Fourteen of science fiction's most popular writers--including L. Sprague de Camp, Robert Silverberg, and Kim Stanley Robinson--offer their visions of an America that might have been.
"Report of the Special Committee on the Quality of Life" (Harry Turtledove)
"Ink from the New Moon" (A. A. Attanasio)
"Vinland the Dream" (Kim Stanley Robinson)
"If There Be Cause" (Sheila Finch)
"Isabella of Castile Answers Her Mail" (James Morrow)
"Let Time Shape" (George Zebrowski)
"Red Alert" (Jerry Oltion)
"Such a Deal" (Esther M. Friesner)
"Looking for the Fountain" (Robert Silverberg)
"The Round-Eyed Barbarians" (L. Sprague de Camp)
"Destination Indies" (Brad Linaweaver)
"Ship Full of Jews" (Barry N. Malzberg)
"The Karamazov Caper" (Gordon Eklund)
"The Sleeping Serpent" (Pamela Sargent) Views: 406
What is the nature of evil: seductive and beautiful, or cruel and destructive? And who says what makes it evil in the first place?What is the nature of evil? Is it beautiful, seductive, hypnotic? Or is it simply a brutal force of nature, desiring nothing more than total destruction? And who's to say what makes it evil? Views: 390
"Chasing the Lion is a taut thriller that delivers blistering action and mind-blowing tension. Garrett Sinclair is a powerhouse of a hero, and Chasing the Lion is exactly the type of smart and propulsive tale that will keep readers turning pages and anxiously awaiting future installments. " —Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times bestselling authorAs a child, Dariush Parizad survived Iran's Islamic uprising, becoming a symbol of the revolution. Named The Lion of Tabas by the ayatollah himself, Parizad rose through his nation's military to become a lethal soldier and brilliant tactical commander. Now a general, he leads Quds Force, an extremist terrorist organization targeting America and its western allies.The United States has just uncovered a biochemical weapon, Demon Rain, developed by Parizad's group. A psychoactive viral agent, it attacks a person's nervous system and renders them susceptible to mind control. Parizad plans to unleash... Views: 351
In December 1993, Pentagon weapons designer and engineer Doctor Olivia Tolchin attends a Washington, DC arms show. She is accomplished, professionally stymied and personally drifting. Then the senior Russian military intelligence officer in America, Major General Getmanov, approaches her and makes her an offer she can't refuse. A love, politics, and war story set in Russia in the 1990s.It is December 1993 in Washington, DC at an arms show. Pentagon weapons designer and engineer Doctor Olivia Tolchin is drifting. She is at the conference to network and to interview, to take the next step in her life. In a cliché, she is a brilliant, beautiful blonde.Professionally, she is stymied, on the verge of allowing herself to be co-opted by the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex, a far more lucrative life than her current one at Los Alamos. She is a highly-regarded engineer, worth a great deal of money to a defense contractor who could use her to sell sensors for urban combat to the Pentagon: fragile, exotic and hopelessly overpriced, while she wants to create reasonably-priced, reliable, good-enough. In the aftermath of the Cold War, she knows that this is more and more the defense contracting game. Playing it would give her access to better labs, equipment and personnel. It would make her a wealthy woman, while the betrayal, of herself and her country’s best interests, would embitter her deeply. Personally, Olivia was badly hurt in a light plane crash. A licensed instructor pilot, she learned too late how reckless her student was. In the instant when she chose to save her student’s life as well as her own, and then during all the months of therapy that followed, she fundamentally chose to live without compromise. By the time of the arms show, she is still unable to run but she can now hike again. Her lover didn’t wait to experience the changes in her character: he left her while she was still hospitalized. She settled out of court with the wealthy lawyer who was her student. Between the settlement, her family money, and her personal ability, she is more than financially secure. There is a great deal she could do with the rest of her life: it doesn’t have to be defense. She has many options. She is pondering these facts of her life in a defense contractor’s hospitality suite at the arms show when the senior Russian military intelligence officer in America, Major General Getmanov, approaches her. He tells her simply: you and your work are of great interest to us. Although we are not yet friends, we are no longer enemies—but we share common enemies. Call me if you want your work to matter. She does. Late that night, walking and talking, he makes her an offer. Come work for us, he says. Be our Walter Christie, the tank specialist whose ideas revolutionized our armor designs and helped us win World War II. She counters in a way that strips him of his tradecraft: not here, that would make me a criminal or worse. In Russia. Where I will skip all the phony testing and benchmarks, and within a quarter, maybe two, go straight to operational testing and evaluation in the field.In the cauldron that is the First Chechen War, a cauldron made infinitely worse by a Russian Army collapsing into the particular horror of military ineptitude.The last thing Olivia does before she gets on that plane to Russia is to tell the CIA what she’s going to do, and why. It’s not a promising meeting. Her CIA contact blows her off as drunk, drug-addled, probably promiscuous, delusional and grandiose, but, he promises her, he’ll write a memo. Do that, she tells him: gelding. Of course that memo is sold. Back to the Russians. Where it threatens to destroy not just Olivia but all those she has come to love and who have come to trust her.A love, politics, and war story set in Boris Yeltsin’s corrupt and violent Russia of the 1990s. Views: 329
THREE LOCAL BOYS DEAD, ONE MISSING. Sunday, June 19th, 1983 Darkness covers Minea. Trevor Trills 14, Bradley Penwood 12, and George Thyme 11, were all found dead, facedown in the stream beneath the downtown bridge. It is believed that they jumped. Thomas Aerie 7, is still missing. He was last seen walking home from class.John DoeJohn Doe is a killer. Fourteen children in the last twenty six years. Teddy tells him to and he listens. He has to listen. He is parked across the street from the elementary school in Payne, North Dakota, waiting for Teddy to tell him the name of the next child. He hasn’t yet, but he will… Matthew Mills God is good. It's the only truth Matthew Mills needs. But, pain is still pain. It has only been a week since his wife had her second miscarriage in the last three years. She has become a shell of who she was. Only his daughter Marcy is a light in his life.What would happen if she was taken away? Views: 310
Scanned, converted, re-formatted, proofed, and eBook creation by Jerry. Views: 306
A hotel night auditor must withstand the horrors of Nyarlathotep.A hotel night auditor must withstand the demanding horrors of the ultimate bad guest: Nyarlathotep. The Black Pharaoh is well known for inducing madness in his victims, by any means necessary: prank-ordering pizzas, endless phone calls, and threats of bad online reviews are just the tip of the iceberg... Views: 284
