The Witling


Vernor Vinge - 1976
    If the anthropologists can't help resolve the conflict between the feuding alien factions, no one will survive.This edition features sixteen full-page illustrations by Doug Beekman.

Again, Dangerous Visions


Harlan EllisonEdward Bryant - 1972
    It was edited by Harlan Ellison, illustrated by Ed Emshwiller. Like its predecessor, Again, Dangerous Visions and the 46 stories within it received many awards. The Word for World Is Forest, by Ursula K. Le Guin, won a Hugo for Best Novella. When It Changed by Joanna Russ won a Nebula Award for Best Short Story. For a 2nd time, Ellison received a special Hugo for editing the anthology. Again, Dangerous Visions was to be followed by a 3rd anthology, The Last Dangerous Visions. At this point, Ellison has said that it will probably never see the light of day.Introduction: An Assault of New Dreamers by Harlan Ellison The Counterpoint of View by John Heidenry Ching Witch! by Ross Rocklynne The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin For Value Received by Andrew J. Offutt Mathoms from the Time Closet: 1/Robot's Story, 2/Against the Lafayette Escadrille, 3/Loco Parentis by Gene Wolfe Time Travel for Pedestrians by Ray Nelson Christ, Old Student in a New School (poem) by Ray Bradbury King of the Hill by Chad Oliver The 10:00 Report Is Brought to You by... by Edward Bryant The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm Harry the Hare by James B. Hemesath When It Changed by Joanna Russ The Big Space Fuck by Kurt Vonnegut Bounty by T.L. Sherred Still-Life by K.M. O'Donnell (Barry N. Malzberg) Stoned Counsel by H.H. Hollis Monitored Dreams & Strategic Cremations: 1/The Bisquit Position, 2/The Girl with Rapid Eye Movements by Bernard Wolfe With a Finger in My I by David Gerrold In the Barn by Piers Anthony Soundless Evening by Lee Hoffman [█] by Gahan Wilson The Test-Tube Creature, Afterward by Joan Bernott And the Sea Like Mirrors by Gregory Benford Bed Sheets Are White by Evelyn Lief Tissue: At the Fitting Shop & 53rd American Dream by James Sallis Elouise and the Doctors of the Planet Pergamon by Josephine Saxton Chuck Berry, Won't You Please Come Home by Ken McCullough Epiphany for Aliens by David Kerr Eye of the Beholder by Burt K. Filer Moth Race by Richard Hill In re Glover by Leonard Tushnet Zero Gee by Ben Bova A Mouse in the Walls of the Global Village by Dean R. Koontz Getting Along by James Blish & Judith Ann Lawrence Totenbüch by Parra y FiguéredoThings Lost by Thomas M. Disch With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Little Old New Alabama by Richard A. Lupoff Lamia Mutable by M. John Harrison Last Train to Kankakee by Robin Scott Empire of the Sun by Andrew Weiner Ozymandias by Terry Carr The Milk of Paradise by James Tiptree, Jr.

Against a Dark Background


Iain M. Banks - 1993
    On an island with a glass shore - relic of some even more ancient conflict - she discovers she is to be hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes she is the last obstacle before their faith's apotheosis. She has to run, knowing her only hope of finally escaping the Huhsz is to find the last of the ancient, apocalyptically powerful but seemingly cursed Lazy Guns. But that is just the first as well as the final step on a search that takes her on an odyssey through the exotic Golterian system and results in both a trail of destruction and a journey into her own past, as well as that of her family and the system itself; a journey that changes everything.

Space Skimmer


David Gerrold - 1972
    Once the Empire had ruled the galaxy, linking thousands of worlds with a network of commerce, culture and law... Now, with the Empire gone, only isolated planets remained and they were rapidly sinking into oblivion. Then came Mass, a man driven by a dream of rediscovering the Empire... but to achieve that dream he must find and control the space skimmer, one of the miraculous vessels that had first made the Empire possible...

Axiomatic


Greg Egan - 1990
    Contents:The Infinite Assassin (1991)The Hundred Light-Year Diary (1992)Eugene (1990)The Caress (1990)Blood Sisters (1991)Axiomatic (1990)The Safe-Deposit Box (1990)Seeing (1995)A Kidnapping (1995)Learning to Be Me (1990)The Moat (1991)The Walk (1992)The Cutie (1989)Into Darkness (1992)Appropriate Love (1991)The Moral Virologist (1990)Closer (1992)Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (1992)

Retief Unbound


Keith Laumer - 1979
    Surely in an age such as ours when Terra's Sphere of Influence is once again surrounded by Alien Peril in all its sundry guises, it is desirable - nay, vital! - that our people be aware that, contrary to the official records of the Corps, it was not by the questionable efforts of such worthies as Ambassadors Nitworth and Spradley that Mankind held its own in the terrible arena between the stars, but by the courage, skill and daring of such men as Jame Retief! This collection has six Retief stories to tickle your funny-bone. Retief is in prime form, taking on dangerous aliens and his own bosses in the Corps Diplomatique.Contents: Protocol [Retief] (1962) / short story by Keith Laumer (variant of The Yillian Way) Sealed Orders [Retief] (1962) / short story by Keith Laumer (variant of Retief of the Red-Tape Mountain) Aide Memoire [Retief] (1962) / short story by Keith Laumer Policy [Retief] (1962) / novelette by Keith Laumer (variant of The Madman from Earth) Palace Revolution [Retief] (1961) / novelette by Keith Laumer (variant of Gambler's World) Retief's Ransom [Retief • 6] (1971) / novel by Keith Laumer.

The Anything Box


Zenna Henderson - 1956
    The Grunder, a thing of horror which, if defeated, restores love... The Noise-Eater, created by a child out of his fevered imagination, gobbles up anything--or anyone--that makes a sound... The Coveti, residents of an alien world poisoned by the intrusion of the stranger from Earth... The Beast Hill, an ordinary mound of earth, except that its grass resembles fur, and--doesn't it move?

Dark Benediction


Walter M. Miller Jr. - 1951
    Miller Jr in 1980. This essential collection contains fourteen short stories from the 1950's: 'You Triflin' Skunk!', 'The Will', 'Anybody Else Like Me?', 'Crucifixus Ethiam', 'I, Dreamer', 'Dumb Waiter', 'Blood Bank', 'Big Joe and the Nth Generation', 'The Big Hunger', 'Conditionally Human', 'The Darfsteller', 'Dark Benediction', 'The Lineman' and 'Vengeance For Nikolai'.

Gate of Ivrel


C.J. Cherryh - 1976
    In their time, long before the rise of the native civilizations, they had terrorized a hundred worlds—not from villainy but from folly, from tampering with the strands that held a universe together.Now the task was to uproot these Gates, destroy their potency for mischief, take horror out of the hands of the few who hungered for power by misuse of the Gates.This is the story of one such Gate and one such world.

To Ride Pegasus


Anne McCaffrey - 1973
    A talented, elite cadre, they stepped out of the everyday human race...to enter their own!

The Mind Pool


Charles Sheffield - 1986
    We are also, compared to the galaxy's highest sophisticated norms, very, very tough, which most of the time does nothing for our social acceptability. But when a threat to all life in the galaxy arises from non-living biological constructs, suddenly the peculiar human virtues of valor and stubbornness make us the sword-wielding saviours of All...

Again, Dangerous Visions 1


Harlan EllisonH.H. Hollis - 1973
    46 original stories edited with introductions by Harlan Ellison. Contents: Again, Dangerous Visions • (1972) • interior artwork by Ed Emshwillerix • An Assault of New Dreamers • (1972) • essay by Harlan Ellison1 • The Counterpoint of View • (1972) • shortstory by John Heidenry7 • Ching Witch! • (1972) • shortstory by Ross Rocklynne31 • The Word for World Is Forest • [Hainish] • (1972) • novella by Ursula K. Le Guin127 • For Value Received • (1972) • shortstory by Andrew J. Offutt145 • Mathoms from the Time Closet • (1972) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe157 • Time Travel for Pedestrians • (1972) • shortstory by Ray Nelson188 • Christ, Old Student in a New School • (1972) • poem by Ray Bradbury197 • King of the Hill • (1972) • shortstory by Chad Oliver217 • The 10:00 Report is Brought to You By ... • (1972) • shortstory by Edward Bryant233 • The Funeral • (1972) • novelette by Kate Wilhelm261 • Harry the Hare • (1972) • shortstory by James B. Hemesath266 • When It Changed • (1972) • shortstory by Joanna Russ282 • The Big Space Fuck • (1972) • shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.293 • Bounty • (1972) • shortstory by T. L. Sherred300 • Still-Life • (1972) • shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell ]315 • Stoned Counsel • (1972) • shortstory by H. H. Hollis331 • Monitored Dreams and Strategic Cremations • (1972) • shortfiction by Bernard Wolfe398 • With a Finger in My I • (1972) • shortstory by David Gerrold413 • In the Barn • (1972) • novelette by Piers Anthony

All My Sins Remembered


Joe Haldeman - 1977
    The only problem is that the Confederacion needs him as one of its twelve Prime Operators for its secret service, the TBII. The TBII wants him as a spy, thief & assassin. It's not, of course, a problem for the Confederacion, which simply uses immersion therapy & hypnotic personality overlay for Otto's training, then sends him out in deep cover, encased in plastiflesh, on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds. But for him, it's a different matter: what he has to witness & what he's forced to do take a terrible toll. Always he returns to his original self--his conscience stabbed by the memory of all those he'd killed in the service of interstellar harmony.

Famous Science-Fiction Stories: Adventures in Time and Space


Raymond J. HealyWilly Ley - 1946
    HeinleinForgetfulness (1937) by John W. Campbell, Jr.Nerves (1942) by Lester del ReyThe Sands of Time (1937) by P. Schuyler MillerThe Proud Robot (1943) by Henry KuttnerSeeds of the Dusk (1938) by Raymond Z. GallunBlack Destroyer (1939) by A. E. van VogtSymbiotica (1943) by Eric Frank RussellHeavy Planet (1939) by Milton A. RothmanTime Locker (1943) by Henry KuttnerThe Link (1942) by Cleve CartmillMechanical Mice (1941) by Eric Frank RussellV-2: Rocket Cargo Ship (1945) essay by Willy LeyAdam & No Eve (1941) by Alfred BesterNightfall (1941) by Isaac AsimovA Matter of Size (1934) by Harry BatesAs Never Was (1944) by P. Schuyler MillerQ.U.R. (1943) by Anthony BoucherWho Goes There? (1938) by John W. Campbell, Jr.The Roads Must Roll (1940) by Robert A. HeinleinAsylum (1942) A. E. van VogtQuietus (1940) by Ross RocklynneThe Twonky (1942) by Henry Kuttner & C. L. MooreTime-Travel Happens! (1939) essay by A. M. PhillipsRobot's Return (1938) by Robert Moore WilliamsThe Blue Giraffe (1939) by L. Sprague de CampFlight into Darkness (1943) by J. Francis McComasThe Weapons Shop (1942) by A. E. van VogtFarewell to the Master (1940) by Harry BatesWithin the Pyramid (1937) by R. DeWitt MillerHe Who Shrank (1936) by Henry HasseBy His Bootstraps (1941) by Robert A. HeinleinThe Star Mouse (1942) by Fredric BrownCorrespondence Course (1945) by Raymond F. JonesBrain (1932) by S. Fowler Wright

Breaking Strain


Paul Preuss - 1987
    As the secrets of the artifact are revealed, Sparta uncovers a mystery that may lead her to the truth about her own identity.