Search Worlds Without End

The day Jeff Benson went to the auction of the Hotchkiss Scientific Laboratories, all he wanted was permission from the winning bidder to use some of its equipment. For the young scientist believed that he was on the trail of a discover which--if he could prove it--would be literally earth-shaking in its implications: an error in the Universal Law of the Conservation of Energy. But to continue his investigations, he needed better equipment than he could afford.

Farradyne had committed the one unpardonable error a Space Master could make. He didn't die along with the other 32 passengers when his ship smashed into the Bog on Venus.

They broke him--exiled him to the rotting fungus fields of Venus.

Now his only desire in existence was to return to the cool, gleaming sea of deep space.

And there was a way--only one. But he would have to become the vilest parasite in the universe--peddler of a poison that stripped the spirit, before it consumed the body....

Part of Steve Cornell's life had been snatched away from him. It started when his fiancee vanished. It got much worse, though, when everybody insisted it didn't happen the way he believed. Soon Steve's search for his missing fiancee brought him face to face with and incredible, mind-boggling secret. And it soon became clear that some unknown foe didn't want him to discover it. A foe who would use any means to stop him. Could Steve find that foe before they made him vanish too?

A lifeboat at sea is hard to find, even when you know approximately where the ship has foundered. An eager novice, just out of navigation school, will pinpoint his estimation of ship's position, when called upon to locate it. A more experienced seaman will draw a circle and say, "We're somewhere around here," But the veteran salt will lay his palm on the map and declare that this indicates the general area. Even with the best of modern instruments, you can't be sure exactly where you are, on the high seas.

And that is only a problem in two dimensions.

Now imagine a search extended in three dimensions, where the only "landmarks" are a pattern of stars which do not change visible. A ship is between star-systems; trouble develops, and passengers and crew have to take to lifeships. the distress signal has been sent out; automatic devices aboard the main ship describe the general position. On the lifeships themselves are signaling devices which let the searchers know that the castaways are still alive....

The novel concerns Guy Maynard, of Earth, who is rescued from his Martian captors by Thomakein of the planet Eterne, an invisible wandering planet. After spending time on Eterne, Maynard returns to Earth where he uses the knowledge he gained to launch an invasion against the newly discovered planet Mephisto. He returns to Earth a hero, but is later court martialed and driven from the Galactic Patrol. He seeks refuge on Eterne by impersonating their ruler. When he is discovered, he flees to Mephisto and there raises an army enabling him to conquer the Solar system becoming its emperor.

"Operation Interstellar" is a grand piece of space opera. For years men had struggled with the linking up of real-time planetary communications. They said the theory wasn't sound. It seemed impossible. But Paul Grayson had been working with the Z-wave in the hope of establishing the legitimacy of his own theories. But so far, success had eluded him. No one would give him a chance to test his findings. The closer he came to proving the validity of his theories, the harder multiple political factions worked against him--including his own boss!

This George Smith novel is riddled with intrigue, murder, and good old-fashioned space opera in this classic tale from the golden years of science fiction.

Spectacular action and dramatic adventure make this science fiction novel outstanding entertainment. Jumping forward in time several hundred years, the reader find himself in a future where space travel is commonplace. Spaceships of mankind criscross from planet to planet, carrying civilization out of our Solar System to the stars behond. Alien people are encountered on strange worlds and fascinating situations are experienced. Vast fleets of spacships clash in battle. For exciting reading pleasure--mixed with the thought-provoking ideas of scientific speculation--this is a story not to be missed.

Mankind of the future, the story relates, has united itself into a Solar Combine. Progressive and powerful, this Combine explores its frontiers of space, confident in its unthreatened security. And then come the two Little Men. As agents of an older, more intelligent race they seen mankind's co-operation in a mysterious plan. the Solar Combine agrees to investigate a tiny object, passing through their section of the universe, which the Little Men vaguely insis is a "threat to civilization." A task force of the Space Guard is sent on the mission. The reader meets the three guardsmen in commandL Stellor Downing, Martian born, hard of nature, cold and calculating and murdersously swift, wearing a modine weapon on each hip. Clifford Lane, Venusian born, handsome and fearless wildman, gay and impetuous with a mind like a hair-trigger. And Bobby Thompson, Earth born, whose calm judgment knits the three of them into a powerful unit. They lead their ships into the territory of the catmen--and finally against the dreaded Loard-vodh, who sweep the Galaxy into a gigantic war.

George O. Smith is noted as an expert teller of interplanetary adventures. And Pattern for Conquest is Smith at his best. The intriguing plot builds to a startling enexpected climax, a climax which is clever and yet surprisingly logical. For scientific ingenuity on a mighty scope blended into exciting entertainment, this is a science fiction novel to read.

Venus Equilateral

It was the nerve center of the solar system, the only interplanetary communication space station that could relay messages around the sun and across the galaxy.

Manned by Dr. Don Channing and acrew of tough, dedicated men and women, Venus Equilateral was vital for all space emergencies.

But it was also vulnerable--Making it ripe for:

TROUBLE ... when an underground power coup surfaced on Venus;

DANGER ...when an efficiency expert's efficiency became deadly;

MADNESS ...when a matter duplicatior doubled up too often;

AND LOTS MORE ...like space pirates, paranormal phenomena, and nor least those villainous chaps who control Terran Electric!

Table of Contents:

• ix - Introduction (The Complete Venus Equilateral) - essay by Arthur C. Clarke
• 2 - QRM - Interplanetary - [Venus Equilateral] - (1942) - novelette
• 41 - Calling the Empress - [Venus Equilateral] - (1943) - novelette
• 69 - Recoil - [Venus Equilateral] - (1943) - novelette
• 104 - Lost Art - [Venus Equilateral] - (1943) - novelette
• 132 - Off the Beam - [Venus Equilateral] - (1944) - novelette
• 168 - The Long Way - [Venus Equilateral] - (1944) - novelette
• 202 - Beam Pirate - [Venus Equilateral] - (1944) - novelette
• 244 - Firing Line - [Venus Equilateral] - (1944) - novelette (variant of The Firing Line)
• 282 - Special Delivery - [Venus Equilateral] - (1945) - novelette
• 317 - Pandora's Millions - [Venus Equilateral] - (1945) - novelette
• 348 - Mad Holiday - [Venus Equilateral] - (1947) - short story
• 406 - The External Triangle - [Venus Equilateral] - (1973) - short story (variant of Interlude)
• 427 - Identity - [Venus Equilateral] - (1945) - novelette

Jimmy Holden was an experiment...

He was normally bright, normal-sized, and enormously curious -- just like most small boys. The only thing different in Jimmy's life was a machine -- a machine which could teach him better, faster, more completely and more thoroughly than any human method yet devised.

It was nothing more than a glorified memorizing contraption, but it filled the mind permanently with whole books of fact and figure -- readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic -- plus all the diverse information that an insatiably curious young mind could seek, including how to build the machine that taught him.

So Jimmy quickly became a very valuable experiment indeed. Certain people figured that, properly handled, young James could be a goldmine, and they weren't above murdering in order to get control of him. But even a five-year-old mind will defend itself when attacked.

And nobody had figured on what the machine did not teach -- the fourth "R" -- REASON...

The Mind Stealers

They told Jim Carroll that he had been the most brilliant physicist in the world. But he didn't remember that--or anything else. His memory had been totally wiped out.

Carroll accepted the explanation that it had been strain or overwork--until he saw top-secret papers being stolen openly, and abductions that nobody seemed to notice... or even believe when he reported them.

Something was clouding men's minds--something that had blotted his own memory. No human had that power. So...

He had got that far in his reasoning... then the aliens kidnapped him!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Frederik Pohl
• Blind Time - (1946) - short story
• The Planet Mender - (1952) - novelette
• The Catspaw - (1948) - novella
• Rat Race - (1947) - short story
• Meddler's Moon - (1947) - novelette
• Meddler's Moon (radio script) - short story
• In the Cards - (1947) - novelette
• History Repeats - (1959) - short story
• The Big Fix - (1959) - novelette
• Fire, 2016! - (1964) - novelette
• Understanding - (1967) - novelette

Contains 10 of the 13 stories that are included in "The Complete Venus Equilateral" (1976).

Table of Contents:

• Venus Equilateral - interior artwork by Sol Levin
• 8 - Introduction (Venus Equilateral) - essay by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• 14 - QRM - Interplanetary - (1942) - novelette
• 59 - Calling the Empress - (1943) - novelette
• 93 - Recoil - (1943) - novelette
• 135 - Off the Beam - (1944) - novelette
• 177 - The Long Way - (1944) - novelette
• 217 - Beam Pirate - (1944) - novelette
• 265 - Firing Line - (1944) - novelette (variant of The Firing Line)
• 311 - Special Delivery - (1945) - novelette
• 351 - Pandora's Millions - (1945) - novelette
• 389 - Mad Holiday - short story

Earth's Last Fortress

It looked like a perfectly innocent store front, a volunteer enrollment office for young idealists who wanted to help the desperate forces of a young democracy overseas win their civil war. The young girl who sat at the desk inside was attractive, sympathetic, and would see that you got your passage safely.

Lost in Space

Commodore Ted Wilson's intuition told him right! He should never have let his fiancee, Alice Hemingway, take off on Space Liner 79 - the flight that fate had singled out to change the destiny of the galaxy!

Masters of Evolution

Alvah Gustad was typical of New York City's twenty million citizens. He took for granted such luxuries as synthetic foods and robot-servants, and he knew beyond a doubt that the Cities offered the only acceptable way of life for civilized man.

But roaming the vast plains between the continent's five Cities, ever growing and expanding, were the dreaded tribes of Muckfeet. In direct antithesis to the City dwellers, these illiterate savages actually GREW food and RAISED animals. And how they smelled! It was so bad that Alvah could feel his stomach churn at the mere mention of their name.

There was one thing in the Muckfoot territory that the Cities did need, though-metal ores. And Alvah, faced with the job of liason to the tribes around New York, had to somehow make his patriotism outweigh his nausea. If he succeeded, the Cities would be monuments to eternity; if he failed...

Fire in the Heavens

Race against doomsday!

An advanced alien race is considering our sun as a reference point on their star route, but must first determine if there are any intelligent life-forms in its solar system, since altering the sun would be fatal for all the system's life. The aliens seek to contact the most highly-regarded being on planet Earth, coming up with Dusty Britton of the Space Patrol. What they DON'T realize is that he's an actor, star of a hit sci-fi TV show! Egotistical Dusty quickly realizes that he must now play his TV role in real life in order to save the solar system from disaster.