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An ancient Power awakes.

A modern evil mushrooms into apocalypse.

Cocooned in a nightmare world, the village of Melfort waits, as The Power feeds on the death and destruction, fuelling its gross appetite.

And the dead rise up.

14 science fiction shorts covering topics such as the rebuilding of Manhattan in the heart of Leicestershire, seeking help from an angel, enlivening Utopia by taking a demon lover, changing rivals into animals. A fascinating collection from one of the leading lights of feminist SF.

His words alone could change the world – completely and irrevocably.

His words alone DID change the world.

Was it mass hypnosis, a hex, or THE POWER?

To win the right to a name, he fought without weapons in the deadly arena of Nggongga – only to be cheated of his prize. Branded a criminal, he sought refuge with the Benefactors, a mysterious interplanetary fellowship, and from them he at last learned the truth about his heritage.

As Blacklantern he was born again – and the galaxy itself became the arena for his vengeance. A gladiator still, his purpose took him to the ends of the cosmos, to seek out and finally face a terrifying and relentless evil that threatened countless worlds…

Salford is chosen to visit a long dead planet outside the solar system. However, when he gets out of the ship for a look around, he has the distinct feeling he is not alone.

The planet Attica has two continents: Lambda and Delta. The indigenous alien population being restricted to Delta, Earth’s colony was planted on Lambda. Before the arrival of the Daedalus, two sailing ships had set out from Lambda to cross the ocean separating the two continents, and neither had returned. Now a third is on its way, and Mariel Valory and Alex Alexander of the Daedalus have hitched a lift, in order that Mariel might use her talent to try to make contact with the aliens. Unfortunately, it turns out that contact has already been made, and that the aliens are building an empire with the aid of borrowed Terran technology–an empire that’s beginning to crack under its internal strains and eternal challenges. And when Alex and Mariel are marooned by their reluctant hosts, things start to go from very bad to much worse….

Set in an imaginative alternate version of modern Los Angeles, “Earthquake Weather” begins with the murder of the Fisher King of the West, Scott Crane. His body is taken to the magically protected home of the Sullivans, and their 13-year-old adopted son, Koot, a boy destined to be the next Fisher King. But for now, he must aid in reuniting Scott Crane’s body and spirit, and restoring him to life.

Twelve-year-old Koot Hoomie Parganas’s parents prepared him for a career as a metaphysical holy man – but after they’re brutally murdered one night he finds himself a fugitive in the darkest corners of Los Angeles, pursued by denizens of a dark underworld who want what Kootie’s parents have been hiding for forty years – the ghost of Thomas Edison contained in a bust of Dante.

But Kootie has broken the bust and inhaled the ghost, and now has in his head the lively personality of Edison himself – and together Kootie and Edison must learn the harsh rules of the occult world existing behind the glitter of modern Los Angeles, and find a way to save Kootie’s life and free Edison’s ghost from its earthly Purgatory.

Welcome to the holy city.

Gregorio Rivas was a redeemer, one of the courageous men who snatched converts from the sinister cult of Norton Jaybush.

Currency brandy was what they used for money in post-nuclear L.A. Ten thousand fifths was the price Rivas set to retrieve the only girl he ever loved.

But when a hemogoblin whispered Come to me from the shadows, it looked like Gregorio Rivas would be leaving by the Dog Town gate.

Unless the genial host of Deviant’s Palace would swop an apostle for a hemogoblin. Norton Jaybush needed a new High Priest – and Rivas had been shortlisted for the job…

Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award for best novel, 1985

When Brother Thomas tries sky-fishing from the monastery roof he knows he is breaking the law, but the few risks seem a small price to escape the stifling boredom of his cloistered life.

What he doesn’t understand is why his insignificant brush with the law makes him the object of a massive manhunt and triggers off such a dramatic chain of events. Certainly he achieves his aim and finds the excitement he craves – but in the process the lives of everyone around him change as well.

In a time when Earth’s interplanetary Empire is crumbling . . .

On a world where technology has begun to fail . . .

When the rightful ruler of the planet has been deposed by renegades . . .

One young man embodies the spirit of survival.

Frank Rovzar has seen his father murdered most foully in a palace coup. Escaping the deadly Transports he flees to the only safe place he can think of, Munson Underground, the city beneath the surface of the planet, den of thieves and haven of the damned.

Rovzar has only two goals. The first is survival. The second is vengeance. He will have both, he vows, and he embarks on a course that will see him rise from the dregs of society to the very pinnacle of power.

Who controls power controls the Solar System, and Interplanetary Power, through its power accumulators controls power. Spencer Chambers, the president of Interplanetary Power, used that control to rule the Solar System with an iron thumb that allowed no dissent. When Russell Page and friend Harry Wilson develop an alternative source of power they find themselves drawn into a conflict that will decide the fate of the system, and whether man will live in freedom or as slaves.

Called to the end of time by a being they knew only as The Face of Ea, four adventurers from the twentieth century faced a power that not even the super-science of that era could meet – the nekron, negative matter, negative force, ultimate destruction for everything it touched. It seemed hopeless to expect them to win this battle for the fate of the universe – but between them they had a power they themselves could not suspect.

In the realm of science things are often far from what they seem. In the science of sociology this is truest of all. Those who seem to control human affairs may only be figure-heads. The real power lies in unsuspected places…sinister…alien…

Mervyn Wayne called at the offices of an apparently normal, respectable, old-established city firm and overheard intrigue of nightmare quality. He found himself a fugitive from an organisation whose ramifications extended everywhere.

Society was being master-minded by someone, or something, so irresistibly powerful that Mervyn’s first reaction was hopeless fear. Gradually, however, he learnt how to distinguish allies from organisation men and began building a counter-group of his own.

A collection of science-fiction short stories by the author of “Lucky’s Harvest”. They feature dozens of characters, a new way of travelling between the stars, a strange planet, magical powers, bravura set-pieces, and manoeuvres of narrative.

After withstanding the power of the Black Jewel and saving the city of Hamadan from the conquest of the Dark Empire of Granbretan, Hawkmoon set off for the Kamarg, where friendship and love await him.

But the journey is beyond treacherous. With his boon companion, Oladahn, the beastman of the Bulgar Mountains, Hawkmoon discovers the peaceful city of Soryandum, which holds the power to transcend the confines of time and space.

This power, which keeps the city from falling to the Dark Empire, could keep the Kamarg safe. But alas his love Yisselda is now a prisoner of the Mad God, whose powerful amulet is linked to Hawkmoon’s ultimate destiny: a power that began at creation and calls heroes to arms throughout existence. Hawkmoon must rip this amulet from the neck of the Mad God if he hopes to save the Kamarg and free his friends and his one true love from the Dark Empire’s relentless wrath.

World-saver, or world-breaker?

The treaty that ended the civil war decreed that the men of science and the followers of the gods would split all of society between them. Yet Guild apprentice Pol was torn between the logic of science and the lure of faith, unaware that destiny had already chosen a very special role for him to play.

For Pol was about to encounter a woman of unique power, the mistress of a mysterious, forbidden castle, who would lead him down the pathways of prophecy to a strange and frightening new world . . .

The second Ice Age came – and civilisation was buried beneath the glaciers. Then all men became barbarians. But out of the frozen chaos three cultures emerged. The Seafolk and the Rogaviki were simple, primitive people. Ranged against them was the mighty Rahidian-Barommian Empire, a nation hungry for power, eager to exploit its superior technical knowledge. If the Empire fulfilled its ambitions, its neighbours knew they would not survive. On the day of the intended conquest they must be ready to engage the powers of science in a bloody, apocalyptic struggle for the destiny of the planet.

Does crime pay – if a galaxy is the prize?

What mysterious power emanated from the bejeweled crown of stars that rulers of three planets frantically sought its possession?

The Daleth Effect: It started in a small way when a test bench disintegrated.


Within weeks it produced a power that could lift man to the stars.



And within months it was the centre of a desperate power struggle – with Earth as the prize.

Meet Qua, the quantum computer with the immense power capabilities that tunes into pathways in parallel universes to operate at lightning speed. But with such power comes the threat of catastrophe, and as government agents, cult disciples, and computer criminals learn what this computer is capable of, Cambridge researcher Clare Conway makes every attempt to safeguard herself and society from the realities she discovers about Qua. For all of the power this computer offers, it threatens to spark a civil war in America, a danger unlike any other that history has ever known.

The inhabited galaxy was caught in the crushing vice of a struggle for power. The political titans of the planets of mankind were making their bids for supremacy.

The contestants: Cornice, man of strange powers, authority in the spheres of the intellect; and Bassett, man of money-power, financial and business wizard.

As the association of human worlds drew near the teetering edge of internal revolutions; one of these men would be in a position to triumph. The only thing that neither side could foresee was that there were Others hovering among the stars, loo ling for new worlds to conquer!



(First published 1959)

In this rich and varied collection of fantasy, science fiction and horror stories, Tanith Lee brings her power to bear on the nature of relationships between women and men. The witch, the femme fatale, the vengeful goddess, the Amazon – past, present and future – spring to live in these tales of mystery and imagination.

Jay Vickers was an ordinary man, or so he thought. All he wanted was to be left in peace to finish his next book. However, strange things started happenin – from his discovery of a mouse that was not a mouse, to the visit of an old neighbor that was not a man. Or at least he was not an ordinary man.

For as it turned out, neither was Jay Vickers. This is the story of human mutation – the next step in the evolution of the species. What if mutants walked among us already? What if they were organized? What if they had unbelievable powers, such as the ability to cross between alternate worlds or dimensions at will, or to intuitively reach the absolutely correct answer by intuition or “hunch”, or to telepathically reach out to the stars?

Such supermen would automatically try to conquer lesser men, would they not? Or would they do everything in their power to free the rest of humanity from slavery and suffering? Just what would the political and corporate powers-that-be do to keep their power and their slaves? How would mutants undermine the power of these bosses to set mankind free?

This is a story of unlimited freedom, of worlds without end, ready for the taking. It is also the story of powerful, benevolent beings that exist only to help those who need that help. This is a future of a lop-sided mechanical culture of technology that could provide creature comfort for a few, but not human justice or security for the many. It is a future of hate, and war, and worry. Nothing like the way the world really turned out – after all, there couldn’t really be an underground of mutants working to free humanity . . . could there?