But now, one man believes Sim was a fraud, and Alex must follow the legend into the heart of the alien galaxy to confront a truth far stranger than any fiction.

    In the years between the first two Bugger Wars, the Hegemony is desperate to recruit brilliant military commanders to repel the alien invasion. They may have found their man--or boy--in John Paul Wiggin....In "Teacher's Pest"-a novella written especially for this collection--a brilliant but arrogant John Paul Wiggin, now a university student, matches wits with an equally brilliant graduate student. "The Investment Counselor" is set after the end of the Bugger Wars. Banished from Earth and slandered as a mass murderer, twenty-year-old Andrew Wiggin wanders incognito from planet to planet as a fugitive--until a blackmailing tax inspector compromises his identity and threatens to expose Ender the Xeoncide. Also reprinted here is the original award-winning novella, "Ender's Game," which first appeared in 1977.

    Clarke is the most celebrated science fiction author alive. He is—with H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein—one of the writers who define science fiction in our time. Now Clarke has cooperated in the preparation of a massive, definitive edition of his collected shorter works. From early work like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre," through classics like "The Star," "Earthlight," "The Nine Billion Names of God," and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel, and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like "A Meeting with Medusa" and "The Hammer of God," this immense volume encapsulates one of the great SF careers of all time.

    Now Fleet Admiral Geary's victory has earned him the adoration of the people-and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can't help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.

    That made her just the right age: old enough to be used, young enough to be broken. Or so the slavers thought. But Sassy turned out to be a little different from your typical slave girl. Maybe it was her unusual physical strength. Maybe it was her friendship with the captured Fleet crewman. Maybe it was her spirit. Whatever it was, it wouldn't let her resign herself to the life of a slave. She bided her time, watched for her moment. Finally it came, and she escaped.But that was only the beginning for Sassinak. Now she's a Fleet Captain with a pirate-chasing ship of her own, and only one regret in her life: not enough pirates.

    But one Sangaree survived - the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers, in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse's father Gneaus must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld. As the great private armies of all space clash on the narrow Shadowline that divides inferno from life-sheltering shade, Gneaus' half- brother Michael plays his traitorous games, and a man called Deeth pulls the deadly strings that threaten to entrap them all - as the Starfishers Trilogy begins.

    The Planet Savers, the first Darkover novel, introduces the reader to the now legendary world of Cottman IV. The Winds of Darkover, also an early novel in the series, reveals the awesome and terrifying powers of the infamous Sharra Matrix.

    Set in the aftermath of the Dominion War, Avatar heralds both a new threat and a discovery which will profoundly affect the lives of all the crew. Meantime in Abyss, Dr. Julian Bashir faces his darkest nightmare when Section 31, the black ops division of Starfleet, tries to compel him to eliminate one of their own. And in Demons of Air and Darkness, Colonel Kira Nerys and some unexpected allies fight to close down the alien Gateways and avert destruction on a planetary scale. Dark secrets, divided allegiances, treachery and, ultimately, hope - these four tales are Deep Space Nine at its best.

    Many have native microbes dangerous to the human immigrants. Others have diseases brought to them accidentally -- or on purpose -- by visiting ships. When millions of lives are threatened, it's a job for the Interstellar Medical Service, and a Med Ship is sent to solve the problem. Calhoun is the best the Med Service has, and hard experience has taught him that often the major obstacle to curing the sick is... the sick. And removing that kind of obstacle may take very strong medicine.This book is a compilation of four books released in the 1960's: The Mutant Weapon, Doctor to the Stars, S.O.S. from Three Worlds and This World is Taboo.3 • Med Ship Man • (1963)57 • Plague on Kryder II • (1964)121 • The Mutant Weapon • (1959)231 • Ribbon in the Sky • (1957)285 • Tallien Three (aka The Hate Disease) • (1963)351 • Quarantine World • (1966)425 • The Grandfathers' War • (1957)505 • Pariah Planet (aka This World is Taboo) • (1961)632 • Editors' Afterword by Eric Flint and Guy Gordon

    Academic and insightful, its dominion stretches from Earth Central into the unfathomable reaches of the galactic void. But when the Polity finally encounters alien life in the form of massive, hostile, crab-like carnivores known as the Prador, there can be only one outcome — total warfare! Starships clash, planets fall, and space stations are overrun, but for Jebel Krong and Moria Salem, two unlikely heroes trapped at the center of the action, this war is far more than a mere clash of cultures, far more than technology versus brute force... this war is personal.

    Clarke (Astounding Science Fiction May'46)2 Menace from Earth by Robert A. Heinlein (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Aug'57)3 Code Three by Rick Raphael (Analog Feb'63)4 Hunting Problem by Robert Sheckley (Galaxy Sep'55)5 Black Destroyer by A. E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science Fiction July'39)6 Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber (Galaxy Dec'51)7 Thy Rocks and Rills by Robert Ernest Gilbert (If Sep'53)8 Gun for Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp (Galaxy Mar'56)9 Goblin Night by James H. Schmitz (Analog Apr'65)10 Only Thing We Learn by C. M. Kornbluth (Startling Stories July'49)11 Trigger Tide by Wyman Guin (as Norman Menascoe Astounding Science Fiction Oct'50)12 Aliens by Murray Leinster (Astounding Science Fiction Aug'59)13 All the Way Back by Michael Shaara (Astounding Science Fiction July'52)14 Last Command by Keith Laumer (Analog Jan'67)15 Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell (as Don A. Stuart Astounding Science Fiction Aug'38)16 Quietus by Ross Rocklynne (Astounding Science Fiction Sep'40)17 Answer by Frederic Brown (Angels and Spaceships 1954)18 Last Question by Isaac Asimov (Isaac Asimov: The Complete .. #1 1956)19 Cold Equations by Tom Godwin (Astounding Science Fiction Aug'54)20 Shambleau by C. L. Moore (Wierd Tales Nov'33)21 Turning Point by Poul Anderson (If May'53)22 Heavy Planet by Lee Gregor (Astounding Science Fiction Aug'39)23 Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper (Astounding Science Fiction Feb'57)24 Gentle Earth by Christopher Anvil (Astounding Science Fiction Nov'57)25 Environment by Chester S. Geier (Astounding Science Fiction May'44)26 Liane the Wayfarer by Jack Vance (The Dying Earth 1950)27 Spawn by P. Schuyler Miller (Wierd Tales Aug'39)28 St. Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson 29 Thunder and Roses by Theodore Sturgeon (Astounding Science Fiction Nov'47)

    The Federated States of Columbia has consolidated power and risen against the oppression of Earth's corrupt Caliphate. But when Salafi madmen bent on a new jihad kill FSC Captain Patrick Hennessey's family in a cowardly attack, they create an enemy that will show even less mercy than they do.A legendary warrior is born: Carrera, the scourge of Salafism. He will forge an army from the decrepit remains of a military in a failing state. He will find those who killed his family. He will destroy them utterly. And he will try like hell to not becoming exactly like the enemy he is fighting. Only when he is finished will there be peace: the peace of an empty wind as it blows across a desert strewn with the bones of Carrera's enemies.

    But Bill, a Technical Fertilizer Operator from a planet of farmers, wasn't interested in honor-he was only interested in two things: his chosen career, and the shapely curves of Inga-Maria Calyphigia. Then a recruiting robot shanghaied him with knockout drops, and he came to in deep space, aboard the Empire warship Christine Keeler. And from there, things got even worse.

    A religious conference has been called in nearby Rudolstadt which will determine doctrine for all the Lutherans in the nation. The hard-fought principle of religious freedom is at stake, threatened alike by intransigent theologians and students rioting in the streets.As if that weren't bad enough:* the up-time American Lutherans are themselves divided;* a rambunctious old folk singer is cheerfully pouring gasoline on the flames;* and a Calvinist "facilitator" from Geneva is maneuvering to get the U.S. involved with the developing revolutionary movement in Naples.Stories include:* Portraits by Eric Flint* Anna's Story by Loren Jones* Curio and Relic by Tom Van Natta* The Sewing Circle by Gorg Huff* The Rudolstadt Colloquy by Virginia DeMarce* Radio in the 1632 Universe by Rick Boatright* They've Got Bread Mold, So Why Can't They Make Penicillin? by Robert Gottlieb* Horse Power by Karen Bergstralh

    Outnumbered and on the defensive, Earth made a desperate decision. It would attack the aliens not from space, but on the ground--with forces the Trofts did not even suspect. Thus were created the Cobras, a guerilla force whose weapons were surgically implanted, invisible to the unsuspecting eye, yet undeniably deadly. And the Moreau family were the most famous of the Cobra warriors. Long after victory over the Troft was achieved, the Cobras made common cause against their former adversaries against a new enemy. Their reward was three planets that would be a home for the Cobras, whose deadly powers made them too dangerous to feel at home on Earth.Now, years had passed and not everyone on the Cobra worlds thought that the Cobras were worth the high cost of providing their training and maintaining their existing built-in weaponry, let alone supporting research to improve the Cobra weapons, and possibly even put an end to the negative effects of that built-in weaponry, which caused Cobras to die much too young. Many who had never known interplanetary war were convinced that the Cobras were not needed at all.That was a grave miscalculation, because a new menace was approaching, one that even the formidable Cobra warriors might not be able to defeat...