CAN'T FIND A RATIONAL EXPLANATION TO A MYSTERY? CALL IN THE QUIET COUNCIL. The mysterious and glamorous Lady De Winter is one of their most valuable agents. A despicable murder inside a locked and bolted room on the Rue Morgue in Paris is just the start. This whirlwind adventure will take Milady to the highest and lowest parts of that great city - and cause her to question the very nature of reality itself. File Under : Steampunk [ Alternate History | Reptilian Royalty | Murder Most Foul | The World’s Fair ]

THREE SURVIVED: Tom Rand, a practical engineer, and two other men are the only survivors of a spaceship explosion. Marooned on a hostile planet, they are being held captive by a group of "aliens." Their one slim chance of survival is to reach a rescue beacon placed on the planet years before by men from Earth. Can the three survivors escape what seems like certain, immediate death? And if they do, can they make their way through a jungle filled with untold dangers and reach the beacon in time? PLANET OF DEATH: Earthman Roy Crawford is framed for murder on the planet Velliran. He has two choices. He must escape from the planet within three days or go to prison for life. But the only spaceship leaving the planet within three days belongs to the Exploration Corps. This is a group of scientists which investigates new planets. They are about to leave for World Seven on the Star System Z-16. With help from his friends, the dazed Crawford finds himself in the ship. The scientists, of course, think he is one of them. But World Seven is no escape for Roy. It is a planet of death. The team of scientists find themselves in a world where even the trees are killers. And one more killer is on the spaceship - the real murderer who framed Crawford!

The world that these stories sprang from was the troubled, bewildering, dangerous, and very exciting world of those weird years when the barriers were down and the future was rushing into the present with the force of a river unleashed. But of course I think these stories speak to our times, too, and that most of them will remain valid as we go staggering onward through the brave new world of the twenty-first century. I am not one of those who believes that all is lost and the end is nigh. Like William Faulkner, I do think we will somehow endure and prevail against increasingly stiff odds. A great many strange and dizzying things happen to the characters in these sixteen stories, and in the fourteen stories of the 1972-73 volume that will follow. The reader who makes the journey from beginning to end of all thirty stories will be taken on many a curious trip, that I promise-as was their author during the years when they were being written. -Robert Silverberg, from the Introduction

Life can be hard as an orphan at Mending Hearts Children's Home, but Abicus Turne is no ordinary orphan. A nefarious trick that results in tragedy causes Abicus to discover his ability to 'slide back' in time and change the past. But he quickly learns that changing the past can have unintended consequences. At the Spring Festival, events spin out of control and expose a secret plot by enemies that would destroy the world. Aided by genius younger sister Binny, street-wise Bosh, and sweet-talking Kendra, Abicus and his fellow 'castaway' orphans race to open mysterious time locks hidden by his parents. Within them lies the key to saving their future. But can Abicus find it in time to also save their past?

Everything comes with a price ... What if you could live in a universe where you were always the winner? Pushed to his limits by a horrific accident, Liam discovers he has an amazing ability: he can 'move' to parallel universes where things always turn out just the way he wants. But every time he moves the fabric of the metaverse begins to tear. And something evil begins to find its way in ... A gripping fantasy adventure story of the battle between a teenage boy and a terrible demon. It is also the deeper tale of how Liam changes, emerging from the final crisis a much wiser person than the boy for whom the ability to swap universes made the world his toy. A thrilling roller-coaster ride from an award-winning author.

Nine short stories depict the fantastic adventures of unwitting humans who make use of a remarkable machine to transmit themselves across space and through time

"[A] pomegranate writer: popping with seeds--full of ideas." --Ray Bradbury We are all part of some cosmic pattern, and this pattern works toward good and not evil. It builds and does not destroy. So I shall go on in my search for a race where I can find kinship and happiness." ―Henry Kuttner COSMIC TERROR STRIKES AS A MESSENGER OF DEATH SWEEPS THROUGH THE UNIVERSE. Like a great, lethal snake, plague creeps through the galaxies. No conscious entity can halt its progress, and life is slowly draining from planet after planet. Only one super-intelligence is capable of preventing cataclysm. To do it, he must penetrate far beyond infinity - to the formless, deathless creatures out to kill the universe.

The Time Axis by Henry Kuttner Called to the end of time by a being known as The Face of Ea, four adventurers face a power that not even the science of that era could meet -- the nekron, negative matter, negative force, ultimate desctruction for everything it touched! We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

INTERPLANETARY ODYSSEYS ".....One of the novas of the SF cosmos." The New Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction Interplanetary Odysseys collects together all of Stanley G. Weinbaum's tales set on the planets and moons of our own solar system. With their colony cities and fast, easy space travel, these stories from the great romantic tradition of SF remain entertaining, readable and relevant. Weinbaum was noted as the first SF writer to create believable aliens that were a product of their own planetary environments and eco-systems. The lead story, the classic "A Martian Odyssey", demonstrates this talent perfectly and with the nine other tales included here it gives readers new and old a chance to relive the sense of wonder that sprang from the glory days of science fiction.

Champion procrastinator Kevin Larson has a history emergency--a 10-page report due tomorrow, and he hasn't written a word. He and his friends gather in his room to get the job done, but a series of freak accidents involving a cat, a website, and a mysterious blue light launch the four 7th-graders back to a California Gold Rush town in 1880. A girl named Sarah takes in the four timewrecked kids, at the risk of another beating by her stepfather. Kevin wants to help Sarah escape, but to do that he'll have to change the past. But if he chooses the wrong change, he and his friends may be trapped in 1880 forever.If you like time travel books that mix adventure with history, you'll love Timewrecked. Buy it today!

Wonder Stories was founded by legendary publisher Hugo Gernsback after he left Amazing Stories. Wonder Stories thrived in one form or another for more than thirty years, briefly rivaling even Astounding. This four hundred plus page anthology collects ten important stories from the magazine's zenith. If you enjoyed this book, you'll want to search on "Positronic Publishing Super Pack" and check out all our other Super Packs! Included herein are: Onslaught from Rigel by Fletcher Pratt Valley of Dreams by Stanley G. Weinbaum The Revolt of the Star Men by Raymond Gallun The Point of View by Stanley G. Weinbaum The Metal Moon by Everett C. Smith and R.F. Starzl The Martian by Allen Glasser and A. Rowley Hilliard Pygmalion's Spectacles by Stanley G. Weinbaum Spacewrecked on Venus by Neil R. Jones The Moon Destroyers by Monroe K. Ruch The Worlds of If by Stanley G. Weinbaum

Stanley G. Weinbaum's classic horror novel, originally entitled "The Mad Brain". When an unassuming man's personality changes dramatically toward the sinister, the woman he loves seeks help from a psychologist, leading to a disturbing discovery.

The great game. When Mycroft Holmes is murdered, it is up to retired shadow detective Smith to track down his killer, leading him to stumble onto the greatest conspiracy of his life. Young Lucy Westerna, Holmes' protégé, must follow her own path to the truth, while on the other side of the world, a young Harry Houdini must face his greatest feat of escape -- death itself. As their paths converge the body count mounts up, the entire world is under threat, and in a foreboding castle in the mountains of Transylvania a mysterious old man weaves a spider's web of secrets and lies.

Clifford Sawyer, investigating ghosts in a mine, finds ancient beings from another world -- and gets swept up in a titanic struggle for control of a parallel dimension. Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore. They met through their association with the "Lovecraft Circle," a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft. Their work together spanned the 1940s and 1950s, mostly published under pseudonyms such as Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell.

Steal from the real Carl Sherwood had always dreamed of being a swashbuckling hero. Alas, buckling that old swash is not so easy when the word "computer geek" could have been coined for you. And what's the use of being the sharpest AI software wizard at Manifest Inc. - purveyor of andromechs to the gentry, and the big player in virtual reality - when your social life consists of a VR suit and a six pack? But if Carl's real life scenario is a bust, his VR life is getting richer by the minute. Deep in the company computing system lurk the components of Carl's special baby, "The Sherwood Game, " complete with its welf-aware main character, Robin Hood. Carl tells himself he's just working all the bugs out before he reports the results to his boss, but the truth is, he could sooner part with a chunk of his own flesh and blood. Which is what Robin will make him do before this game is done...

First there was Jar Jar Binks Must Die, the Hugo-Award finalist collection of essays discussing science fiction film which Analog called "intelligent and entertaining" and F&SF called "terrific." Then came Shh! It's a Secret, the comedy science fiction novel that Publishers Weekly called "a freewheeling, laugh-out-loud satire." Now Daniel M. Kimmel is back with Time On My Hands, his quirky take on time travel, lost love, divided loyalties, and the eternal search for really good scotch. Time On My Hands investigates the myriad time travel troubles over which most science fiction readers have pondered, but it presents a fresh take on the time travel novel by adhering to the Aristotelian Unity of Time: it all takes place within a single day. In the book, Professor Price tells the story of how he came to be in possession of a time travel device (which he may or may not have invented), and how he found his future hiding in his past. But the discovery of time travel will necessitate far more than just building a really cool machine: it'll take the efforts of many people to figure out how to talk about time travel, the requirements necessary to be an ethical time traveler, and just whose office it is when my yesterday becomes your tomorrow without the courtesy of a knock on the door. Film critic and professor Daniel M. Kimmel has taught film and media classes at Emerson College, Boston University, and Suffolk University. His book on the history of FOX TV, The Fourth Network, received the Cable Center Book Award. His other books include a history of DreamWorks, The Dream Team, and I'll Have What She's Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester (where much of Time On My Hands is set) and his law degree from Boston University.

This is a classic science fiction novella by Stanley G. Weinbaum that was originally published in Astounding Stories in 1935. This is the only of Weinbaum's stories to be set on the planet Pluto, written only five years after the planet's discovery. The tale starts with a spaceship called Aardkin that gets boarded by the notorious pirate ship the Red Peri. One year on Frank Keene and astrophysicist Solomon Nestor crash land on Pluto and find themselves captives of the Red Peri herself, the nineteen year-old daughter of the man who built the Red Peri. During their ordeal the secret of the reason behind her forays into piracy are revealed. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

'The ultimate book for any Jennings or Gleitzman fan.' Kids Book Review Shortlisted - BILBY Children's Choice Awards 2002 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Winner - KROC Children's Choice Awards 2000 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Winner - YABBA Children's Choice Awards 1998 - Older Readers Winner - Dymock's Children's Choice Awards 1999 - Older Readers Winner - CROW Children's Choice Awards 1998 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Winner - COOL Children's Choice Awards 1998 - Prize for Writing for Young Adults Something very weird is happening to Dawn and Rory. And it's not just their new step-family. Slurping slobberers want to suck their bones out. Strange steel sheep want to smash them to pieces. Giant frogs want to crunch them up. Cruel killer creepers want to squeeze the life out of them. Their parents can't help them. Dawn and Rory are on their own. It's wild. It's wacky. It's WICKED! With the perfect mix of humour and suspense, Wicked! will keep middle-grade readers on the edge of their seat as Rory and Dawn navigate the challenges of life, family ... and monsters! A must-read for any kid (or adult) who loves a good mix of creepy, funny and clever storytelling. ALL SIX PARTS IN ONE! Part 1- The Slobberers Part 2- Battering Rams Part 3- Croaked Part 4- Dead Ringer Part 5- The Creeper Part 6- Till Death Us Do Part ------------------ PRAISE FOR MORRIS GLEITZMAN 'Readers can't get enough of him.' The Independent 'A brilliantly funny writer' Sunday Telegraph 'A virtuoso demonstration of how you can make comedy out of the most unlikely subject' Sunday Times 'He is one of the finest examples of a writer who can make humour stem from the things that really matter in life.' The Guardian

On a quiet, dead-end residential street on the outskirts of Omaha, Nebraska sits an old house called Tanglewood. In its front yard a large old ash tree casts its shadow across shrubs and flowerbeds and a lawn that have all long ago surrendered any pretense of life. But inside the House are the Doors. Doors too numerous to count. Doors made of the wood from Yggdrasil, the great Norse World Tree that stands at the center of the universe. Doors that lead to every time and every place that ever was-or ever could be. Provided you are one of the rare few with the gift, a child with the ability to step through such Doors to the other side. Provided you are a Latchkey, capable of becoming one of the Wardens, the protectors of Tanglewood and its Doors. Then-disaster! Tanglewood's connection to the World Tree is somehow broken. And many of its Doors disappear, sent spinning out across time and space with no rhyme or reason, leaving behind only the flimsiest of shadows. Now the young Wardens must find and return the missing Doors. But many of them have splintered from the impact. Those missing pieces must be restored before the Doors can be returned. And Splinters can be anywhere and assume any form. Almost like they don't want to be found. Read all about the Latchkeys and their exciting, thrilling, spooky adventures to places that were, places that might have been, and places that almost could be!

Reviews: "A great read that was packed full of suspense and action. One of the best time travel books I've read in awhile." "I started reading this book and before I knew it, it was three in the morning. When I woke the next day I couldn’t wait to get back to it because I had to know what happened." A scientist's ‘harmless’ tinkering, just before World War II, causes a catastrophic change of events which lead to nuclear war in the present. 40 minutes into the war most of North America, Asia and Europe were destroyed. A cycle of annihilation, which once started became impossible to stop. The launch of missiles, detected by satellites, set the wheels in motion for the retaliatory strikes to begin. No nation escaped the cascade that followed; even those neutral in the war. Detonation was the only warning for most that things had escalated beyond reason as the use of thermo-weapons had never been discussed. A huge electromagnetic pulse, which fried all electrical equipment inside the strike zone, shut down power grids and plunged the region into darkness. A microsecond later there followed a flash of intense white light, which filled the sky, as a small sun erupted within the city. As the glare burned the corneas from their eyes, it simultaneously cauterised their optic nerves, but the blindness and pain only distressed for a nanosecond. Superheated air, expanding at a rate of 400 metres per second, dwarfed all previous torment. Skin was seared and lungs disintegrated as a last agonised breath choked in the furnace. On the fringes of the inferno, fires erupted in every direction whilst in the centre, where temperatures reached millions of degrees centigrade, everything was vaporised in a millisecond. The scorching, dust-filled air tore upward in a fiery plume, looking, to all at a distance safe enough to witness the madness, as though hell had broken loose. Seconds later it hit the stratosphere where, cooling, it began to fan outwards, forming the terrifying calling card of man’s most destructive weapon. There was no hope on January 28th. The mercy for most was death came swiftly. On a worldwide scale, billions died immediately following the initial strikes, and in the weeks after, millions more from radiation and starvation. None of this had to happen; none of this should have happened; and it wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the good intentions of one man.