Search Worlds Without End

Although Rod Serling, who created the classic television series that ran from 1959 to 1965, is the writer most associated with The Twilight Zone, he was not, of course, the only one. Serling was a serious admirer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and he scoured every magazine and collection available to find stories suitable for his series. This anthology showcases almost every original story that had been adapted into an episode. The result is a masterful collection of 30 classic tales by Richard Matheson (who also wrote the warmly nostalgic introduction), Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Lewis Padgett, Jerome Bixby, and Manly Wade Wellman, among others. Fans of The Twilight Zone will enjoy revisiting their favorite episodes in literary form, but even if you've never seen the show, you'll enjoy this fine anthology.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by Carol Serling
• Introduction - essay by Richard Matheson
• One for the Angels - (1985) - short fiction by Anne Serling
• Perchance to Dream - (1958) - short story by Charles Beaumont
• Disappearing Act - (1953) - short story by Richard Matheson
• Time Enough at Last - (1953) - short story by Lyn Venable
• What You Need - (1945) - short story by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lewis Padgett]
• Third from the Sun - (1950) - short story by Richard Matheson
• Elegy - (1953) - short story by Charles Beaumont
• Brothers Beyond the Void - (1952) - short story by Paul W. Fairman
• The Howling Man - (1959) - short story by Charles Beaumont
• It's a Good Life - (1953) - short story by Jerome Bixby
• The Valley Was Still - (1939) - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
• The Jungle - (1954) - novelette by Charles Beaumont
• To Serve Man - (1950) - short story by Damon Knight
• Little Girl Lost - (1953) - short story by Richard Matheson
• Four O'Clock - (1958) - short story by Price Day
• I Sing the Body Electric! - (1969) - novelette by Ray Bradbury
• The Changing of the Guard [by Rod Serling] - (1985) - essay by Anne Serling
• In His Image - (1957) - novelette by Charles Beaumont
• Mute - (1962) - novelette by Richard Matheson
• Death Ship - (1953) - short story by Richard Matheson
• The Devil, You Say? - (1951) - novelette by Charles Beaumont
• Blind Alley - (1943) - novelette by Malcolm Jameson
• Song for a Lady - (1960) - short story by Charles Beaumont
• Steel - (1956) - novelette by Richard Matheson
• Nightmare at 20,000 Feet - (1962) - short story by Richard Matheson
• The Old Man - (1962) - short story by Henry Slesar
• The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross - (1961) - short story by Henry Slesar
• The Beautiful People - (1952) - short story by Charles Beaumont
• Long Distance Call - (1953) - short story by Richard Matheson
• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - (1890) - short story by Ambrose Bierce

When Rod Serling's Twilight Zone went off the air in the 1960s, it left a gap in television programming that was not to be filled again until the show's revival in the mid-80s. Supervised by such top directors as William Freidkin and Wes Craven, and starring the likes of Bruce Willis and Eric Bogosian, the second incarnation of TZ hooked a brand new generation of viewers with its innovative blend of fantasy, suspense, and horror.

But, like its predecessor, The New Twilight Zone was fueled mainly by extraordinary writing. Each of the 21 tales in this collection is a brilliant flight of imagination, authored by such masters of the genre as Harlan Ellison, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Phyllis Eisenstein, Robert Silverberg, Henry Slesar, Alan Brennert, and others.

Join these extraordinary writers on an astonishing odyssey of dreams and nightmares that begins in this world and ends in the shadowy realm of The Twilight Zone.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Two Years in the Twilight Zone - essay by Alan Brennert
• Shatterday - (1975) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• Healer - (1989) - novelette by Alan Brennert
• Nightcrawlers - (1984) - novelette by Robert R. McCammon
• Examination Day - (1958) - short story by Henry Slesar
• A Message from Charity - (1967) - short story by William M. Lee
• Paladin of the Lost Hour - (1985) - novelette by Harlan Ellison
• The Burning Man - (1975) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• Wong's Lost and Found Emporium - (1983) - short story by William F. Wu
• One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty - (1970) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• I of Newton - (1970) - short story by Joe Haldeman
• The Star - (1955) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Misfortune Cookie - (1970) - short story by Charles E. Fritch
• Yesterday Was Monday - (1941) - short story by Theodore Sturgeon
• To See the Invisible Man - (1963) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• Dead Run - (1985) - short story by Greg Bear
• Button, Button - (1970) - short story by Richard Matheson
• The Everlasting Club - (1910) - short story by Arthur Gray
• The Last Defender of Camelot - (1979) - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• A Saucer of Loneliness - (1953) - short story by Theodore Sturgeon
• Lost and Found - (1978) - short story by Phyllis Eisenstein
• Influencing the Hell Out of Time and Teresa Golowitz - (1982) - novelette by Parke Godwin