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The Chronotope and Other Speculative Fictions

Time travel and brothels; unusual visitors from different eras, dimensions, and realities; human zoos maintained by curious aliens who like to watch; private eyes who are zombies; leafy-green literary collaborators; moral steampunk issues; a dreamer at the edge of the solar system; an astronaut who's gone insane; and the conspiracies of chrono-assassins–just a few of the fantastic themes in these 16 stories from Michael Hemmingson's first collection of speculative fiction: page-turners, every one of them!

Poison from a Dead Sun

Michael Hemmingson

Since childhood, Noel has had a psychic connection to the nuclear fish monster, Goldgotha, whom he can summon by thought to defeat nefarious aliens and their allied creatures. Then The Consortium invades earth with the intent of enslaving mankind. Nolan calls upon his irradiated giant goldfish once again to save the day–but is he actually being deceived about the truth? Entertaining SF that stretches the imagination with new twists to classic themes of wonder and giant monsters!

The Bloody Herring

Phyllis Ann Karr

A Fantasy Historical Romance of the First Decade of Papa's Pride, by Clea Ortiz Newcome—but actually a Gilbert & Sullivan Fantasy in Space Opera Framework, by Phyllis Ann Karr! Some have told me that the events of Ship Years 8 and 9 were far too terrible to use as underpinning for a light fantasy romance, and one that in any case can appeal chiefly to the hundred or so avid Savoyards in the ship's population. My response is that light treatment has been among humanity's most effective defense mechanisms for dealing with disaster, probably since our race became recognizably human back in Old Earth's paleolithic; and that Savoy enthusiasm is as precious in Papa's Pride as any other artifact of our Old Earth heritage. In any case, these things lie more than half a century in our own past, and if half a century does not make them fair game for historical fantasy, what does? Is the past not the past, whether ten or ten thousand years ago, whether back on Old Earth or out here in our great colony starship of twenty-four pylons revolving around a vast central core? While retaining the names of such entities as the Antique Terra Theater, which had not yet split into the Order-sponsored Old Earth Company and the committee-sponsored Players to the Stars, with their respective screenplay arms Universal Aspirations and Pride Productions, I have fictionalized the names and other aspects of individuals actually involved in Chuck Wang's crime – the worst ever perpetrated and, we hope, ever to be perpetrated in Papa's Pride. I have added some completely fictional people to the cast, omitted many historical figures entirely, and somewhat condensed, even rearranged, certain of the events. There were never any deliberate murders connected with Wang's outrage, at least as far as we know. Shipnet will make it very easy for interested readers to collate my tale with as much as we have of the truth.

Imaginings of a Dark Mind

James C. Glass

A new collection of 17 science fiction and horror stories by a well-known SF novelist, including four published for the first time. New York Times bestselling author Steve Perry notes in his introduction: «He tends to grab you with the first line and not let go until the last line, and it's an interesting ride all the way through. …Glass has a winner here.»

The Counterfeit Heinlein

Laurence M. Janifer

"Robert A. Heinlein would have loved this book!" – Spider Robinson In the distant future, when most of Earth's 20th century literature – including science fiction – has been lost, a previously unknown Robert A. Heinlein story turns up. Is it real or counterfeit? It's up to Gerald Knave to scope out the truth. Because it just may be a life-or-death case for him! "Both Knave and I have more respect and admiration for Robert A. Heinlein than either of us can well say. Nothing said by any person in this report is to be taken as a denigration of Heinlein or his work; indeed, no sf writer mentioned, quoted from, or alluded to by Knave or by any Misfit lacks the respect and admiration we both gladly give him, or her." –Laurence M. Janifer

Alienist

Laurence M. Janifer

Space travel was supposed to be safe. Accidents only happened to other people. So what was Gerald Knave doing stranded in the middle of space, with no way to get home–and no idea where he was?

Youth

Isaac Asimov

Youth is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the May 1952 issue of Space Science Fiction and was reprinted in the 1955 collection The Martian Way and Other Stories. Youth is one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters.

The Man Who Loved Mars

Lin Carter

Once it had been king city of a mighty empire and the center of the ancient faith; Gateway to the Gods, the old epics name it. Now it was dead, empty, deserted, only a dim ghost of its vanished splendor. Such was Ilionis, the Lost City of Mars. A somber ruin, cold and lonely. But Ilionis was not forgotten. The old city held a valuable treasure…a treasure that brought Earthmen Ivo Tengren and scientist Krensny on a strange and difficult journey to the city's gates. And now an even stranger journey was about to begin....

The Second Fredric Brown Megapack

Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown (1906-1972) is perhaps best remembered for his use of humor and his mastery of the «short-short» form (these days called flash fiction) – stories of one to three pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. (He also wrote excellent short stories and novels.) This volume contains 27 of his stories, including the classics «The Waveries,» «Honeymoon in Hell,» «Cartoonist,» and many more! Included are: THE WAVERIES OBEDIENCE ALL GOOD BEMS FIRST TIME MACHINE BLOOD THE LAST MARTIAN MAN OF DISTINCTION VENGEANCE FLEET THE WEAPON MOUSE THE DOME GREAT LOST DISCOVERIES I – Invisibility GREAT LOST DISCOVERIES II – Invulnerability GREAT LOST DISCOVERIES III – Immortality MILLENNIUM SECOND CHANCE CONTACT A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR SOMETHING GREEN CRISIS, 1999 AND THE GODS LAUGHED MITKEY RIDES AGAIN PLACET IS A CRAZY PLACE HONEYMOON IN HELL DAISIES DAYMARE CARTOONIST And don't forget to search this ebook store for «Wildside Megapack» to see more entries in the series, covering science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, adventure stories, westerns, and much, much more! (Sort by publication date to see the most recent of our 100+ releases.)

Science Fiction: The Year's Best (2006 Edition)

Аластер Рейнольдс

Horton's elegiac anthology of 15 mostly hard SF stories illuminates a broad spectrum of grief over love thwarted through time, space, human frailty or alien intervention, from the gentle melancholy of Michael Swanwick's «Triceratops Summer,» which posits tame Technicolored time-warped dinosaurs in Vermont, to newcomer Leah Bobet's «Bliss,» an agonizing riff on near-future drug addiction. Several selections address current political-social issues, like Mary Rosenblum's «Search Engine,» which extrapolates today's technology to chilling, Big Brotherly results. The long closing story, Alastair Reynolds's «Understanding Space and Time,» however, presents a ray of cosmic hope: the sole survivor of a plague that decimated humanity is rescued and healed by intergalactic entities and lives out millennia while seeking ultimate truths, returning to see mankind regenerated. This anthology reflects the concerns of the genre today—and the apparent inability of our society to do anything about them. – Publishers Weekly