What if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers. Within its pages, you'll find beloved worlds of space opera, hard SF, cyberpunk, the New Wave, and more. Learn about the secret history of science fiction, from titans of literature who also wrote SF to less well-known authors from more than twenty-five countries, some never before translated into English. In The Big Book of Science Fiction, literary power couple Ann and Jeff VanderMeer transport readers from Mars to Mechanopolis, planet Earth to parts unknown. Immerse yourself in the genre that predicted electric cars, space tourism, and smartphones. Sit back, buckle up, and dial in the coordinates, as this stellar anthology has got worlds within worlds. Including: . Legendary tales from Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin. An unearthed sci-fi story from W. E. B. Du Bois. The first publication in twenty years of the work of cybernetic visionary David R. Bunch. A rare and brilliant novella by Chinese international sensation Cixin Liu Plus: . Aliens!. Space battles!. Robots!. Technology gone wrong!. Technology gone right!"

    You die, or you Qualify. The year is 2047. An extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and the descendents of ancient Atlantis have returned from the stars in their silver ships to offer humanity help.But there’s a catch.They can only take a tiny percent of the Earth’s population back to the colony planet Atlantis. And in order to be chosen, you must be a teen, you must be bright, talented, and athletic, and you must Qualify.Sixteen-year-old Gwenevere Lark is determined not only to Qualify but to rescue her entire family.Because there’s a loophole.If you are good enough to Qualify, you are eligible to compete in the brutal games of the Atlantis Grail, which grants all winners the laurels, high tech luxuries, and full privileges of Atlantis Citizenship. And if you are in the Top Ten, then all your wildest wishes are granted… Such as curing your mother’s cancer.There is only one problem.Gwen Lark is known as a klutz and a nerd. While she’s a hotshot in classics, history, science, and languages, the closest she’s come to sports is a backyard pool and a skateboard.This time she is in over her head, and in for a fight of her life, against impossible odds and world-class competition—including Logan Sangre, the most amazing guy in her class, the one she’s been crushing on, and who doesn’t seem to know she exists.Because every other teen on Earth has the same idea. You Qualify or you die. * * *EXCERPT!Now you can read Chapter One in its entirety (click here)!* * *

    Of the twenty-two stories collected here—some written recently, others decades ago—all but two have never before been published. Bradbury has crafted tales that are strange and scary, nostalgic and bittersweet, and humorous and touching, set in the not-so-distant past and an unknowable future: a group of senators drinks too much and gambles away the United States, a newly-wed couple buys an old house and finds their fledgling relationship tested, two mysterious strangers arrive at a rooming house and baffle their fellow occupants with strange crying in the night, and a lonely woman takes a last chance on love. The final piece is a story-poem, a fond salute from Bradbury to his literary heroes Shaw, Chesterton, Dickens, Twain, Poe, Wilde, Melville, and Kipling.A timeless collection from one of America's greatest storytellers, The Cat's Pajamas is a panoramic view of Ray Bradbury's rich and remarkable imagination.(from back cover)

    Ranging from the 20th Century to the 31st, these interconnected stories trace Man's expansion and colonization throughout the galaxy...Becalmed in hellHowie's spaceship had a malfunction...but it might be only psychosomatic!Wait it outHe was trapped on Pluto...and all his assets were frozen!The borderland of SolForward possessed the ultimate weapon...but no one would ever see it!The jigsaw manThe organ banks want you...now!Cloak of anarchyThey were free to be anything but violent...but that wasn't enough!-- plus eight other great stories in Niven's spectacular cycle of the future...and, special for this volume, a complete Niven bibliography and a detailed chronology of all his Known Space stories!Timeline for Known SpaceMy Universe and Welcome To It!Coldest Place, TheBecalmed in HellWait it OutEye of an OctopusHow the Heroes DieThe Jigsaw ManAt the Bottom of a HoleThe DeceiversCloak of AnarchyWarriors, TheThe Borderland of SolThere is a TideSafe at Any SpeedAfterthoughtsBibliography: The Worlds of Larry Niven

    Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning, and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best Paolo's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the nebula and Hugo nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man."

    DelanyEXPEDITER, by Mack ReynoldsONE-SHOT, by James BlishSHIPWRECK IN THE SKY, by Eando BinderZEN, by Jerome BixbyLANCELOT BIGGS COOKS A PIRATE, by Nelson BondSENTIMENT, INC., by Poul AndersonTHE ISSAHAR ARTIFACTS, by J. F. BoneTHE NEXT LOGICAL STEP, by Ben BovaYEAR OF THE BIG THAW, by Marion Zimmer BradleyEARTHMEN BEARING GIFTS, by Fredric BrownHAPPY ENDING, by Fredric Brown and Mack ReynoldsLIGHTER THAN YOU THINK, by Nelson BondRIYA'S FOUNDLING, by Algis BudrysACCIDENTAL DEATH, by Peter BailyAND ALL THE EARTH A GRAVE, by C. C. MacAppDEAD RINGER, by Lester del ReyTHE CRYSTAL CRYPT, by Philip K. DickTHE JUPITER WEAPON, by Charles L. FontenayTHE MAN WHO HATED MARS, by Randall GarrettNAVY DAY, by Harry HarrisonTHE JUDAS VALLEY, by Robert Silverberg & Randall GarrettNATIVE SON, by T. D. HammJUBILEE, by Richard A. LupoffFINAL CALL, by John Gregory BetancourtAnd don't forget to check out all the other volumes in the Megapack series! Search on "Wildside Megapack" in this ebook store to see the complete list...covering more science fiction volumes, plus adventure stories, military, fantasy, ghost stories, westerns, and much more!

    Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure but violent purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse's bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices.

    Pat Murphy's stories range from "Rachel in Love," which portrays a chimpanzee whose brain is implanted with the personality of a young girl who has died, to "His Vegetable Wife," the story of a farmer who grows a spouse from a packet of seed only to find that she is more quiet than docile. All but one of the 19 stories in this collection have been published previously in magazines and anthologies.Contents:Dead Men on TV (1988)Women in the Trees (1990)Don't Look Back (1980)Orange Blossom Time (1981)In the Islands (1983)Touch of the Bear (1980)On a Hot Summer Night in a Place Far Away (1985)Sweetly the Waves Call to Me (1981)His Vegetable Wife (1986)Good-bye, Cynthia (1988)Prescience (1989)Clay Devils (1987)A Falling Star Is a Rock from Outer Space (1986)With Four Lean Hounds (1984)On the Dark Side of the Station Where the Train Never Stops (1984)In the Abode of the Snows (1986)Rachel in Love (1987)Recycling Strategies for the Inner City (1990)Bones (1990)

    Chester IV, who has inherited his great-grandfather's lifework--a super computer that can bring any situation or time to life; and Roger Tyson, who is being pursued through time by a motorcycle-riding, rutabaga-like alien in a world where eras millions of years apart have been combined into an insane smorgasbord of eons.Contains:In the QueueThe Planet WreckersThe Body BuildersThe Devil You Don'tThe Exterminator (aka "A Bad Day for Vermin") The Big ShowGooberealityPrototaphThe Great Time Machine Hoax

    Leo Graf was just your typical efficient engineer: mind your own business and do the job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where children had been bio-engineered to have four arms (and no legs) to function in zero gravity. Now that they’re no longer needed, a heartless mega corporation is getting rid of them before they eat into the profit margin. Leo Graf adopted 1000 quaddies—now he had to teach them to be free. “Labyrinth”—When Miles Vorkosigan is captured while on a secret mission to a lawless world, his only hope of escape is an unlikely pair of allies: a quaddie and a teenage werewolf. Diplomatic Immunity— Miles Vorkosigan and his wife were heading home for the births of their first children, but a major diplomatic disaster is looming at Graf Station, colonized by the descendants of the original quaddies, and duty calls. Unfortunately, diplomatic immunity doesn’t carry over to immunity from a very nasty biological weapon. The downside of being a troubleshooter comes when trouble starts shooting back. . . .

    Sawyer - called the dean of Canadian science fiction by the Ottawa Citizen and just about the best science fiction writer out there these days by the Rocky Mountain News - won the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award for his novel Hominids and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award for his novel The Terminal Experiment, Iterations is Sawyer's first short story collection, gathering 22 fantastic tales from such diverse places as Amazing Stories, the Village Voice, the Globe & Mail, and Nature, Among them, these stories have: Won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (the Aurora) Won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, Been nominated for the Hugo, Nominated for and the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award, Been performed on CBC Radio, and Appeared in best-of-the-year collections. In Iterations, you'll: See Sherlock Holmes solve the problem of the missing aliens, Find out what really happened to the bones of Peking Man, Learn the truth about the alligators in the sewers of New York, Visit a future Toronto sealed inside a steel dome, Encounter pure evil aboard the Russian space station Mir, Follow a serial killer as his consciousness is transferred into a Tyrannosaurus rex, and Meet a man doomed to commit murder over and over again because of the pressures of Canadian publishing. Each story is accompanied by Sawyer's own commentary, and the collection is introduced by award-winning SF author James Alan Gardner.

    It is not an easy task, for many dangers threaten the bridge builders, from nomad raiders to Free Magic sorcerers. Despite the danger, Morghan wants nothing more than to join the Bridge Company as a cadet. But the company takes only the best, the most skillful Charter mages, and trains them hard, for the night might come when only a single young cadet must hold the bridge against many foes. Will Morghan be that cadet?Also included in this collection are eighteen short stories that showcase Nix’s versatility as he adds a fantastical twist on an array of genres including science fiction, paranormal, realistic fiction, mystery, and adventure.

    • (1971)• Some Notes Concerning a Green Box • (1971)• Why Johnny Can't Speed • (1971)• The Emoman • [Humanx Commonwealth • 4] • (1972)• Space Opera • (1973)• The Empire of T'ang Lang • (1973)• A Miracle of Small Fishes • (1974)• Dream Done Green • (1974)• He • (1976)• Polonaise • (1976)• Wolfstroker • (1977)• Ye Who Would Sing • (1976)

    The Top of the Volcano is the collection we hoped would come along eventually, twenty-three of Harlan’s very best stories, every one being award-winning, brought together in a single volume at last. There’s the unforgettable power of "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs and Mefisto in Onyx, the heart-rending pathos of Jeffty Is Five and Paladin of the Lost Hour, the chilling terror of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, the ingenuity and startling intimacy of Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans…These stories are full of the light and life of someone with things worth saying and the skills to do it, presented in the book we had to have -- not just a Best-of (though given what’s on offer it may just fall out that way) but in one easy-to-grab volume perfect for newbies, long-time fans and seasoned professionals alike to remind them just how it can be done.

     In this anthology, you’ll find seventeen tales of conflict and heroism, exploration and discovery, endurance and triumph. Flee the apocalypse of modern-day Earth, fly a fighter in the cold emptiness of deep space, and find new life on the distant shores of an alien world. You might even discover something about yourself as each author opens a window on the soul of mankind. Who are we, really? Should we survive? How do we become something greater without losing what makes us human? Open this collection and take your first steps into tomorrow. Travel the cosmos to find amazing adventure. Walk beside unforgettable characters on the bridge across the stars… Featuring a Foreword by Kevin J. Anderson – David VanDyke – “As the Sparks Fly Upward” – Ann Christy – “Peace Force” – Felix R. Savage – “Guardians of Earth” – Lindsay Buroker – “Here Be Dragons” – Chris Dietzel – “The Gordian Asteroid” – Craig Martelle – “The Trenches of Centauri Prime” – Josi Russell – “Broken One” – Chris Pourteau – “The Erkennen Job” – Daniel Arenson – “The Firebug and the Pharaoh” – Rhett C. Bruno – “Interview for the End of the World” – Steve Beaulieu – “Night Shift” – Lucas Bale – “A Friend to Man” – Jason Anspach – “…Space Pirates” – Will McIntosh – “Drive” – Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff – “Water Babies” – David Bruns – “Take Only Memories” – Patty Jansen – “This Deceitful State of Truth”