You heard nothing happened on December 21, 2012, right? Not exactly. Here's where the cosmic shift began: As election year 2008 unfolds, Tess Vaughn's deepest desire is to give up romance and live a quiet life in rural Arizona. But when the former investigative journalist jogs into the arms of married presidential candidate Senator Harris Cantrell Henry, she finds trouble galore. Not only does Henry tell her things she doesn't want to hear about...

The backward planet of Loray is being studied by a famous anthropologist to complete his major opus. But much to his surprise these primitive people are found to have a universal panacea that heals all wounds and diseases. First shock, then disbelief and finally greed for this wonderful berry juice cause problems for the natives and his safe return.

This is the short story that led to Mars is for Martians, the novel. Mars is for Martians is a story of the conflict between humans terraforming Mars and a race of Martians who have been genetically engineered to live in the Martian atmosphere. After a century or so of terraforming Mars, many bases and settlements have been set up. As an interim process to assist in terraforming animals and plants that can live on Mars have been created. These are...

The SS Cygni probe sent back hours of video, captured by the Biolathe AI, but only a few minutes mattered-the four minutes that showed a creature made of fire, living, moving, and dancing in the plasma fire of the double star's accretion disk. A dragon made of star stuff, so alien that only a human expedition to observe and perhaps capture it, and could truly understand them. It's a perilous journey into the future, however, for SS Cygni is 245 light-...

What is an Amish couple doing riding away from a spaceship in a horse-drawn buggy? In this clash-of-cultures science fiction story we follow Aaron and Martha Stoltzfoos (an Amish couple from Lancaster, PA) as they take leave of the spacecraft that carried them light years to the planet of Murna. The purpose of their expedition is to homestead Amish style and set an example of exceptional farming to the local inhabitants and encourage an era of agricultural...

Ten stories of wonder and imagination by an author named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America   In the collection's title story, Frederick Gray is closing in on seventy and has outlived his usefulness as a professor of law. He has no family; his best friend, fellow faculty member Ben Lovell, has recently died. Before Gray moves into a retirement home, he takes a final canoe trip to a favorite fishing spot he and Lovell...

Responsible for the security of his clan and warlord, he couldn't afford distraction or attachment. Then, on a Terran beach, he stumbled upon a male assaulting a female. The ice that ran through his veins turned to fire. The frightened female is his mate. Whatever control he'd possessed snapped in a moment of recklessness, and he hoped that was all he'd lost. Hazel shouldn't desire the terrifying alien. She'd just escaped a disastrous marriage with...

He fully expected to die, until he met a woman who gave him every reason to live. Those condemned to death are sent to Doora IV, one of four prison moons in the Doora system. Webb Grace realizes that he has less than a month to roam the moon's tunnels before he's taken above and ejected into the airlessness of space. However, before he's released, he is allowed to spend his last night in pure carnal exploration with a Lady Lay. Myka Tolbert is a Lady...

Les martiens attaquent... Voici l'un des premiers classiques du «space opera» en science-fiction moderne. Vous connaissez tous ce grand roman, récemment à nouveau adapté au cinéma. Voici un petit extrait pour vous «mettre en bouche», une vivante description de ces affreux martiens...: «Je voyais maintenant que c'étaient les créatures les moins terrestres qu'il soit possible de concevoir. Ils étaient formés d'un

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The Metal Maiden Series is a wildly different kind of story that tells how Elasa, a humanoid robot who achieves consciousness, eventually saves the world from surpassing horror. When Shep participates in the student exchange program, he finds himself in the body of a man on a rustic colony planet. Then a native sheep comes to the door. It seems Shep must become a literal shepherd, to his dismay. These are very special sheep, deadly, telepathic, and...