Search Worlds Without End

These ten short stories from the golden age of science fiction feature classic SF writers including H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury and J.G. Ballard, as well as lesser-known writers from the genre. An antique shop owner gets a glimpse of the red planet through an intriguing artefact. A Martian's wife contemplates the possibility of life on Earth. A resident of Venus describes his travels across the two alien planets. From an arid desert to an advanced society far superior to that of Earth, portrayals of Mars have differed radically in their attempt to uncover the truth about our neighbouring planet. Since the 1880s, writers of science fiction have delighted in speculating on what life on Mars might look like and what might happen should we make contact with the planet's inhabitants. In these stories, they reveal much about how we understand our place in the universe.

Contents:

• A Martian Odyssey - [Tweel - 1] - (1934) - novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• The Time-Tombs - (1963) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• The Crystal Egg - (1897) - short story by H. G. Wells
• Crucifixus Etiam - (1953) - short story by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Ylla - [The Martian Chronicles] - (1950) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• Without Bugles - (1952) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• The Forgotten Man of Space - (1933) - short story by P. Schuyler Miller
• The Great Sacrifice - (1903) - short story by Geo. C. Wallis [as by George C. Wallis]
• Measureless to Man - (1962) - novelette by Marion Zimmer Bradley (variant of The Dark Intruder)
• Letters from Mars - [Letters from the Planets - 2] - short story by W. S. Lach-Szyrma (variant of Letters from the Planets: Letter the Second 1887)

Before the Apollo 11 mission succeeded in landing on the Moon in 1969, writers and visionaries were fascinated by how we might get there and what we might find. The Greeks and Romans speculated about the Moon almost 2000 years before H.G. Wells or Jules Verne wrote about it, but interest peaked from the late 1800s, when the prospect of lunar travel became more viable. This anthology presents 11 short stories from the most popular magazines of the golden age of SF, including The Strand Magazine, Astounding Science Fiction, and Amazing Stories, and features classic SF writers as well as lesser-known writers for dedicated fans of the genre to discover.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 31 - Dead Centre - novelette by Judith Merril (variant of Dead Center 1954)
• 67 - A Visit to the Moon - [Stories of Other Worlds - 1] - (1900) - short story by George Griffith
• 93 - Sunrise on the Moon - short fiction by John Munro (variant of Sun-Rise in the Moon 1894)
• 105 - First Men in the Moon (excerpt) - [Cavor] - short fiction by H. G. Wells
• 151 - Sub-Satellite - [Sub-Satellite - 1] - (1928) - short story by Charles Cloukey
• 175 - Lunar Lilliput - (1938) - novelette by William F. Temple
• 221 - Nothing Happens on the Moon - (1964) - short story by Paul Ernst (variant of "Nothing Happens on the Moon" 1939)
• 247 - Whatever Gods There Be - (1961) - short story by Gordon R. Dickson
• 269 - Idiot's Delight - [Troons] - (1958) - novelette by John Wyndham (variant of The Moon A.D. 2044)
• 317 - After a Judgement Day - (1963) - short story by Edmond Hamilton
• 335 - The Sentinel - [A Space Odyssey] - (1951) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke

The Endeavour has made rocket ship history. With its automatic pilot and artificial gravity, anyone is qualified to fly to the moon. But the scientists who designed it did not envision the hidden dangers of lunar exploration. Nor did they foresee the kind of violence that could erupt among the five mismatched crew members in a lonely space capsule. The Endeavour's captain, Franz Brunel of the British Space Service, has to contend with the many perils that await him on the surface of the moon. Soon a murderer is among them.

Now, contemporary readers have the chance to enjoy Temple's unusual blend of traditional SF with a darkly ironic tone.

FROM THE VERY CORE OF THE EARTH ITSELF A SAVAGE DROUGHT ATTACLS MANKIND!

THE TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE...
...is that nobody really believes they can be destroyed. It'll always be some other unfortunate who get's in the way of the truck, or the bomb, or who can't escape the radiation. Anybody knows man now has the power to destroy the world--nobody really believes it would happen. It just isn't possible.

BUT...
...there might be ways in which the misuse of atomics could eliminate--and you wouldn't even know it was happening, let alone believe it. At first. Some things after all, are unimaginable. For instance, the world couldn't conceivably dry up. The idea's ridiculous. It just isn't possible.

UNTIL...
...a frightening idea gets into the hands of skilled writer Charles Eric Maine. Suddenly then, the terrifying idiocy becomes real--the monstrous reality of total destruction in all the homes of all the people who, just like anybody else, are strong and weak, funny and foolish, loving and full of hate; people who, cowlike, always believe the best--and who face the worst with courage they never knew they had.

Charles Eric Maine... is well-known in science-fiction circles for the realism, the startling believability of his setting and stories. In THE TIDE WENT OUT he visualizes a situation so bizarre as to seem virtually impossible--except that he not only makes it become possible, but highly probable.

Almost without realizing what is happening, you are caught up in a savage struggle, the veneer of civilization shucked off because it has become a useless pretense: all that matters is staying alive, at whatever cost, in a world that man has made into a death-trap. Will you be among the handful to survive?

A deadly plague engulfs East Asia - the rest of the world's governments look on callously, until the shadow of the new virus begins to sweep across the globe.

As the pandemic draws nearer to Britain shelters are hastily constructed, but when the death toll rises and the populace finds themselves sacrificed for the sake of the elite, the cry for revolution rings out amidst the sirens.

Charles Eric Maine's subversive novel shows that even the heroes may succumb to brutality as humanity descends into a desperate scramble for survival.

Sound the sirens! The end is here, and it comes in many forms in this new collection of apocalyptic short stories from the classic age of science fiction. Join humanity on the brink of destruction in 13 doom-laden visions from the 1890s to the 1960s, featuring rare tales from the Library's vaults.

Tales of plague seizing an over-polluted capital, a world engulfed in absolute darkness by some cosmic disaster, and of poignant dreams of a silent planet after the last echoes of humanity have died away.

Extreme climate change, nuclear annihilation, comet strike; calamities self-inflicted and from beyond the steer of humankind vie to deal the last blow in this countdown from the first whisper of possible extinction to the Earth's final sunrise.

"It's a hazardous experiment," they all said, "putting in new and untried machinery."

Caution beware the menace of the machine: a man is murdered by an automaton built for playing chess; a computer system designed to arbitrate justice develops a taste for iron-fisted, fatal rulings; an AI wreaks havoc on society after removing all censorship from an early form of the internet.

Assembled with pieces by SF giants such as Isaac Asimov and Brian W Aldiss as well as the less familiar but no less influential input of earlier science fiction pioneers, this new collection of classic tales contains telling lessons for humankind's gradual march towards life alongside the thinking machine.

The fact that humanity is not alone in the universe has long preoccupied our thoughts.

In this compelling new collection of short stories from SF's classic age our visions of 'other' are shown in a myriad of forms - beings from other worlds, corrupted lifeforms from our own planet and entities from unimaginable dimensions.

Amongst these tales, the humble ant becomes humanity's greatest foe, a sailor awakes in a hellish landscape terrified by a monstrous creature from the deep, an extra-terrestrial apocalypse devastates our world but also brings us together, and our race becomes the unwitting agent of another species' survival. Be prepared to face your greatest fears and relinquish your hold on reality as you confront the menace of the monster.

Contents:

• The War of the Worlds (abridgement) - [The War of the Worlds] - (1920) - short story by H. G. Wells
• The Cloud Men - (1911) - short story by Owen Oliver (variant of The Cloud-Men, Being a Foreprint from the London News Sheet of March 9, 1915)
• The Dragon of St. Pauls - (1899) - short fiction by Reginald Bacchus and C. Ranger Gull
• De Profundis - (1914) - short fiction by Coutts Brisbane
• Dagon - (1919) - short story by H. P. Lovecraft
• In Amundsen's Tent - (1928) - novelette by John Martin Leahy
• King Kong - [King Kong] - (1933) - short story by Draycot M. Dell and Edgar Wallace
• The Monster from Nowhere - (1939) - short story by Nelson S. Bond
• Discord in Scarlet - [Space Beagle] - (1939) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
• Monster - (1950) - short story by John Christopher
• Resident Physician - [Sector General] - (1961) - novelette by James White
• Personal Monster - (1955) - short story by Margaret St. Clair [as by Idris Seabright]
• Alien Invasion - (1954) - short story by Marcia Kamien
• The Witness - (1951) - novelette by Eric Frank Russell

15 May 1944 - This morning I said to Terry, "I thought I heard the guns through the night."
"Were you awake too?" she asked.

Something has happened in Europe. Fearing the approach of war to Britain, Terry and Hugh retreat from their home to the remote highlands of Scotland, prepared to live a simple existence together whilst the fighting resolves itself far away.

Encouraged by Terry, Hugh begins a journal to note down the highs and lows of this return to nature, and to process their concerns of the oncoming danger. But as the sounds of guns by night grow louder, the grim prospect of encroaching war threatens to invade their cherish isolation and demolish any hope of future peace.

Macpherson's only science fiction novel is a bleak and truly prescient novel of future war first published in 1936, just 3 years before the outbreak of conflict in Europe. A carefully drawn tale of survival in the wilderness and the value of our connection with others, Wild Harbour is both beautiful and heart-rending.

A forgotten voice of science fiction returns to print...

In 1926 Muriel Jaeger, dissatisfied with the Utopian visions of H G Wells and Edward Bellamy, set out to explore 'The Question Mark' of what a future society might look like if human nature were properly represented.

So, disgruntled London office worker Guy Martin is pitched 200 years into the future, where he encounters a seemingly ideal society in which each citizen has the luxury of every kind of freedom. But as Guy adjusts to the new world, the fractures of this supposed Utopia begin to show through, and it seems as if the inhabitants of this society might be just as susceptible to the promises of false messiahs as those of the twentieth century.

Preceding the publication of Huxley's Brave New World by 5 years, The Question Mark is a significant cornerstone in the foundation of the Dystopia genre, and an impressive and unjustly neglected work of literary science fiction. This edition brings the novel back into print for the first time since its original publication.

Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction. Removing the bonds of time on a story allows for many interesting possibilities, but it also presents complicated problems and paradoxes.

In this collection, featuring stories from the 1880s to the 1960s, we are taken to the remote future and back to the distant past. We are trapped in an eternal loop and met with visitors and objects from the future. We come face to face with our past selves, and experience the chaos of living out of sync with everyone else in the universe.

These are just some of the thrilling narratives to discover as we unwind the constraints of time.

Contents:

• Introduction (Beyond Time: Classic Tales of Time Unwound) - (2019) - essay by Mike Ashley
• The Clock That Went Backward - (1881) - short story by Edward Page Mitchell
• The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper - (1932) - short story by H. G. Wells
• Omega - (1932) - short story by Amelia Reynolds Long
• The Book of Worlds - (1929) - short story by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
• The Branches of Time - (1935) - short story by David R. Daniels
• The Reign of the Reptiles - (1935) - novelette by Alan Connell
• Friday, the Nineteenth - (1950) - short story by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
• Look After the Strange Girl - (1953) - short story by J. B. Priestley
• Manna - (1949) - novelette by Peter Phillips
• Tenth Time Around - (1959) - novelette by J. T. McIntosh (variant of Tenth Time Round)
• The Shadow People - (1958) - short story by Arthur Sellings
• Thirty-Seven Times - (1957) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• Dial 'O' for Operator - (1958) - novelette by Robert Presslie
• Story Sources (Beyond Time: Classic Tales of Time Unwound) - (2019) - essay by Mike Ashley

Science fiction has always confronted the concerns of society, and its greatest writers have long been inspired by the weighty issue of humanity's ecological impact on the planet. This volume explores a range of prescient and thoughtful stories from SF's classic period, from accounts of exhausted resources and ecocatastrophe to pertinent warnings of ecosystems thrown off balance and puzzles of adaptation and responsibility as humanity ventures into the new environments of the future.

Featuring stories crucial to the evolution of eco-science fiction from Philip K. Dick, Margaret St. Clair, J. D. Beresford and more, this timely collection is a trove of essential reading.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Nature's Warnings: Classic Stories of Eco-Science Fiction) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 21 - Survey Team - (1954) - short story by Philip K. Dick
• 39 - The Dust of Death - [The Doom of London] - (1903) - short story by Fred M. White
• 59 - The Man Who Hated Flies - (1929) - short fiction by J. D. Beresford
• 71 - The Man Who Awoke - [The Man Who Awoke - 1] - (1933) - novelette by Laurence Manning
• 113 - The Sterile Planet - novelette by Nat Schachner (variant of Sterile Planet 1937) [as by Nathan Schachner]
• 145 - Shadow of Wings - short fiction by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding [as by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding]
• 175 - The Gardener - (1949) - short story by Margaret St. Clair
• 191 - Drop Dead - (1956) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• 229 - A Matter of Protocol - [Contact (Jack Sharkey)] - (1962) - short story by Jack Sharkey
• 247 - Hunter, Come Home - (1963) - novelette by Richard McKenna
• 297 - Adam and No Eve - (1941) - short story by Alfred Bester

When Hilda, a beautiful young member of England's cynical postwar generation, meets Michael, a hapless mutant capable of perceiving the molecular composition of objects and the ever-shifting patterns of electromagnetic fields, she becomes his apostle. However, her efforts to convince others of the prodigy's unique importance end disastrously; and Michael himself is slowly destroyed -- mentally and physically -- by his uncanny gift. In the end, Hilda must decide whether she is willing and able to make a supreme sacrifice for the sake of humankind's future.

On Mercury: How do you outrun the dawn and its lethal sunrise?

On Jupiter: When humans transfer their minds into the local fauna to explore the surface, why do they never return?

On Pluto: How long must an astronaut wait for rescue at the furthest reaches of the system?

We have always been fascinated by the promise of space and the distant lure of our fellow planets orbiting the Sun. In this new collection of classic stories, Mike Ashley takes us on a journey from the harsh extremes of Mercury to the turbulent expanses of Saturn and beyond, exploring as we go the literary history of the planets, the influence of contemporary astronomy on the imagination of writers, and the impact of their storytelling on humanity's perception of these hitherto unreachable worlds. Featuring the talents of Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Clare Winger Harris, and more, this collection offers a kaleidoscope of innovative thought and timeless adventures.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction: Solar Tour (Born of the Sun: Adventures in Our Solar System) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 19 - Sunrise on Mercury - (1957) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• 41 - The Hell Planet - (1932) - novelette by Leslie F. Stone
• 97 - Foundling on Venus - (1954) - short story by Dorothy de Courcy and John de Courcy
• 117 - The Lonely Path - (1961) - novelette by John Ashcroft
• 175 - Garden in the Void - (1952) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• 221 - Desertion - [City] - (1944) - short story by Clifford D. Simak
• 245 - How Beautiful with Banners - (1966) - short story by James Blish
• 261 - Where No Man Walks - (1952) - short story by E. R. James
• 287 - A Baby on Neptune - (1929) - novelette by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. and Clare Winger Harris
• 324 - Wait It Out - [Known Space] - (1968) - short story by Larry Niven

From the enrapturing tales of H. G. Wells to the punishing dystopian visions of 1984 and beyond, the evolution of science fiction from the 1890s to the 1960s is a fascinating journey to undertake. Setting out this span of years as what we can now recognize as the 'classic' period of the genre, Mike Ashley takes us on a tour of the stars, utopian and post-apocalyptic futures, worlds of AI run amok and techno-thriller masterpieces asking piercing questions of the present.

This book does not claim to be definitive; what it does offer is an accessible view of the impressive spectrum of imaginative writing which the genre's classic period has to offer. Towering science fiction greats such as Asimov and Aldiss run alongside the, perhaps unexpected, likes of C. S. Lewis and J. B. Priestley and celebrate a side of science fiction beyond the stereotypes of space opera and bug-eyed monsters; the side of science fiction which proves why it must continue to be written and read, so long as any of us remain in uncertain times.

Drifting through a party celebrating 400 years since the Spanish Armada's successful invasion of Britain, Don Miguel Navarro -- Licentiate of the Society of Time -- is shaken by the host's possession of a flawless mask from an ancient Aztec festival. 'Imported' from the past, the discovery signals a breach in the Society's policing of time-travel and imminent danger to reality itself. Today, a relic out of time; tomorrow, the rewriting of the course of history? In three ground-breaking novellas, John Brunner weaves an ingenious tale of diverging timelines and a battle for dominance over the fourth dimension.

The Society of Time stories were abridged when first collected. Here, the trilogy is reprinted in full along with two mesmerising standalone novellas: The Analysts and Father of Lies.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (The Society of Time) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 15 - Spoil of Yesterday - [The Society of Time - 1] - (1962) - novelette
• 65 - The Word Not Written - [The Society of Time - 2] - (1962) - novelette
• 115 - The Fullness of Time - [The Society of Time - 3] - (1962) - novelette
• 167 - Father of Lies - (1962) - novella
• 239 - The Analysts - (1961) - novelette

Astronauts constructing a new space station must avert destruction from a missile sent by an unknown enemy; a generation starship is rocked by revelations of who their secret passengers in the hold truly are; a life or death struggle tests an operating surgeon -- in orbit, with an alien patient never seen before. Since space flight was achieved, and long before, science fiction writers have been imagining a myriad of stories set in the depths of the great darkness beyond our atmosphere.

From generation ships -- which are in space so long that there will be generations aboard who know no planetary life -- to orbiting satellites in the unforgiving reaches of the vacuum, there is a great range of these insular environments in which thrilling, innovative, and deeply emotional stories may unfold. With the Library's matchless collection of periodicals and magazines at his fingertips, Mike Ashley presents a stellar selection of tales from the infinite void above us, including contributions from Judith Merril, Jack Vance, and John Brunner.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Spaceworlds: Stories of Life in the Void) - essay by Mike Ashley
• 19 - Umbrella in the Sky - (1961) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• 47 - Sail 25 - (1962) - novelette by Jack Vance (variant of Gateway to Strangeness)
• 87 - The Longest Voyage - (1967) - novelette by Richard C. Meredith
• 113 - The Ship Who Sang - [The Ship Who...] - (1961) - novelette by Anne McCaffrey
• 139 - O'Mara's Orphan - [Sector General] - (1960) - novelette by James White
• 185 - Ultima Thule - (1951) - short story by Eric Frank Russell
• 207 - The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years - (1940) - novelette by Don Wilcox
• 253 - Survival Ship - (1951) - short story by Judith Merril
• 267 - Lungfish - (1957) - novelette by John Brunner
• 317 - Story Sources (Spaceworlds: Stories of Life in the Void) - essay by Mike Ashley

Assignment 1: Find party responsible for murders by space virus.

Assignment 2: Investigate 'accidental' deaths on orbital solar shield.

Assignment 3: Apprehend criminal possessing short term time machine.

Science fiction meets crime in this new anthology exploring one of the genre's most popular themes: mystery and detection. Pitching detectives against time paradoxes, alien intruders, AI gone bad and psychic mutation are ten stories embodying the exciting range of the sub-genre, rarely given the recognition it deserves in the literary sphere. With fascinating settings such as robot society, asteroid belt space stations, and worlds similar to our own but uncannily altered, these stories are masterpieces of satisfying setups, memorable mysteries, and timeless twists.

Contents:

• Introduction: Crimes Beyond Time - essay by Mike Ashley
• Elsewhen - [Fergus O'Breen] - (1943) - novelette by Anthony Boucher
• Puzzle for Spacemen - (1955) - novelette by John Brunner
• Legwork - (1956) - novelette by Eric Frank Russell
• Mirror Image - [Elijah Baley / R. Daneel Olivaw] - (1972) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• The Flying Eye - [Paul Darraq] - short story by Jacques Futrelle (variant of The Secret Exploits of Paul Darraq, III: The Flying Eye 1912)
• Nonentity - (1955) - short story by E. C. Tubb
• Death of a Telepath - (1959) - short story by George Chailey
• Murder, 1986 - (1970) - novelette by P. D. James
• Apple - [Talents (Anne McCaffrey)] - (1969) - novelette by Anne McCaffrey
• The Absolutely Perfect Murder - (1965) - short story by Miriam Allen deFord