Search Results for: ring

Lafayette O’Leary, to his acute discomfiture, has an exhilarating and terrifying tendency to slip continua. And what might that mean?

It might mean finding oneself a gypsy with a ring in his ear at one moment, and then suddenly a crippled birdman unable to leave his nest because of the awkward loss of teleporting talent.

It might mean battling one’s way back to the time stream where he started – only to find himself already there, lording it over the populace like a tyrant.

The finest tale ever written of fabled Atlantis, The Lost Continent is a sweeping, fiery saga of the last days of the doomed land. Atlantis, at the height of its power and glory, is without equal. It has established far-flung colonies in Egypt and Central America, and its mighty navies patrol the seas. The priests of Atlantis channel the elemental powers of the universe, and a powerful monarch rules from a staggeringly beautiful city of pyramids and shining temples clustered around a sacred mountain.

Mighty Atlantis is also decaying and corrupt. Its people are growing soft and decadent, and many live in squalor. Rebellion is in the air, and prophecies of doom ring forth. Into this epic drama of the end of time stride two memorable characters: the warrior-priest Deucalion, stern, just, and loyal, and the Empress Phorenice, brilliant, ambitious, and passionate. The old and new Atlantis collide in a titanic showdown between Deucalion and Phorenice, a struggle that soon affects the destiny of an entire civilization.

The Girl in the Golden Atom is the story of a young chemist who finds a hidden atomic world within his mother’s wedding ring. Under a microscope, he sees within the ring a beautiful young woman sitting before a cave. Enchanted by her, he shrinks himself so that he can join her world.

Most fantasy enthusiasts consider Lord Dunsany one of the most significant forces in modern fantasy; his influences have been observed in the works of H.P. Lovecraft, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, and many other modern writers. The Book of Wonder is Dunsany at the peak of his talent. The stories here are a lush tapestry of language, conjuring images of people, places, and things which cannot possibly exist, yet somehow ring true. They are, in short, full of wonder.

First published in 1976, “The Mind-Riders” features a remarkable anticipation of virtual reality gaming, in which the revised sport of boxing pits physically identical virtual fighters against one another, operated by electronically-connected “handlers” — with viewers receiving transmissions of the combatants’ emotions as their simulations slug it out. Ryan Hart, banished from the sport in its early days because of his lack of marketable emotion, is brought back by an obsessed media executive who wants to see the reigning champion beaten at any cost. Hart is not certain that he can win, after such a lapse of time, nor is he certain he can resist pressure to give the vast virtual crowds the dose of sadistic exultation they crave. But that doesn’t stop him from heading into the virtual “ring” and fighting the bout of his life!

OF WISHING RINGS, OGRES AND OTHER MAGICAL THINGS

Callipygia the Amazon and her stalwart knight Mandricardo had had more than enough. All they really wanted to do was avoid the perils, both swordlike and sorcerous, of the many fabled lands of Terra Magica and win their way back home to Tartary to settle down in wedded bliss.

But a realm of roving monsters and wild enchantments is not so easily traveled through unscathed, and when Callipygia and Mandricardo find themselves trapped on a spell-run flying island from which no one has ever escaped, it signals the start of a madcap romp of magic and menace that will lead them into far-distant kingdoms and dangers undreamed…

There is magic in the grand old tales that have survived through centuries of time. Even the names of the books have a ring that sets the blood pounding – THE VOLSUNG SAGA, THE SHAH-NAMAH, THE MABINOGIAN.

From all over the world, from all periods of ancient time, the great myths and heroic tales thunder down through the ages. Each country, each region has its legends. Somewhere, sometime, somehow, some often unknown scribe has set the tales down in permanent form.

In this volume, Lin Carter has gathered together samplings from this richest of all sources of adult fantasy and although their original names may sometimes be anonymous, there surely has never been such a pride of taletellers together at one time as we have in DRAGONS, ELVES AND HEROES.

Dunne was a crystal miner among the stars until he discovered the biggest strike in space.

Drilling through the Rings of Thothmes with a mysterious lady stowaway, the lonely hunter soon realized that every miner in this golden mist was out to get him – and the treasure.

Even as bloodshed spreads across the sky, eyes both inhuman and unseen watched, waiting to close in…

When the famous astronauts Chris Godfrey and his team are scheduled for a trip to Saturn, they are at first shocked to learn that they will be put into “deep freeze”, a process called hypothermia, in order to make the long voyage possible.

As on another voyage, the telepathic twins are enlisted for the project. Also frozen, they manage to avert disaster by sending warning signals even during their deep sleep.

Extreme danger develops when Saturn’s rings exert more gravitation than anticipated – pulling the spaceship into what seems certain destruction…

Top Gun heads to outer space in this throwback to the classic science fiction of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein.

Strapped in to artificial wings spanning twenty-five feet across, your arms push a tenth of your body weight with each pump as you propel yourself at frightening speeds through the air. Inside a pressurized dome on the Moon, subject to one-sixth Earth’s gravity, there are swarms of chiseled, fearless, superbly trained flyers all around you, jostling for air space like peregrine falcons racing for the prize. This was the sport of piloting, and after Helium-3, piloting was one of the first things that entered anyone’s mind when Borealis was mentioned.

It was Helium-3 that powered humanity’s far-flung civilization expansion, feeding fusion reactors from the Alliances on Earth to the Terran Ring, Mars, the Jovian colonies, and all the way out to distant Titan. The supply, taken from the surface of the Moon, had once seemed endless. But that was long ago. Borealis, the glittering, fabulously rich city stretched out across the lunar North Pole, had amassed centuries of unimaginable wealth harvesting it, and as such was the first to realize that its supplies were running out.

The distant memories of the horrific planetwide devastation spawned by the petroleum wars were not enough to quell the rising energy and political crises. A new war to rival no other appeared imminent, but the solar system’s competing powers would discover something more powerful than Helium-3: the indomitable spirit of an Earth-born, war-weary mercenary and pilot extraordinaire.

Bjorn and Frytha share a bond, both orphans and survivors of Norman attacks on their homes in the Lake country. Growing up together in Jarl Buthar’s Norse stronghold, they become fast friends, with Bjorn dreaming of becoming a harper like his father.

As they come of age within this secret fortress, they hear word of the Norman attacks beyond their walls, drawing ever closer to the safety of their home.

Can they help protect their adoptive home and family, or will they lose everything all over again?