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From The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal sample introduction to the incredible career of Jack Williamson, whose career spanned over seventy years.

Jack Williamson published his first SF story, ‘The Metal Man’, in 1928 and continued to write high quality SF until his death in 2006, along the way coining many of the terms the genre now takes for granted, such as ‘terraforming’ and ‘genetic engineering’. He was the second writer (after Heinlein) to be named a SFWA Grand Master and was the oldest recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. This volume contains The Legion of Space, the first volume in the eponymous series; The Humanoids; John W. Campbell Award-winning Terraforming Earth and his Hugo Award-winning autobiography Wonder’s Child: My Life in Science Fiction.

Jaxie Cade continues his hunt for the fabled Phantom Planet, in the high-tech world of Lannamur and its moons. Accompanied by combat-ace, Raishe, Cade is just one jump ahead of his pursuers, the wrinkly alien Occians.

The Colloghi Conspiracy continues the adventures of Del Curb, begun in Fraxilly Fracas. This time the self-styled hero is troubled by a frozen astronaut, a media star called Highlight Heart-throb, and the treacherous nature of the planet Colloghi.

Edgar Pangborn studied music at Harvard when just 15 years old, eventually turned his back on music to focus on his writing. He flourished in the early ’50s, producing a string of highly-regarded stories for the likes of Galaxy, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Ellery Queen’s Mystery magazine. His work helped establish a new ‘humanist’ school of science fiction, and has been cited as an influence by Ursula Le Guin. This omnibus contains the Hugo-shortlisted Davy, International Fantasy Award-winner A Mirror for Observers and story collection Good Neighbours and Other Strangers.

DAVY: A HUGO and NEBULA AWARD nominee, this post-apocalyptic science fiction novel is Pangborn’s most acclaimed. It is set in the Northeastern United States some centuries after an atomic war ended high-technology civilization. Davy comes of age in a pseudo-medieval society dominated by a Church that actively suppresses technology.

A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS: The Martians, long exiled from their home planet, have for millennia been observers of the world of men. Forbidden by their laws to interfere with human destiny, they wait for mankind to mature. From the turmoil of mid 20th-century America, word comes to the Observers that one their renegades is hoping to encourage humanity in its headlong rush to self-destruction through the corruption of a single rare intellect. The struggle between Observer and Abdicator for the continuance of the human species is one of the classic conflicts in the annals of science fiction.

GOOD NEIGHBORS AND OTHER STRANGERS: A collection of short stories reflecting Pangborn’s fresh writing style and mastery of the short form.

The son of a Civil War veteran, Edgar Rice Burroughs was a prolific writer for the early pulp magazines. Famous the world over as the creator of Tarzan – and in SF circles for his Martian tales featuring John Carter – Burroughs is a household name. But John Carter wasn’t the only Earthman to champion another world. This omnibus collects PIRATES OF VENUS, LOST ON VENUS and CARSON OF VENUS – the first three of Burroughs’ classic pulp tales of Carson Napier on the waterworld of Amtor – better known to us as Venus.

PIRATES OF VENUS: The shimmering, cloud-covered planet of Venus conceals a wondrous secret: the strikingly beautiful yet deadly world of Amtor. In Amtor, cities of immortal beings flourish in giant trees reaching thousands of feet into the sky; ferocious beasts stalk the wilderness below; rare flashes of sunlight precipitate devastating storms; and the inhabitants believe their world is saucer-shaped with a fiery center and icy rim. Stranded on Amtor after his spaceship crashes, astronaut Carson Napier is swept into a world where revolution is ripe, the love of a princess comes at a dear price, and death can come as easily from the blade of a sword as from the ray of a futuristic gun.

LOST ON VENUS: Napier’s adventures continue in this pulse-pounding sequel to PIRATES OF VENUS. Here the intrepid and wry explorer takes on a savage world in order to rescue the princess from her sworn enemies. Napier’s epic quest for Duare takes him through the streets of the City of the Dead, into the terrifying Room of the Seven Doors, and face to face with fantastic and perilous creatures. LOST ON VENUS brims with the action, suspense and wit unique to the Master of Adventure.

CARSON OF VENUS: Carson Napier, first Earthman to reach Venus, had to keep alert every instant of his stay on that world of mist and mystery. For its lands were unmapped, its inhabitants many, varied and strange, and he had taken an obligation to restore a native princess to her lost homeland. On terrible oceans where dreaded sea-monsters dwelled, in deep forests where terror haunted every branch, and behind the walls of eerie cities where power-mad chieftains plotted uncanny schemes, CARSON OF VENUS is fast-paced science fiction adventure.

D.G. Compton is best known for his prescient 1974 novel, THE CONTINUOUS KATHERINE MORTENHOE, which predicted the 21st century’s obsessions with media voyeurism and ‘reality television’. It was filmed as DEATH WATCH in 1980 by Bertrand Tavernier. This omnibus collects three of his incisive SF novels, ASCENDANCIES, SYNTHAJOY and THE STEEL CROCODILE.

ASCENDANCIES: Into a future where a depleted fuel supply had the world spiralling down into grinding poverty and constant war came … Moondrift. Mysterious white flakes of alien matter that was the perfect fuel – clean, powerful, dependable. But the aliens – or whatever they were – who sent Moondrift seemed to demand a heavy ransom in return…

SYNTHAJOY: Would you like to experience first-hand the emotions of a great artist, the sublime peace of a saint, the happiness of a child at Christmas? Try Sensitape. Or perhaps you had something more passionate in mind. Don’t be shy. Ask for Sexitape. And for the true connoisseur, we have the ultimate human experience: a distinguished blend of synthetic ecstasies. The world is not ready for it, but perhaps you are. We call it Synthajoy.

THE STEEL CROCODILE: In answer to an unanswerable future, science has created Bohn, the omnipotent computer whose flashing circuits and messianic pronouncements dictate what tomorrow will – or will not – be. But Matthew Oliver is flesh and blood and full of questions – not nearly as certain as the machine he’s appointed to serve. And the right hand of science seldom knows what the left hand is doing…

From the vaults of the SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal introduction to the varied work of author, editor and critic, L. Sprague de Camp.

Although arguably best known for his continuation of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, de Camp was an important figure in the formative period of modern SF, alongside the likes of Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein. In a career spanning seven decades, he won the HUGO, WORLD FANTASY LIFE ACHIEVEMENT and SFWA GRAND MASTER AWARDs. This omnibus collects three previously out-of-print classics: LEST DARKNESS FALL, ROGUE QUEEN and THE TRITONIAN RING.

Lest Darkness Fall:
The Roman Empire had spread order, knowledge and civilisation throughout the ancient world. When Rome fell, the light of reason flickered out across the Empire. The Dark Ages had begun; they would last a thousand years. Could a man from the 20th century prevent the fall of Rome?

Rogue Queen:
Decades before a certain five-year voyage, L. Sprague de Camp sent a spirited crew to a strange and distant world, where their meeting with its inhabitants created chaos in local politics, upset the balance of power and generally created the most entertaining havoc.

The Tritonian Ring:
The gods of Poseidonis – or Atlantis – were powerful and real. Now they were determined to destroy the kingdom ruled by the father of Prince Vakar, the one man whose mind they could not read. The only way to save the kingdom was to discover that thing which the gods feared most.

Malone lives in a world where psionic powers such as telepathy and teleportation exist. Malone must cope with them as well as an FBI Director who leaves Malone continually confused about what situation he is being asked to handle and what he is expected to do about it.

Supermind has Malone investigating a series of incidents in which people make mistakes – sometimes minor, and sometimes major – that lead to disasters. It looks like a secret cabal of psis may be behind events, influencing the behavior of those involved. Are they? And if so, why? Malone must find out if it kills him – which is a very real possibility.

Malone lives in a world where psionic powers such as telepathy and teleportation exist. He must cope with them as well as an FBI Director who leaves Malone continually confused about what situation he is being asked to handle and what he is expected to do about it.

That Sweet Little Old Lady finds Malone charged with investigating leaks in a secret government program. For assistance, he recruits a powerful psi from a mental institution who believes she is Queen Elizabeth I of England. The problem is, she may be right.

Perfectly marrying SF adventure with slapstick comedy for hilarious results, it was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1960.

Convicted armed robber Jimmy ‘Spotter’ Gould is shot dead within seconds of emerging from London’s Stone Mill Prison at the end of an eight-year sentence, and Brock and DS Poole are faced with yet anther baffling crime.

s enquiries continue, an embezzling solicitor’s clerk, a dodgy undertaker and a dubious motor trader all enter the frame.

In February 1915 the Great War is still raging on the Western Front but back in Westminster a policeman is shot dead. At first, Hardcastle believes the murderer to have been a disturbed burglar. But then, there is another killing – the beautiful wife of a Royal Flying Corps Officer – on whose doorstep the first victim was killed.

As enquiries continue, attention focuses on an antiquarian bookseller, a struggling artist, a reporter and even officers of the Royal Flying Corps. Hardcastle must uncover a tangle of lies, emotions and betrayals before he can get to the truth.

Aylwin Hundrych is a diplomat with political aspirations, who was once involved with a French girl, Antoinette, with whom he unwittingly shared details about a royal visit to Paris – details which put the King’s life in danger. Antoinette’s brother holds the former lovers’ letters, and is threatening to use them. Hundrych makes a first payment, but the demands continue.

Hundrych enlists his old friend Sir Vane Tabbard’s son, an ex-commando called Gray Tabbard, who is not too scrupulous about what he does. Gray searches the blackmailer’s apartment, but reports back that he cannot find a particularly compromising note.

And Gray is in love with the girl Hundrych plans to marry . . .

Lieutenant Luis Mendoza and the LAPD homicide division tackle some of their most shocking cases to date. Half a million dollars is stolen from a fashionable department store; a young divorcée is murdered by her ex-husband’s lover; three flawless robberies occur in rapid succession and a middle-aged woman is senselessly murdered in a public park.

The continually erupting crime in Los Angeles stretches the team to the limit. However, Lieutenant Luis Mendoza handles all this action with his own characteristic, inimitable finesse.

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

The body of a woman from respectable, conservative Glendale is found stashed under a ramshackle house in the middle of the inner city. Detective Luis Mendoza marks the rising heat by the crime and violence raging through the sun-baked streets of Los Angeles – and it’s going to be a hot one . . .

A thug is shot to death. A mysterious string of robberies continues unabated . . . all without a clue. But the family-man cop knows that where there’s heat there’s fire – and a cold trail to nowhere promises to turn into a red-hot path leading straight to the damned.

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

It’s January in Los Angeles, and the city is experiencing a heatwave. Lieutenant Luis Mendoza’s homicide squad is depleted by the murder of one its members, and the crime-rate is rising as high as the temperature . . .

‘Intelligent, humane, well written and continuously absorbing’ Sunday Times

‘My favourite American crime-writer’ New York Herald Tribune

Ireland, 1749. Dennis McDermott, a witty, charming and daring young man with shades of the Scarlet Pimpernel, lives two lives in eighteenth-century Dublin. Fashionable society idolises him as a handsome, rakish man of their world, never suspecting that he is the mysterious leader of the Irish underground whose nightly missions continue to outwit the British authorities.

But Dennis’ cover as an Anglophile who has renounced his Gaelic roots is under threat from an ever-more inquisitive policeman, and he also is embroiled in another cat-and-mouse game . . . falling in love.

The sign read ‘Do Not Disturb’, and at first Edith Talbot ignored the pitiful whimpering that came through the door. The hotel clerk assured her that the room was occupied by a sick boy under the care of a physician. Later in the night, when the cries resumed, she felt something must be done, and she made the fatal mistake of knocking on the door …

From then on things begin to happen, strange things that at first seem like coincidence but crescendo into a series of hair-raising events.

‘Continuous action, and extra good writing’ Saturday Review of Literature

The ad in the Daily Telegraph read: ‘Wanted: a man of resource and courage to act as companion’.

Ex-con Macbeth Bain must stay on the right side of the law, and this job seems like the perfect opportunity for him to prove that he can. A woman needs protection from a jealous husband – the only thing is, this husband has been dead for seven months. His phone calls, however, continue unabated, or so the widow maintains. Crazy? Bain doesn’t think so. But it’s not until his third day on the job that the real trouble starts. And when the noose begins to tighten, Bain knows he must break out soon or it will be too late.

Jerry Stevens, an out-of-work bit-part movie actor, is offered a job at a thousand dollars a day to impersonate John Merrill Ferguson, one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.

Ferguson needs to finish a secret deal but hungry journalists are continually watching every move he makes. In order to complete it, Ferguson needs a ‘stand-in’. For Stevens, the money is beyond his wildest dreams.

But from the moment Steven’s steps into Ferguson’s shoes, he is thrown into a nightmare of intrigue, murder and stark terror.

Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles misses a crucial conference and is not able to give vital advice to a colleague, Assistant Chief Constable Esther Davidson. She is having big trouble from a local gang known as the Guild, and proposes to put an undercover spy into the criminal outfit.

Iles might have been able to dissuade her from such a rash move. One of his own undercover officers was murdered not long ago. But Esther goes ahead, with terrible consequences . . .

‘James continues to produce the most realistic, unsettling sequence of novels, recording the subtle relationships between police and villains’ The Times

The Mau Mau terrorist uprising is now over, but when Victoria joins her family on their beautiful Rift Valley estate, the horrors continue. What began as the malicious persecution of a poltergeist has ended in brutal murder. In the small community passions run deep – but deeper still is the mind of a ruthless killer …

They called him Bane the Bastard – though none said it to his face

Born of treachery, his name a curse, he grew up among the warriors of the Rigante. They valued his skills in war, but they feared the violence in his heart.

And when, as a Wolfshead and Outlaw, he left Rigante lands, they breathed sighs of relief.

But Bane would return, the destiny of the Rigante in his hands, the fate of the world resting on his skills with a blade.

Midnight Falcon continues the tale of the Rigante, which began in Sword in the Storm, and tells the epic story of Bane, the bastard son of Connavar the King, and his quest for vengeance in a world of blood, honour, betrayal and love.

Read by Adjoa Andoh
(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group

All is not well in Xy.

A faction of nobles who are plotting against the Queen and her barbarian warlord.

As cultures clash and tempers flare, Heath and the fierce Plains warrior woman Atira of the Bear must come together to fight the conspiracy… and to search their hearts for something deeper than raw passion.

Book four in the steamy Chronicles of the Warlands series continues to be just as sexy as the earlier novels, but this time a new romance blossoms out of rivalry . . .

Continuing their mission to explore the galaxy and find new worlds for man to conquer, Captain Timothy “Tiger” Clinton, the Professor, Toby Paul and Rex are ready for whatever challenges the stars have to throw at them.

From Mars to Mino, Unkos to Lin, they explore planets and planetoid alike, encountering tree-dwelling creatures, lizard-people, watery worlds and spider-like aliens. As they try to communicate with civilisations trapped under ice, or escape cannibals, no adventure is too tough for Tiger, and there is nothing they can’t overcome!

The third book in Captain W. E. Johns’ Tiger Clinton space adventure series, Now to the Stars brings yet more action and adventure from the legendary creator of Biggles.