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PATIENT: MARTIN CANN 30395

DOCTOR ATTENDING: DR. ANSELM HERNE

RESPONSE TO TREATMENT: SATISFACTORY, but...

The time is the 21st Century and the only similarities are the physical bodies of men.

Sickness is treated from within, very often taking the changes from their patient's minds and bodies unto themselves.

And now Martin Cann was well and his nurse, Miss Annell was an angel.

A real angel...

SCIENCE FICTION AT ITS WEIRD BEST IN THIS SHATTERING NOVEL OF THE COMING HELL

15 WORLDS OF LAURENCE M. JANIFER

The real world... or the new world?

The world of Marda where the merest thought becomes reality--a reality sometimes too harsh.

A world where Satan bargains with the military leaders of two freat powers. For the better deal--for himself.

A dream world--or is it? Where you can kill a man three times... and hs still lives.

And other worlds--all new, and perhaps some startlingly real?

Table of Contents:

• 7 - But First ... - essay
• 11 - Charley de Milo - (1960) - short story
• 35 - The Question - (1963) - short story and Donald E. Westlake [as by Larry M. Harris and Donald E. Westlake]
• 38 - The Man Who Played to Lose - (1961) - short story
• 54 - Fire Sale - (1964) - short story
• 58 - Obey That Impulse - (1959) - short story (variant of Obey That Impulse!)
• 67 - Lost in Translation - (1961) - short story
• 78 - Expatriate - (1953) - short story
• 91 - Excerpts from the Galactick Almanack: Music - (1959) - short story (variant of Extracts from the Galactik Almanack: Music Around the Universe)
• 98 - Wizard - (1960) - short story
• 116 - Elementary - (1964) - short story and Michael Kurland
• 126 - Sight Gag - (1962) - short story
• 134 - Sword of Flowers - (1962) - short story [as by Larry M. Harris]
• 143 - Three Excerpts - (1968) - short story
• 147 - Replace the Horse - (1959) - short story [as by Larry M. Harris]
• 153 - In the Bag - (1964) - short story
• 155 - Love Story - (1963) - short story

EARTH HAD FROWN GREAT--AND CORRUPT

Empire Earth extended throughout the solar system. The great tide of humankind had flowed across space to make the most distant planets the home of man. But mother Earth still reigned supreme, ruled by an all-powerful Emperor and an autocratic Council. Mankind had achienved its most glowing dreams of power--and in the process lost its freedom.

Then a lone spaceship captained by a passionate yound rebel and a desperate crew issued a call for revolt--and the ultimate struggle between the old ideals and the new tyranny began...

Officially---Three.
Called---The Reel.

It's the Pleasure Planet, the Las Vegas of the Federation, Whatever you want, there's someone on the Reel who'll provide it--if you can pay the price. It's a world run by madams and casino owners, a world whose only law is the law of supply and demand.

Christie Chesson supplies: she's working for one of the Reel's biggest please houses, but she can't make enough to get out. On the Reel, if you don't ahve a pieces of the action, that action has a piece of you....

Aleex Younge has more of the action that he wants. He's inherited the largest cason on the planet, but all he wants is to get himself--and Christie--off the Reel.

But, as Alex and Chrstie discover, love has no place on the Pleasure PlanetL it yeilds no profit. The Reel is made for people like Wyss Diamond, who wantes everything--total control of the planet--and doesn't care how he gets it. If he gets it, the pleasure will be over--forever--for Alex and Christie. And maybe for everyone on the Reel...

THE MASTERS

Johnny Dodd: he had everything a man would want on Fruyling's World -- except freedom from the horror of being there.

Dr. Haenlingren: icy, reserved, the architect of the system that kept men on top and aliens enslaved.

Norma: warm and human, she was Dodd's one hop for salvation.

THE SLAVES

Cadnan: he did what he was told.. until the masters told him to die.

Marvor: the first of his race to have an independent idea -- an idea that was dangerous and deadly.

Dara: green and reptilian, but beautiful enough to inspire Dadnan to the slave world's worst crime.

As the space fleets of an outraged Terran Confederation close in on the outlaw planet of Fruylin's World, the destinies of slave and master meet explosively, and from the shock of battle and its aftermath come an unexpected and awesome conclusion.

WAR ON WH'GRALB-

WAR?

ENEMY ROCKETS ROARED TOWARD THEIR TARGETS

...and floated gently into an uninhabited swamp.

A CLOUS OF POISON GAS BILLOWED OVER THE TROOPS

...and they all fell peacefully asleep for eight hours.

LOYAL TROOPS FIRED ON THE POPULACE

...and out of their rifles cam banners with the word BANG!

THE GENERALS STUDIED THEIR FIELD MAPS

...and laid plans for a League of Love.

What a hell of a way to fight a war. No one was winning, no one was losing. A soldier or civilian couldn't get himself killed if he tried... And the planet of Wh'Gralb, noted for the ferocity of its wars, was going out if its collective mind trying to find out WHY.

"...you are sane men, and will not understand..."

What is a Remand House? Who are the Bound Men and Bound Women? what makes them different from the Lords and Ladies--and why are they the eternal slaves of pain?

Their world--the wierdly not-sane world that must someday, somewhere exist--is isolated in space, but even more isolated in culture. It is a world where pain and torture are essential to the upkeep of civilization.

But it is not a world that can be described in a few brief words. To see it, you must read this unique book from its first searing words to its violent and all-important last page.

YOU SANE MEN is much mor ethan a science-fiction novel. It is the story of the birth and death of a world, and the story of what happens in and to one man's mind.

And it will shock you as only a vital, living thing can shock.

The Proxima Project

They took the "pop-star" route out of this world!

Target: Terra

Beware the beserk satelite.

The Rim Gods

Gods! Dragons! Fairies! Frog Princess! Knights! and much more. John Grimes faces them all.

The High Hex

Man all rockets - the satilite is haunted!

Tonight We Steal the Stars

In II Galaxy, only Wolf Dragonard can make the impossible possible.

The Wagered World

The astronauts didn't know they were betting the Earth on the toss of the dice!

Cub IV was a beautiful planer--it had a reputation as being one of the most peaceful and favorable planets for human colonization--but it wasn't. There was an alien intelligence on Cub IV, a malicious intelligence that would not rest until every human had been eliminated.

It was a death trap... and Gerald Knave found himself with the job of saving what was left fo the human colony, while keeping himself alive in the process. He would have to use all his survival skills and more, to perform that miracle.

GERALD KNAVE: SURVIVOR

it says on my cards. I got the call just before people started getting killed...

Humans and Tocks didn't mix all that well on Haven IV. People found Tocks a bit snake-like for their tastes, and the Tocks in turn were disturbed by the mysterious tendency toward violence. Still, things werer peaceful enought--until the sacred Tock crown jewels disappeared. Tocks didn't even have a word for theft; the concept was unknown. But they called in the head of th esmall human colony on Haven IV to express, very wuietly, their confidence that the unthinkable incident would be remedied. Soon.

There was only one man to call under the circumstances. Gerald Knave was rumored to be arrogant, expensive, and dangerous, but Haven IV bit the bullet: Knave came, he cost plenty, he offended everyone. Before his job was done, he alone would stand between the peaceful folk of Haven IV and an inter-space war of annihilation.

I never felt sillier in my life. For two seconds I was the original sitting duck. Somebody potted the duck. I went into freeze.

Freeze is supposed to be an entirely new state for the human body--something that never existed before the paralysis beam. But it feels exactly like being knocked cold.

You even wake up with a headache. This, they tell me, is due to the distortion effect fo the radiative field. It is just like the ache you get when you're been knocked cold, except that it has no specific place to be.

It aches all over. No worse than a bad hangover, and I thought I could be courageous about ti an dopen my eyes.

For one thing, I wanted to see what I was fastened to.

Surprise, surprise: It turned out to be an electric chair.

...from "The Wheelbarrow Thief," just one of the sevel stories you'll find in this rollicking collection staring everyone's ultimate survivor...

Table fo Contents:

• ix - Introduction: Knave's World - essay
• 1 - Love in Bloom - [Gerald Knave] - (1984) - short story
• 20 - The Wheelbarrow Thief - [Gerald Knave] - novelette
• 43 - The Very Best Defense - [Gerald Knave] - novelette
• 55 - Expiration Policy - [Gerald Knave] - (1983) - short story
• 70 - The Samaritan Rule - [Gerald Knave] - (1984) - short story
• 86 - Testing - [Gerald Knave] - (1980) - short story
• 96 - Toadstool Sinfonia - [Gerald Knave] - (1980) - novelette
• 124 - The Swagger Stick - [Gerald Knave] - novelette
• 151 - The Lost Secret - [Gerald Knave] - (1983) - novelette
• [175] - About the Author (Knave & the Game) - essay by uncredited