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Revolt in 2100
by Robert A. HeinleinSet in Robert A. Heinlein's Future History universe, REVOLT IN 2100 includes two novellas, "If This Goes On--" and "Coventry," the story "Misfit," Heinlein's "Future History Letter Essay" and the "Concerning Stories Never Written" Postscript. "IF THIS GOES ON--" The Second American Revolution unfolds in the course of this novel where John Lyle, West Point graduate and now a guard at the Prophet's stronghold, comes to realize that "secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy... censorship." After he joins an underground movement to overthrow the U.S. government, John learns much along the way about courage, subversion -- (a fellow conspirator tells him, "There is magic in words, black magic--if you know how to invoke it") - and sacrifice. "Coventry" takes place years after America's Second Revolution and posits a benevolent but strongly monitored new society, with its own rules and surveillance arm. "Misfit" concerns a young genius who averts disaster in a mission to bring a small asteroid closer to Earth. The author's essay about Future History stories he won't write provides an entertaining look at Heinlein's richly imagined world.
The Pilgrim Project
by Hank SearlsWritten as science fiction in 1964, this is the story of a secret project to send one man to the moon instead of three. The race to the moon with the Russians is tight and sending one man might help the americans gain the advantage. A colonel is ready to go, but there's another reluctant candidate, astronaut civilian steve Lawrence. Which will be chosen, and will the project be approved or quashed? How does the situation effect the friends and families of the astronauts? How will the president weigh political and moral questions when deciding whether to allow this dangerous mission to proceed? THE PILGRIM PROJECT explres all these issues in a suspenseful and heart-touching narrative which might now be viewed as alternate history. The book was the basis of Robert Altman's film "Countdown."
A Time Of Changes
by Robert SilverbergThree thousand years after Earth's colonization of the planet Borthan, stories of self-serving hypocrisy that occurred among the first arrivals have bred a culture that forbids emotional sharing and denies the naturally human concept of "self." The result is a lasting peace, but at a terrible price. <P><P> For it is a peace without love, without self, where even the mention of the word "I" is taboo. Spurred on by the arrival of an Earthman with a selfbaring drug, Kinnall Darival breaks the strict code of the Covenant to record the sordid details of his rebellious life from the days of his royal youth to self-appointed prophet of love. He begins his account with the greatest of heresies: "I am Kinnall Darival and I mean to tell you all about myself."<P><P> Nebula Award winner
The House of Arden
by E. NesbitIt's quite a shock for Edred and Elfrida to discover that Edred is the new Lord of Arden and rightful heir to Arden Castle. It's even more of a shock when they find themselves talking to a white mole. But the Mouldi-warp does prove to be a help (even if he is rather bad-tempered) - especially when it comes to travelling back in time and searching for hidden treasure!
The Prince
by Jerry Pournelle S. M. StirlingOriginally published as a series of four novels, this omnibus tells the whole story of John Christian Falkenberg, the prince of mercenaries. It is superb military sf and provides a future history bridge between now and the formation of the Empire that is so much a part of a Mote in God's Eye and its sequel.
Blades of Cairndale
by Michael EspinozaThree warriors, one perilous quest, and a realm teetering on the brink of chaos. Expert swordswoman Urunzai Zuna, half-nymph Esmera Atlia, and fresh recruit Garyn Valenthir must journey into the wild lands to the west of Cairndale at the behest of their ruler, Azyriana the Witch-Queen. As unprecedented rebellion and insidious political deception gnaw at the foundations of their homeland, the trio must race to unearth the source of haunting dreams that assail their queen before her father, Thurzir the Demon-King, returns from the Abyss to reclaim his throne. "Blades of Cairndale" reads like a broadsword's swing: fast, hard, and straight to the point. The swift-moving narrative recounts a timeless tale of politics, persecution, and persevering friendship in the face of what may seem insurmountable odds.
Captive of Gor (Chronicles of Counter-Earth #7)
by John NormanSLAVE-WOMAN ON GOR ... Elinor Brinton of New York City--beautiful, rich, spoiled, used to having her way with the men of earth--is hunted down and abducted by alien beings to find herself a captive on Gor, where men are absolute masters, and women their complete slaves.
True Minds
by Spider RobinsonEleven short stories by Hugo Award winning author Spider Robinson. Includes some erotica.
Planet of the Apes
by William T. QuickCaptain Leo Davidson has been transported in to a world where apes rule, and humans serve as slaves and pets.
Beasts of Gor (Chronicles of Counter-Earth #12)
by John NormanOn Gor, the other world in Earth's orbit, the term beast can mean any of three things: First, there are the Kurii, the monsters from space who are about to invade that world. Second, there are the Gorean warriors, men whose fighting ferocity is incomparable. Third, there are the slave girls, who are both beasts of burden and objects of desire. All three kinds of beasts come into action in this thrilling novel as the Kurii establish their first beachhead on Gor's polar cap. Here is a John Norman epic that takes Tarl Cabot from the canals of Port Kar to the taverns of Lydius, the tents of the Sardar Fair, and to a grand climax among the red hunters of the Arctic ice pack.
Annals of the Time Patrol
by Poul AndersonMEN WANTED 21-40, pref. single, mil. or tech. exp., good physique, for high-pay work with foreign travel. Engineering Studies Co., 305 E. 45, 9-12 & 2-6. To Manson Emmert Everard, 30-year-old veteran, engineer, bachelor, outdoorsman--and decidedly independent spirit--it sounds like an ideal opportunity. Especially the foreign travel. But, as he steps into the office, he has no idea how foreign. For Manse Everard is being recruited for the Time Patrol. Once accepted, Manse is ferried by time shuttle to the Academy, the Time Patrol training center set in the ancient Oligocene period. There he learns how time travel had been discovered in a turbulent far-future by the Nine--who saw in it sinister possibilities--and how the mysterious Danellians had stopped them. And how, to prevent abuse of the time lanes by the foolish and the greedy, the Time Patrol had been formed. "Your work will mostly be within your own eras,"^' his class is told. "You will live ordinary lives, family and friends as usual--But you will always be on call!" Returning to a cover job at the Engineering Studies Co., Manse finds the 20th century a springboard to danger, adventure and intrigue, contained here in five now-classic tales and two exciting new novellas. Join Manse as he rescues a 20th-century archeologist reluctantly enthroned in ancient Persia--sabotages Kublai Khan's 13th-century expedition to North America... returns New York to its rightful history... seeks to foil bandits holding the ancient city of Tyre for ransom -- Annals of the Time Patrol is an adventure lover's delight, a 2-in-1 volume including The Guardians of Time and Time Patrolman.
The Blind Alien -- The Beta Earth Chronicles: Book One
by Wesley BrittonYoung professor Malcolm Renbourn is captured in a scientific experiment that drags him across the multi-verse from his home planet, Alpha earth. Blinded in the capture, Malcolm tries to adapt to a new world where he understands nothing he experiences. After being a prisoner in a slave-holding country, he escapes to freedom, but learns his trials have just begun on a planet where an ancient plague kills three out of four male babies their first year. He meets the first of his wives—Lorei, the prophetess of the goddess Olos, her simple sister Elsbeth, the blue-skin Bar Tine, the towering Joline, and Doret, a mutant offspring of a failed genetic experiment. Together Tribe Renbourn battles a planet hoping Malcolm’s genetics carry the cure to the plague before a monstrous disaster strikes Bergarten, the city where Malcolm Renbourn’s second life began. And in Balnakin, the blame for the disaster is placed on one blind alien. “The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the sci-fi label or alternate Earth setting fool you--this is a compelling and contemporarily relevant story about race, sex, and social classes.” --Raymond Benson, Former James Bond novelist and author of the Black Stiletto books
The Green Book
by Jill Paton WalshPattie and her family are among the last refugees to flee a dying Earth in an old spaceship. And when the group finally lands on the distant planet which is to be their new home, it would seem that the four-year journey has been a success. But as they begin to settle this shining world, they discover that the colony is in serious jeopardy. With supplies dwindling, Pattie and her sister decide to take the one chance that might make life possible on Shine.
Out of the Darkness (Babylon 5: Legions of Fire, Book 3)
by Peter DavidThe final book in the Legions of Fire trilogy.
Ensign Flandry
by Poul AndersonAfter the first flowering of the Terran Empire, which has grown increasingly decadent and corrupt, other civilizations in the galaxy threaten to take over the Terran's worlds. In this scenario steps the debonair, tough and pessimistic Dominic Flandry, half-Hans Solo, half-James Bond and a hero for the ages!
The Kindly Ones
by Melissa ScottEven after years on Orestes, Trey Maturin could not overcome an intense dislike of the Orestean social code. All the more so because, as sworn Medium for the great House of Halex, Trey was frequently a dutiful but reluctant partner to the code's often cruel injunctions. For 1,500 years, the Orestean code had held together a society carved out of a cold, material-poor moon of the planet Agamemnon, dividing its territories among five great Families. The code demanded the utmost loyalty to one's Family. To break it meant "death"--a legal declaration that banished the offender into a sharply defined social limbo. He or she became a ghost, unseen by the living. One could communicate with the dead only through a Medium, such as Trey; to do otherwise meant suffering social death oneself. There had been a time when the harsh code had served its purpose. On a world simmering with interfamilial rivalry, it had, with sanctioned Feuds, kept in check the ambitions and hatreds that might have completely destroyed Orestean civilization. But working for the House of Halex, Trey had long felt the tremors that would begin to undermine the code. For the Halex Family had been pioneering off-world trade, building their only marketable resources, fur and wool, into a rich source of income. Such commerce had brought new, exotic influences to insular Orestes... and excited the jealousy of their chief rival, the powerful, unscrupulous House of Brandr. The Brandr, who had been biding their time, reopened an ancient feud against the Halex. And suddenly Trey, who had sought to remain apart from the Orestean code, was thrust into the center of the deadly power struggle--becoming, by default, the custodian of the 15-year-old heir to the Halex patriarchy.... trapped by duty while the world, seething with economic and social unrest, moved toward war and devastation. Hunted by the Brandr, abandoned by the other Families, Trey's only allies were a crippled off-world spaceship captain and a ragtag band of ghosts. But those allies had their own ambitions and dreams to fulfill, and the bold, dangerous plan they conceived threatened to shatter what was left of Orestes.
World's End
by Joan D. VingeBZ Gundhalinu, police officer of the Hegemony, member of the elite "tech" class of the ruling planet Kharemough, left the planet Tiamat before the Stargate closed, cutting himself off forever from the simple barbarian girl who gave him back his sense of self worth. Moon Dawntreader Summer is now the Summer Queen, and BZ knows he can never again be her lover.
Seven Conquests
by Poul AndersonSeven tales of war and peace in the not-so-far-off world of the future. Seven harrowing stories of men caught up in tomorrow's age of ultraviolence. Kings Who Die evokes the special terrors that confront spacemen captured in interplanetary war. Wildcat chronicles a desperate attempt to send a team of men through a time machine back into the age of brontosaurs--there to prospect for oil and pump it back into the present. Cold Victory depicts the holocaust of an interplanetary civil war fought to prevent Earth's secession from the Solar Union. Inside Straight spins the tale of a peaceful planet that employs the superstrategies of gambling tipsters to foil its archenemies. Details unfolds a suspenseful drama of international events influenced by unseen visitors. License probes the fate of man living in a world where violence is legalized by state licenses. Strange Bedfellows describes the mind-boggling intricacies of corporate political battles in tomorrow's world. However far the man of tomorrow may project himself through space and time, it seems inevitable that he will carry with him the plague of war. In Seven Conquests, one of America's most exciting writers of science fiction spins seven brilliantly imaginative tales of man caught up in the superagonies of cosmic warfare. The setting of each tale is in the twilight zone of future technologies. Amid the nightmarish maneuvers of spaceships, monstrous computers, time machines, orbiting dreadnoughts, and hellish nuclear devices, the characters of each story probe and reveal the motives that impel whole races of men to deliberately imperil their survival. In "Cold Victory," two brothers are tragically divided when the powers of Mars and Venus launch a war against Earth to prevent its secession from the Solar Union. In "Wildcat," a time machine transmits a team of men back into the Jurassic age to prospect for oil in fields overrun with giant reptiles. In "Inside Straight," the wily citizens of a distant planet employ the calculated odds of gambling to outmaneuver their warring enemies. "Kings Who Die," "Details," "License," and "Strange Bedfellows" add further excitement to this brilliant collection of new science fiction stories by Poul Anderson. With each story, Mr. Anderson adds new luster to his reputation as a master of technical background and suspense, and a writer of soaring imagination.
Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and His Son Pantagruel
by Francis Rabelais Sir Thomas Urquhart Of Cromarty Peter Antony MotteuxThe Prince in Waiting (The Sword of the Spirits, Book #1)
by John ChristopherA curious chain of circumstances leads Luke to a rich prize -- he is named Prince in Waiting when his warrior father becomes Prince of Winchester. Luke's elevation arouses bitter jealousy and hatred, but his future seems both assured and powerful until treacherous enemies strike, and he is left desperately vulnerable.
The Time Shifters
by Sam Merwin Jr.They called it T.T.T. --short for Time Teleportation Technique. Like all really great ideas, it was simple, and easy to operate--too easy, for Chuck Percival, who suddenly found himself drafted into an army dedicated to defending yesterday against today... and captained by strange men from tomorrow! Chuck found the idea of time travel intriguing, but he was by nature suspicious of people wanting to do him favors--and vice-versa. And time travel turned out to have a couple of nasty side effects that made the price of time jumping almost too high to pay. But like it or not, Chuck found himself in this particular army for the duration--a duration that might last several hundred years! What happened to him shouldn't happen to any devout twentieth century coward... including meeting and falling in love with his own great grandmother!