Search Worlds Without End

A collection of original, epic science fiction stories by some of today's best writers - for fans who want a little less science and a lot more action - and edited by two-time Hugo Award winner John Joseph Adams.

Inspired by movies like The Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars, this anthology features brand-new stories from some of science fiction's best authors including Dan Abnett, Jack Campbell, Linda Nagata, Seanan McGuire, Alan Dean Foster, Charlie Jane Anders, Kameron Hurley, and many others.

Table of Contents:

• A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime - Charlie Jane Anders
• Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance - Tobias S. Buckell
• The Deckhand, the Nova Blade, and the Thrice-Sung Texts - Becky Chambers
• The Sighted Watchmaker - Vylar Kaftan
• Infinite Love Engine - Joseph Allen Hill
• Unfamiliar Gods - Adam-Troy Castro, with Judi B. Castro
• Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World - Caroline M. Yoachim
• Our Specialty is Xenogeology - Alan Dean Foster
• Golden Ring - Karl Schroeder
• Tomorrow When We See the Sun - A. Merc Rustad
• Bring the Kids and Revisit the Past at the Traveling Retro Funfair! - Seanan McGuire
• The Dragon that Flew Out of the Sun - Aliette De Bodard
• Diamond and the World Breaker - Linda Nagata
• The Chameleon's Gloves - Yoon Ha Lee
• The Universe, Sung in Stars - Kat Howard
• Wakening Ouroboros - Jack Campbell
• Warped Passages - Kameron Hurley
• The Frost Giant's Data - Dan Abnett

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 1998. The story is included in the collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein (2008).

This novel is a revised edition of A Glass of Darkness (1956). It originally appeared in Satellite Science Fiction, December 1956. It was included in Ace Double D-249 (1957).

Yielding to a compulsion he can't explain, Ted Barton interrupts his vacation in order to visit the town of his birth, Millgate, Virginia. But upon entering the sleepy, isolated little hamlet, Ted is distraught to find that the place bears no resemblance to the one he left behind-and never did. He also discovers that in this Millgate Ted Barton died of scarlet fever when he was nine years old. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that it is literally impossible to escape. Unable to leave, Ted struggles to find the reason for such disturbing incongruities, but before long, he finds himself in the midst of a struggle between good and evil that stretches far beyond the confines of the valley.

Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.

This short story originally appeared in Amazing Stories, May 1955. It has been collected and anthologized several times.

It was the basis for the 1957 movie Invasion of the Saucer Men and the 1965 TV movie Attack of the Eye Creatures.

This short story originally appeared in Chinese in 2018. The original English publication can be found in Lightspeed, March 2018.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This novelette originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1987. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection (1988), edited by Gardner Dozois.

A stunningly imaginative novel about the Cold War, the Russian space program, and the amazing fraud that pulled the wool over the eyes of the world.

It's 1964 in the USSR, and unbeknownst even to Premier Khrushchev himself, the Soviet space program is a sham. Well, half a sham. While the program has successfully launched five capsules into space, the Chief Designer and his team have never successfully brought one back to earth. To disguise this, they've used twins. But in a nation built on secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of all is about to unravel.

Because there are no more twins left.

Combining history and fiction, the real and the mystical, First Cosmic Velocity is the story of Leonid, the last of the twins. Taken in 1950 from a life of poverty in Ukraine to the training grounds in Russia, the Leonids were given one name and one identity, but divergent fates. Now one Leonid has launched to certain death (or so one might think...), and the other is sent on a press tour under the watchful eye of Ignatius, the government agent who knows too much but gives away little. And while Leonid battles his increasing doubts about their deceitful project, the Chief Designer must scramble to perfect a working spacecraft, especially when Khrushchev nominates his high-strung, squirrel-like dog for the first canine mission.

By turns grim and whimsical, fatalistic and deeply hopeful, First Cosmic Velocity is a sweeping novel of the heights of mankind's accomplishments, the depths of its folly, and the people--and canines--with whom we create family.

Morris should have functioned perfectly in the rigid totalitarian society of the future where every thought, every word, every action was controlled by the superstate. A state where everyone was watched night and day by the Great Eye of the internal security forces,

It was a strange, in many ways inhuman world, but the rewards were great for those who belonged to the right caste.

Morris belonged to the master class which ruled the entire world by brain power or brutality depending on which was needed. Morris was born right at the top - he had everything the Technate Society could provide - and yet he didn't belong.

Nonconformity could mean liquidation, but he was prepared to take the risk.

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Skirmish on a Summer Morning
• 58 - Unreasonable Facsimile
• 74 - A Full Member of the Club
• 101 - The Silent Partners
• 114 - The Giaconda Caper
• 137 - An Uncomic Book Horror Story
• 147 - The Brink
• 152 - Waltz of the Bodysnatchers
• 175 - A Little Night Flying

Two reporters looking for a story in the outer reaches of the Solar System come upon a derelict spaceship. Inside, they find the only inhabitant, a beautiful young woman who has been imprisoned for a thousand years in suspended animation, suspended but aware for the whole time. Together they set off on a grand adventure across the vastness of space and time in a search for a race known as the Cosmic Engineers on a mission to save the universe. Originally published as a short novel in Astounding Stories in 1939 and later expanded in this 1950 version, Cosmic Engineers shows the scope and imagination of one of science fictions true masters, Clifford Simak.

Originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1939.

Cosmic Manhunt

Meet Victor Hasselborg, easily the most miserable Private Investigator in the entire galaxy. More comfortable with the dull routine of investigating insurance frauds than interstellar adventure, Hasselborg is bound by duty to chase a runaway heiress across known space to the primitive world called Krishna. Clad in kilt and sword, his hair dyed green, riding a buggy driven by a six-legged monster of a beast, Hasselborg's quest takes him through the volatile world of feudal Krishna politics and into the presence of... The Queen of Zamba.

Ring Around the Sun

Everlasting products have started to be released onto the world market and at a price that vastly undercuts their shorter lived rivals. At first the products were small - light bulbs, cigarette lighters, razor blades - but when the mysterious corporation behind these products expands and starts to produce everlasting cars, and modular houses and then clothing for ridiculously low prices, businessmen begin to see this as a deliberate attack on the world's economy.

Soon afterwards more and more people begin to see these as threats to their livelihoods and violence against these and their mysterious manufacturers begins to start.

Jay Vickers is a writer. He is approached by a businessman to write propaganda material to help traditional industries fight the infiltration of these products. But Vickers declines and sets off on his own personal quest to discover if there is any truth in a memory he has from his childhood of a kind of fairyland, and whether this has any connection to what is happening in the world.

King of the Fourth Planet

King of the Fourth Planet: John Rolf fled his own guilt when he abandoned the corruption of Earth for a life of meditation on the many levels of Mars' mountain...

Cosmic Checkmate

I'll beat you the second game was the Earthman's challenge to the planet Velda, whose culture was indeed based on a complicated super-chess of skill and concentration.

The Cosmic Puppets

Yielding to a compulsion he can't explain, Ted Barton interrupts his vacation in order to visit the town of his birth, Millgate, Virginia. But upon entering the sleepy, isolated little hamlet, Ted is distraught to find that the place bears no resemblance to the one he left behind--and never did. He also discovers that in this Millgate Ted Barton died of scarlet fever when he was nine years old. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that it is literally impossible to escape. Unable to leave, Ted struggles to find the reason for such disturbing incongruities, but before long, he finds himself in the midst of a struggle between good and evil that stretches far beyond the confines of the valley.

Sargasso of Space

Almost half a century ago, renowned science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton introduced apprentice cargo master Dane Thorson in Sargasso of Space and Plague Ship.

Dane signed on with the independent cargo ship Solar Queen looking for a career in off-world trade.

In Sargasso of Space, the Solar Queen free traders win exclusive rights to trade with the planet Limbo, but the crew arrives to find most of the planet's surface charred, with little signs of life. They find a valley with life, but others may still lurk. Worse yet, a strange force threatens to cripple the Queen. They must solve the planet's mysteries if they hope to escape not only with tradeable goods, but their lives.

In the Empire of the Saviours, the People are forced to live in fortified towns. Their walls are guarded by an army of Heroes, whose task is to keep marauding pagans out as much as it is to keep the People inside. Several times a year, living Saints visit the towns to exact the Saviours' tithe from all those coming of age - a tithe often paid in blood. When a young boy, Jillan, unleashes pagan magicks in an accident, his whole town turns against him. He goes on the run, but what hope can there be when the Saviours and the entire Empire decide he must be caught?

Jillan is initially hunted by just the soldiers of the Saint of his region, but others soon begin to hear of his increasing power and seek to use him for their own ends. Some want Jillan to join the fight against the Empire, others wish to steal his power for themselves and others still want Jillan to lead them to the Geas, the source of all life and power in the world. There are very few Jillan can trust, except for a ragtag group of outcasts. His parents threatened, his life in tatters, his beliefs shaken to the core, Jillan must decide which side he is on, and whether to fight or run ...

Ancient Gods begin to stir and demand resurrection...

A naked and crazy holy man leads a young warrior into the realm of the dead...

In fear for his life, a young member of an evil race flees his home...

An uneasy peace has settled upon Jillan's remote corner of the Empire, but he cannot return to his previous simple life. Tricked into a bargain with the manipulative God of Mayhem, he is forced to embark upon a journey that will leave his hometown undefended. Unsure of his fellow travellers, pursued by assassins and spies, he must discover the means by which to raise up the old gods and defeat the cruel Empire of the Saviours.

Meanwhile, the Empire's vast army of Saints and Heroes descends upon Godsend. Jillan's beloved Hella and a few loyal companions resist the dark magicks used against them for a while, but the Saviours cannot allow such resistance to go unpunished...

And from another realm, the Declension watches. Their servants, the Saviours, have suffered setbacks. The God of Mayhem is loose. A young boy with wayward powers is on his way to Haven, where he may find a way to destroy them. A renegade member of their race is rampaging through their realms.

Everything is going to plan.

The gods will see you brought down...
The spirits of your ancestors will have their revenge upon you...
The Saviours will drain you of your very soul.

In claiming a place in the world, mortals have won many enemies for themselves. The ancient gods are jealous and conspire against them. The King of the Dead looks to lead his armies into the land of the living. In their own realm, the mighty Declension watches and waits, as events begin to unfold precisely as they had always planned.

Jillan and his companions are beset on all sides, yet are plagued by self-doubt and internal division. When the final battle for survival begins, both they and their gods face extinction. They are easy prey for the warriors of the Declension, who are intent upon stripping Jillan of his magic and raising up their empire once more.

His friends and beloved Hella taken from him, Jillan is captured and tortured. He is ultimately broken and condemned to work in a mine, to see out his days labouring in misery for the enemy he has fought against his entire life.

He is a man without hope.

Amira Valdez is a brilliant neuroscientist trying to put her past on a religious compound behind her. But when she's assigned to a controversial cloning project, her dreams of working in space are placed in jeopardy. Using her talents as a reader of memories, Amira uncovers a conspiracy to stop the creation of the first human clone - at all costs.

As she unravels the mystery, Amira navigates a dangerous world populated by anti-cloning militants, scientists with hidden agendas, and a mysterious New Age movement. In the process, Amira uncovers an even darker secret, one that forces her to confront her own past.

Amira Valdez's adventures continue in the sequel to The Sentient, as she finds herself in unprecedented danger. The ruthless new leader of the fundamentalist Trinity Compound seeks to understand his strange neurological connection with Amira and unleash an army on an unstable North America. The first human clone has been born, but thanks to the mysterious scientist Tony Barlow, it may unlock the secret to human immortality -- or disaster. Together, Amira and Barlow form an uneasy alliance in pursuit of scientific breakthroughs and protection from shared enemies. But new discoveries uncover dark secrets that Barlow wants to keep hidden.

After a fateful confrontation with her former ally, Tony Barlow, Amira Valdez is on the run, pregnant with her own clone and desperate. The fundamentalist Trinity Compound has grown in strength and numbers, and with the help of the powerful mind-controlling drug Tiresia, is ready to march on the city of Westport. All of Amira';s hopes lie with finding Nova, the first human clone, and solving the greatest riddle in human history -- how to preserve human consciousness after death. Only Amira and Nova, together, can stand in the face of a world on the brink of disaster.

Contents:

• v - Introduction (The Cosmic Rape) - (1977) - essay by Samuel R. Delany
• 1 - The Cosmic Rape - (1958) - novel
• 161 - To Marry Medusa - (1958) - novella

Magical tales of chivalry and adventure include works by Poul Anderson, Vera Chapman, L. Sprague de Camp, Kenneth Grahame, Keith Laumer, Roger Zelazny, and others...

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction: In Days of Old - (1985) - essay by Isaac Asimov (variant of In Days of Old)
• 7 - Crusader Damosel - (1978) - short story by Vera Chapman
• 21 - Divers Hands - [Julian] - (1979) - novelette by Darrell Schweitzer
• 49 - The Reluctant Dragon - (1898) - novelette by Kenneth Grahame
• 71 - The Immortal Game - (1954) - short story by Poul Anderson
• 85 - The Stainless-Steel Knight - (1961) - novelette by John T. Phillifent
• 117 - Diplomat-at-Arms - [Retief] - (1960) - novella by Keith Laumer
• 165 - Dream Damsel - (1954) - short story by Evan Hunter
• 177 - The Last Defender of Camelot - (1979) - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• 201 - A Knyght Ther Was - (1963) - novella by Robert F. Young
• 251 - Divide and Rule - (1939) - novella by L. Sprague de Camp

Private investigator Jake Helman has battled a demon, his minions, the walking dead, and beings from the dimensions of the Sphere of Light and the Dark Realm, but now he faces the greatest evil the world has ever known in the third installment of this loosely knit trilogy. Jake is hired by the wife of New York City mayor Myron Madigan to prove his infidelity. Meanwhile, the ex-girlfriend of his old partner Edgar needs Jake’s help when her son joins a cult that worships space aliens. And Jake’s late wife, Sheryl, now an “agent of Light,” asks him to locate a monster called the Destroyer of Souls—who may be responsible for the disappearance of the Biblical entity known as Abel. The investigation of Madigan leads to Karlin Reichard, a wealthy industrialist and political kingmaker—head of a cabal that has secretly manipulated world affairs for generations. In order to bring these men down, Jake must join them. With earthly and otherworldly forces marshaled against him, Jake battles human assassins and supernatural creatures in his quest to uncover the mystery behind the Order of Avademe and a monster willing to destroy heaven and hell to rule the earth. Show More Show Less

A space vehicle from Earth's distant future is trapped in the 18th Century, lands in the Caribbean Sea, and it's crew boards the pirate ship Orinda. The unwitting pirate, Captain Fletcher, must cope with the uncanny problems posed by time-displacement, an alien "cabin boy," captives sentenced to walk the plank who drown but do not die, and an ominous battleship that had sneaked in from a differnt point in the galaxy.

How the "cabin boy" struggles to restore his ship, flight off the enemy battleship, and prevent Earth's history from being irrevocably changed, makes for a wonderful adventure that blends futuistic time-travel with the swashbuckling excitement of 18th-Century pirates.

A critical study of the Life and Works of the Science Fiction author Robert Sheckley.

Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. "Naturally, we were all there, - old Qfwfq said, - where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?" Translated by William Weaver.

The second of thirteen volumes that reprint all Sturgeon's short fiction covers his prolific output during 1940 and 1941, after which he suffered five years of writer's block. Showcasing Sturgeon's early penchant for fantasy, the first six selections include whimsical ghost stories, such as "Cargo," in which a World War II munitions freighter is commandeered by invisible, peace-loving fairies.

With the publication of his enduring science fiction classic, "Microcosmic God," Sturgeon finally found his voice, combining literate, sharp-edged prose with fascinating speculative science while recounting the power struggle between a brilliant scientist, who creates his own miniature race of gadget makers, and his greedy banker. Every one of the stories here is entertaining today because of Sturgeon's singular gifts for clever turns of phrase and compelling narrative. As Samuel R. Delaney emphasizes in an insightful introduction, Sturgeon was the single most influential science fiction writer from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Table of Contents:

• Editor's Note by Paul Williams
• Foreword: Theodore Sturgeon by Samuel R. Delany
• Cargo
• Shottle Bop
• Yesterday Was Monday
• Brat
• The Anonymous
• Two Sidecars
• Microcosmic God
• The Haunt
• Completely Automatic
• Poker Face
• Nightmare Island
• The Purple Light
• Artnan Process
• Biddiver
• The Golden Egg
• Two Percent Inspiration
• The Jumper
• Story Notes by Paul Williams
• Microcosmic God: Unfinished Early Draft

The first book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which continues with Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, Out of the Silent Planet begins the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. Here, that estimable man is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra. The two men are in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom would seem to fit the bill.

Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity.

First published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet remains a mysterious and suspenseful tour de force.

The second book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which also includes Out of the Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength, Perelandra continues the adventures of the extraordinary Dr. Ransom.

Pitted against the most destructive of human weaknesses, temptation, the great man must battle evil on a new planet -- Perelandra -- when it is invaded by a dark force.

Will Perelandra succumb to this malevolent being, who strives to create a new world order and who must destroy an old and beautiful civilization to do so? Or will it throw off the yoke of corruption and achieve a spiritual perfection as yet unknown to man?

The outcome of Dr. Ransom's mighty struggle alone will determine the fate of this peace-loving planet.

The final book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, That Hideous Strength concludes the adventures of the matchless Dr. Ransom.

The dark forces that were repulsed in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are massed for an assault on the planet Earth itself. Word is on the wind that the mighty wizard Merlin has come back to the land of the living after many centuries, holding the key to ultimate power for that force which can find him and bend him to its will.

A sinister technocratic organization is gaining power throughout Europe with a plan to "recondition" society, and it is up to Ransom and his friends to squelch this threat by applying age-old wisdom to a new universe dominated by science.

The two groups struggle to a climactic resolution that brings the Space Trilogy to a magnificent, crashing close.