Sense of Wonder


Book Description

A survey of the last 100 years of science fiction, with representative stories and illuminating essays by the top writers, poets, and scholars, from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Samuel Butler to Robert A. Heinlein and and Jack Vance, from E.E. "Doc" Smith and Clifford D. Simak to Ted Chiang and Charles Stross-- and everyone in between. More than one million words of classic fiction and essays!




The Best of Bova, Volume II


Book Description

VOLUME #2 IN A STERLING COLLECTION OF STORIES FROM LEGENDARY HARD SCIENCE FICTION MASTER BEN BOVA. Selected stories from Bova's amazing career at the center of science fiction and space advocacy. He is the creator of the New York Times best-selling Grand Tour science fiction series, a six time Hugo award winner, and past president of the National Space Society. Volume #2 of 3 of the very best of Ben Bova, a grandmaster of science fiction storytelling. These stories span the five decades of Bova's incandescent career. Here are tales of star-faring adventure, peril, and drama. Here are journeys into the mind-bending landscapes of virtual worlds and alternate realities. Here you'll also find stories of humanity's astounding future on Earth, on Mars and in the Solar System beyond—stories that always get the science right. And Bova's gathering of deeply realized, totally human characters are the heroic, brave, tricky, sometimes dastardly engineers, astronauts, corporate magnates, politicians, and scientists who will make these futures possible—and those who often find that the problems of tomorrow are always linked to human values, and human failings, that are as timeless as the stars. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About the award-winning stories and novels of Ben Bova: “Technically accurate and absorbing. . .”—Kirkus “[Bova is] the science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.”—Ray Bradbury “A masterful storyteller”—Vector “Gives a good read while turning your eyes to what might be in the not so distant future, just like Clarke and Asimov used to do so well.”—SFX About Mars, Inc., by Ben Bova.: “. . .perfectly enjoyable as an SF book (could Bova write anything that wasn’t enjoyable?), Mars, Inc.has that torn-from-the-headline vibe that’s obviously intended for a larger audience. . . . the bottom line?Mars, Inc. has inspiration, excitement, thrills, romance, a dash of satire—and is a good, fun read . . . .”—Analog “The Hugo winner returns to his most popular subject: the quest for Mars.”—Publishers Weekly “. . . escapist fantasy for rocket scientists and space engineers, those dreaming of these kinds of missions. Yet Bova’s story is rigorously realistic. . . . a fun read showing you do not need car chases or shootouts to deliver a fast-paced and exciting story.”—Daily News of Galveston County




The Threshold of Forever: Essays and Reviews


Book Description

Darrell Schweitzer's third collection of essays and reviews, a successor to the well-received "Windows of the Imagination" and "The Fantastic Horizon," is a balanced mixture of scholarship and entertainment, ranging over the entire spectrum of imaginative literature, from the oldest novel in the world (1st century B.C.) to classic (and not-so-classic) pulp fiction, to childhood reading, to examinations of the works of such masters as H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, Robert Bloch, Stanley Weinbaum, John W. Campbell, and Thomas M. Disch. In between we encounter such surprising topics as a proposal for an H.P. Lovecraft biopic ("The Whole Wide Lovecraft"), the eccentricities of William Beckford (the author of Vathek), and even a report from Blobfest, an annual street fair devoted to the famous 1958 cult film, at which Schweitzer, as a member of the press, was allowed to touch the original Blob. Many of these pieces have been published in the prestigious "The New York Review of Science Fiction." "Schweitzer writes in an informative style that’s knowledgeable, witty, and high accessible. This is the finest kind of criticism -- it makes you want to read more, both of the critic's own prose and that of the writers he’s discussing. Highly recommended!" -- Robert Reginald. Darrell Schweitzer is a novelist, short-story, writer and critic, a former editor of the legendary "Weird Tales" magazine, and a four-time World Fantasy Award finalist and one-time winner. His previous book of essays, "The Fantastic Horizon," was a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award.




The Vampire Archives


Book Description

The Vampire Archives is the biggest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories, as well as the most comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once it sinks its teeth into you there’s no escape. Vampires! Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human lexicon and as old as blood itself. They are your neighbors, your friends, and they are always lurking. Now Otto Penzler—editor of the bestselling Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps—has compiled the darkest, the scariest, and by far the most evil collection of vampire stories ever. With over eighty stories, including the works of Stephen King and D. H. Lawrence, alongside Lord Byron and Tanith Lee, not to mention Edgar Allan Poe and Harlan Ellison, The Vampire Archives will drive a stake through the heart of any other collection out there. Other contributors include: Arthur Conan Doyle • Ray Bradbury • Ambrose Bierce • H. P. Lovecraft • Harlan Ellison • Roger Zelazny • Robert Bloch • Clive Barker




Sisters of Tomorrow


Book Description

Anthology of stories, essays, poems, and illustrations by the women of early science fiction For nearly half a century, feminist scholars, writers, and fans have successfully challenged the notion that science fiction is all about "boys and their toys," pointing to authors such as Mary Shelley, Clare Winger Harris, and Judith Merril as proof that women have always been part of the genre. Continuing this tradition, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction offers readers a comprehensive selection of works by genre luminaries, including author C. L. Moore, artist Margaret Brundage, and others who were well known in their day, including poet Julia Boynton Green, science journalist L. Taylor Hansen, and editor Mary Gnaedinger. Providing insightful commentary and context, this anthology documents how women in the early twentieth century contributed to the pulp-magazine community and showcases the content they produced, including short stories, editorial work, illustrations, poetry, and science journalism. Yaszek and Sharp's critical annotation and author biographies link women's work in the early science fiction community to larger patterns of feminine literary and cultural production in turn-of-the-twentieth-century America. In a concluding essay, the award-winning author Kathleen Ann Goonan considers such work in relation to the history of women in science and engineering and to the contemporary science fiction community itself.




Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction


Book Description

Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction is a collection of engaging essays on some of the most significant figures who have shaped and defined the genre. Diverse groups within the science fiction community are represented, from novelists and film makers to comic book and television writers. Important and influential names discussed include: Octavia Butler George Lucas Robert Heinlein Gene Roddenberry Stan Lee Ursula K. Le Guin H.G. Wells This outstanding reference guide charts the rich and varied landscape of science fiction and includes helpful and up-to-date lists of further reading at the end of each entry. Available in an easy to use A-Z format, Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction will be of interest to students of Literature, Film Studies, and Cultural Studies.




The Rise and Fall of American Science Fiction, from the 1920s to the 1960s


Book Description

 By examining important aspects of science fiction in the twentieth century, this book explains how the genre evolved to its current state. Close critical attention is given to topics including the art that has accompanied science fiction, the subgenres of space opera and hard science fiction, the rise of SF anthologies, and the burgeoning impact of the marketplace on authors. Included are in-depth studies of key texts that contributed to science fiction's growth, including Philip Francis Nowlan's first Buck Rogers story, the first published stories of A. E. van Vogt, and the early juveniles of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.




The Big Book of Modern Fantasy


Book Description

WORLD FANTASY AWARD WINNER • A true horde of fantasy tales sure to delight fans, scholars, and even the greediest of dragons—from bestselling authors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer Step through a shimmering portal ... a worn wardrobe door ... a schism in sky ... into a bold new age of fantasy. When worlds beyond worlds became a genre unto itself. From the swinging sixties to the strange, strange seventies, the over-the-top eighties to the gnarly nineties—and beyond, into the twenty-first century—the VanderMeers have found the stories and the writers from around the world that reinvented and revitalized the fantasy genre after World War II. The stories in this collection represent twenty-two different countries, including Russia, Argentina, Nigeria, Columbia, Pakistan, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, China, the Philippines, and the Czech Republic. Five have never before been translated into English. From Jorge Luis Borges to Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock to Angela Carter, Terry Pratchett to Stephen King, the full range and glory of the fantastic are on display in these ninety-one stories in which dragons soar, giants stomp, and human children should still think twice about venturing alone into the dark forest. Completing Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's definitive The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, this companion volume to takes the genre into the twenty-first century with ninety-one astonishing, mind-bending stories. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL




The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection


Book Description

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection of short stories brings together award winning authors and masters of the field such as Robert Reed, Ian McDonald, Stephen Baxter, Michael Swanwick, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kage Baker, Walter Jon Williams, Alastair Reynolds, and Charles Stross. And with an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre. "This venerable annual’s twenty-fifth edition represents a milestone for editor Dozois. He has kept faith with the series for a quarter-century without ever shortchanging, or even showing any signs of shortchanging, readers on either quality or abundance of selections."--Booklist