Walter Mosley's talent knows no bounds. Stepping Stone and Love Machine are but two of six fragments in the Crosstown to Oblivion short novels in which Mosley entertainingly explores life's cosmic questions. From life's meaning to the nature of good and evil, these tales take us on speculative journeys beyond the reality we have come to know. In each tale someone in our world today is given insight into these long pondered mysteries. But how would the world really receive the answers? Stepping Stone : Truman Pope has spent his whole life watching the world go by--and waiting for something he can't quite put into words. A gentle, unassuming soul, he has worked in the mailroom of a large corporation for decades without making waves, until the day he spots a mysterious woman in yellow. A woman nobody else can see. Soon Truman's quiet life begins to turn upside-down. An old lover surfaces from his past even as he finds his job in jeopardy. Strange visions haunt his days and nights, until he begins to doubt his sanity. Is he losing his mind, or is he on the brink of a startling revelation that will change his life forever--and transform the nature of humanity? Love Machine : The Datascriber was supposed to merely allow individuals to share sensory experiences via a neurological link, but its true potential is even more revolutionary. The brainchild of an eccentric, possibly deranged scientist, the "Love Machine" can merge individual psyches and memories into a collective Co-Mind that transcends race, gender, species . . . and even death itself. Tricked into joining the Co-Mind, as part of a master plan to take over the world, Lois Kim struggles to adapt to her new reality and abilities. Is there any way back to the life that was stolen from her, or is she destined to lead humanity into a strange new era, despite the opposition of forces both human and otherwise?

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

Greg Salinger was just your typical merc for hire - killing those he deemed "foolish" for money. But that life is behind him now. Today, he's a psychiatrist, trying to help others. But now S.H.I.E.L.D. wants him to try to rehabilitate super villains. The catch? If these "patients" don't make enough progress, they're dead! Sounds like a job for Foolkiller! But when he finds himself alone with an arsenal of weapons against an army of skinhead Red Skull sympathizers, he'll be asking questions about his own career choices! Who's the fool now, Salinger? COLLECTING: FOOLKILLER 1-5

Contents: Introduction, essay by Donald F. Theall; Prologue, essay by Judith Merril. Stories: Survival Ship; Wish Upon a Star; Exile from Space; Connection Completed; The Shrine of Temptation; Peeping Tom; The Lady Was a Tramp; Auction Pit; So Proudly We Hail; The Deep Down Dragon; Whoever You Are; Death Is the Penalty; The Lonely. Epilogue, essay by Judith Merril.

Widescreen comics are here! Champion is a rousing and romantic tale that celebrates costumed heroes in the blend of Superman: The Movie and The Princess Bride, all told in a groundbreaking widescreen comics format (imagine a normal comic turned on its side!). The tale unfolds as a grandmother tells her grandson the life story of a superhero: how he gets the girl, loses the girl, gets the world destroyed, and then gets a chance to do it all over again, this time setting things right.

In the future, a world ravaged by war and controlled by hyper-rich overlords needs a saviour. Now OMAC, One Man Army Corps, lives - so that mankind may live. Mild-mannered scientist Buddy Blank has been given superhuman strength and near-invincibility so that he can fight for humanity's survival.

The army made Bill the galactic hero what he is today - the perfect Starship Trouper, and proud possessor of two right arms and a lockerful of feet suitable for every occasion. Now he's been volunteered to join a suicide-squad run by Captain Cadaver to the well-known hell-hole planet of Eyerack.

A beautiful female assassin's memory is purged after every hit to protect her and her masters. As she becomes self-aware, Aphrodite begins to surpass her programming to rebel against those who use her. Re-imagining and re-collecting the complete, original Aphrodite IX series drawn by superstar artist David Finch ( Batman: The Dark Knight ), this collection has been completely rescripted, rebooted, and updated in celebration of the Aphrodite IX ongoing series. Only 500 copies of this glorious, oversized hardcover will be produced!

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. After crashing their spaceship in the Nevada desert, Klatu, Lek, and their sister Ploo go to Las Vegas in search of the one mechanic who can fix it.

Seven powerful refugees from another world are stranded on Earth, where they immediately run headlong into new challenges and adventures. This volume collects seven stories from the hit series, in which the team tries to make a new life for themselves on our world while defending their new home against such villains as Darkseid, the Female Furies, Maitresse, Nike and SkinDance. Graphic novel format.

An exclusive two-in-one novel from the Science Fiction Book Club, set in Charles Stross’ Eschaton Universe: Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise. Singularity Sky: Spaceship engineer Martin Springfield and U.N. diplomat Rachel Mansour hail from an Earth that has gone through the Singularity, an accelerated technological and social evolution far beyond anything we can imagine. The Singularity was triggered by the Eschaton, a super-powerful being descended from humanity that can travel in time and that essentially rules the universe. Springfield and Mansour meet on the home world of the New Republic, a repressive, backwater society that has outlawed virtually all advanced technology other than that necessary for interstellar warfare. When one of the New Republic's colonial worlds is besieged by the Festival, an enigmatic alien intelligence, the Republic counterattacks, using time travel in an attempt to put its warships in position to catch the Festival by surprise. Springfield and Mansour, working for different masters, have both been assigned the task of either diffusing the crisis or sabotaging the New Republic's warfleet, no matter what the cost. Iron Sunrise: In the 24th century, a McWorld ("bland, comfortable, tolerant... boring") called New Moscow apparently has been destroyed by trade rival New Dresden—but not before New Moscow launched its own Slower-Than-Light (STL) counterstrike: a massive ship accelerated to 80% the speed of light. The U.N., now central Earth government, knows New Dresden was set up. They need the STL's recall code, now known only to a handful of New Moscow's ambassadors—but someone has been systematically assassinating them. U.N. special operative Rachel Mansour and her husband, engineer Martin Springfield, must protect the last living ambassador and find out who's really responsible for the whole mess.

"Ever since Homo sapiens first looked up at the stars, we as a species have been looking for meaning in the mysteries of the night sky. Over the millennia, as our knowledge, science, and technology developed, the stories we told ourselves about the universe and our place in it developed as well. In The Night Sky, Richard Grossinger traces those developments, covering multiple aspects of humanity's complex relationship to the cosmos. Covering not only astronomy but also cosmology, cosmogony, astrology, and science fiction, he offers us a revelatory look at the firmament through his own telescope, fitted with an anthropological lens. Throughout his explorations, Grossinger continually reflects on the deeper meaning of our changing concepts about the universe and creation, offering insight into how each new discovery causes us to redefine the values, moralities, and aesthetics by which we live. He also calls into question the self-aggrandizing notion that humanity can and will conquer all, and injects our strident confidence in science with a healthy dose of humility and wonder. Filled with poetic observation and profound questions, The Night Sky is a brilliant reflection of humanity's relationship with the cosmos--a relationship fed by longing, doubt, and awe"--

And the Rat Laughed is a unique book. Unlike other Holocaust-related books that focus on the historical horrific events, this novel deals with the act of remembering them. It resembles a relay race in which the characters transfer memory from one another, while travelling on the axis of time. The book begins in the last day of 1999, when a survivor Grandmother in Tel Aviv shares her tragic life story as a hidden child in a pit, with only a rat for company with her granddaughter. The day after – 2000 already – the granddaughter tells the legend of "Girl and Rat" to her teacher and in 2009 those who heard it through her classmates establish an internet website with poems. From now on this memory is spread all over the world and becomes a myth. In 2099 a future anthropologist discovers it and tries to uncover its mysterious roots. In her research, she reveals the first man who created this myth in the past. Father Stanislaw, a Catholic priest, saved that little Jewish girl (who later became the Grandmother in Tel Aviv) and returned her after the war to her Jewish people. In his personal journal he documented everything, to make sure the world will never forget. The chain of remembearers, therefore, moves from the present to the future and back to the past. The novel is written in 5 genres: story, legend, poems, science fiction and diary, creating a cycle of 150 years. And the Rat Laughed got acclaim for its use of unconventional and original literary devices and became a ground breaker for exploring the act of memory itself. How do we tell our painful story? Does it change while we recall it? How will our next recipient recall it in his own individual way? Is Art the only corridor to transfer emotional memory?

Henry Kuttner (April 7, 1915-February 4, 1958) was a science fiction author born in Los Angeles, California. As a young man he worked for a literaryagency before selling his first story, "The Graveyard Rats", to Weird Tales in 1936. Kuttner 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 andmost of the work was credited to pseudonyms, mainly Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell.

All new stories exploring those women who embody the brass bras and chainlink bikinis in the world of science fiction and fantasy writing. Authors include Elizabeth Moon, Esther Friesner, Jody Lyn Nye, Harry Turtledove, Margaret Ball and more.