Search Worlds Without End

Five novelettes of unbounded imagination telling of strange--and often deadly--encounters between human and alien.

Contents:

• Mother (1953)
• Daughter (1954)
• Father (1955)
• Son (1954)
• My Sister's Brother (1960)

The Baen edition is an omnibus containing, along with the Strange Relations collection, the original versions of the novels Flesh (1960) and The Lovers (1961).

A novel of a future age when organized crime legalizes itself -- and turns America into a utopia.

Wompler's Walking Babies once put Millford, Utah, on the map. But they aren't selling like they used to. In fact, they aren't selling at all and the only alternative to winding the company up is to tap the government for a research grant. And so Wompler Research Laboratories and Project 32 come into being. The plan is to produce self replicating mechanisms; identical cells equipped to repair intracellular breakdowns, convert power from their environment and create new cells. But suddenly the nondescript grey metal boxes start crawling about the laboratory, feeding voraciously on any metal... and multiplying at an alarming rate.

During all recorded history, the Moon has hovered above our heads, a timeless symbol for lovers' ecstasy. Goddesses and Gibson Girls have tripped the light fantastic of her beams while sonneteers and scientists have scanned her changing phases.

Now man had actually reached the Moon, and on it the explorers found a structure, a formation so terrible and incomprehensible that it couldn't even be described in human terms. It was a thing that devoured men; that killed them again and again in torturous, unfathomable ways.

Earthbound are the only two men who could probe the thing: Al Barker, a homicidal maniac, whose loving mistress was death, and Dr. Edward Hawks, a scientific murderer, whose greatest mission was rebirth.

Continuing the third in a series of authoritative new editions of the novels of Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Robert Silverberg. During his heroic first encounter with an alien race, Dick Muller was permanently altered, hideously transformed in a way that left him repulsive to the entire human race. Alone and embittered, he exiled himself to Lemnos, an abandoned planet famed for its labyrinthine horrors, both real and imagined. But now, Earth trembles on the brink of extinction, threatened by another alien species, and only Muller can rescue the planet. Men must enter the murderous maze of Lemnos, find Muller, and convince him to come back. But will the homeless alien, alone in the universe, risk his life to save his race, the race that has utterly rejected him?

From the Avon/Equinox edition: It was a Universe, with its own sun and its own atmosphere. But like a little glass ball filled with whirling artificial snow, it was finite, curling back upon itself. And through its inner space, rock, mountains, fragments of buildings, and a host of eerie creatures whirled and eddied. It was a Hell... an insane compromise of terrestrial ideas and infernal facts. And Jack Cull knew he must escape from it. Here is the story of how his escape was attempted... and how he found the truth of this particular Hell.

They were visitors from out of space.

They had slept for 15,000 years. But they were men. Nevertheless it was a fantastic experience for Wes Chase to discover them while on a casual fishing trip.

It was a long time before they were able to explain to Wes why they were on earth and what they needed. It was even longer before Wes conquered his horror and decided he could help them in their mission to bring peace to the universe.

When Wes finally found the daring answer to their problems, he realised that he would have to leave his own life behind and go with them into the future and the winds of time.

At first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turns out, the governments have been lying to their people. When the deadly disease hits Britain they are left alone, and society starts to descend into barbarism. As John and his family try to make it across country to the safety of his brother’s farm in a hidden valley, their humanity is tested to its very limits.

Published in the USA as: No Blade of Grass.

In their attitude towards the Planet Earth, the Martians had long been divided into two camps: the Observers, benevolent 'meddlers' in human affairs; and the rebellious Abdicators, who sought the Earth's collapse.

But it wasn't until the extraordinary matter of the Earth-Boy, Angelo Pontevecchio, that the enmity between these two factions came to a definite head.

It started as a contest of wills, waged between two opposing Martians for the soul of a single human child.

And before the end, it threatened all life on both Earth and Mars.

One was a plan to equip certain cities with huge tanks of chloroform (or similar narcotic gases). Then, when a 10-Ball descended over a house in that city, the special gas was to be diverted into the city's regular gas mains. Citizens about to be kidnapped would quickly open their gas burners, freeing the narcotic gasses. These gases would then go up through the purple tube and render the Xenos unconscious.

He crash-landed on Mars fifteen years ahead of any other Earth expedition. He was without communications, without supplies, and with nothing but the wreck of an experimental rocket for resources. What is more it was the planet Mars as astronomers know it really to be--not just a fictional fantasy background for glamorous adventure. It was barren, cold, more grimly inhospitable than the top of Mount Everest. And if it had inhabitants, they were conspicuous by their abnsence.

A fabulous tale of pilgrimage and hope, betrayal and transformation by one of science fiction's greatest writers. Only at night on the winds of darkness can she soar. And it was Avluela the Flier's ebony and scarlet wings that lead the Watcher to the seven hills of the ancient city from which, in a moment of weakness, the Watcher failed his vigil, leaving the skies and deep space unguarded. The invaders came and conquered. With Avluela lost in the turmoil of conquest, the Watcher set out alone for the Holy City home of the Rememberers, keepers of the past. This is where the secret of Earth's salvation lay hidden in antiquity. On his journey the Watcher hoped to recapture his youth and find the soaring, beautiful woman he loved. But Avluela held more for the Watcher - and Earth - than love. Her wonder stretched beyond flight, for she knew the riddle that would free all men.

The United States never recovered from The War for Southern Independence. While the neighboring Confederacy enjoyed the prosperity of the victor, the U.S. struggled through poverty, violence, and a nationwide depression.

The Industrial Revolution never occurred here, and so, well into the 1950s, the nation remained one of horse-drawn wagons, gaslight, highwaymen, and secret armies. This was home for Hodgins McCormick Backmaker, whose sole desire was the pursuit of knowledge. This, he felt, would spirit him away from the squalor and violence.

Disastrously, Hodgins became embroiled in the clandestine schemes of the outlaw Grand Army, from which he fled in search of a haven. But he was to discover that no place could fully protect him from the world and its dangerous realities....

The poem Aniara consists of 103 cantos and relates the tragedy of a spacecraft which, originally bound for Mars with a cargo of colonists from the ravaged Earth, is ejected after an accident from the Solar System and into an existential struggle.

Marvin Martin, the show's host, is angry. Night after night he strips his guests of their pitiful pretensions, their commonplace hypocrisies - but how long has it been since he uncovered a genuine revelation? Hurwitz, who selects Martin's victims, is scared. He made a bad mistake when he chose Doris Jensen; she turned out to be from a competitive network and ruined a taping. Hurwitz's job is in danger. Walter Monaghan, historically, the 29th man to have walked on the moon, is desperate. He wants to tell the Revelations audience the truth about America's "space program" - that it never got off the ground. If he's just another nut, why is it so important that he be silenced?