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Fallen Star
by James BlishIf you were looking for a fallen star, would you go happily off to the North Pole and dig holes into the seas-bed, grubbing for pieces of rock? You wouldn't? Neither would Julian Cole. He was dragged there. Would you choose as companions a cashiered astronomer whose capacity was purely alcoholic, a pneumatic woman whose walk alone was enough to set a man to itching, plus a collection of failures and misfits scooped from the gutters of New York? Neither did Julian. They picked him.And when this bungling crew of heterogeneous hoboes stumbled on to a world-shattering discovery, would you believe them? Julian had to. He was there.
Kemlo and the End of Time (Kemlo)
by E. C. EliottEveryone knows the story of the Marie Celeste. Kemlo and Kerowski hardly expected to find an aerial Marie Celeste adrift in the void.But caught, with others, in the worst astral storm of their experience, they had other things to think about for the moment. And after that there was yet another, one still more important...
Kemlo and the Purple Dawn (Kemlo)
by E. C. EliottEarth is faced with annihilation by the Purple Dawn - effect of the cosmic fall-out from the swirling planet-in-the-making Polarthanus.Kemlo and his Space Scouts are out in the void, towing a crippled space ship with their scooters, when suddenly the crisis is upon them. The space-born boys have to make a decision: if they take drastic action will it avert the danger - or will they blow up Earth, the Satellite Belts and themselves?
Master of Life and Death
by Robert SilverbergHour by hour, the computers produce the names of those to die. Simple. Neat. Ruthless.In a world where human feelings seem frozen, one spirit flares with defiance and hope . . . while two powerful brothers fight their old blood feud to a brutal climax.And hurtling through space . . . a lost explorer desperately tries to reach earth with word of a new paradise for man beyond the stars . . .(First published 1957)
The Possessed
by E.C. TubbIn the remote Scottish Highlands there lurks a truly terrifying menace. It seems to be centred at a Government Research Establishment, but without definite proof of the exact nature of the menace, the authorities cannot act decisively. It was up to the ace detective, Martin Slade, to investigate and find that proof - even at the cost of his own life!
Prisoners of Saturn
by Donald SuddabyOriginally published in 1957, Prisoners of Saturn is an inter-planetary adventure.
The Shrouded Planet
by Randall Garrett Robert SilverbergShrouded - perpetually shrouded - by a blanket of clouds, the planet of Nidor made its slow way through space. A year on Nidor was equal to 3000 Earth-years. To the Nidorians change was unthinkable. Until the Earthmen arrived. And then a change cataclysmic, and the first for many a millennium, hit Nidor. A change that was to split the planet against itself.
Solomon's Stone
by L. Sprague deCampAfter an unintentionally successful demon-summoning, accountant Prosper Nash finds himself on the astral plane, inhabiting the body of Jean-Prospere, Chevalier de Néche-the swashbuckling cavalier he likes to imagine himself as-and in a New York filled with characters from similar wish-fulfillment daydreams of other mundane souls. The demon is possessing his body on a mundane plane, and he attempts to find his way back. This involves the Shamir, the Solomon's Stone of the title, and plentiful swashbuckling adventure, and a plot in which Prosper Nash's accounting abilities prove as useful as Chevalier de Néche's athletic ones.
This Second Earth
by John Glasby R.L. BowersThe world that Man has known for close on twenty thousand years had been overthrown in a holocaust of atomic fire and annihilation. The immense and complex system of civilisation had been utterly destroyed almost overnight and only a scant handful of true humans remained.Stretched out between the rivers of radioactive fire, the cities were growing wildernesses of shattered stone and brick, splintered glass and silent streets. But here and there in quiet places sheltered from the deadly rains, men waited for the fires to subside and hoped to rebuilt something a little like the civilisation which had existed before.This is the stirring and sometimes terrible story of the supreme struggle for survival, when the continued existence of the human race on Earth is uncertain after such a tremendous catastrophe, and when all life is menaced by the wandering bands of mutants, creatures spawned and tainted by the deadly radiation.
Those Idiots From Earth
by Richard WilsonBe glad you're human . . .Not that it wouldn't be fun to be one of Richard Wilson's visitors from outer space. But the trouble is, no matter how mentally superior, or how gorgeous, or how horrible - you'd never win . . . not against the wacky, witless, illogical, neurotic, inebriated and (happily) fallible denizens of Earth.A collection of ten short science fiction stories by Richard Wilson, containing:Those Idiots from Earth (1957)The Inhabited (1953)The Hoaxters (1952)Lonely Road (1956)Love (1952)Honor (1956)88 Beats 266 (1957) (a.k.a. "Succes Story")Don't Fence Me In (1956)Press Conference (1953) (a.k.a. "Visitor from the Void")It's Cold Outside (1956)
WASP
by Pollinger in PrintThe war had been going on for nearly a year and the Sirian Empire had a huge advantage in personnel and equipment. Earth needed an edge. Which was where James Mowry came in. If a small insect buzzing around in a car could so distract the driver as to cause that vehicle to crash, think what havoc one properly trained operative could wreak on an unuspecting enemy. Intensively trained, his appearance surgically altered, James Mowry is landed on Jaimec, the ninety-fourth planet of the Sirian Empire. His mission is simple: sap morale, cause mayhem, tie up resources, wage a one-man war on a planet of eighty million. In short, be a wasp. First published in 1957, WASP is generally regarded as Eric Frank Russell's best novel, a witty and exciting account of a covert war in the heart of enemy territory.
Aliens from Space
by Robert SilverbergOriginally published in 1958, under the pseudonym David Osborne.Dr. Jeffrey Brewster, assistant professor of psycho-sociology at Columbia University, had been six weeks old when the first crude satellites were flung into space back in 1957. During his childhood there had been Moon rockets and the space stations - then the joint American-Russian-manned expedition to the Moon in 1965, right after the collapse of the Soviet dictatorship. Mars and Venus had been reached as he grew up and a permanent base was established on the Moon in 1973. Now the day's papers reported that an expedition was ready to leave for Callisto, moon of Jupiter. But Dr. Brewster had a class to make and he was late.That was when the telephone rang and Mari, his wife, said, "Long distance from Washington." The caller was Colonel Chasin of Unsecfor - United Nations Security Force, the global and international army that policed the world in these days of relative peace and harmony...
Collision Course
by Robert SilverbergThe crew of the XV-ftl was looking forward to shore leave, vacation, and a chance to see their families after a month in space. But once they brought back the news that they had discovered aliens, they were doomed to another, and longer, journey.Accompanying them on the return were several technical experts, who seemed to be more interested in squabbling with each other than meeting the first alien race in the history of humankind. But face to face with the blue humanoid Norglans, everyone began to realise just how important these first meetings could be - for they could make the difference between peaceful coexistence in space and interstellar war!(First published 1958)
The Domes of Pico
by Hugh WaltersThose mysterious domes on the Moon - what were they? Who built them? Thanks to young Chris Godfrey and his historic rocket-flight they had been photographed from outside the atmosphere; they had been under constant observation by the world's astronomers - but the answer was as baffling as ever. Until one day every single atomic power station on Earth suddenly and disastrously went out of action. There could only be one explanation - the extra-terrestrial radiation bombardment of appalling magnitude. And only one possible source of it: the domes of Pico.
Gold and Iron
by Jack VanceThe gigantic world known as Big Planet had become a wilderness of strange peoples and weird cultures as a result of having been the dumping ground for every crackpot and malcontent that ever emigrated from the Earth. Somewhere in its unmapped vastness a plot was being hatched to disturb the peace of the mother world's civilization.This novel was previously published under the titles Planet of the Damned and Slaves of the Klau.All Jack Vance titles in the SFGateway use the author's preferred texts, as restored for the Vance Integral Edition (VIE), an extensive project masterminded by an international online community of Vance's admirers. In general, we also use the VIE titles, and have adopted the arrangement of short story collections to eliminate overlaps.
Graveyard of Dreams: Science Fiction Stories
by H. Beam PiperConn, the son of a melon planter on the planet Poictesme, returns home after five years on Earth, studying. And spying. The planet had been used as a military staging point during the last interstellar war between the Federation and the System States Alliance, and somewhere among the leftover war debris on the planet is rumored to be the supercomputer that won the war. Many believe that this supercomputer can provide the answers to lift Poictesme out of economic stagnation and make it a prosperous place again. Conn has been gathering information just for this purpose - the search is on...
Invaders from Earth
by Robert SilverbergHow do you justify genocide?Kennedy had a job to do. It was as simple as that. He was paid to do a job, and he did it.His job was to convince the Earth's population that a hapless race of sapient creatures living peacefully on a distant planet must be destroyed as a menace to the Earth.(First published 1958)
Invisible Barriers
by Robert SilverbergFirst published in 1958 under the pseudonym David Osborne, Invisible Barriers is an expansion of the short story "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" (1957), which was published under the author's own name.
Kemlo and the Zombie Men (Kemlo)
by E. C. Eliott'Zombies' is Krillie's name for them - although Kemlo and Kerowski explain that the men engaged in the Sonic Wave Experiment are risking their lives in the attempt to revolutionise man's powers of communication through space.Yet even the leader of the Space Scouts and his friends are shaken at the odd behaviour of some of the S.W.V.s under text conditions thousands of miles out in space. Perhaps after all there are stronger forces at work than the earth scientists had anticipated. Kemlo is determined to find out.But they have another problem as well. What is the mysterious weakness which haunts Alvin Searle, the stern and dominating figure in charge of the experiment - and can the space-born boys help him overcome it?
Lest We Forget Thee Earth
by Robert SilverbergA hundred thousand years ago, there had been a planet called Earth. It had been a proud world ruling a thousand vassal stars, but its stellar empire had turned upon and annihilated their conquerors, and wiped the name of Earth from the maps of space.But Earthmen still survived . . . a strange race of worldless men and women, by tradition advisers to rulers, but never themselves ruling. Wanderers through myriad planets, their origin was a half-forgotten legend.That was the situation when a strange quirk of fate sent Earthman Hallam Navarre on an interstellar wild goose chase. He had to bring back a strictly mythical treasure to his alien ruler, or die.
Man of Earth
by Algis BudrysHis only escape was to become another man!Allen Sibley was a frightened little man - frightened for his life. In the corrupt, swindling world of cutthroat big business in which he was an important and pseudo-respectable figure, Allen Sibley had made the unforgivable error - he had found out. And worse, someone had known this would happen, someone who waited quietly to collect Allen Sibley's entire fortune in exchange for a gamble - but it was the only gamble which might save Sibley his life!
The Man Who Counts: Polesotechnic League Book 1 (POLESOTECHNIC LEAGUE)
by Poul AndersonNicholas Van Rijn: Interstellar Merchant Prince one moment, barbarian chattel the next. Marooned half a world and an ocean away from the sole human outpost on a planet whose very water is poisonous to humans; captured by winged barbarians in the midst of a brutal war of extermination, somehow 'Old Nick' must scheme, conspire, wrangle and battle his way to survival.
Methuselah's Children (Gateway Essentials #481)
by Robert A. HeinleinAfter the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All.No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them: nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality...
The Patient Dark
by Kenneth BulmerFor something like two hundred and fifty years Earth had been dominated by humanoid aliens from the star world of Alishang. But man's spirit refused to be conquered. There was a world-wide underground planning for the day of final liberation. And there were four leaders who knew the secret that would guarantee victory - the secret of ZI.Rupert Clinton, intelligence man for this underground, was not one of those four; yet somewhere deep in the recesses of his subconscious mind, he knew ZI's secret.
The Rod of Light: The Soul of the Robot Book 2 (SOUL OF THE ROBOT)
by Barrington J. BayleyRobot evolution has advanced to the point that intelligent robots have liberated themselves from servitude, defending themselves from servitude, defending themselves against the humans who work to exterminate them using super-machines.The ultimate hope of the most powerfully intelligent robots lies in the attainment of human consciousness. And they are willing to steal men's souls if they must, to get this final elusive quality for themselves.Only one free robot, Jasperodus, has been granted true consciousness - a soul - by his maker, now long dead. Brought into the soul research project by force, Jasperodus faces a moral dilemma: to release his secret and bring about the final downfall of humanity to a new race of super-robots, or to keep his own kind forever from the light of consciousness. And the mechanized armies of the humans press ever forward, seeking the robot hideout.