Science fiction about the worlds and creatures beyond planet Earth can be categorized in terms of Invasion or Conquest. Did humans travel to other planets, or did aliens travel to Earth?
Humanity, which has spread throughout the universe, is involved in a war with the Invaders, who have been covertly assassinating officials and sabotaging spaceships. The only clues humanity has to go on are strange alien messages that have been intercepted in space. Poet and linguist Rydra Wong is determined to understand the language and stop the alien threat.
To the victor go the spoils -- and in the aftermath of a brutal and drawn-out war on the planet Poictesme, an agent is sent to hunt among the smoldering ruins for the most valuable prize of all: Merlin, the most powerful computer the universe has ever known. Will the mission be successful, or will the intrepid technology hunter come home empty-handed?
In the twenty-second century Earth obtains limitless, free energy from a source science little understands: an exchange between Earth and a parallel universe, using a process devised by the aliens. But even free energy has a price. The transference process itself will eventually lead to the destruction of the Earth's Sun--and of Earth itself.
Only a few know the terrifying truth--an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun. They know the truth--but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy--but who will believe? These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.
The Raiders came from space on their way to suicide at the edge of the Universe. In passing, they casually halted Earth's rotation-and the few survivors found themselves in a world without days or seasons, half in perpetual daylight, half in eternal night, bordered by the eerie twilight zones. Now, centuries later, extinction faced mankind. One man held the key to survival-if men dared use it!
When Kris Kelvin was sent to Station Solaris he expected the usual hazards of galactic research-solitude, hardship, even death. What he did not expect was a haunting. For a strange simulacrum of his dead wife Rheya suddenly became his constant companion, the gift of Solaris' ruling intelligence, A SENTIENT OCEAN, whose vast mind and enigmatic personality was to try and trouble those humans who contacted it, sometimes to the point of suicide...
The story of Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet super-human in abilities and ignorant of sex as we know it. He shocks the mores of Western culture by attempting to set up a strange and fascinating discipline on Earth: the first step is learning to Grok...
In the 22nd Century Earth was controlled by a cabal of genetic freaks, superior to "normal" men because of their powers of telepathy and precognition. Mere ordinary men didn't have a chance. Suddenly, however, there was one ray of hope-Thors Provoni was coming back. Provoni had stolen a spaceship, escaped from Earth and gone out to the stars in search of another intelligent race that would help end the slavery of Homo sapiens-he had been given up for lost. He was coming back now with the representative of a powerful alien race that would champion the rights of man. Who was this inhuman savior? And what was the price of this friend from Frolix 8?
"...and call me Conrad!" Such was the only comment that Conrad Nimikos would make on his life-history, an enigma that faded out in lost records and obscurity a few decades back. There were those who said he had since had a different name, that of the liberator of Earth, the man who had fought the star-empire of Vega to a standoff. And some even said that he had had other names, stretching back through centuries...But Conrad wouldn't talk about his past. For the future was at stake now-the future of Earth and her peoples, as the Vegans returned on a mission which would decide for all time the place of Earth among the worlds of the stars.
The creatures from Saturn's moon could appear human or inhuman, at will. And the elaborate contest they set up with the remnants of Earth's humanity was just as treacherous. For though the war had been fought to a stalemate, the unending series of gambles could upset that truce-and end the world.
The Druggish were much better at their job than all the king's horses had been with Humpty Dumpty. First, the Druggish simply disassembled Edward Berner--tissue by tissue, nerve by nerve. In tanks they stored the million remnants and shreds that had been Berner, and they changed his brain into a fantastic recording device. Then they simply put him back together. Sinew by sinew, cell by cell. But it was not the same Edi Berner. The new Ed Berner was stronger, healthier--stronger and healthier than any other man. And with a sexual appetite and a promised life-span greater than anyone on earth. He was very nearly invincible. Very nearly. Unfortunately, there was a deadly flaw. The Druggish had forgotten to make the new Ed Berner a wiser one.
Cottrell and Bixby had what seemed a hopeless mission: defend civilization againt an onslaught by the Tinkers. There seems to be supernatural forces working for the enemy.
T.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth on a desperate mission of mercy. But instead of aid, Newton discovers loneliness and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy.
