Sometime in the twenty-third century, humanity went extinct, leaving only androids behind to fulfill humanity’s dreams. And, having learned well from their long-dead masters, they’ve established a hierarchical society—one with humanoid aristo rulers at the top and slave-chipped workers at the bottom, performing the lowly tasks all androids were originally created to do. Designed as a concubine for a species that hasn’t existed for two hundred years, femmebot Freya Nakamichi-47—one of the last of her kind still functioning—accepts a job from a stranger to deliver a package from mercury to Mars. Unfortunately, she’s just made herself a moving target for some very powerful, very determined humanoids desperate to retrieve the package’s contents…

"An extravaganza . . . fertile invention and forceful style . . . Mr. Kersh's many admirers will undoubtedly devour this highly flavoured hotch-potch with avidity." - Julian Maclaren-Ross, Sunday Times "[F]irst-rate Kersh, richly peopled with the odd bit roles he sketches so well and written with style and individuality." - Anthony Boucher, New York Herald Tribune "Sometimes funny, sometimes nightmarish, always first-class entertainment." - Basil Davenport, New York Times Journalist George Oaks and his friend Albert Kemp, a mystery novelist, are on their way to meet their friend, the celebrated philosopher Dr. Monacelli. But when a clerical mix-up leads to their meeting the American gangster Monty Cello instead, Oaks and Kemp quickly find themselves caught up in a bizarre and dangerous plot involving a murdered reporter, a missing scientist, and a group of powerful madmen with a plan to destroy the world as we know it. It's a race against time as Oaks and Kemp must infiltrate the villains' stronghold and save humanity before it's too late! Equal parts hard-boiled crime novel and apocalyptic science fiction tale, The Great Wash (1953) is one of the most exciting novels by Gerald Kersh (1911-1968), who is best known for his classics Night and the City (1938) and Fowlers End (1957). Fowlers End and four volumes of Kersh's strange and brilliant short fiction are also available from Valancourt.

The third book in the phenomenal, bestselling series, begun with TekWar and continued in TekLords. Jake Cardigan is ecstatic when his ex-wife's lover, powerful TekLord Bennett Sands, is finally incarcerated. But when Jake's son and Sands' daughter disappear, Jake must enter the ruins of a 21st-century London and confront a deranged killer in a showdown to the death. Entertaining --Locus.

William Shatner, known and loved as Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk, delivers more suspense adventure in this latest novel in the Tek series. Critics have hailed his best-selling debut novel, TekWar, as being "as tough and scrappy as Captain Kirk" (The Wall Street Journal), praised TekLords for its "fast-paced action, high-tech gloss" (Library Journal), and called the author of TekLab "a good writer" of whom they "await his next" (Nashville Banner). In Tek Vengeance, investigator Jake Cardigan faces his most dangerous - and most heartbreaking - job ever. Beautiful Beth Kittridge, whom he has come to love more and more after rescuing her from the drug-dealing Teklords in TekWar, must go to Berlin to testify against one of the most dangerous Teklords of all. Jake wants to protect her - but he has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to obtain information from the dying daughter of a former Tek operative in Brazil. She'll talk only to Jake, and so he has no choice but to go, hoping to be back in time to travel with Beth. But as one thing after another seems to conspire to keep Jake and his sidekick, Gomez, busy in Brazil, he can't help but think he's been set up - and that Beth is in deadly danger. From Brazil to Berlin to Vienna, Jake and Gomez are off on a chase that may spell the end for the dealers in the vicious electronic drug Tek. This time Jake has the help of Dan, his son, who appears finally to believe that his father is one of the good guys, as well as that of the colorful cast of characters - human and robot - that fans of the world of Tek have come to expect

William Shatner, Star Trek's much-loved Captain James T. Kirk, returns with another suspenseful adventure novel in the Tek series. Investigator Jake Cardigan is back, this time hired to look into the disappearance of beautiful heiress Alicia Bower. As the daughter of the world's wealthiest robotics industrialist, Alicia has lived an exciting, eventful life, and her family is not concerned. They think this is just another impetuous departure with some handsome young man. But her current boyfriend, who believes she loves him and has changed her ways, thinks Alicia is in danger, and he turns to Jake Cardigan for help. Jake has his own problems. The murder of Beth, the woman he loved (in The Vengeance), has left him lonely and bitter. Still, Jake's son Dan and his trusted sidekick Sid Gomez persuade him to take on the case. His beloved Beth is beyond his help, but Alicia Bower may still be alive and in need of rescue. And even if Jake had tended to discount her boyfriend's emotional plea, the attempts that begin immediately on his own life are enough to convince him that something of deadly importance is going on.

In Tek Power, the drug lords who control Tek put forth a new and audacious plan. President Warren Brookmeyer has a problem with Tek: while he insists that he uses the drug only for an occasional lift, others in his administration have convinced him that the American people would not respond well if they were to learn that their president is a Tek user. Reluctantly, Brookmeyer has agreed to go into a rehabilitation facility in secret, and to allow an android simulation to replace him for the short time it will take to train himself away from Tek. The President's advisors have assured him that the robot stand-in will be successful. Mechanix International turns out a very good product. The American public will never know that handsome Vice President Jim McCracklin is actually reporting to an android - for a very brief time, of course. But President Brookmeyer is wise to be uneasy about the plan. What he cannot know is that his most trusted advisors are on the Tek payroll - and that when he returns from his vacation looking like a new man, the country will be surprised to hear speeches from the White House that make substantial changes in his previous policies. Particularly surprising will be his new position on Tek, downplaying the importance of eliminating the Tek cartel .... As they have in the past, the Teklords have failed to figure in the efforts of investigator Jake Cardigan and his tireless assistant Gomez. Summoned on what appears to be quite a different case, Cardigan and Gomez gradually unravel a tangled web of intrigue that leads to the top ranks of government.

Jake Cardigan's partner, Sid Gomez, has always liked the ladies (after all, he married four of them). But when wife number two calls asking for his help--and then disappears--Sid is immediately reminded of her ongoing addiction to the drug Tek. Jake knows about Tek from hard personal experience. And Sid's saved his neck more than once. Jake figures that they're in this one together--a decision that will take them deeper into the underworld of Tek, a place where death is as real as the gun in your face.

In Tek Money, Jake Cardigan tries to relax. But as he enjoys a rare night out at the theater, his son Dan has a frightening experience at the Cardigans' beachfront home. A seemingly deranged man, muttering to himself about nightmare visions that torment him, comes looking for Jake - and then dies suddenly, as Dan tries to find out what he wants. So begins an unwelcome sequence of events. First Dan is accused of murdering the man. Once the police realize that accusation is ridiculous, suspicion falls on Jake: the dead man is Peter Traynor, a Tek addict, a friend of Jake's from the bad old days, when the drug had a strong hold on them both. The murderer did Traynor in with a Tek "sizzler", a powerful chip that plugs directly into the user's brain, starts by giving him wonderful visions, and ends by producing uncontrollable hallucinations. Traynor has literally died of fear. Jake had not seen Traynor in years, but the police are still suspicious. In the meantime, it appears that everybody else in Traynor's past wants Jake's help in solving the crime. The dead man's sister, who has no money but does have a tremendous chip on her shoulder, wants to hire Jake - as long as somebody else pays. The dead man's ex-wife, a mysteriously wealthy woman, also wants to hire Jake, and she'll pay plenty - but it isn't exactly clear that a solution to the crime is what she wants for her money. Jake knows that his own good name is on the line until he finds the real killer.

Over and Over and Over againTerry North had once been on the Hollywood A-listplaying a crime-fighting superhero on one of the highest rated shows on television. But the show was cancelled, and for years she has spent most of her time watching old videos of Dark Avenger. In the videos, time has frozen. She's young, she'svital, she's super human. Reality bites, though, and her friend's advice to "stop living in the past" is easier said than done since Terry's present mostly sucks on ice.But Terry's life takes a radical turn when an old friend from the past offers her an opportunity to live out her dream - and a remarkable new costume."In Reruns Selina Rosen introduces us to a world where one woman and her convictions, along with a bit of help from some friends, do make a difference. We've all wanted to be, or even pretended to be, a superhero sometime in our life. Terry was lucky enough to play one on television, Dark Avenger, for seven seasons. Years after the series was cancelled someone approached her to actually become what she portrayed on TV and Vigilance was born... Selina has a certain natural gift of taking the reader and immersing theminto a novel so that the reality of the novel mixes seamlessly with the reality of the reader's life and they become one. In Reruns we find out what it is like to be a true superhero in a world that'slosing faith, without ever having to actually risk our own necks " -Stephen Pagel, co-editor of the multiple award-winning anthology series; Bending the Landscape

Somehow, for all my outward pretence of cold-eyed professionalism, all my insistence that writing is simply a job like any other, I've discovered to my surprise and chagrin that there's more than that going on around here, that I write as much out of karmic necessity and some inescapable inner need to rededicate my own skills constantly to my-what? My craft? My art? My profession? I wrote these stories because the only way of earning a living I have ever had has been by writing, but mainly, I have to admit, I wrote these stories because I couldn't not write them. Well, so be it. They involved me in a lot of hard work, but for me, at least, the results justify the toil. I'm glad I wrote them. Writing them, it turns out, was important for me, and even pleasurable, in a curiously complex after-the-fact kind of way. May they give you pleasure now too. -Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction

The colony on the red planet had no need for heroes. It wanted people who knew how to solve the problem of simple survival. More than anything else it wanted independence form a doomed Earth-and it was in deadly danger of succeeding. A gripping tale of adventure, survival, and defiance set on a future Mars.

Once in a Black Moon (2020) A modern-day journalist is transported back in time to 1900 western Canada. Awaking to learn she may be the victim of some unknown crime, Erin takes shelter with the local Mountie-the picture of upright Canadian fortitude. As tragedy stalks the nearby First Nation reserve, Erin learns from a Romanian mystic that magic is dying, and the fae are turning to their darker natures to survive. "A love so strong that it travels through time to bring two hearts together." -Iuliana Foos, author of The Bloodline Trilogy A Very Witchy Yuletide (2020) While a disbanded coven of modern Pagans gets together for the winter solstice, two among them must face the first love they were never honest with. The Treason of Robyn Hood (2021) When dark truths about her adoptive family are revealed, Robyn Loxley must answer what justice means to her and what she's willing to do to exact it. Robyn and the merry band get an update in this dieselpunk adventure. "The Treason of Robyn Hood has suspense, drama, humor, romance, and action, all jam-packed in a tightly paced novel full of intrigue...I enjoyed it immensely and will highly recommend it to fans of fantasy and adventure." -Readers' Favorite(R) "Connoisseurs of urban fantasy and offbeat romance will find this novel both a fun and fulfilling read. The clever characterizations and skillful melding of fantasy, adventure, and romance put a spotlight on sisterly devotion, oddball alliances, social conscience, and the human ability to rise above broken hearts and broken lives." -The US Review of Books "Urban fantasy readers usually don't receive stories that include the trappings of an alternate history and updated steampunk themes, but The Treason of Robyn Hood's ability to incorporate both into its story of social justice and confrontation creates an atmosphere both familiar and alien at the same time. Thus, the original Robin Hood becomes an exploration of a feisty female's determination and abilities, whether it be in battle or political cat-and-mouse games." -D. Donovan, Senior Editor, Midwest Book Review The Fanciful Travels of D. Lieber is a collection of three of Lieber's novels. Journey with her to transcend time and space, exploring fantastic worlds and stories.

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?

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 ]

"[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.

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.

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.

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