Retired and sitting in a restaurant in San Francisco, there's an earthquake. They say your life flashes in front of your eyes when death threatens. When Bill is rescued, his descendants try to kill him. Discoveries by an astronomer seldom turn the world upside down. Is greed the only reason? Who will help him? He sends them a message stating that he only wants to enjoy his retirement.After years of searching the sky's and a successful career, something finally caught Bill's eye. Discoveries by an astronomer seldom turn the world upside down. He had his son's education and life planned out, but years ago when his son married, he rebelled. Could and would he help him now? Family is usually something you can depend on. Retired and sitting in a restaurant in San Francisco, there's an earthquake. Bill is wheelchair bound at the age of eighty-three, because he lost a leg in Thailand. They say your life flashes in front of your eyes when death threatens. When earthquake victims are rescued, they are moved to a safe location, right? However when Bill is rescued, his descendants try to kill him. He sends them a message stating that he only wants to enjoy his retirement. Is greed their only reason? Who will help him? Views: 789
The stories collected here, written between August of 1987 and May of 1990, demonstrate that I still believe in the classical unities. Of course, what seems to us a unity now might not have appeared that way when H.G. Wells was writing his wonderful stories in the nineteenth century. Wells might have argued that my 'To the Promised Land' is built around two speculative fantastic assumptions, one that the Biblical Exodus from Egypt never happened, the other that it is possible to send rocketships to other worlds. But in fact we've sent plenty of rocketships to other worlds by now, so only my story's alternative-world speculation remains fantasy today. Technically speaking the space-travel element of the plot has become part of the given; it's the other big assumption that forms the central matter of the story.
--Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Dead Man's Eyes
Enter A Soldier. Later: Enter Another
To The Promised Land
Chip Runner
A Sleep And A Forgetting
In Another Country
The Asenion Solution
We Are For The Dark
Lion Time in Timbuctoo
A Tip On A Turtle Views: 789
Listed in "THE TOP TEN HORROR NOVELS OF 2015" - HorrorNovelReviews.comListed in "THE BEST HORRORS OF 2015" - BestHorrorMovies.comAn alien craft has crashed in the Antarctic. A creature has crawled from the wreckage and become frozen in ice. The men of Fafnir Station have transported it back to their base. Some of the men can hear it whispering in their mind.Listed in "THE TOP TEN HORROR NOVELS OF 2015" - HorrorNovelReviews.comListed in "THE BEST HORRORS OF 2015" - BestHorrorMovies.comAn alien craft has crashed in the Antarctic.A creature has crawled from the wreckage and become frozen in ice.The men of Fafnir Station have transported it back to their base.Some of the men can hear it whispering in their mind.Some are afraid and want to destroy it......and some will kill to defend it."The Thing: Zero Day is a surefire hit... A complete blast, loaded with menacing monsters, action and frenetic mayhem.” - HorrorNovelReviews.com“The Thing: Zero Day is full of fast paced, thrilling, nail biting action! Brilliantly written, amazing characters that grab you immediately and take you with them on their suspense filled adventure.” - Quater After One“A suspenseful, exciting and chilling ride and I am so glad to have been able to read it” - Bookolio“Well written and very entertaining… and the overall vibe is pretty creeptastic!” - The Mouths of Madness Podcast“Zero Day is a wonderful piece of writing which compliments Carpenter’s movie superbly.” - Bookolio“The Thing: Zero Day, makes you feel the way you felt the first time you read ‘Who Goes There?’, because Lee McGeorge’s way with words is brilliant.” - Codices Views: 788
The World after the End of the World will never be the same again… Sanctuary. Clichéd name, but the sentiment is still the same. Ten years after the end of the world, ex-soldier Mason and a small group of humans defend their fortified town against creatures of myth and legend made real. But with dwindling game to hunt and a lycan pack in the area looking for an easy meal, just surviving is getting harder every day. Andy has a few screws loose, and she knows it. She’s been on the road since the bombs fell and changed humanity forever. Driven by inhuman instincts, she tracks the newly and soon-to-be dead and dispatches their souls to the afterlife. Sometimes they go quietly, most put up a fight. She doesn’t care either way. Her ambition in life is to find her next hit of coffee and one day, maybe, sleep in a real bed again. Then Andy’s instincts bring her to Sanctuary and its enigmatic leader, Mason, and even the world after the end of the world will never be the same again… Warning: Contains a snarky female Reaper with a hair-trigger temper and a caffeine addiction, a hot ex-commando with an attitude and a twisted sense of humour and a happily ever after that defies death itself. Views: 788
But, for all that, I went on writing short fiction all through the seventh and eighth decades of my life, and though I’m not very active these days, I would still pay attention if someone were to approach me with an interesting and challenging short-story project, or if some absolutely irresistible story idea were to come into my mind. I will not, at this point, try to claim that the stories that are collected here are the last short stories I will ever write. Surely some editor, in the years ahead, will tickle my imagination with a proposal I can’t resist. But I doubt that will be happening very often; and, meanwhile, here’s the harvest of the fourteen years that began in 1995—not an enormous number of stories, no, but stories nevertheless that I think are worth reading and reprinting.
—Robert Silverberg, from his Introduction Views: 788
In the era of The Hundred Kingdoms, a time of war and unrest, a legendary friendship is forged between king and keeper which will lead to a new destiny for Darkover. Views: 788
Four short stories and a novella set in 'The Apostrophe Universe' - a place where only the starborn have privileges common to the west and the mudfoot, those born on Earth, work in scientific and engineering jobs maintaining the lifestyle of the starborn. The stories range from Christmas with a broken family to cloning a boy's father after he is sentenced to death. Great stories for sci-fi fans.This is a collection of short stories and one novella. All are science fiction set in a world called 'The Apostrophe Universe.'Gravity before NewtonThis is the story of a man named Futter who dreams of becoming a scientist yet is thwarted at every turn by real life. One day when working in his professional garage he is hit on the head with a lug nut and has an epiphany about the science of fate. As he calls it, Fate before Futter is like Gravity before Newton. It existed, but took a unique mind and a knock on the head by an apple to bring the science to the world. His plan goes disastrously wrong costing him everything.A View Without SeasonsThis is the story of a man raising his young daughter by himself. Her mother has taken a job on another ship and is doing important scientific work that will change all of humanity forever. Yet when the man hears that his ex-wife's vessel will dock with his on Christmas day, he takes the opportunity to have his family together and to celebrate the antiquated holiday in the old fashioned way. It is a look at Christmas from the point of view of a society that has moved beyond Earth and faith.Lomonosov's DriftWhen a geologist finds a beautiful rock while mining for solid methane he takes it back to his wife. When she hosts a party for potential clients of her engineering firm some clients begin to believe the rock has supernatural healing powers and should be shared with the entire ship. When the couple disagree with the consensus of the ship they are forced to leave, heading out into the void alone.The Storm FishersThe novella that gave the book its title. This is the story of two young men who attend Faraday University on Mars and are assigned to different places on the spaceship for their intern year. One a brilliant physicist the other a struggling mathematician, they drift in opposite directions until they discover the injustice in the system of space travel that the solar system uses. Together, and with new friends, they set out to regain what is theirs both physically and legally.Sheep BiteWhen a man is convicted of unethical science he is condemned to die, his wife, a geneticist, takes a sample of his DNA to produce a clone of him that will help her raise their son. When the ship she works on discovers what she has done disaster strikes and all of their lives are changed forever. Views: 787
The Peripheral by William Gibson is a thrilling new novel about two intertwined futures, from the bestselling author of Neuromancer
Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural near-future America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she's keen to avoid. Her brother Burton lives, or tries to, on money from the Veterans Association, in compensation for neurological damage suffered in a Marines elite unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. She used to make more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she's had to let the shooter games go.
Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there aren't many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself as a romantic misfit in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.
Burton's been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He's got his sister taking over shifts, promised her the game's not a shooter. Still, the crime Flynne witnesses there is plenty bad.
Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf's, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass. Views: 787
There was an Old Lady who swallowed -- all sorts of things. But how did the animals feel about that?Ten years ago two children went missing and were presumed to be victims of a satanic ritual. Police charged the antisocial brother of one of the victims with the crime, but the real culprit's still on the loose. The approaching anniversary prompts the killer to strike again, but there's a private investigator who's beginning to ask the right questions about what happened a decade earlier. The killer discovers that he's being hunted, and decides to do whatever it takes to stay hidden. Lincoln Pierce always wanted to be a private detective, but his life didn't end up the way he expected. His daughter's debilitating disease forced him to make some questionable decisions, and he's been paying for them ever since. He's determined to make the most of a bad situation, and has started looking into a case that could change his entire career, if he doesn't get killed in the process. Views: 786
The 1970 World Cup would be an exciting event for all of Brazil. All young Rego Ouliveyra wanted was to watch his favorite player Pele and to witness this historical moment in sports from his humble roots in Brasilia. But unbeknownst to him fate would have other plans as he is entrusted with an incredible secret and is pressed into embarking on an adventure of a lifetime!The Brazilian follows young Rego Ouliveyra, an ordinary college-age teen, growing up in Brasilia. Rego loved to play soccer and was eager to watch his favorite player, Pele, compete in the 1970 World Cup. But his life is thrown into a frenzy when a stranger implores him to go on an incredible journey. The stranger entrusts him with a mysterious leather satchel containing an unknown secret. The journey takes Rego on an adventure of a lifetime through South America and across the Atlantic. He encounters many people along the way, both good and bad, in several wondrous and unique locations. All the while, his own government will stop at nothing to catch him and seize the contents of the satchel for themselves. Explore with him on this exciting journey of discovery and intrigue! Views: 786
Allia Washington watches as another Compound candidate is wheeled to the morgue. Now a new position is open and the first in line is Allia's young son. She knows the program will kill her son, but protecting him will take more than solving why all of the candidates die too soon. She may be forced to do anything to save her son, even if she has to defy the Compound itself. This is a short story.Allia Washington watches as another young Compound candidate is wheeled into the science lab for emergency care. The boy is only 12 years old and will not survive to see another sunrise. This means a new position will open in the candidate program and the Compound will be looking for new applicants, the first of which is Allia's four-year-old son. She knows the program will kill her son and she has to find a way to keep him out of it. But protecting her son will take more than solving the mystery that kills all of the candidates too soon. She may be forced to do something drastic, anything to save her son, even if it means she has to defy the Compound itself. This is a short story prequel to The White Lilac a YA dystopia sci-fi novel. Views: 786
After witnessing his brother's death and fleeing from the killer in the woods during a camping trip, Gunner returns to the remote timberlands of Northern Maine with three friends to recover the body. He feels he's ready for the killer this time, but he's not ready for the surprises the forest hides.Two men try to steal a famous art piece. A young girl struggle with her fate. A teen needs a way around her mother's wrath. THE FATE OF JULIET AND OTHER SHORT STORIES is a collection of short stories by Beth Lindsay, ranging in genre and length. The collection includes "The Fate of Juliet," "The Multiple Choice Life," and "The Fountain Heist." These stories tackle themes related to consequences of one’s choices. Two men break into a museum during a dangerous storm and must escape unharmed in the story THE FOUTAIN HEIST. THE Multiple Choice Life explores a world where all a person's choices are presented before them, and they must make a choice from only those options. The Fate of Juliet follows the decision making of Juliet, a high school girl that hates her name and the fate that associated with it. Views: 785
In the language of Shakespeare, meaning can seem obscure, its style elaborate and theatrical. This work presents the language of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet, in more natural and readily comprehensible English. This may prove of some value for studying, understanding and gaining superior appreciation of, and insight into, the play.In the language of Shakespeare, meaning can seem obscure, its style elaborate and theatrical. With much of it not easily intelligible, it can often require some effort to interpret. This work presents the language of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet, in more natural and more readily comprehensible English. This may prove of some value for studying, understanding and gaining superior appreciation of, and insight into, the play, allowing one to more easily comprehend the language in which it is written. Views: 785
Pursued by the CIA, the DEA, and the Wild Card mistress of the winds, Mistral, renegade biochemist Mark Meadows uses the three personalities buried in his psyche in order to outwit his pursuers. Views: 785
THE IRON CHANCELLOR was Robert Silverberg’s second contribution to GALAXY (his first a year earlier in 1956 was BLAZE OF GLORY); he was 22 when it appeared and it shows a remarkably developed talent. Silverberg in his memoirs remembers how Horace Gold, the editor of GALAXY magazine, was simultaneously entranced by Silverberg’s precocity and angered by what he felt was the young writer’s eagerness to settle for production, stylistic facility and prolific output. Like all of the editors with whom Silverberg dealt in his early career, Gold alternated between impatience and admiration but he did find THE IRON CHANCELLOR a strong story and he was glad to have it at a time when so many of his regular contributors, impatient with the field and with Horace, were moving on or moving out. In this story of a controlling machine assuming a totalitarian control, the influences on Silverberg can be clearly noted--Henry Kuttner’s Gallegher stories, Robert Sheckley’s rampant and perverse technology in the AAA Ace Series (also published in GALAXY). Silverberg’s own voice has emerged and he handles his rather large cast without stereotype, with clear definition and with a good deal of control. Silverberg became an increasingly dominant GALAXY contributor in the following decade and then, in the early 1970’s when the editorship had passed to Ejler Jakobsson’s and a new publisher, three of Silverberg’s novels were serialized in consecutive issues of the magazine, "The amazing fulfillment of a childhood fantasy" Silverberg wrote. Views: 785