer who can go anywhere, do anything, and intends to kill them all.

    Perhaps one day they would send a message to Earth, calling them to new worlds. Even if they did, any response would take thousands of years to arrive. But no matter what would happen, Ah Quan would always hold to his parents living in a country called China. He would hold to that small village in the dry West of that country. And he would hold to the small road of that village, the road on which his journey began.This is a sentimental work by Liu Cixin. The story's narrative unfolds against the accurate and fully realized background of a modern China —A country where bustling cities, the super rich and a cutting edge aerospace industry can be found next to remote villages, an impoverished peasantry and the most basic forms of labor. Through a long line of dramatic and colorful lucky breaks our protagonist crosses this chasm, climbing the rungs from an absolute nobody, a peasant boy whose greatest dream is a full stomach, to become a lone hero, dedicated to the cause of space exploration. Though many regard his destiny a tragedy, he himself welcomes the glorious deadly mission. Realized in natural language and vivid imagery, the “Sun of China” full of heroism and bitter-sweet melancholy. Which is to say nothing of the guest appearance by a well-known luminary that is sure to leave you astonished.China Galaxy Science Fiction Award of 2002.

    Clarke, Nancy Kress, Lawrence Watt-Evans, George Zebrowski, Philip K. Dick, and many more! Included are:OUT OF ALL THEM BRIGHT STARS, by Nancy KressTHE HANGING STRANGER, by Philip K. DickWALKING JOHN AND BIRD, by Neal AsherTHE SYMPHONIC ABDUCTION, by Hannes BokTHE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD, by Arthur C. ClarkeHILLARY ORBITS VENUS, by Pamela SargentMAYBE JUST A LITTLE ONE, by Reginald BretnorTHE ULTROOM ERROR, by Jerry SohlREMEMBRANCE OF THINGS TO COME, by Lawrence Watt-EvansTHE ASTRONAUT FROM WYOMING, by Adam-Troy Castro & Jerry OltionPRIDE, by Mary A. TurzilloCAT AND MOUSE, by Ralph WilliamsTHE RECORD, by Forrest J Ackerman and Ray BradburyTHE NEW REALITY, by Reginald BretnorWHAT HATH ME? by Henry KuttnerBRIDGE OF SILENCE, by George ZebrowskiSUN’S UP, by A.A. Jackson IV and Howard WaldropCONSIGNMENT, by Alan E. NourseTHE SYNDIC, by C.M. KornbluthAFTER BONESTELL, by Jay LakeTHE JEWELS OF APTOR, by Samuel R. DelanyTHE MISSISSIPPI SAUCER, by Frank Belknap LongMEMBERSHIP DRIVE, by Murray F. YacoCANCER WORLD, by Harry Warner, Jr.EGOCENTRIC ORBIT, by John CoryAnd don't forget to search this ebook store for more entries in the Megapack series, covering everything from science fiction and fantasy to horror, westerns, pulp fiction, adventure, ghost stories, and much, much more!

    The animals seem intelligent enough, and Red recruits Slim to help him train the odd creatures to do circus tricks. But the boys are about to discover their playthings aren’t exactly animals—and they’ve allowed themselves to be caught for a reason . . . Youth is a riveting tale from the author of countless classics, including I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy, which won the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series.

    The Wolf of Ash and Fire follows Horus Lupercal, fighting alongside the Emperor Himself, as the Luna Wolves fight for control of the Ork-held planetoid of Gorro. The Wolf of Ash and Fire was released as a free e-book with every copy of Macragge's Honour.

    A novella in the Terms of Enlistment universe.

    [A Beowulf Shaeffer Story] A human spaceship pilot accepts an offer to guide a cramped (but very fast) experimental alien ship to the center of the galaxy on a promotional stunt--but what he finds at the core is much more important than just publicity.

    When an accident causes the ship to crash, Falcon is badly injured and takes over a year to fully recover.The story was the inspiration for The Medusa Encounter, the fourth novel in the Venus Prime series by Paul Preuss.The pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, entitled "Encounter at Farpoint" (1987), features a large, sentient, space-dwelling jellyfish-like creature similar to the Medusa creature in Clarke's story.The concept of life on Jupiter was explored in the second episode of Carl Sagan's PBS series Cosmos, which featured lifeforms similar in concept to those in this story.Clarke himself revisited the notion of giant lifeforms in the atmosphere of Jupiter in his 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two.A sequel, The Medusa Chronicles, will be published in 2016 via a collaborative effort between Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter.

    Anti-Gerasone halts the aging process and prevents people from dying of old age as long as they keep taking it; as a result, America now suffers from severe overpopulation and shortages of food and resources. With the exception of the very wealthy, most of the population appears to survive on a diet of foods made from processed seaweed and sawdust. Gramps Ford, his chin resting on his hands, his hands on the crook of his cane, was staring irascibly at the five-foot television screen that dominated the room. On the screen, a news commentator was summarizing the day's happenings. Every thirty seconds or so, Gramps would jab the floor with his cane-tip and shout, "Hell, we did that a hundred years ago!" Emerald and Lou, coming in from the balcony, where they had been seeking that 2185 A.D. rarity--privacy--were obliged to take seats in the back row, behind about a dozen relatives with whom they shared the house. All save Gramps, who was somewhat withered and bent, seemed, by pre-anti-gerasone standards, to be about the same age--somewhere in their late twenties or early thirties. Gramps looked older because he had already reached 70 when anti-gerasone was invented. He had not aged in the 102 years since. "Next one shoots off his big bazoo while the TV's on is gonna find hisself cut off without a dollar--" his voice suddenly softened and sweetened--"when they wave that checkered flag at the Indianapolis Speedway, and old Gramps gets ready for the Big Trip Up Yonder." He sniffed sentimentally, while his heirs concentrated desperately on not making the slightest sound. For them, the poignancy of the prospective Big Trip had been dulled somewhat, through having been mentioned by Gramps about once a day for fifty years.

    An all-new tale of Marcus Yallow, the hero of the bestselling novels Little Brother and Homeland -- as he deals with the aftermath of a devastating Oakland earthquake, with the help of friends, hacker allies, and some very clever crowdsourced drones.