The Dreaming City


Michael Moorcock - 1972
    At his side was a five-foot broadsword that was said to have belonged to the human hero. Aubec. Resting on the deck was the great round war-board, his shield, bearing the sign of the swooping dragon. A black helm crowned him, with a dragon's head on the peak and dragon's wings flaring backward, a dragon's tail curling down. All about him was black, but for the white shadow within the helm, from which glared two crimson orbs. Wisps of milk-white hair strayed from beneath the helm, and in the scant light the fine, handsome features of the albino emperor suddenly stood out. He listened for the first sound of the approaching battle.....(This book was later reprinted under the title of Elric of Melibone)

The World Menders


Lloyd Biggle Jr. - 1971
    Few of them are aware that their prosperous civilization is totally dependent upon the olz, a race of slaves owned by their god-emperor. The olz till the fields and work the forests and mines, and their reward is starvation and the vicious, caustic stroke of the zrilm whip.

Songs from the Stars


Norman Spinrad - 1980
    Centuries after the big smash, the successor civilization of Aquaria more or less flourishes on the west coast of what was once the United States, a society built on White Science, following the "law of muscle, sun, wind and water". Only the sorcerers of Space Systems, Inc., dare traffic in the "Black Sciences" of atomic, petroleum and physics which destroyed the old golden age of space, for they alone know of the higher destiny that awaits man in the abandoned Big Ear space station. For centuries, they have secretly infiltrated Aquarius through the gray town of La Mirage while crafting a spaceship capable of reaching the Big Ear and turning man's ears once more to the mysterious Songs from the Stars.Now, through the Aquarians Clear Blue Lou, perfect master of the Clear Blue Way, and Sunshine Sue, queen of the Word of Mouth communication network, they scheme to bring their ultimate scenario to fruition. Sex, love, emotion, karma, destiny, perhaps even The Way itself, all become elements in the scenario of Arnold Harker, Black Scientist, sorcerer, project manager of Operation Enterprise. But when Clear Blue Lou, Sunshine Sue and Arnold Harker finally confront the interstellar brotherhood of sentient beings, they find, each in his way, that The Galactic Way utterly transcends their hopes, wildest dreams and darkest fears.

Life Form


Alan Dean Foster - 1995
    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.

Orion


Ben Bova - 1984
    He is an eternal warrior destined to combat the Dark Lord through all time for dominion of the Earth. Follow him, servant of a great race, as he battles his enemy down the halls of time, from the caves of our ancestors to the final confrontation under the hammer of nuclear annihilation.

Ties of Blood and Silver


Joel Rosenberg - 1984
    The alien offered him the key to the Universe - how long could even a master thief resist?

Spacial Delivery


Gordon R. Dickson - 1961
    But John Tardy didn't know about this battle until he was in it. No suit of armor, no magnificent charger. He'd have been happy just to arrive on his own two feet, or any way other than as a package labeled Spacial Delivery.

Spinneret


Timothy Zahn - 1985
    As Earth vessels ventured out to explore near interstellar space, they found not one alien race, but many. There were no planets that hadn't already been colonized or inhabited by some space faring race other than our own. Until finally we humans discovered Astra. Elation was short lived, however, when it was realized that this habitable world contained no real metals.So Astra became a planet to be used as a minor experiment. A group of Americans under UN charter set out to make a colony on Astra, eager to make a home where they could live in peace and without the fear of terrestrial wars. All was fairly routine, until the planet began to play tricks on the colonists.First there were magnetic-field shifts; then all metal in contact with the ground disappeared. Colonel Merideth, in charge of the colony, was having enough trouble with unrest among farmers without the specter of bizarre planetary characteristics. But when the first metal cable erupted from what had appeared to be a dormant volcano, Merideth realized that Astra was not merely a metal-poor planet. An unknown race, dubbed the Spinners, had left a working artifact behind. Suddenly, he was in charge of a hot property, one fervently desired by all who had ignored it before: the UN, the U.S., and the alien races in nearby space, the Rooshrike, the Ctencri, the Poms, the Whissst, and the Orspham.Being in charge and staying in control are two different things, and Merideth and his crew would need all their wits, as well as considerable Yankee horse sense, to keep from being overrun by dangers -- from Earth, or from the stars. Only when they discover the ultimate secret of the race of Spinners will the Astrans know the key to their own future.

The Galaxy Primes


E.E. "Doc" Smith - 1959
    And as they mentally charted the cosmos to find their way back to Earth, their own loves and hates were as startling as the worlds they encountered... Here is E. E. Smith's classic science fiction novel -- one of the greatest space operas of all time!

Pathways


Jeri Taylor - 1998
    To boost morale as they plot their escape, they each describe the unlikely paths that brought them to Voyager.

Two Hawks From Earth


Philip José Farmer - 1966
    In this classic of alternate history by grand master Philip Jose Farmer, Native American bomber pilot Roger Two Hawks bails out over enemy territory in WWII, only to find himself on another Earth-one in which the American continents never rose from the waters, and the ancestors of the American Indians remained in Asia and Europe-an Earth embroiled in a world war of its own, with Two Hawks caught in the middle.

The Hammer of God


Arthur C. Clarke - 1992
    . .[Clark] handles both ideas and characters with deftness and wit; in short, the outstanding living science fiction writers is romping".-- "Chicago Sun-Times". In the year 2110 technology has cured most of our worries. But even as humankind enters a new golden age, an amateur astronomer points his telescope at just the right corner of the night sky and sees disaster hurtling toward Earth: a chunk of rock that could annihilate civilization. While a few fanatics welcome the apocalyptic destruction as a sign from God, the greatest scientific minds of Earth desperately search for a way to avoid the inevitable. On board the starship Goliath Captain Robert Singh and his crew must race against time to redirect the meteor form its deadly collision course. Suddenly they find themselves on the most important mission in human history--a mission whose success may require the ultimate sacrifice."Clarke is still at the top of his game".-- "The Detroit News"."As good as any anything he's written. . .for a hard-science-fiction treat, I suspect "The Hammer Of God" won't be topped".-- "Star Tribune", Minneapolis."Classic Clarke. . .a good story".-- "The Denver Post".

The Heirs of Hammerfell


Marion Zimmer Bradley - 1989
    Focusing on a devastating clan feud between two of these realms—Hammerfell and Storn—a feud which has seen the land soaked red with blood for countless generations. But now Storn has struck what may prove Hammerfell’s death stroke, setting the ancestral castle ablaze, slaying its lord, and sending its lady fleeing into the night with her twin infant sons, Alastair and Conn.Conn is separated from his mother and lost to her on that fateful night, but she and Alastair find sanctuary in Thendara City, among the wealthy and the laran-gifted, keeping the memory of Hammerfell alive with them in exile. Yet Conn, too, survives, rescued by a loyal servant and raised in secret among those who would see the might of Storn overthrown and the banner of Hammerfell flying proudly high once again.But it is not until Conn’s laran manifests that the fates of the twins are finally, inextricably linked in a pattern which could bring a new beginning or total ruin to Hammerfell and its heirs…

Seer's Blood


Doranna Durgin - 2000
    Blaine Kendricks thinks the strangers have come to Shadow Hollers to trade, but he is dead wrong, and as the invasion proceeds, he is recruited by a magician to participate in a dangerous game.

A Dead God Dancing


Ann Maxwell - 1979
    Now it was a chill, arid wasteland, with its remaining inhabitants clustered on a great ice mountain. And in a few, short solar cycles its sun would blaze into a deadly super-nova.