Thousands of them have lived underground. They've lived there so long, there are only legends about people living anywhere else. Such a life requires rules. Strict rules. There are things that must not be discussed. Like going outside. Never mention you might like going outside. Or you'll get what you wish for.

Kay Kenyon, noted for her science fiction world-building, has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme. Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn.Believing them trapped in a parallel universe - one where he himself may have been imprisoned - he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter's dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him.As Quinn's memories return, he discovers why. Quinn's goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire - to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family's redemption. But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm. This is high-concept science fiction written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld", Roger Zelazny's "Amber Chronicles", and Dan Dimmons' "Hyperion".

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English writer best remembered today for his science fiction works. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction". --- He has foretold many futures for us, some utterly abhorrent, others more or less attractive... There was, for example, "The Man Who Could Work Miracles": "his name was George McWhirter; ... he was a little man and had eyes of a hot brown, very erect red hair, a mustache with ends he twisted up, and freckles." This unpromising looking individual, and he was a blatant skeptic, too, becomes suddenly possessed of the power to make anything happen that he wills, but he finds the use of this mysterious gift by no means to his advantage. It brings him and others into all sorts of trouble, and only his renunciation of it saves the world from destruction. --- We shudder at the thought of humanity being suffocated on a blazing world as in "The Star", ... which is a little gem in its way without a superfluous word or a false tone... Those were the days when Mr. Wells was writing for pleasure. He was enabled to throw off in the early nineties a swift succession of short stories astonishingly varied in style and theme. As he became more experienced in the art of writing, or rather of marketing manuscripts, he seems to have regretted this youthful prodigality of bright ideas. Many of them he later worked over on a more extensive scale as the metallurgist goes back to a mine and with an improved process extracts more gold from the tailings and dump than the miner got out of the ore originally. --- In its power to forecast the future science finds both its validation and justification. By this alone it tests its conclusions and demonstrates its usefulness. In fact, the sole object of science is prophecy... The mind of the scientific man is directed forward and he has no use for history except as it gives him data by which to draw a curve that he may project into the future. It is, therefore, not a chance direction of his fancy that so many of Wells's books, both romances and studies, deal with the future. It is the natural result of his scientific training, which not only led him to a rich unworked field of fictional motives, but made him consider the problems of life from a novel and very illuminative point of view. (Edwin E. Slosson)

From the mind that brought you Plague Year and The Frozen Sky...Sixteen stories about strange worlds, biotech, commandos, and the girl next door."Striking." --Locus Online"Exciting." --SF Revu"Chilling and dangerous." --HorrorAddicts.netFirst published in top venues such as Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and cult 'zines like The Vampire's Crypt, these stories have been translated into fourteen languages worldwide. Several received honorable mentions in Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction or in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. As part of the Fast Forward 2 anthology, "Long Eyes" was also a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.The first complete collection from international bestselling author Jeff Carlson.

An NYRB Classics OriginalRobert Sheckley was an eccentric master of the American  short story, and his tales, whether set in dystopic city­scapes, ultramodern advertising agencies, or aboard spaceships lighting out for hostile planets, are among the most startlingly original of the twentieth century. Today, as the new worlds, alternate universes, and synthetic pleasures Sheckley foretold become our reality, his vision begins to look less absurdist and more prophetic. This retrospective selection, chosen by Jonathan Lethem and Alex Abramovich, brings together the best of Sheckley’s deadpan farces, proving once again that he belongs beside such mordant critics of contemporary mores as Bruce Jay Friedman, Terry Southern, and Thomas Pynchon.

The three laws of Robotics:1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.From the Hardcover edition.

"The strange, unbidden sentence stirred her. Her head moved slightly; she smiled. Gazing into my eyes intently, as though to dispel a mist that shrouded both our minds, she went on in a whisper that yet was startlingly distinct, though with little pauses drawn out between the phrases: You . . . I sang into . . . evil. . . ." "Long before you have reached this point you will, I know, have reached also the conclusion (with a sigh) that I am embarked upon some commonplace experience of ghostly return, or, at least, of posthumous communication. Perhaps I wrong you here, but in any case I would at once correct the inference, if it has been drawn. You remember our adventures with the séance-mongers years ago. . . ? "The more remarkable, therefore, is the statement truth now compels me to confess to you -- namely, that this origin is recognizable, and that I have traced in part the name it owns to." (Jacketless library hardcover)

Back in print after a decade, expanded with new original material, this is the first volume of George R. R. Martin’s Wild cards shared-world seriesThere is a secret history of the world—a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some were called Aces—those with superhuman mental and physical abilities. Others were termed Jokers—cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. Some turned their talents to the service of humanity. Others used their powers for evil. Wild Cards is their story.Originally published in 1987, Wild Cards I includes powerful tales by Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, Howard Waldrop, Lewis Shiner, and George R. R. Martin himself. And this new, expanded edition contains further original tales set at the beginning of the Wild Cards universe, by eminent new writers like Hugo–winner David Levine, noted screenwriter and novelist Michael Cassutt, and New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.

A good man lies dead. The silo is now in need of a sheriff. And there's only one woman for the job. But what if she refuses to take it?

A long, long time ago, an uprising erupted in Silo 18. The descendants of that great clash have been raised in its shadow. Nobody knows what went wrong. Nobody talks about what happened. Like all wars, it went from being something one could learn from -- to a legend one merely learns about. Now, almost two hundred years later, the people of Silo 18 will get more than just a chance to learn about that uprising. They'll get to start one of their own...