But now, they have emerged to ravage the land. Reissue.

    I was ready for the uplink. There was just one thing I had to do first. I had to die. Ripcord was a revolutionary new product that launched people into a virtual reality world just moments before death, sparing them their painful end-of-life memories and allowing them to live in a video game utopia for all time. At least, that’s how it was advertised. No one ever came back to say whether Ripcord lived up to its promise. It was a one-way ticket for those lucky enough to get in. Well, maybe “lucky” isn’t the right word for it. My wife had been in Ripcord for two years. I was finally ready to go find her. When I got there though, it was nothing like I had expected and she was nowhere to be found. Oh, and did I mention something is killing everyone off? “Griefing” players that were already grieving. If I ever wanted to see my wife again, I’d have to get a lot stronger, learn how to level up in this strange new world, and hope she found a way to survive this long…

    And an ancient Spanish galleon, fully crewed with ancient Spaniard, was taken in tow off Tampa by the Coast Guard...and a few luckless people found themselves living the same day over and over and over...Something was badly wrong with Time - but Roger Tyson didn't know it until he met the lovely agent from elsewhen and started on a mad chase through the dimensions, plagued by a motley bunch of temporal castaways, and pursued hotly by Oob the Rhox!

    Now the first three books in this monumental epic appear in a single volume. Here, long-time fans can rediscover the wonder--and the uninitiated can embark upon a thrilling new journey of fantasy and adventure. It all begins with the theft of the Orb that for so long protected the West from an evil god. As long as the Orb was at Riva, the prophecy went, its people would be safe from this corrupting power. Garion, a simple farm boy, is familiar with the legend of the Orb, but skeptical in matters of magic. Until, through a twist of fate, he learns not only that the story of the Orb is true, but that he must set out on a quest of unparalleled magic and danger to help recover it. For Garion is a child of destiny, and fate itself is leading him far from his home, sweeping him irrevocably toward a distant tower--and a cataclysmic confrontation with a master of the darkest magic.

    Besides, she has her own problems to worry about: her career isn’t going anywhere, she doesn’t have a boyfriend (or any prospects), and most of her weekends are spent escaping into video games that are way more thrilling than anything that will ever happen to her. And worst of all, her thirtieth birthday is right around the corner. But everything changes the day she runs into Nate—a chance encounter with a handsome stranger that turns her quiet life upside down and throws her into the middle of a world of heroes, villains, and adventure. In We Could Be Villains, Sarah learns that there’s a very hazy line between the good guys and the bad guys. With the help of an unexpected journey, a motley team of professionals, and some eye-opening backstory about the heroes she’s grown up watching, Sarah just might find the job, romance, and excitement she’s been waiting for.

    Heated from below by the planet's seething core, it is the widest, deepest, most fearsome ocean in the solar system.Idealistic young American scientist Grant Archer joins a clandestine expedition to this awesome new world. But Grant does not share the ideals of the scientists he accompanies: he has been planted on their expedition by the New Morality, a religious group that wants to ferret out what the 'godless humanists' have discovered. His mission: to reassure the new religious leaders of Earth that Jupiter holds no intelligent life.But unknown to the New Morality, Grant, though the son of a minister, is both a believer and a man who sees no reason why science and faith can not co-exist. He has come to the vast, planet-girdling ocean of Jupiter with an open mind, and he is about to tell his masters something that may shatter their conviction.

    But he was no soldier in the military sense, for the enemies he fought were disease, corruption and the warped psychology that spread in the isolation of mankind's lost planetary colonies. Encountering double-dealing, mutation and the unexpected, Ole Doc and his unique, multi-armed companion Hippocrates share a series of astonishing adventures in their unending journey through the trackless galaxies.Contents:· Ole Doc Methuselah [as by René Lafayette] · nv Astounding Oct ’47 · Her Majesty’s Aberration [as by René Lafayette] · ss Astounding Mar ’48 · The Expensive Slaves [as by René Lafayette] · ss Astounding Nov ’47 · The Great Air Monopoly [as by René Lafayette] · nv Astounding Sep ’48 · Plague [as by René Lafayette] · nv Astounding Apr ’49 · A Sound Investment [as by René Lafayette] · nv Astounding Jun ’49 · Ole Mother Methuselah [as by René Lafayette] · nv Astounding Jan ’50

    He set the stage for such in The 11th Commandment. Following a nuclear exchange which destroyed the Vatican, a new pontiff was elected by American Cardinals. When Europe also elected a Pope, Americans split from the Old World in a schism establishing the priority of an 11th commandment: "Ten were given to Moses, for the Hebrews, & our Lord instrusted us to observe them. But what we call the 11th—it should be called the Original—was given by God the Father to the entire human race thru Adam, to whom He said, 'Be fruitful & multiply & replenish the earth.' It was the foundation of our accomplishments." These principles found fertile ground in a decimated land. To Boyd Jensen, Mars colony immigrant, the culture is frightening. Four billion live in N. America, a billion in S. America. Most are American Catholic. Contraception is illegal. Boyd's profession, biologic research, is restricted to priests. Poverty is commonplace among the laity, practically unknown in the clergy. In addition to mass misery, mutations & plagues are everywhere. Boyd learns he'a not allowed to return to Mars, as he's been exposed to Earth diseases. There's a hint his DNA is damaged, that he was tricked into coming to Earth to remove him from Mars' gene pool. Boyd believes he'll survive without subscribing to the state religion. He wears an unobtrusive patch to keep him sterile; he isn't the type to succumb to the bleeding disease; he's more valuable training in cytology than many priests. He hasn't reckoned with two things, however. 1st, at a higher gravity than Mars', the contraceptive is ineffective. Boyd impregnates a woman. Her baby is taken by the Church to be raised in a special facility. Boyd is determined to help rescue it. 2nd, the Church knows more than admitted about the extent of the mutations. The 11th Commandment may be the only thing guaranteeing human survival. Del Rey's conception of a Catholic America is predicated on the 3rd world. Long Island seems like Caracas or São Paulo. He seems to suggest Catholicism causes poverty & overcrowding. Reading on, however, his message comes clear: The root cause of this misery is the need to contend for survival. You don't get to opt out of the game, as Mars has done with her pure racial stock. The crucible is where the metal is purified & made strong, not the shelf. The 11th Commandment seems hardly dated. Its plot needs little amendment to be conceivable as a possible future. The warning that the fruitful will multiply & the meek inherit the Earth, is worth considering.

    It was waiting for him, just as he had left it. But where? He only knew he was in the center of a galaxy in a universe of galaxies. Within them lay endless varieties of the planet Earth. And there was only one way to find his Earth again: he would have to visit each one. And he would have to hurry--because his search for home had turned into a race with death.

    They have been the subject of films, radio dramatizations and have even been presented on ice Read the originals now and one of the world's greatest ever story tellers will give you hours of pleasure and enjoyment.Stories included are: "Around the World in 80 Days, The Clipper of the Clouds, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."

    L. Moore (Sep 1946):It's the most beautiful Spring the great metropolis has seen in modern memory. the sun-drenched air seems full of hope, of promise for a better tomorrow. But across the river, in the suburb on the ridge that overlooks the city, Oliver Wilson is perplexed. Who are those elegant, perfectly-poised, almost exotic people to whom he's rented his house? What impending event has drawn them here, to this sleepy suburb, as if it were the best seat in the house for the greatest show on Earth?In Another Country by Robert Silverberg:For time-traveling tourists, the rule about affairs with the locals is clear--look but don't touch. To flout that rule is to invite endless paradoxes and complications--as the well-meaning Thimiroi finds out to his dismay, in this all-new tale by SF master Robert Silverberg, written especially for the Tor Doubles as a companion to C.L. Moore's famous original.

    The mission seems nearly impossible, but don’t count out these unlikely heroes just yet!SYMPHONY OF LIGHTIt’s the final, explosive showdown. Scott and his ragtag team must face the Invid Regess and her warrior race that will fight to the death to keep its prize. However, a shocking, unforeseen turn of events changes everything in the ultimate prelude to the Shadow Chronicles!

    But his work is interrupted when, surrounded by thirty miles of refuse,  the ship and its high tech systems are plagued by a series of strange malfunctions and the crew is battered by a raging storm.When the storm fades and the sun rises, the beaten crew awakens to find themselves anchored in the protective cove of a tropical island...and no one knows how they got there. Even worse, the ship has been sabotaged, two crewman are dead and a third is missing. Hawkins spots signs of the missing man on shore and leads a small team to bring him back. But they quickly discover evidence of a brutal history left behind by the Island’s former occupants: Unit 731, Japan’s ruthless World War II human experimentation program. Mass graves and military fortifications dot the island, along with a decades old laboratory housing the remains of hideous experiments.As crew members start to disappear, Hawkins realizes that they are not alone. In fact, they were brought to this strange and horrible island. The crew is taken one-by-one and while Hawkins fights to save his friends, he learns the horrible truth: Island 731 was never decommissioned and the person taking his crewmates may not be a person at all—not anymore.