The barrenland lay on the face of the world like a sore, nearly round, more than three hundred miles in circumference. It had been there so long that it was endured, as were the twisted monsters that wandered out of the barrenland and killed. Conrad, living on the dge, had visions of a time when the barrenland was a rich region full of powerful, magical people- people who travelled to other worlds. He was ruled by a burning need to know what none could tell him: the explanation of the mysterious visions that had plagued him all his life. Then he met Jervis Yanderman, a soldier who knew of these visions. Yanderman was convinced there was an island in the barrenland where people still clung to life...

Imagine a mechanism that would end all wars and bloodshed. A machine that can create a virtual world where conflicts seem to be fought, but no one dies. Dr. Leo's Dueling Machine is just that. But when a warrior from the Kerak Empire finds a way to circumvent the machine, actually killing his opponents, the results are devastating. His secret knowledge of the machine could lead to actual, not virtual, war. Dr. Leo and his assistant must work quickly to discover what Kerak knows. Their lives, their planet, and the preservation of peace depend on it.

What did our ancestors dream of when they gazed up at the stars and looked beyond the present? A Journey in Other Worlds races far ahead of the nineteenth century to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth is effectively a corporate technocracy, with big businesses using incredible advances in science to improve life on the planet as a whole. Seeking other planets habitable for the growing human population, the spaceship Callisto, powered by an antigravitational force known as apergy, embarks on a momentous tour of the solar system. Jupiter proves to be a wilderness paradise, full of threatening beasts and landscapes of inspired beauty, where the explorers must fight for their lives. Dangers less tangible but equally deadly await the Callisto crew on Saturn, which yields profound secrets about their fate and the ultimate destiny of mankind.

The Unprotected Species is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Melvin Sturgis is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Melvin Sturgis then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

A 2,900 word near-future short story.Isabella is away from home when the world around her is consumed by fires from a colliding comet. Stranded on a little island with her best friend, the boy she wants to love her and the boy who's been after her for years, will Isabella find her way back to safety?New Girl (Anti-Heroes Book I) by Louise Bohmer & K.H. KoehlerGet Ready to Root for the Villain...Serena is the new girl in a school that caters to not just "Norms," but the sons and daughters of the world's greatest Superheroes. The problem? She's the daughter of the Night Witch, a cardinal member of the League of Extreme Evil. She'd love to join the other super teens and prove she isn't the villain that her mother was, but it isn't long before she falls in with a group of Supervillains that the school calls the Geek Squad, which includes a biochemically created vampire named Nikki, a genetically altered jock named Isaac, and Jinx, the son of Satan himself!She's immediately attracted to Jinx, but Serena has vowed to do what's right. But there are secrets buried deep within Serena's past that threaten to kill her, and even rock the foundation of Earth itself! An evil decay is reaching out from a distant star, and the Supers and Geeks will need to work together in order to defeat it--if they can keep from killing each other. The Supers thought the greatest battle for control of Earth had been fought and won, but a cosmic war is coming, and it isn't long before it's difficult to tell the difference between hero and villain.Book I in a new online serial!

With allies in adjacent universes facing certain defeat, John Mackinac and Scott uncovers an ancient machine ship, hidden between universes that is intent on destroying all organic life but has recruited humanity to win its Universal War. John and Scott must somehow destroy the ship to save the rest of humanity before the machines can escape. (ver 2.0)Fractime’s story tells of key times surrounding the Universal War, a conflict pitting humanity against machine and itself throughout time.With allies in adjacent universes facing certain defeat, John Mackinac and Scott uncovers an ancient machine ship, hidden between universes that is intent on destroying all organic life but has recruited humanity to win its Universal War. John and Scott must somehow destroy the ship to save the rest of humanity before the machines can escape. (ver 2.0)

Phssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before... Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days -- Brennan figured to meet that ship first... He was never seen again -- at least not by those alive at the time.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

A new short story from Mira Grant, the author of Feed. Every week five friends get together to play a game-- a game they call the Apocalypse Game. It's a fun time with chips and beer and plotting the end of the world. Except this time, one of them is missing and the stakes are higher than ever before. Word count: ~3,900

Avery Rush is on an expedition into the moon's own version of the Bermuda Triangle - a mysterious region of the lunar surface where many a vessel has disappeared - though he is skeptical they'll find anything at all. But the fantastic world on the other side turns out to be full of surprises and dangers that may prove too much for this seasoned pilot who thought he'd seen it all...The legend of the Chained Oak has hovered over the village for hundreds of years. An enraged witch cursed the tree, the legend goes, when she was snubbed by a local aristocrat. 'For every branch that falls from this tree, a member of your family will die!' These days the tale is considered no more than a ghost story, used to entertain tourists and frighten young children. However, one night young friends Chris and Paul pay a visit to the cursed Oak, and discover the truth of the story for themselves.

"Shell Game" was originally published in 1954 for the first time. Later it was expanded into the "Clans of the Alphane Moon." (1964) When CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf and his psychiatrist wife, Mary, file for divorce, they have no idea that in a few weeks they will be shooting it out on Alpha III M2, the distant moon ruled by various psychotics liberated from a mental ward. Nor do they suspect that Chuck's new employer, the famous TV comedian Bunny Hentman, will also be there aiming his own laser gun. How things came to such a darkly hilarious pass is the subject of Clans of the Alphane Moon, an astutely shrewd and acerbic tale that blurs all conventional distinctions between sanity and madness.

Peter F. Hamilton’s extraordinary far-future epics recall the golden age of science fiction, as practiced by Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. Nowhere is that legacy more in evidence than in The Void Trilogy. Taking place twelve hundred years after the events of Hamilton’s Commonwealth novels, The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void, and The Evolutionary Void are Hamilton at his most ambitious and daringly imaginative—and now all three are together for the first time in this addictive eBook bundle. Contains an exhilarating preview of Peter F. Hamilton’s highly anticipated novel, The Abyss Beyond Dreams, set in the same universe as The Void Trilogy.   THE DREAMING VOID THE TEMPORAL VOID THE EVOLUTIONARY VOID   The year is 3589. At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be stopped as it expands in all directions, consuming everything in its path. Even the oldest and most technologically advanced of the galaxy’s sentient races, the Raiel, do not know its origin or its purpose. Then Inigo, an astrophysicist, begins having vivid dreams. Inside the Void, Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement wired into most humans, those dreams are shared by hundreds of millions—and a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its prophet. But then he vanishes. A new wave of dreams broadcast by an unknown Second Dreamer serves as the impetus for a massive Pilgrimage into the Void, which could trigger an accelerated devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds. Thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and avert catastrophe. Praise for The Void Trilogy   The Dreaming Void “Peter F. Hamilton is the owner of the most powerful imagination in science fiction, author of immense, complex far-future sagas. The Dreaming Void is his best yet.”—Ken Follett   “A real spellbinder from a master storyteller . . . dozens of scenarios, a surprisingly well-delineated cast of thousands, plotting enough to delight the most Machiavellian of readers.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)   “Amazing storytelling . . . Hamilton is the clear heir to Heinlein in my view.”—Marc Andreessen, founder, Netscape   The Temporal Void   “Fusing elements of hard SF with adventure fantasy tropes, Hamilton has singlehandedly raised the bar for grand-scale speculative storytelling.”—Publishers Weekly  * “A great, sprawling, ripping yarn reminiscent of Golden Age Science Fiction.”—SF Crowsnest  * “A gripping story, with the fates of two universes at stake.”—SF Site  * The Evolutionary Void   “Satisfying and powerful . . . Space Opera doesn’t get much more epic than Peter F. Hamilton, something proven in spades in The Evolutionary Void.”—*SFFWorld  * “Spiced with plenty of action and intrigue.”—San Jose Mercury News  * “The author’s mastery of the art of the ‘big story’ earns him a place among the leading authors of dynastic SF.”—*Library Journal*

Thy Rocks and Rills is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Robert E. Gilbert is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Robert E. Gilbert then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.

A collection of six short-short science fiction stories.Androids, advanced battle suits, murder, brain implants and a strange case of writers block, this collection of short-short stories has it all.A collection of six short-short science fiction stories. Androids, advanced battle suits, murder, brain implants and a strange case of writers block, this collection of short-short stories has it all.