Needle in a Timestack is Robert Silverberg at his very best - intelligent, inventive, and visionary. This collection showcases his talent for thought-provoking science fiction, ranging in themes from time travel to space travel, the media to mortality. In the titular story - now a feature film by Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridley - a jealous ex-husband warps time in a vindictive attempt to destroy his former wife's new marriage. Thirty-one identical sons have a shocking surprise for their mother in "There Was an Old Woman". The prophetic "The Pain Peddlers" depicts reality TV in a way that allows viewers to revel in a voyeuristic, adrenaline-fueled rush. Also included are Silverberg's Hugo Award-winning "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another", and the Locus Award winner "The Secret Sharer", a Joseph Conrad-inspired tale of a ship captain drawn into a strange alliance with a stowaway.

Hugo Award Winner, from an SF Grandmaster!Conquering warrior Francisco Pizarro found himself... somewhere. Somewhere strange. He didn't know where, but he was sure it wasn't where he should be. After some time, another warrior appeared...About this story Robert Silverberg writes: I wrote this one in October, 1987 for an anthology I was editing myself, the basic idea of which involved using computer-generated simulacra of actual historical figures set in conflict against one another. The ones I chose were Socrates and Francisco Pizarro, and the story very quickly became an exciting thing to write as these two powerful personalities began to clash. I think it's one of the major achievements of my career.It was published in ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION and then in TIME GATE, my anthology, and it was picked for Gardner Dozois' 1989 YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION anthology. And at the World Science Fiction Convention in Holland in August, 1990, it brought me the Hugo award for Best Novelet.Robert Silverberg is a SFWA Grandmaster and winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards.

A pilgrimage leads to a shocking revelation in this "deeply affecting and evocative extraterrestrial novel" from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author (Locus). The village of Jespodar nestles in the foothills of a world-dominating mountain known to all as "The Wall." Poilar Crookleg has grown up in Jespodar training hard and hoping that he will be chosen for the annual Pilgrimage, a group journey to the top of the mountain from which no pilgrim has ever returned both alive and sane. The pilgrims seek to replicate the legendary journey of a distant ancestor who scaled the mountain and, so the story goes, met with the gods. The Pilgrimage is a a life journey, an overwhelming challenge and a sacred honor and Poilar feels blessed when he is finally chosen to lead it. But not all is as it first seems. Along the journey lie hazards of all kinds, both vilently dangerous and seductively beguiling and to triumph in the climb is to confront a revelation so surprising and so disturbing that none, not even the smartest and best prepared, are likely to survive. What belief and what devotion leads so many to hope for such a challenging task and what will be the ultimate result of such dedication? Only The Wall itself can reveal the destiny for those who undertake the Pilgrimage.

Collection of 11 stories, including: "A Happy Day in 2381," "After the Myths Went Home," "Passengers" (1969 Nebula Winner for best short story), "To Be Continued," "Nightwings" (1969 Hugo winner, 1968 Nebula finalist, best novella), "We Know Who We Are," "The Pleasure of Their Company," "The Songs of Summer," "A Man of Talent," "Collecting Team," ""Going Down Smooth."

A Locus #1 bestseller from Hugo Award-winner Zelazny and legendary SF humorist Robert Sheckley. The authors suggest this premise is true, only nobody notices--except the forces of good and evil who vie for control of the universe every thousand years.

The new Bates Motel is a tourist attraction, complete with robotic knife-wielding figures of Norman Bates and his infamous mother, but someone adds a new exhibit a few days before the official opening: a teenage girl is stabbed to death in the front hall. This is the first new Psycho novelin ten years that returns to the Bates motel, that infamous inn that has terrified generations of American moviegoers and readers. Bloch is a recipient of the Hugo Award.

In 1958, Ayn Rand, already the world-famous author of such bestselling books as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, gave a private series of extemporaneous lectures in her own living room on the art of fiction. Tore Boeckmann and Leonard Peikoff for the first time now bring readers the edited transcript of these exciting personal statements. The Art of Fiction offers invaluable lessons, in which Rand analyzes the four essential elements of fiction: theme, plot, characterization, and style. She demonstrates her ideas by dissecting her best-known works, as well as those of other famous authors, such as Thomas Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, and Victor Hugo. An historic accomplishment, this compendium will be a unique and fascinating resource for both writers and readers of fiction.

The winner of a Nebula and three Hugos invites readers to view his gallery of very unusual portraits--some bizarre, some touching, all unforgettable. Martin is well-known for his television writing for such programs as The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast.

Called "the most important critic of his time" by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin has emerged as one of the most compelling thinkers of our time as well, his work assuming a crucial place in current debates over the interactions of art, culture, and meaning. A "natural and extraordinary talent for letter writing was one of the most captivating facets of his nature", writes Gershom Scholem in his Foreword; and indeed, Benjamin's correspondence reveals the evolution of some of his most powerful ideas. Published here in English for the first time, these letters offer an intimate picture of Benjamin himself and the times in which he lived. Written in a day when letters were an important vehicle for the presentation and development of intellectual matters, Benjamin's correspondence is rich in insight into the circumstances behind his often difficult work. These letters provide a lively view of Benjamin's life and thought from his days as a student to his melancholy experiences as an exile in Paris. As he defends his changing ideas to admiring and skeptical friends – poets, philosophers, and radicals – we witness the restless self-analysis of a creative mind far in advance of his own time. Writing at length to Scholem and Theodor Adorno, and exchanging letters with Rainer Maria Rilke, Hannah Arendt, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Horkheimer, Max Brod, Bertolt Brecht, and Kafka's friend Felix Weltsch, Benjamin elaborates his ideas about metaphor and language. He reflects on literary figures from Kafka to Karl Kraus, the "Jewish Question" and anti-Semitism, Marxism and Zionism. And he expounds his personal attitudes toward such subjects as the role of quotations in criticism, history, and tradition; the meaning of being a "collector"; and French culture and the national character. In sum, this magnificent collection is an exceptionally rich source of information and an essential key to understanding one of the preeminent figures of modern culture. --

Aliens in all shapes and sizes--some fearsome, some outlandish, and some just plain fun--fill the pages of these hand-picked classic stories by sci-fi grand master Robert Silverberg, each featuring a new introduction by the acclaimed author. Every day we are discovering new worlds in far-reaching galaxies which may or may not sustain life as we know it. In Alien Archives: Eighteen Stories of Extraterrestrial Encounters , sci-fi Grand Master Robert Silverberg collects his finest short stories and novellas about one of the genre's most enduring themes. Spanning fifty years of writing from the Science Fiction Grand Master, this collection of alien encounters features new introductions to all fifteen stories, including the Hugo Award-nominated "Schwartz Between the Galaxies" and HBO adapted "Amanda and the Alien." In these pages lie tales of a young man venturing into the occupied territory of an alien conquered United States to rescue his brother, three visitors from a very strange alien world arriving on Earth and meeting a tragic fate, and a dangerous life-form from a far-off world finding that suburban California holds some beings that are even more dangerous than it is. With Alien Archives , Silverberg puts us in contact with extraterrestrial beings of all shapes, sizes, and personalities--some fearsome, some outlandish, and some just plain fun. The Associated Press says, "Done Silverberg's way, science fiction is a fine art." With sheer force of imagination and incredible storytelling skills, Alien Archives confirms that Silverberg's classic work continues to resonate for readers today.

History is changed by one small act. In an extraordinary saga of nations locked in war, master storyteller Harry Turtledove examines a very different World War II—one which erupts eleven months earlier, and over Czechoslovakia rather than Poland. Now comes the final installment in this landmark series. Hitler’s Plan A was to win in a hurry, striking hard and deep into France. There was no Plan B. Now the war grinds on. Countries have been forced into strange alliances. The Nazis fortify thin lines with Hungarian and Romanian troops. England, finding its footing after the suspicious death of Winston Churchill and a coup d’état, fights back in Europe and on the seas of the North Atlantic. Jews fight on both sides of the war—in secret in German uniform, openly in Spain, France, and Russia. Into the standoff come new killing tools, from tanks to bazookas. In the Pacific, Japan prepares bombs filled with macabre biological concoctions to be dropped on Hawaii. For the U.S., the only enemy is Japan, as there has been no casus belli for America in Europe. Then Hitler becomes desperate and declares war on the United States. But is it too late? His own people are rising up in revolt. The German military may have to put down the violence, even perhaps bomb its own cities. In this epic drama, real men and women are shaped by the carnage, and their individual acts in turn shape history. Drawing on the gritty, personal reality of war and on a cast of unforgettable characters, Harry Turtledove has written an alternate history that intrigues, fascinates, and astounds. Praise for Last Orders “From our perspective seventy years later, we’re accustomed to thinking of WWII’s outcome as being inevitable. Not so, says [Harry] Turtledove. . . . Disdaining broad brush strokes, Turtledove’s focus on the characters serves to fill out the big picture with patient, nitty-gritty detail. It’s all quite plausible. . . . Armchair warriors will have much to ponder.” — Kirkus Reviews Praise for Harry Turtledove “If you like alternate histories, you’re going to like this series a lot.” — The San Diego Union-Tribune “Turtledove is the standard-bearer for alternate history.” — USA Today Coup d’Etat “This is what alternative history is all about.” — Historical Novel Society The Big Switch “The Hugo Award winner continues to delight in exploring the world of ‘what if?’” — Library Journal West and East “There’s plenty to satisfy fans of military strategy, tactics, and armaments.” — Publishers Weekly Hitler’s War “Turtledove is always good, but this return to World War II . . . is genuinely brilliant. . . . The characterizations in particular bring the book to extraordinary life.” — Booklist

What does a writer who produced two hundred books do with his spare time? If his name is Isaac Asimov, he writes - on any and every subject of interest to his fertile mind. Informative, amusing, timely, and provocative - OPUS 200 is Asimov at his sparkling best in selections carefully culled from his second hundred books. Drawing on novels (which have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards), on short stories, serious essays, and on children's books, Asimov addresses himself to everything from Black Holes to biblical Canaan. Here is a taste of the intelligence, the craftsmanship, and the ingenuity that have made Issac Asimov the most prolific writer of science fiction in the world.

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Roger Zelazny once again teams with Robert Sheckley for the latest comic fantasy starring demon extraordinaire, Azzie Elbub. On a devilish sabbatical in Europe, Azzie discovers that morality plays are all the rage, so he strikes back by producing an immorality play.

Robert A. Heinlein began publishing in the 1940s at the dawn of the Golden Age of science fiction, and today he is considered one of the genre's 'big three' alongside Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. His short stories were instrumental in developing its structure and rhetoric, while novels such as Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers demonstrated that such writing could be a vehicle for political argument. Heinlein's influence remains strong, but his legacy is fiercely contested. His vision of the future was sometimes radical, sometimes deeply conservative, and arguments have flared up recently about which faction has the most significant claim on his ideas. In this major critical study, Hugo Award-winner Farah Mendlesohn carries out a close reading of Heinlein's work, including unpublished stories, essays, and speeches. It sets out not to interpret a single book, but to think through the arguments Heinlein made over a lifetime about the nature of science fiction, about American politics, and about himself.

In the distant future a man from the twentieth century wakes to find himself in an almost incomprehensible world. He realizes that the world has left him behind, but he just might have the key to the future of all mankind.Cyril M. Kornbluth was a highly influential science fiction writer who won both a Hugo Award and a Prometheus Award.

Do you love the sound of a peg leg stomping across a quarterdeck? Or maybe you prefer a parrot on your arm, a strong wind at your back? Adventure, treasure, intrigue, humor, romance, danger — and, yes, plunder! Oh, the Devil does love a pirate — and so do readers everywhere! Swashbuckling from the past into the future and space itself, Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, presents an incredibly entertaining volume of original stories guaranteed to make you walk and talk like a pirate. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

From Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author, Robert Silverberg comes the classic: The Book of Skulls. Four friends embark on a cross-country trip in search of a legendary monastery. There, they hope to find the secrets of immortality promised in an ancient manuscript, the Book of Skulls There, they will present themselves-and pay the horrific price demanded. For immortality requires sacrifice. Two victims to balance two survivors. One by suicide, one by murder. Beneath the gaze of grinning skulls, the terror begins. . . .

"A suspenseful novel about a grieving woman who discovers the long-lost letters of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries" --

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our June 2017 issue (#129) contains: Original stories by Andy Dudak ("Fool''s Cap"), Julia K. Patt ("My Dear, Like the Sky and Stars and Sun"), Nina Allan ("Neptune''s Trident"), Sam J. Miller ("The Ways Out"), and A Que ("An Account of the Sky Whales"). Reprints by Jay Lake ("Human Error") and Aliette de Bodard ("The Waiting Stars"). Non-fiction by S. E. Jones, an interview with Greg Benford, an Another Word column by Jason Heller, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

With an introduction by Neil Gaiman: Once a hero, now a pariah, Richard Muller is humanity's last hope Richard Muller was an honorable diplomat who braved unimaginable dangers to make contact with the first-known race of intelligent aliens. But those aliens left a mark on him: a psychic wound that emanates a telepathic miasma his fellow humans can neither cure nor endure. Muller is exiled to the remote planet of Lemnos, where he is left, deeply embittered, at the heart of a deadly maze . . . until a new alien race appears, seemingly intent on exterminating humanity. Only Muller can communicate with them, due to the very condition that has made him an outcast. But will Muller stick his neck out for the people who so callously rejected him? " The Man in the Maze] is courageous, exploring new territory, with one foot in the New Wave camp, but] it is still mindful of its roots. From the past of SF we get the strains of Space Opera, replete with incomprehensible aliens and mysterious artefacts." -From the introduction by Neil Gaiman "One of science fiction's modern masters . . . his words and his work have shaped the whole direction of the field." -Chicago Sun-Times "Robert Silverberg's versatile, skeptical intelligence controls a lavish and splendid imagination." -Ursula K. Le Guin "Done Silverberg's way, science fiction is a fine art." -Associated Press Robert Silverberg is one of science fiction's most beloved writers, and the author of such contemporary classics as Dying Inside, Downward to the Earth, and Lord Valentine's Castle. He is a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the winner of five Nebula Awards and five Hugo Awards. In 2004 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America presented him with the Grand Master Award. Silverberg is one of twenty-nine writers to have received that distinction.