In the radioactive ruins after the Three-Hour War, Dr. Salva Gordy lives amid grief, isolation, and a world that seems to have lost all meaning. A once-promising scientist dismissed by a desperate government, he is still pursued for the invention he guards in secret, even as strange new life begins to stir in the wasteland around him. That fragile solitude is shattered by John de Terry, a biology-trained survivor who recognizes that the local ants are changing in extraordinary ways. Togeth...

On mist-shrouded Venus, an Earth ship waits at the edge of a first contact that is turning into a political powder keg. While the crew assumes the native delegation is merely inspecting cargo, a spy ray locks onto the main hatch, signaling that danger is already in motion. Beneath the surface, Venusian leader Svan and his circle are secretly debating how to stop Earth from sending settlers who could overwhelm their fragile world and destroy their independence. Ruthless and increasingly par...

On a rocket bound for Callisto, Peter Duane is thrown into a violent clash over a mysterious cargo, a disputed payment, and a deadly reversal of course that leaves him unconscious and amnesiac. He wakes in the ship's sick bay accused of murdering Stevens, then is seized by Governor Andrias, a ruthless power on Callisto who can halt a rocket and command armed police without challenge. As Duane is dragged into a fortress-like prison and forced to confront fragments of memory, he begins to su...

Officially dead, Steve Nolan crosses Pluto's frozen wastes on a revenge mission that has kept him alive long after the world buried him. Framed in a corrupt trial and rescued only by the honor of Pete Petersen, he hunts Alan Woller, the man who helped destroy his life, through the dangerous currents of interplanetary commerce and betrayal. Nolan's hard-edged survival instinct is on full display when he bluffs his way aboard a stranded girl's skid, bargains for passage to Avalon, and fights...

Chandler is on trial for rape and murder in a world where such acts have become commonplace due to spontaneous, unexplained demonic "possessions." His trial is deemed necessary, as the location where his acts were carried out was assumed to be immune to such possessions. Chandler's trial ends with his exile and his being branded on the forehead. His experiences after the trial take him far from his home and put him on the trail of the source of these mysterious possessions.First se...

This selection of Frederik Pohl's science fiction short stories covers topics ranging from out-of-body experiences, to alien visits, to the psychological effects of space travel, and more. The stories were published between 1942 and 1962, with some of them set in what feels like the same era in which they were written. Pohl's work is very human-centered, often with only minimal futuristic or speculative elements.Pohl used pseudonyms for some of these short stories, including James ...

After noticing that interstellar spaceships are bypassing their destination planets because they're not able to contact the inhabitants on arrival, a man is sent out to investigate what is happening to humanity. Traveling faster than light, he visits several worlds in his attempt to find the answer, including a world where age determines rank, a world where women are dominant and men are jailed for life for even suggesting the genders should be equal, a world where everyone has converted t...

On a remote, radiation-blasted asteroid where isotope production depends on dangerous machinery and self-repairing robots, John Tinker keeps his wit sharp because everything else is brittle. Stranded with the suspicious Drake and drawn to the voice of Siria Cottrell, he turns loneliness into flirtation, even as the setting warns of catastrophe at every turn. What begins as banter and fascination soon becomes a fight for survival when Tinker sees Drake dragging Siria toward her ship and rea...

A must-read for any science fiction fan, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume Two (published in two volumes, A & B) is a compilation of twenty-two of the best novellas published between 1895 and 1962.The two volumes were originally published in 1973 (Two-A) and 1974 (Two-B) after the stories were selected by a vote of the membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA, now known as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America).Volume Two-B has complete ...

WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY PATTON OSWALTDubbed “the most significant and controversial SF book” of its generation, Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking collection launched an entire subgenre: New Wave science fiction. With contributions from legendary authors and multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Dangerous Visions returns to print in a stunning new edition perfect for new and returning fans alike.A landmark short-story collection that put th...

More than 25 of the greatest Science Fiction stories ever written—many in eBook form for the very first time. More than four hundred pages of top flight fiction selected by the editors at www.fantasticstoriesoftheimagination.com, including 'Ticking' by Allen M. Steele; 'All Cats are Gray' by Andre Norton; 'The Velvet Glove' by Harry Harrison; 'The Day of the Boomer Dukes' by Frederic Pohl; 'The Troubadour' by Peter Sherman; 'Riya's Foundling' by Algis Budrys; 'Asleep in the Forest of the T...

The Serapis Classics edition of The Science Fiction Omnibus #1! A smashing, kick-butt collection of some of the best sci-fi ever written: GENESIS, by H. Beam Piper FARMER, by Mack Reynolds EARTHSMITH, by Milton Lesser WHERE THE WORLD IS QUIET, by C.H. Liddell WARNING FROM THE STARS, by Ron Cocking THY NAME IS WOMAN, by Kenneth O'Hara THE SWORD, by Frank Quattrocchi THE YILLIAN WAY, by Keith Laumer OPERATION EARTHWORM, by Joe Archibald THE LAST LETTER, by Fritz Leiber THE BACK OF OUR HEADS,...