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Along with a very few among the Earthbound billions of the 1990s, Jens Wylie dreamed of a future for Man among the stars. He seized the chance to become U.S. Undersecretary for the Development of Space and to help plan the first manned Mars voyage. But political compromise and corner-cutting built disaster into the expedition from the start. And when disaster struck, threatening the lives of the marsnauts and the whole destiny of the human race in space, only Jens saw what had to be done – and to do it, he had to risk his own life, face the loss of the woman he loves and defy the awesome power of the President of the United States.

Science fiction has its immortals – authors whose impact was so tremendous that they belong in a class by themselves. Olaf Stapledon extended the boundaries of science fiction to the infinite, and there are few of the major authors who do not directly or indirectly owe him a great debt.

This volume of his short science fiction and fantasy includes in addition to the five stories, an uncollected radio script from which this volume takes its title and an uncollected 1948 address to the British Interplanetary Society.

Poul Anderson wrote stories ranging throughout time and space, from the near future to the far future, tales set on Earth, other planets, and galaxies distant… sometimes with a bit of time travel added to the brew.

Call me Joe is the first of a multi-volume compendium of Poul Anderson’s best works from a writing career that spans over 50 years and contains 26 stories, including:

“Call Me Joe”
“Enough Rope”
“Starfog”
“The Helping Hand”
“The Man Who Came Early”
“The Sharing of Flesh” (1969 Hugo winner)
“Time Patrol”
“Tomorrow’s Children”
“Wildcat”

In the far future Earth is dying. Society has reverted to a more primitive life, much like the Middle Ages. Two men, Matthew and his brother John, who calls himself “Firefly,” set out to find the time traveller, the one person who can give purpose to their existence, the one individual who can still access past technology. The Firefly, he who lights his own way, seeks the age of Man’s greatness, the time when the human race once owned the stars, when great cities stood in places that have now become rust-bowls.

When police are called to a house in Chelsea following a complaint of a noisy party, all seems to be quiet – but a short while later, flames are seen coming from the house In the main bedroom, the fire brigade find the body of Mrs Diana Barton, who has been stabbed to death.

DCI Harry Brock and DS Dave Poole discover that, far from being the reserved housewife she seemed, Diana was a fun-loving woman who made certain that the party developed into something closer to an orgy.

But Diana Barton’s murder is not the only killing, and soon the complex enquiry stretches as far as Australia . . .

The Mannschenn Drive was the gateway to the stars, but it had one unfortunate site effect: Traveling faster than light, mankind reverted to the bestial form of his own legendary nightmare-the lycanthropic horror that the full moon once called forth from the soul’s depths, now no longer howling at the moon but soaring far beyond it…

Before the hyper-space vessels could go from planet to planet, stations had to be set up. And that meant manned spaceships cut off from Earth for decades.
The explorer vessel Ariadne had gone toward galactic centre and was considered lost – until its call came in appealing for a xenobiologist.
Their new world was all swamp. As far as could be seen, there was no intelligent species. Yes, this was alarming because all inhabitable planets so far discovered had thinking inhabitants.
But the nature of that planet’s “people” turned out to be an enigma that had to be solved. For their alien biology could spell doom to all the civilizations of the stars … doom or a terrible unity!

On Poloda, a world far beyond the reach of any telescope on Earth, there appeared a mysterious being. The inhabitants called him Tangor – ‘from nothing’ – and enlisted him in their savage warfare. And Tangor, the Earthman so strangely transported to a remote planet, took part in one thrilling adventure after another in the battles which were so like, yet unlike, those of his own twentieth century.

DCI Harry Brock is called to Ham Common early on a Sunday morning. But when he arrives at the murder scene, he learns that this killing is far from straightforward: the victim has been stabbed to death, locked in a wooden box and set alight.

This very public demonstration of murder leads Brock and his assistant, DS Dave Poole, to suspect gang links – and they are led on a journey through London’s underworld.

The third of the Tiger Mann adventures calls on the master of counter-espionage to act as unofficial bodyguard to a visiting Arab king.

The American government is courting the visiting ruler for reasons of oil. The Communists want the king, too – but they’d prefer him dead. So Tiger has to outwit the principal Far East Communist agent, counteract Communist propaganda being fed to the king, entertain the monarch’s beautiful fiancé …

… and still keep his lovely Rondine happy.

In the far future, it has become possible in advanced psychotherapy for a man to be given dreams as vivid as reality in which he may play any part he chooses. If that man were inclined to see his life as a struggle between good and evil, and if he were blessed with a profound sense of the black humour inherent in his situation, he might choose to play the part of Jesus, called the Christ. If he were inclined to write a book, it might be this one.

They built a ship called the Southern Cross and launched her to Alpha Crucis. Centuries passed, civilisations rose and fell, the very races of mankind changed, and still the ship fell on her headlong journey toward the distant star.

After ten generations the Southern Cross was the farthest thing from Earth of any human work – but she was still not halfway to her goal.

Here is an absolutely absorbingly exciting tale of the far future from one of the giants in the field of Science Fiction writing.

In his magical stronghold at the heart of a petrified forest Lebarran Magister gathers the surviving loyal members of the Order of the Apotheosis and plans for his coming triumph over the free peoples.

And in the Void, waiting hungrily for Lebarran’s call, is the monstrous Unformed; malign, implacable.

Unaware that the far-reaching eye of the evil sorcerer is resting on him, Red Cordell joins those allied to Prince Phaedran to face the shadow of Lebarran’s ambition.

Red’s friend, the dwarf-giant Krost, travels to his homeland to enlist the strength of the giants; Aurilia gathers the Sisterhood of enchantresses; Vallawn marshals his fellow wizards; the militia are called to arms. Only the enigmatic healer, Hallifort, refuses to lend his powers.

And so the army marches: towards a hopeless war; towards bloodshed and heartbreak; towards the growing evil that threatens the whole Continent from its fastness in the Leafless Forest…

An early June hot spell takes its toll as it fuels a wave of bloody and bizarre crimes for Luis Mendoza of the LAPD. Grisliest by far is the psycho they call the werewolf, who gets his kicks by killing hookers before vanishing into the dark. A gorgeous teenage redhead holds up liquor stores with her boyfriend. And to make the caseload really interesting, ‘Jack the Stripper’ hits the city’s gas stations – stealing cash and his victim’s clothes . . .

‘A Luis Mendoza mystery means superlative suspense’ Los Angeles Times

The planet was called Felicity. The name was a joke, except for those compelled to settle there. Inhabiting it were beings bred for thousands of years for a single purpose: to attack and kill.

Jason knew this. But he also knew the planet on which he lived was moving towards certain disaster. And Felicity was the only spot in the universe where he and his companions could survive. He thought he had worked out the perfect plan. But what awaited him on Felicity went far beyond his wildest imagining.

By the workings of chance Bleys Ahrens was born the genetic equal of Hal Mayne, the hero of The Final Encyclopedia, but he was destined by nurture to a far different fate. Raised alone by his unhappy Exotic mother, Bleys was an outcast from every society until his half-brother Dahno claimed him. Disciplined by Friendlies, schooled by Exotics, Dahno was beginning to build an interplanetary network of half-breeds, who called themselves “Others”.

But Dahno thought only of gaining wealth and power for himself; Bleys saw an opportunity to challenge the Dorsai for control of the Human Worlds.

The continuing adventures of Tarra Khash, Hrossak, in the Primal Land at the dawn of time.

Long before Atlantis and Mu, in olden Theem’hdra the Primal Continent, there existed a world of swords and sorcery, of magic and mayhem, and of wizards, demons, and alien gods from far, dark stars. One of the principal players in this land of myth and legend was Tarra Khash, Hrossak, an inveterate wanderer and adventurer.

Join Tarra now in the ultimate challenge, the ultimate quest: to save a world from the menace of pit-spawned demons, called up from hell by Sorcery in Shad!

As Kartin says, ‘You can’t have houses in space.’ What then are those mysterious objects that have suddenly appeared far out on the planet routes? What connection do they have with ‘the Shy Six Hundred’, as Kemlo calls them, those strange, Earth-born visitors to Satellite K who are so chary of having their photographs taken?

Kemlo and his Space Scouts decide that the time has come for a little detective work and the boys are soon hot on the trail – a trail which is to lead them from the comfort and security of the satellite to a battle to the death twenty million miles out into the void.

Years after the appearance in the solar system of the immense, deserted spaceship named by its discoverers Rama, a second craft arrived, destined to become home for a group of human colonists. But now the colony has become a brutal dictatorship, committing genocide against its peaceful alien neighbours and terrorizing its own inhabitants.

Nicole Wakefield, condemned to death for treason, has escaped and crossed the Cylindrical Sea to the island of mysterious skyscrapers which the humans call New York. There she is reunited with her husband, and soon they are joined by others of their family and friends. But pursuit is not far behind and they are forced to flee to the subterranean corridors of New York inhabited by the menancing octospiders.

It all started when a scientist called Paget performed some fantastic experiments on dogs, cats, rats and mice in an attempt to heighten animal intelligence.

He was far too successful.

When a few of the specimens escaped from their cages, people were amused by the strange creatures. But as they rapidly bred and spread, and new generations combined vastly sharpened intelligence with a natural hatred of man, amusement turned to stark horror.

One man seemed to know too much about the net “paggets” for his own safety – but not enough to avoid getting caught squarely in the middle of mankind’s final, desperate battle, a savage struggle for supremacy in the world that would be won only by . . . THE FITTEST.

In the shadowed swamps far from Prince Phaedran’s fabulous city of Quamarr, a sorcerer tests the fabric of the universe. At his command something stirs in the emptiness beyond the stars. It is incalculably evil, immeasurably old. It is summoned by the promise of fresh human souls…

Meanwhile in a 20th Century film studio, Red Cordell takes another cheap part in another cheap swords and sorcery movie. A beautiful neglected sword he finds in Props is his only satisfaction.

But in Quamarr, the enchantress Aurilia is in mortal danger. When she calls on the sword of Corodel, Red finds himself at her side, fighting for her life in a land of waking dreams…

They call them the “rat-catchers.” They’re the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost space colonies. Alex Alexander, ship’s biologist, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he encounters light-years from home. The planet Floria initially appears to be one of the few Earth colonies that’s actually prospered since its initial settlement. But underneath the surface of the society, the “Planners” keep a strict, repressive rule over the Florians, while the police are apparently attempting to assert their own authority. But is either group actually what they seem?

Marcus King, ruthless entrepreneur and commercial giant, was a man obsessed. His obsession-staying alive! He used his millions to buy life from the bodies of others. Then someone devised a highly scientific plan to kill him-only for King to survive the attack, and plan his revenge. But who was the mastermind behind the assassination attempt?

Dale Markham, chief of local police, is quickly on the crime scene. But the case is so bizarre, with far-reaching international implications, that Security is also called in and special agent Steve Delmonte is assigned to work with the police.

Delmonte’s investigations uncover a tangled web of sadistic intrigue and he has to follows a trail of further murders all the way to the moon before the incredible truth behind the attack is revealed.

In Husaquahr, the world of magic beyond the Sea of Dreams, the battle had been won. All seemed peaceful. But Throckmorton P. Ruddygore, master sorcerer, knew better. Far to the south, on the River of Dancing Gods, the Dark Baron plotted with a Demon Prince to wage the final war that would bring about Armageddon.

Someone had to make the dangerous trip into the unknown to spy on the conspirators. And so Ruddygore called again on the services of his erstwhile human helpers- Joe, who had become a superbarbarian hero with an enchanted sword, and Marge, now changed to a flying fairy woman.

But could two fragile people from the Earth Prime – even with some magic ingredients- survive in this new, bitter struggle to good versus evil?