Sphere Science Fiction

An Eric John Stark Adventure Volume 1 of the "Book of Skaith"

After saving the world, diGriz is called on to save the universe. Liberating his two, now teenage, twin sons from a military boarding school and penitentiary, diGriz sets out to free his wife, who has been arrested by the tax men. But the family is soon fighting an enemy of a different sort when the humans-only galaxy of the League is invaded by all manner of hideous aliens. The Rat, disguised in the most hideous combination of alien physical features, is sent into the centre of the aliens' stronghold, where he finds himself the object of desire among the aliens. His task is to stop the aliens, who plan to wipe out every human in the universe.

The Dragon Masters - novella by Jack Vance No Truce with Kings - novella by Poul Anderson Soldier, Ask Not - novella by Gordon R. Dickson "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - short story by Harlan Ellison The Last Castle - novella by Jack Vance Neutron Star - novelette by Larry Niven Weyr Search - novella by Anne McCaffrey Riders of the Purple Wage - novella by Philip José Farmer Gonna Roll the Bones - novelette by Fritz Leiber I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - short story by Harlan Ellison Nightwings - novella by Robert Silverberg The Sharing of Flesh - novelette by Poul Anderson The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World - short story by Harlan Ellison (variant of The Beast That Shouted Love 1968) Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones - novelette by Samuel R. Delany

A race of energy beings are discovered to inhabit interstellar space. They feed off the energy of stars. They seem friendly enough, but even though they learn human language quickly, it is hard to communicate with them because their outlook and world view is so different. It is important to communicate with them anyway because they have the solution to Earth's need for energy. A young man manages to make a treaty with them.

Each story preceded by 1 paragraph of commentary.

Jef Robini was heading for Everon with a highly controversial cargo. For eight years on Earth Jef had tried to rear the maolot cub which was the final legacy from his brother. But the maolot had failed to grow into the giant cat that was Everon's largest and most dangerous life-form. And now Jef was returning the creature to its natural home, the colonized planet of Everon. He knew the planet was barren. And that he'd have to fight to survive. But nothing had prepared him for the incomprehensible strangeness, the mind-blasting wonder of the true Masters of Everon.

Reality twisted... slightly. Earth shivered. For a split second the Solar System wasn't. And then was again. Less than a billionth of a second -- but a time shift had nonetheless happened. As the shadow ship started to emerge from the time jump, men and aliens were locked in a secret, undeclared war for control of the Earth. Genetically altered, the aliens looked exactly like humans. And they were in positions of power everywhere. Opposing them were two humans and one isolated brain in a mechanical body. But between them they held the one secret that the aliens had never learned about the people of Earth...

William Dane is a man with a nasty, but valuable secret, one that all the cutthroats in the galaxy are itching to get their hands on. Dane must perfect the art of concealing himself from the crazed factions yearning for the power that this secret can give them or die at the hands of the most brutal men alive. He's a man on the run from the entire galaxy, but one day that won't be the case. One day in the deadly game of cat and mouse, he will become the deadlier, feline opponent. But until then, he must keep a close guard or the key to ruling the universe could fall into the wrong hands. This classic science fiction masterpiece satisfies readers every desire for adventure and intrigue.

An Anthology of Hugo award winners. The highest prize in Sci-Fi. Each of these stories, by different authors, was voted as the best novella/short story of a particular year. Asimov was also the editor or something. I have read it and loved it. Science Fiction at it's best.

For two years Alan Green had lived without hope. From the day the spaceship had crashed on this unknown planet he had resigned himself to the destiny created for him by accident and mathematics. Chances against another ship landing within the next hundred years were a million to one. Therefore it would do no good to sit around waiting for rescue. Much as he loathed the idea, he must live the rest of his life here, and he must squeeze as much blood as he could out of this planet-sized turnip.

Forever and a day Brigadier General Benjamin Shore ignores a Presidential command and launches a revolutionary phase ship and its crew on an incredible journey deep into uncharted regions toward Galactic Center-point... Investigating one planet after another in search of a habitable world, they encounter: the vicious vine-tigers, weasel-like pre-men, who live on an innocent-looking planet lit by the sun of Polaris; the slim Gray-furs, a race possessing fantastic knowledge, yet strangely inept; and the giant conquerors, the Golden People, with their magnificent cities, and their deadly javelin guns... With half his crew lost, General Shore prepares to return to Earth, only to find his most formidable foe aboard the phase ship itself...

The Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of 1967. The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are "different" must deal with the dominant cultural ideology. The tale follows Lobey's mythic quest for his lost love, Friza. In luminous and hallucinated language, it explores what new myths might emerge from the detritus of the human world as those who are "different" try to seize history and the day.

8 short stories, a variety of time travel scenarios

In years of crisis after World War 3, a mutant "village idiot" is found to possess strange powers that can save the world.