Science Fiction

Doctor Harris has a strange case as Corporeal Westerburg is convinced that he is a plant. The corporeal just arrived from the Asteroid Y-3. Harris believes the young man is working to hard--too much stress. Then he's notified that there are five new cases coming from Asteroid Y-3, all believing that they're plants! The Doctor doesn't know what's happening, but he needs to find out fast before they're all convinced they're plants because the Pipers told them so. He has no choice but to go to Aste... more info>>

A flight to a lost world of Antarctica. Garin Featherstone has been sent to explore a mysterious blue haze that was spotted in the polar region. There he discovers a lost civilization and a strange environment of vivid green lands, crimson tree trunks, and golden rivers. He most save Thrala of the light against the lizard men. This is Andre Norton's first professional published story from 1947. Even the Grand Dame of Science Fiction had to have her first sale. And she shows her strengths in her ... more info>>

The birth of cyberpunk! A seaweed-smoking rebel becomes an incredible shrinking man. Under the bottom is the top--and the power to smash the Machine. After humanity becomes inextricably linked to the computers, a heroic couple makes a scale-ship journey beneath the smallest particles and through the largest cosmic structures, seeking a perfect world.

Punk-rock SF! Nuclear terrorists, a political kidnapping, and a giant woman from the fourth dimension. Say goodbye to the old world. This literary tour de force explores the landscape of the higher dimensions with the humor and vigor of an underground cartoon. At the same time, it manages to be a heartfelt and realistic depiction of a contemporary marriage.

From the Golden Age of science fiction, here is H. Beam Piper's classic SF story "The Answer." (Originally appeared in the December, 1959 issue of the pulp magazine, "Fantastic Universe Science Fiction.")

When a mysterious stranger appears in Sarah and Gerard's rural town, the two young lovers fighting a fervent battle to overcome America's depression and despair, are suddenly faced with a new realm of possibilities. But they find themselves questioning whether this handsome being was an angel sent to rescue them or a dark being bearing terrible dangers.

El Hassan, would-be tyrant of all North Africa, was on the run. His followers at this point numbered six, one of whom was a wisp of a twenty-four year old girl. Arrayed against him and his dream, he knew, was the combined power of the world in the form of the Reunited Nations, and, in addition, such individual powers as the United States of the Americas, the Soviet Complex, Common Europe, the French Community, the British Commonwealth and the Arab Union, working both together and unilaterally...... more info>>

A starship on a circuit to service earth's colonies is sabotaged and winds up irrevocably lost in space. The only option is to find a habitable planet to live on. Aboard the ship is a contingent of convicts bound for a prison planet, an army company rotating to one of the colony worlds, government officials and scientists going or coming from the colonies, a contingent of prospective colonists going out to pioneer and a miscellany of other passengers. A crew of two hundred fifty is now responsib... more info>>

It's been 20 years since Maisie Thurlow last saw her big sister. First a team of government "minders" tore their family from the pastoral religious colony that was the only home small Maisie had known. Then a mutiny aboard the star liner carrying the displaced colonists separated the sisters, with Eve boarding a lifeboat aimed toward a vacant but inhabitable planet. Now Maisie is Captain Thurlow of Star Guard, and she can't resist trying to find her sister when her patrol ship's course takes it ... more info>>

The Dragon Man is the story of Sara, a teenager growing up in a post-Crash household, struggling with the burden of having eight parents and conducting the remainder of her personal life in virtual space. In a world in which everyone lives for hundreds of years, children are very scarce--but not as scarce as people who were born during the Crash, who grew old before biotechnology reached the pitch of sophistication required to keep them young. Sara's first tentative attempt to assert her individ... more info>>

A horrifying glimpse into the not-too-distant future! Spawned by the effects of Global Warming, those annoying household pests of old have been replaced by an infinitely more vicious species of hybrid insect and froth-spewing rodent?mutated bug and rat swarms which actually seek out and hunger for human flesh! Thus, the 21st Century exterminator was born?equipped with a 'can-kill' attitude, state-of-the art equipment and bug-melting pesticides, these modern-day pest assassins risk both life and ... more info>>

Marshall Zebatinsky was embarrassed. He, a nuclear physicist, visiting a numerologist in the hopes of furthering his career--to be famous. Was he so desperate for advancement that he would resort to the superstition, or worse fakery, of a numerologist? It was at his wife urgings and now the numerologist has told him that by changing one letter in his name all his dreams would come true. This story originally appeared in Star Science Fiction magazine in 1958. It later appeared in the story collec... more info>>

Issue 3 is crammed full of stories and art, with poems, Flash fiction and an entertaining report to leaven the mix. Whether we're battling a mechanical daemon in "A Song, a Prayer, an Empty Space" or experiencing jealousy towards unusual rivals in "Soon You Will Be Gone and Possibly Eaten", we're following the theme of Mechanical Flight into strange and unexpected places. Flight, the dream of humanity for years without number, has come a long way since the Wright brothers flew almost the length ... more info>>

Archaeologist Richard Pinn returns to the ruins of an alien city to find out why its vanished race had abandoned him and his female Me'Aukin counterpart. For three hundred years, he and Jamie Brinwall had been little more than artifacts themselves. Humans found them as embryos kept barely alive in cryogenic tanks, but for what reason? Neither Rick, nor his corporate sponsors who intend on re-colonizing the world, are prepared for the truth that has waited for him with an undying vengeance.

"The author has done a good job in making his twisted people real and their problems logical. A good idea, well worked out." (Astounding/Analog). Medical science has created a world of perfect people, no matter what birth defects or devastating accidents they suffer, science can fix them. No one is deformed or unattractive anymore. Except for a handful, who have suffered calamities beyond even the power of future surgery to make perfect. They are "the Accidentals." Exiled on a tiny asteroid betw... more info>>

Humans settled the Moon and satellites orbiting the Earth were a common sight, but with the abolition of NASA, humans had no desire to go further and space exploration died. Then, a technician from the Very Large Array, a radio telescope in New Mexico, discovers powerful particles orbiting Saturn's moon, Titan, which could be a new energy source. Strangely enough, following the discovery's announcement, whales around the Earth changed their songs overnight. As scion of the powerful Quinn Corpora... more info>>

A man stranded on a remote planet finds a treasure worth risking his life for.

After Lew Alton unwittingly roused Sharra, the fire goddess, the Sword of Aldones was the only weapon that could lay her to rest again. But only one man could wield the sword, and getting it was an even bigger problem.

I am the last of my type existing today in all the Solar System. I, too, am the last existing who, in memory, sees the struggle for this System, and in memory I am still close to the Center of Rulers, for mine was the ruling type then. But I will pass soon, and with me will pass the last of my kind, a poor inefficient type, but yet the creators of those who are now, and will be, long after I pass forever... A classic tale of pulp super-science by the man who would shape the Golden Age of SF from... more info>>

2356 CE A tense but long-lasting peace followed the First Galactic War. While diplomatic relations were established between the Confederacy and the Grugell Empire, the relationship remained tentative. Aided by the newfound ability to calibrate scanners to function during subspace transits, cross-border traffic became somewhat more enthusiastic. In a robust display of market economics, each side swiftly discovered that the other had commodities worth trading for. An illegal but brisk trade develo... more info>>

Their combined military power could not stand up to the tremendous might of Earth's greatest battleship. But one force could yet smash it--and give the Dellians the freedom they sought!

"Three stories with a common theme: the female psyche, multiplied and divided," says Greg Bear in his introduction to this Women in Deep Time. "There's probably something Jungian in common with all three. At any rate, throughout my writing career (and for whatever reason) I've been fascinated by the feminine voice." Featured in this special collection are "Sisters," "Scattershot," in which the inhabitants of many universes meet in limbo, and the Nebula Award-winning "Hardfought," in which engine... more info>>

In a world of wonders, wealth, and "perfect" mental health, a famous poet commits gruesome murder...why? That crime, that question, leads a policewoman to a jungle of torture and forgotten gods; a writer to the bohemian shadows of a vast city; and a scientist directly into the mind-the nightmare soul-of the psychopath himself...

Collecting six stories in old paradigms, Sleepside features Greg Bear's outstanding fantasy writing: "Webster," "The White Horse Child," "Sleepside Story," "Dead Run," "Through Road No Whither," and "Petra." This edition also includes the special introduction by the author: "On Losing the Taint of Being a Cannibal."

The Nebula award-winning short story by master SF writer Greg Bear. Humans are engaged in a long war against an advanced alien race, the Senexi, but the possibility for peace may exist thanks to a young girl who learns the enemy's larger role and humanity's opportunity to evolve.