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Joan Aiken's stories captivated readers for fifty years. They're funny, smart, gentle, and occasionally very, very scary. The stories in The Monkey's Wedding are collected here for the very first time and include six never before published, as well as two previously published under the pseudonym Nicholas Dee. Here you'll find the story of a village for sale... or is the village itself the story? There's an English vicar who declares on his deathbed that he might have lived an entirely different life. After his death, a large, black, argumentative cat makes an appearance....

This hugely imaginative collection of incongruous, light, and unexpected stories features Shelley Jackson's spooky and eyecatching cover painting inspired by the story "A Mermaid Too Many" and includes introductions by Joan Aiken as well by her daughter, Lizza Aiken.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Joan Aiken
• Introduction by Lizza Aiken
• Girl in a Whirl
• Hair
• Harp Music
• Honeymaroon
• Octopi in the Sky
• Reading in Bed
• Red-Hot Favourite
• Second Thoughts
• Spur of the Moment
• The Fluttering Thing
• The Magnesia Tree
• The Monkey's Wedding
• The Paper Queen
• The Sale of Midsummer
• Water of Youth
• Wee Robin
• A Mermaid Too Many
• Model Wife

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Heroic Visions (1983), edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. The story is included in the collection One Winter in Eden (1984).

When Alfred Fatigay returns to his native London, he brings along his trustworthy pet chimpanzee Emily who, unbeknownst to Fatigay, has become civilized: literate, literary -- and in love with Fatigay himself. After Emily meets Alfred's fiancée Amy Flint, a 1920's "modern woman," she sets out to save her beloved from Amy's cold grip.

A novel about a strange, wondrous, and often hilarious love triangle.

San Francisco has a Monkey King and she's freaking out.

Barista, activist, and were-monkey Maya McQueen was well on her way to figuring herself out. Well, part of the way. 25% of the way. If you squint.

But now the Bay Area is being shaken up. Occupy Wall Street has come home to roost; and on the supernatural side there's disappearances, shapeshifter murders, and the city's spirit trying to find its guardian.

Maya doesn't have a lot of time before chaos turns up at her door, and she needs to solve all of her problems. Well, most of them. The urgent ones, anyhow.

But who says the solutions have to be neat? Because Monkey is always out for mischief.

World Fantasy Award winning, and Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story.

Aimee has bought a travelling monkey show, wherein 26 monkeys do a variety of tricks and then vanish. She tries to figure out how the vanishing happens.

This story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2008. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan
• Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer
• The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009 (2009), edited by Rich Horton
• The Hugo Award Showcase: 2010 Volume (2009), edited by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Secret History of Fantasy (2010), edited by Peter S. Beagle
• Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top (2012), edited by Ekaterina Sedia

It is included At the Mouth of the River of Bees (2012).

Read the full story for free on the author's website.

This short story originally appeared in the Fantastic special issue People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories of the Imagination (2017), edited Nisi Shawl. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2018, edited by Rich Horton.

A man tries desperately to destroy his son's wind-up monkey, since he believes that every time its cymbals clash somebody will die.

This novelette originally appeared in Gallery, November 1980. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series IX (1981), edited by Karl Edward Wagner
• Fantasy Annual IV (1981), edited by Terry Carr
• Horrors (1981), edited by Charles L. Grant
• The Dark Descent: The Evolution of Horror (1987), edited by David G. Hartwell
• The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels (1988), edited by Mike Ashley

The story is included in the collections Skeleton Crew (1985) and The Secretary of Dreams, Volume Two (2010).

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1962) - essay by Damon Knight
• The Ideal (Excerpt) - (1935) - shortfiction by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• Moxon's Master - (1899) - shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• Reason - [Mike Donovan] - (1941) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• But Who Can Replace a Man? - (1958) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• from The Time Machine (excerpt) - (1895) - shortfiction by H. G. Wells
• Of Time and Third Avenue - (1951) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• Sail On! Sail On! - (1952) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• Worlds of the Imperium (Excerpt) - (1961) - shortfiction by Keith Laumer
• The Business, As Usual - (1952) - shortstory by Mack Reynolds
• What's It Like Out There? - (1952) - novelette by Edmond Hamilton
• Sky Lift - (1953) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Star - (1955) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Crystal Egg - (1897) - shortstory by H. G. Wells
• The Wind People - (1959) - shortstory by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Unhuman Sacrifice - (1958) - novelette by Katherine MacLean
• What Was It? - (1859) - shortstory by Fitz-James O'Brien
• The First Days of May - (1960) - shortstory by Claude Veillot
• Day of Succession - (1959) - shortstory by Theodore L. Thomas
• Angel's Egg - (1951) - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
• Another World - (1962) - novelette by J. H. Rosny aîné
• Odd John (Excerpt) - (1935) - shortfiction by Olaf Stapledon
• Call Me Joe - (1957) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• From the "London Times" of 1904 - (1898) - shortstory by Mark Twain
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (excerpt) - (1956) - shortfiction by Jules Verne
• You Are with It! - (1961) - shortstory by Will Stanton
• Cease Fire - (1958) - shortstory by Frank Herbert
• Suggested Reading

The end of life on Earth as we know it. A simple device, a cloning machine unlike any other. So pervasive, it can even clone itself.

No more work.

No more want.

No more need.

It was only a matter of time until someone duplicated people...

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1972) - essay by Damon Knight
• Green Thoughts - (1931) - shortstory by John Collier
• The Red Queen's Race - (1949) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• The Cure - (1946) - shortstory by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• Consider Her Ways - (1956) - novella by John Wyndham
• An Ornament to His Profession - (1966) - novelette by Charles L. Harness
• The Third Level - (1950) - shortstory by Jack Finney
• One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts - (1955) - shortstory by Shirley Jackson
• Bernie the Faust - (1963) - novelette by William Tenn
• Light of Other Days - (1966) - shortstory by Bob Shaw
• The Game of Rat and Dragon - (1955) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith
• Becalmed in Hell - (1965) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• Apology to Inky - (1966) - novelette by Robert M. Green, Jr.
• The Demolished Man - (1952) - novel by Alfred Bester
• Day Million - (1966) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Manna - (1949) - novelette by Peter Phillips
• Can You Feel Anything When I Do This? - (1969) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Somerset Dreams - (1969) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• He Walked Around the Horses - (1948) - novelette by H. Beam Piper
• Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee - (1958) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Sea Wrack - (1964) - novelette by Edward Jesby
• Man in His Time - (1965) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Four Brands of Impossible - (1964) - novelette by Norman Kagan
• Built Up Logically - (1949) - shortstory by Howard Schoenfeld
• Judgment Day - (1955) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp
• Journeys End - (1957) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• More Than Human - (1953) - novel by Theodore Sturgeon

Warning you away... that one drink too many... or the crime of violence... or the wrong kind of friends... guiding your every move from birth to death... THAT'S THE ANALOGUE MACHINE!

Beyond the Barrier tells the story of a physics professor in 1980 who begins to doubt that he is a human being. He imagines that he may have been sent from another world to rescue Earth; or perhaps to destroy it. Solving the mystery takes him far into the future.

Cities of Wonder...eleven visions of the future... of man's place in a changing world... Damon Knight has collected a series of extremely individual short stories from the cream of S.F. writers.

Table of Contents:

• "It's Great to Be Back!" - [Future History] - (1947) - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
• Billennium - (1961) - short story by J. G. Ballard
• By the Waters of Babylon - (1937) - short story by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Dumb Waiter - (1952) - novelette by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Forgetfulness - (1937) - novelette by John W. Campbell, Jr. [as by Don A. Stuart]
• Jesting Pilot - (1947) - short story by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lewis Padgett]
• Okie - [Earthman, Come Home] - (1950) - novelette by James Blish
• Single Combat - (1955) - short story by Robert Abernathy
• The Luckiest Man in Denv - (1952) - short story by C. M. Kornbluth
• The Machine Stops - (1909) - novelette by E. M. Forster
• The Underprivileged - (1963) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss

Far Out is a collection of 13 science fiction short stories by Damon Knight. The stories were originally published between 1949 and 1960 in Galaxy Magazine, If Science Fiction and other science fiction magazines. There is an introduction by Anthony Boucher.

The book contains the famous story "To Serve Man" which was later adapted for television.

Contents:

• Introduction
• "To Serve Man"
• "Idiot Stick"
• "Thing of Beauty"
• "The Enemy"
• "Not with a Bang"
• "Babel II"
• "Anachron"
• "Special Delivery"
• "You're Another"
• "Time Enough"
• "Extempore"
• "Cabin Boy"
• "The Last Word"

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (First Contact) - essay by Damon Knight
• 9 - First Contact - (1945) - novelette by Murray Leinster
• 45 - Doomsday Deferred - (1949) - short story by Murray Leinster [as by Will F. Jenkins]
• 62 - The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast - (1949) - short story by Theodore Sturgeon
• 72 - Not Final! - [Jovians - 1] - (1941) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 92 - The Blind Pilot - (1960) - short story by Nathalie Henneberg (trans. of Au pilote aveugle 1959) [as by Charles Henneberg]
• 111 - The Silly Season - (1950) - short story by C. M. Kornbluth
• 128 - Goldfish Bowl - (1942) - novelette by Robert A. Heinlein [as by Anson MacDonald]
• 164 - In Value Deceived - (1950) - short story by H. B. Fyfe
• 177 - The Waveries - (1945) - short story by Fredric Brown
• 203 - In the Abyss - (1896) - short story by H. G. Wells

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1976. The story can also be found in the antholgies The 1977 Annual World's Best SF, edtied by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, The Best Science Fiction of the Year #6 (1977), edited by Terry Carr, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 23rd Series (1980), edited by Edward L. Ferman, The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3 (2001), edited by Frederik Pohl, and The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: 60th Anniversary Anthology (2009), edited by Gordon Van Gelder. It is included in the collections Late Knight Edition (1985) and One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories (1991).

In Deep is a collection of eight science fiction short stories by Damon Knight. The stories were originally published between 1951 and 1960 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Rogue and other magazines.

The book contains the short story "The Country of the Kind", considered by many to be Knight's finest.

The story "The Handler" was omitted from British editions of the book.

• "Four in One"
• "An Eye for a What?"
• "The Handler"
• "Stranger Station"
• "Ask Me Anything"
• "The Country of the Kind"
• "Ticket to Anywhere"
• "Beachcomber"

This short story originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, September 1996. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 2 (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Playboy, July 1968. The story can also be found in the anthologies World's Best Science Fiction: 1969, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, Dark Stars (1969), edited by Robert Silverberg, A Pocketful of Stars (1971), edited by Damon Knight, The Road to Science Fiction 3: From Heinlein to Here (1979), edited by James Gunn and The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3 (2001), edited by Frederik Pohl. It is included in the collections Off Centre (1969) and The Best of Damon Knight (1976).

One day (a) reporter for the Paris Soir visited the Berlin Zoo...standing outside the spacious cage housing the newly-acquired Brecht Biped, Fritz, when the world seemed to lurch...Then he was no longer outside the cage looking in, but inside looking out...

Published in the January 1954 issue, this novella was Knight's longest contribution to the magazine. Dealing with a familiar extrapolation - a future population divided between a mutually antagonistic farm society of exiles and a technologically advanced city - the novella incorporates sophisticated biology (living weapons) and complicated politics (the reality of the ideological differences is linked not only to the misapplication of biology but to the fundamental struggle against totalitarianism.

NATURAL STATE was, in the nature of science fiction synergy, influential upon the works of A.J. Budrys, Poul Anderson and other writers who dealt with political relations as inextricably linked to biological and economic motives, and like much of Damon Knight's work, it is suffused with a kind of cynicism, even despair, which overshadow or lurk behind the progression and apparent solution. Like much of Knight's canon, it is a cynical and despairing work which uses the conventional apparatus of science fiction to work through a series of conclusions opposed to the more traditional view. Knight sees no salvation in the indiscriminate application of technology. The ravaged landscape of this story does not propose a future in which either side could expect to live comfortably. Knight's misanthropy is evident throughout; it is a misanthropy emergent from his conviction that in the face of technology great damage will be done, no matter who "wins" the struggle.

Off Center is a collection of five science fiction short stories by Damon Knight. The stories were originally published between 1952 and 1964 in Galaxy, If and other science fiction magazines. The stories appeared as half of Ace Double M-113 in 1965.

Contents:

• "What Rough Beast"
• "The Second-Class Citizen"
• "Be My Guest"
• "God's Nose"
• "Catch That Martian"

The UK edition (1969) also includes:

• Masks - (1968)
• To Be Continued - (1959)
• Dulcie and Decorum - (1955)

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Rule Golden and Other Stories) - essay by Damon Knight
• 5 - Rule Golden - (1954) - novella by Damon Knight
• 87 - Natural State - (1954) - novella by Damon Knight
• 163 - Double Meaning - (1953) - novella by Damon Knight
• 251 - The Earth Quarter - (1970) - novel by Damon Knight (variant of The Sun Saboteurs 1961)
• 351 - The Dying Man - (1957) - novelette by Damon Knight (variant of Dio)

Rule Golden:

As a newspaper publisher, Robert James Dahls found the news disconcerting; in fact, inexplicable. News items like two boxers simultaneously knocking each other out, prison guards sick and unable to guard the prisoners, policemen shooting fleeing culprits and collapsing themselves, battered wives with husbands suffering the same injuries that they inflicted.

Dahl catches wind of a large experimental facility that is being led by the U.S. Department of Defense. His suspicions coincide with the strange, beyond-coincidental behavior that he's been observing. For what's on the grounds of the facility is much more radical than anything that was claimed to be found in Roswell. Not just an alien but one that has a strange effect on the human race. Where the Golden Rule in reversed: Be done by as you do to others. How can we get along without conflict? What will happen to the human race? Dahl soon finds himself a fugitive helping a bizarre alien save or destroy the Earth!

Table of Contents:

• Foreword (Science Fiction of the Thirties) - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• The Early Years - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• Out Around Rigel - (1931) - novelette by Robert H. Wilson
• The Fifth-Dimension Catapult - [Tommy Reames] - (1931) - novella by Murray Leinster
• Into the Meteorite Orbit - (1933) - novelette by Frank K. Kelly
• The Battery of Hate - (1933) - novelette by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• The Middle Period - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• The Wall - (1934) - shortstory by Howard Wandrei
• The Lost Language - (1934) - shortstory by David H. Keller, M.D.
• The Last Men - (1934) - shortstory by Frank Belknap Long
• The Other - (1934) - shortstory by Howard Wandrei
• The Mad Moon - (1935) - novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• Davey Jones' Ambassador - (1935) - novelette by Raymond Z. Gallun
• Alas, All Thinking - (1935) - novelette by Harry Bates
• The Time Decelerator - (1936) - shortstory by A. Macfadyen, Jr.
• The Council of Drones - (1936) - novella by William K. Sonnemann
• The End - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• Seeker of Tomorrow - (1937) - novella by Leslie J. Johnson and Eric Frank Russell
• Hyperpilosity - (1938) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp
• Pithecanthropus Rejectus - (1938) - shortfiction by Manly Wade Wellman
• The Merman - (1938) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp
• The Day Is Done - (1939) - shortstory by Lester del Rey
• Bibliography (Science Fiction of the Thirties) - (1975) - essay by uncredited

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1986. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (1987), edited by Gardner Dozois, The 1987 Annual World's Best SF. edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, and Masters of Darkness II (1988), edited by Dennis Etchison. The story is included in the collection One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories (1991).

Table of Contents:

• Dark of the Knight - (1976) - essay by Barry N. Malzberg
• Introduction (The Best of Damon Knight) - (1976) - essay by Damon Knight
• Not With a Bang - (1950) - shortstory
• To Serve Man - (1950) - shortstory
• Cabin Boy - (1951) - novelette
• The Analogues - (1952) - shortstory
• Babel II - (1953) - novelette
• Special Delivery - (1954) - novelette
• Thing of Beauty - (1958) - novelette
• Anachron - (1954) - shortstory
• Extempore - (1956) - shortstory
• Backward, O Time - (1956) - shortstory
• The Last Word - (1957) - shortstory
• Man in the Jar - (1957) - shortstory
• The Enemy - (1958) - shortstory
• Eripmav - (1958) - shortstory
• A Likely Story - (1956) - shortstory
• Time Enough - (1960) - shortstory
• Mary - (1964) - novelette
• The Handler - (1960) - shortstory
• The Big Pat Boom - (1963) - shortstory
• Semper Fi - (1964) - shortstory
• Masks - (1968) - shortstory
• Down There - (1973) - shortstory

The voices of the future are here today... in this dazzling array of stories presented by noted science fiction anthologist and critic Damon Knight.

One story tells the tale of a dire warning adrift in time that stuns the crowds of Paris -- and ultimately the world. Another is a frightening study of the psychological side effects of a genetically engineered future. The scenarios range from the subtle mysteries of one family's tragic history on earth, to epic battles in the twilight realm of a distant planet. Within these bright new pages, the execution of justice is an art form and dealing with the devil mere child's play.

These are the gems of the last six years of the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop -- a multifaceted and colorful collection that demonstrates the exciting diversity of ideas and sheer power of imagination to be found within the science fiction of today -- and tomorrow.

Damon Knight, editor, short story writer, and critic, has been an influential force in the SF world for over thirty years. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, as well as being the founder of the first workshop for science fiction writers. He is perhaps best known for his Orbit anthology series, in which many of the award-winning stories of the sixties and seventies were first published. He and his wife, the writer Kate Wilhelm, live in Eugene, Oregon. Both have taught at Clarion for many years.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Damon Knight
• The Etheric Transmitter - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• Beast and Beauty - short story by Kristi Olesen
• Lost Lives - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Flawless Execution - short story by Dean Wesley Smith
• Geometry - short story by Jan Herschel
• One Last Hunting Pack - short story by Patricia Linehan
• The Coming of the Goonga - short story by Gary W. Shockley
• Fugue - short story by William Knuttel
• Up Above the World So High - short story by Mario Milosevic
• Snows of Yesteryear - short story by Barbara Rausch
• The Cottage in Winter - short story by McNevin Hayes
• Loaded Dice - short story by Rena Leith
• Vines - short story by Lois June Wickstrom
• Pursuit of Excellence - novelette by Rena Yount
• Notes on Contributors - essay by Damon Knight

"The Rithian Terror" is an expanded version of the novella "Double Meaning" originally published in "Startling Stories", January 1953. The expanded edition originally appeared in Ace Double M-113 (1965).

Seven Rithians had landed on Earth. Six had been disposed of. One was loose and had to be found.

But how do you detect a monster that can disguise itself as a man... any man?

Thorinn went down. He had little choice, since his own father had hurled him into a well.

Yet the world was shifting in those days, and Thorinn was to go deeper than his father had ever dreamed; destined to discover strange worlds within worlds, to meet beasts undreamed of, and to discover that which few of us are permitted to know:

His Own True Name.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Damon Knight
• Juliette - (1961) - short story by Claude-François Cheinisse (trans. of Juliette 1959)
• The Blind Pilot - (1959) - short story by Nathalie Henneberg (trans. of Au Pilote Aveugle)
• Olivia - (1965) - short story by Henri Damonti (trans. of Olivia 1960)
• The Notary and the Conspiracy - (1962) - short story by Henri Damonti (trans. of Le notaire et la conspiration)
• The Vana - short story by Alain Dorémieux (trans. of La Vana 1959)
• The Devil's Goddaughter - (1960) - short story by Suzanne Malaval (trans. of La filleule du diable)
• Moon Fishers - (1959) - novelette by Charles Henneberg (trans. of Pêcheurs de lune)
• The Non-Humans - (1958) - novelette by Nathalie Henneberg (trans. of Les non-humains)
• After Three Hundred Years - short story by Pierre Mille (trans. of Dans trois cents ans 1922)
• The Monster - short story by Gérard Klein (trans. of Le monstre 1958)
• A Little More Caviar? - (1963) - short story by Claude Veillot (trans. of Encore un peu de caviar)
• The Chain of Love - (1965) - short story by Catherine Cliff (trans. of La chaîne et le collier 1955)
• The Dead Fish - (1955) - short story by Boris Vian (trans. of Les poissons morts 1947)
• About the Authors - essay by Damon Knight

Classic spine-tingler that was made into an episode of The Twilight Zone. It's interesting to compare the original short story version to the Rod Serling screenplay. 1951 Retro Hugo Award Winner.

This short story originally appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1950. It has been collected and anthologized many times.

It was the basis for episode 89 (1962) of The Twilight Zone.

Turning On is a collection of thirteen science fiction short stories by Damon Knight. The stories were originally published between 1951 and 1965 in Galaxy, Analog and other science fiction magazines.

An Ace paperback reprinting in 1967 omitted the story "The Handler". This story was also omitted in the 1966 reissue of the Doubleday hardback edition.

• "Semper Fi"
• "The Big Pat Boom"
• "Man in the Jar"
• "The Handler"
• "Mary"
• "Auto Da Fé"
• "To the Pure"
• "Eripmav"
• "Backward, O Time"
• "The Night of Lies"
• "Maid to Measure"
• "Collector's Item"
• "A Likely Story"
• "Don't Live in the Past"

Sly, a chimp who loves to shape clay on a potter's wheel, has an implant which makes him much smarter than other chimps. When a group of school kids make Sly act out in anger, the sympathetic human Vern is asked to take away Sly's clay.

Read this story for free on the author's website, or listen to a podcast of this story at Drabblecast.

Set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid, The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads its main character, the monk Ambrosio, to temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt.

The tiny cottage at the edge of Sanli Village--away from the villagers' noisy houses and busy clan shrines and next to the cool pond filled with lily pads, pink lotus flowers, and playful carp--would have made an ideal romantic summer hideaway for some dissolute poet and his silk-robed mistress from nearby bustling Yangzhou.

Read this story online for free at Lightspeed Magazine.

Locus Award winning and Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1983. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection (1984), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983) and GRRM: A RRetrospective (2003).

Jane Charlotte: a woman with a serious attitude problem, a drug habit and a licence to kill. She has been arrested for murder, and during questioning tells police that she is a member of a secret organisation devoted to fighting evil. Her division, 'The Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons' - or 'Bad Monkeys' for short - is an execution squad that rids the world of especially evil people. However, the man Jane has been arrested for killing was not on the official target list. This strange confession earns Jane a trip to the jail's psychiatric wing, where a doctor interviews her at length about her supposed career as an assassin. Her tale grows increasingly bizarre, with references to hidden messages in crosswords, dollar bills that can see, and axe-wielding Scary Clowns. The doctor does his best to sort truth from lies, but whenever it seems he's getting to the bottom of things, there's another twist to unravel. Not until the full story is told will we learn whether Jane is lying, crazy or playing a different game altogether.

Brandon Castle is full of mysteries and terrors!

Lonely candles give feeble light to the eerie chill of the castle's endless hallways. Winding staircases descend into damp crypts of discarded skeletons while rat-infested secret passages lead to satanic altars. Towering over the castle's dank moat is the mysterious Grey Turret. Filled with legends of shadowy ghosts and terrifying demons, its only door has been locked for centuries.

Until now.

Someone has discovered the key and wants the terrifying power locked away in the Grey Turret.

Who dares to defy the legend of the Grey Turret?

Agatha? Hungry for power, nothing can stand in her way!
Eldred? Her nervous brother, the perfect foil for a murderous plan?
Sir Rupert? The brave knight suffering from a heartbreaking loss?
Nemoni? The mysterious wild-man of the woods?
The Black Monk? Aided by Satan's black magic, can he be stopped?

Serialized in British newspapers throughout 1844, The Black Monk is an excellent example of the Victorian penny dreadful. Each week, eager readers would await the next penny's installment and The Black Monk delivered so many thrills and terrors that it became the mid-century's publishing phenomenon.

This edition includes the unabridged text of the 1844 edition along with all 54 original illustrations and features a new introduction by Curt Herr, Ph.D.

A humorous short story written for Jay Lake's birthday in 2007. It was published by Tor.com several days after Lake passed away on June 1st 2014.

Read the full story on Tor.com.

The bizarre imagination and stylistic sorcery of Matthew Phipps Shiel have created several sleuths unique in the annals of criminal detection. The author's first published book introduced the mysterious Russian, Prince Zaleski, while his legendary Pale Ape collection presented a second extraordinary figure, Cummings King Monk. The complete exploits of both detectives are collected here for the first time between two covers:

• "The Race of Orven"
• "The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks,"
• "The S.S."
• "The Return of Prince Zaleski"
• "He Meddles with Women"
• "He Defines Greatness of Mind"
• "He Wakes an Echo"

Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.

In this collection of short stories from best-selling author Peter Watts, enter strange new worlds that defy the imagination. Journey to the depths of the ocean floor with genetically engineered human beings... push the boundaries of life with a scientist obsessed with death... and watch as sentient gaseous entities offer destruction and salvation to the human race.

Table of Contents:

• 3 - A Niche
• 35 - Fractals
• 51 - The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald
• 75 - Bulk Food
• 97 - Nimbus
• 109 - Flesh Made Word
• 127 - Ambassador
• 139 - Bethlehem
• 159 - Home

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (God's Nose) - essay
• 3 - God's Nose - (1964) - short story
• 7 - Catch That Martian - (1952) - short story
• 23 - Four in One - (1953) - novelette
• 59 - You're Another - (1955) - novelette
• 95 - The Country of the Kind - (1956) - short story
• 111 - Shall the Dust Praise Thee? - (1967) - short story

When Wellington Stout is shot in the head in a restaurant in Milan, the bullet shatters not only his skull but the surface of reality itself. Suddenly Stout is falling through a world turned inside out, encountering extraterrestrial shoe salesmen, a mystical cabal of dentists, and an invading army from the planet Mongo.

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!

Off Center

• What Rough Beast (1958)
• The Second-Class Citizen (1963)
• Be my Guest (1958)
• God's Nose (1964)
• Catch that Martian (1952)

The Rithian Terror

How do you find a space spy who substitutes perfectly for anyone in the universe?

The Light of Lilith

Trapped in time's vortex.

The Sun Saboteurs

Exiles from a hostile universe.

It is the early 21st century, and Ed Stone says he's been in suspended animation since the 1930s--put there by aliens who have sent him on a mission: convince the nations of the world to build a massive vault, in which humanity's billions will lie in suspension and survive the Earth's impending destruction. And, the strangest thing of all is everybody believes him.

These twenty-two short stories are measured out with a cup of normal and a pound of the fantastic. From dark fairytales to alien skies, Monk's stories blend haunting yesterdays, forgotten todays and twisted tomorrows wherein: ...A normal little girl in a city made of gears, takes on the world to save a toy.... A normal ancient monster living in Seattle, must decide if love is worth trusting a hero... A normal patchwork woman and her two-headed boyfriend stitch their life and farm together with needle, thread, and time... a normal vampire in a knitting shop must face sun-drenched secrets... a normal snow creature's wish changes a mad man's life... a normal man breaks reality with a hamster... and yes, a normal little robot, defines how extraordinary friendship can be. Poignant, bittersweet, frightening, and funny, these stories pour out worlds that are both lovely and odd, darkly strange and tantalizingly familiar, where no matter how fantastic the setting or situation, love, freedom, and hope find a way to take root and thrive.

In order to hide from his unwanted fame as the spitfire-pilot-monkey who emerged from a computer game to defeat the nefarious corporation that engineered him, the charismatic and dangerous Ack-Ack Macaque is working as a pilot on a world-circling nuclear-powered Zeppelin.

But when the cabin of one of his passengers is invaded by the passenger's own dying doppelganger, our hirsute hero finds himself thrust into another race to save the world--this time from an aggressive hive mind, time-hopping saboteurs, and an army of homicidal Neanderthal assassins!

In steam age America, men, monsters, machines, and magic battle for the same scrap of earth and sky. In this chaos, bounty hunter Cedar Hunt rides, cursed by lycanthropy and carrying the guilt of his brother's death. Then he's offered hope that his brother may yet survive. All he has to do is find the Holder: a powerful device created by mad devisers-and now in the hands of an ancient Strange who was banished to walk this Earth.

In a land shaped by magic, steam, and iron, where the only things a man can count on are his guns, gears, and grit, Cedar will have to depend on all three if he's going to save his brother and reclaim his soul once and for all...

Life on the frontier is full of deceit and danger, but bounty hunter Cedar Hunt is a man whose word is his bond. Cursed with becoming a beast every full moon, Cedar once believed his destiny was to be alone. But now, Cedar finds himself saddled with a group of refugees, including the brother he once thought lost.

Keeping his companions alive is proving to be no easy task, in part because of the promise he made to the unpredictable Madder brothers--three miners who know the secret mechanisms of the Strange. To fulfill his pledge, Cedar must hunt a powerful weapon known as the Holder--a search that takes him deep into the savage underbelly of the young country and high into the killing glim-field skies defended by desperate men and deadly ships.

But the battles he faces are just a glimmer of a growing war stirring the country. To keep his word Cedar must navigate betrayal, lies, and treacherous alliances, risking everything to save the lives of those he has come to hold dear...

Bounty hunter and lycanthrope Cedar Hunt vowed to track down all seven pieces of the Holdera strange device capable of deadly destruction. And, accompanied by witch Mae Lindson and the capricious Madder brothers, he sets out to do just that. But the crew is forced to take refuge in the frontier town of Des Moines, Iowa, when a glacial storm stops them in their tracks. The town, under mayor Killian Vosbrough, is ruled with an iron fistand plagued by the steely Strange, creatures that pour through the streets like the unshuttered wind.

But Cedar soon learns that Vosbrough is mining cold copper for the cataclysmic generators he's manufacturing deep beneath Des Moines, bringing the search for the Holder to a halt. Chipping through ice, snow, and bone-chilling bewitchment to expose a dangerous plot, Cedar must stop Vosbrough and his scheme to rule the land and sky....

Devon Monk is casting a spell on the fantasy world...

Using magic means it uses you back, and every spell exacts a price from its user. But some people get out of it by Offloading the cost of magic onto an innocent. Then it's Allison Beckstrom's job to identify the spell-caster. Allie would rather live a hand-to-mouth existence than accept the family fortune--and the strings that come with it. But when she finds a boy dying from a magical Offload that has her father's signature all over it, Allie is thrown back into his world of black magic. And the forces she calls on in her quest for the truth will make her capable of things that some will do anything to control...

Working as a Hound-tracing illegal spells back to their casters-has taken its toll on Allison Beckstrom. But even though magic has given her migraines and stolen her recent memory, Allie isn't about to quit. Then the police's magic enforcement division asks her to consult on a missing persons case. But what seems to be a straightforward job turns out to be anything but, as Allie finds herself drawn into the underworld of criminals, ghosts, and blood magic.

Allison Beckstrom?s magic has taken its toll on her, physically marking her and erasing her memories?including those of the man she supposedly loves. But lost memories aren?t the only things preying on Allie?s thoughts.

Her late father, the prominent businessman?and sorcerer?Daniel Beckstrom, has somehow channeled himself into her very mind. With the help of The Authority, a secret organization of magic users, she hopes to gain better control over her own abilities?and find a way to deal with her father?

Allison Beckstrom is committed to her work tracing illegal spells. Now, there's an apocalyptic storm bearing down on Portland, and when it hits, all the magic in the area will turn unstable and destructive. To stop it from taking out the entire city, Allie and her lover, the mysterious Zayvion Jones, must work with the Authority-the enigmatic arbiters of all things magic-and take a stand against a magical wildstorm that will obliterate all in its path...

Allie Beckstrom's lover, Zayvion Jones, is a Guardian of the Gate, imbued with both light and dark magic and responsible for ensuring that those energies don't mix. But Zayvion lies in a coma, his soul trapped in death's realm. And when Allie discovers that the only way to save Zayvion is to sacrifice her very own magical essence, she makes a decision that may have grave consequences for the entire world.

There aren't many girls who can say they've gone into the realm of death and lived to tell the tale. But to restore her lover Zayvion's soul, Allison Beckstrom had to pay a bitter price-and things are about to get worse....

It turns out the leader of the Authority, the council that decides what can-and can't-be done with magic, is being held hostage. But when the trail leads Allie and Zayvion to the secret prison where the Authority locks away magical criminals who are too dangerous to be held anywhere else, they find more than they bargained for. An undead magic user has possessed one of the prisoners, and he wants his freedom-and then some. Now Allie and Zayvion are the first line of defense against the chaos he's about to unleash on the city of Portland....

Allison Beckstrom has willingly paid the price of pain to use magic, and has obeyed the rules of the Authority, the clandestine organization that makes-and enforces-all magic policy. But when the Authority's new boss, Bartholomew Wray, refuses to believe that the sudden rash of deaths in Portland might be caused by magic, Allie must choose to follow the Authority's rules, or turn against the very people for whom she's risked her life.

To stop the plague of dark magic spreading through the city, all that she values will be on the line: her magic, her memories, her life. Now, as dead magic users rise to feed upon the innocent and the people closest to her begin to fall, Allie is about to run out of options.

We knew as soon as we stepped out on those streets, we were walking blind into a war. All of us were going to bear the pain for the magic we called upon. And I was going to have to bear the pain for carrying a weapon that made me face what I had become. A killer.

Allison Beckstrom's talent for tracking spells has put her up against some of the darkest elements in the world of magic, but she's never faced anything like this.

Magic itself has been poisoned, and Allie's undead father may have left the only cure in the hands of a madman. Hunted by the Authority-the secret council that enforces magic's laws-wanted by the police, and unable to use magic, she's got to find the cure before the sickness spreads beyond any power to stop it.

But when a Death magic user seeks to destroy the only antidote, Allie and her fellow renegades must stand and fight to defend the innocent and save all magic....

But everything was not normal. Not at all. We were about to enter a war with two of the most powerful creatures who had ever used magic. And we were nowhere near ready for this fight.

Allison Beckstrom's talent for tracking spells has put her up against some of the darkest elements in the world of magic, but she's never faced anything like this.

Magic itself has been poisoned, and Allie's undead father may have left the only cure in the hands of a madman. Hunted by the Authority-the secret council that enforces magic's laws-wanted by the police, and unable to use magic, she's got to find the cure before the sickness spreads beyond any power to stop it.

But when a Death magic user seeks to destroy the only antidote, Allie and her fellow renegades must stand and fight to defend the innocent and save all magic...

Instead of the deadly force it once was, magic is now a useless novelty. But not for Shame Flynn and Terric Conley, "breakers" who have the gift for reverting magic back to its full-throttle power. In the magic-dense city of Portland, Oregon, keeping a low profile means keeping their gifts quiet. After three years of dealing with disgruntled magic users, Shame and Terric have had enough of politics, petty magic, and, frankly, each other. It's time to call it quits.

When the government discovers the breakers' secret--and its potential as a weapon--Shame and Terric suddenly become wanted men, the only ones who can stop the deadly gift from landing in the wrong hands. If only a pair of those wrong hands didn't belong to a drop-dead-gorgeous assassin Shame is falling for as if it were the end of the world. And if he gets too close to her, it very well could be....

Marked by Life and Death magic, Shame Flynn and Terric Conley are "breakers"--those who can use magic to its full extent. Most of the time, they can barely stand each other, but they know they have to work together to defeat a common enemy--rogue magic user Eli Collins.

Backed by the government, Eli is trying to use magic as a weapon by carving spells into the flesh of innocents and turning them into brainless walking bombs. To stop him, Shame and Terric will need to call on their magic, even as it threatens to consume them--because the price they must pay to wield Life and Death could change the very fate of the world... and magic itself.

Sea Venture, CV for short, is the largest ocean-going vessel ever built by man. It is not a ship but a huge sea habitat housing a scientific research station, an entire city of two thousand permanent residents and a thousand passengers.

For some, CV is the vacation dream of a lifetime; for others, a vision of man's conquest of the seas; for two men it becomes the arena for a deadly game of cat and mouse.

But for one, CV is something else: a place to stalk its next victim. It is not human, it is not even of Earthly origin. To be touched by it is deadly.

What important are the hopes and dreams, fears and schemes of the people of Sea Venture when they are threatened by a force that could destroy all of human civilization?

McNulty's Disease has escaped the Sea Venture and is now epidemic on land. The disease kills only a few of its victims... but no one knows what long-term effects it has on those who survive. For the public's safety, the U.S. government sets up a giant internment camp on the old CV herself, and attempts to find as many survivors as possible to keep safely on board the ship. Fortunately, Julie Prescott has a most resourceful and clever husband (he used to be a high-priced hired killer) who doesn't want his wife locked up forever. So he sets himself up against the entire government bureaucracy - with remarkable results.

Plague... or paradise?

2005 A.D. Six years have passed since the alien Symbionts invaded Sea Venture, Earth's largest ocean habitat. Now, despite the government's best attempts at quarantine, the Symbionts have spread all over the planet, infecting the bodies of both humans and animals - and slowly, subtly forcing mankind in new directions.

Once possessed by the Symbionts, men and women become smarter, wiser - or else they die. War and violence are punished by instant execution from within. A new era dawns, but there are those who would turn back the millennium, who will stop at nothing to prevent... A Reasonable World.

One hundred years ago, eleven powerful ruling Houses consolidated all of the world's resources and authority into their own grasping hands. Only one power wasn't placed under the command of a single House: the control over the immortal galvanized....

Matilda Case isn't like most folk. In fact, she's unique in the world, the crowning achievement of her father's experiments, a girl pieced together from bits. Or so she believes, until Abraham Seventh shows up at her door, stitched with life thread just like her and insisting that enemies are coming to kill them all.

Tilly is one of thirteen incredible creations known as the galvanized, stitched together beings immortal and unfathomably strong. For a century, each House has fought for control over the galvanized. Now the Houses are also tangled in a deadly struggle for dominion over death--and Tilly and her kind hold the key to unlocking eternity

The secrets that Tilly must fight to protect are hidden within the very seams of her being. And to get the secrets, her enemies are willing to tear her apart piece by piece....

Return to national bestselling author Devon Monk's heartpounding House Immortal series, where eleven powerful Houses control the world and all its resources. But now, the treaty between them has been broken, and no one--not even the immortal galvanized--is safe....

Matilda Case isn't normal. Normal people aren't stitched together, inhumanly strong, and ageless, as she and the other galvanized are. Normal people's bodies don't hold the secret to immortality--something the powerful Houses will kill to possess. And normal people don't know that they're going to die in a few days.

Matilda's fight to protect the people she loves triggered a chaotic war between the Houses and shattered the world's peace. On the run, she must find a way to stop the repeat of the ancient time experiment that gifted her and the other galvanized with immortality. Because this time, it will destroy her and everything she holds dear.

Caught in a cat-and-mouse game of lies, betrayal, and unseen foes, Matilda must fight to save the world from utter destruction. But time itself is her enemy, and every second brings her one step closer to disaster....

Matilda Case never thought of herself as a hero. But because she is galvanized--and nearly immortal in her stitched, endlessly healing body--she doesn't have much of a choice. Even if she doesn't want to save the world, she's the only one capable of traveling in time to do so.

But her rescue attempt hasn't gone as planned. She's stuck in an alternate universe, and her world is in danger of disappearing. Worst of all, an unfathomably powerful man who can also travel through history doesn't want her to put things to rights. He's willing to wage bloody war to stop Matilda, unless she surrenders control of time to him.

Now, with the minutes ticking, Matilda must make impossible decisions, knowing that one wrong choice will destroy her--and any chance of saving everything she loves....

It's been centuries since the robots of Earth gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.

They're going to need to ask it a lot.

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.

Manfroné; or, The One-Handed Monk (1809) opens with an unforgettable Gothic scene: a lascivious monk enters the lovely Rosalina's bedroom at midnight through a secret panel, planning to rape her--but suffers the gruesome loss of his hand when he is caught in the act!

But the one-handed monk is not the only danger facing Rosalina. Her father, the haughty Duca di Rodolpho, is determined to marry her to the cruel Prince di Manfroné and has imprisoned her true love, Montalto, in the castle dungeon. And then there is the mysterious Grimaldi. What are his inscrutable plans, and is he trying to help Rosalina or destroy her?

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1966) - essay by Damon Knight
• The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth - (1965) - novelette by Roger Zelazny
• Balanced Ecology - (1965) - short story by James H. Schmitz
• "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - (1965) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• He Who Shapes - (1965) - novella by Roger Zelazny
• Computers Don't Argue - (1965) - short story by Gordon R. Dickson
• Becalmed in Hell - (1965) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• The Saliva Tree - (1965) - novella by Brian W. Aldiss
• The Drowned Giant - (1964) - short story by J. G. Ballard
• Nebula Awards 1965 and Roll of Honor - (1966) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• A Sort of Introduction - essay by Damon Knight
• The Secret Place - (1966) - short story by Richard McKenna
• The Loolies Are Here - (1966) - short story by Ruth Allison and Jane Rice
• The Doctor - (1967) - short story by Theodore L. Thomas
• Baby, You Were Great! - (1967) - short story by Kate Wilhelm
• The Hole on the Corner - (1967) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• I Gave Her Sack and Sherry - [Alyx] - (1967) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• Mother to the World - (1968) - novelette by Richard Wilson
• Don't Wash the Carats - (1968) - short story by Philip José Farmer
• The Planners - (1968) - short story by Kate Wilhelm
• The Changeling - (1968) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Passengers - (1968) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• Shattered Like a Glass Goblin - (1968) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• The Time Machine - (1969) - novelette by Langdon Jones
• Look, You Think You've Got Troubles - (1969) - short story by Carol Carr
• The Big Flash - (1969) - novelette by Norman Spinrad
• Jim and Mary G - (1970) - short story by James Sallis
• The End - (1970) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Continued on Next Rock - (1970) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories - (1970) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Horse of Air - (1970) - short story by Gardner Dozois
• One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty - (1970) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• Rite of Spring - (1970) - short story by Avram Davidson
• The Bystander - (1970) - short story by Thom Lee Wharton
• The Encounter - (1970) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• Gleepsite - (1971) - short story by Joanna Russ
• Binaries - (1971) - short story by James Sallis
• Al - (1972) - short story by Carol Emshwiller
• Live, from Berchtesgaden - (1972) - short story by George Alec Effinger

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Damon Knight
• 5 Eggs - (1966) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• How Beautiful With Banners - (1966) - shortstory by James Blish
• Kangaroo Court - (1966) - novelette by Virginia Kidd
• Splice of Life - (1966) - shortstory by Sonya Dorman
• Staras Flonderans - (1966) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• The Deeps - (1966) - shortstory by Keith Roberts
• The Disinherited - (1966) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• The Loolies Are Here - (1966) - shortstory by Ruth Allison and Jane Rice
• The Secret Place - (1966) - shortstory by Richard McKenna

Table of Contents:

• The Doctor - (1967) - shortstory by Theodore L. Thomas
• Baby, You Were Great! - (1967) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Fiddler's Green - (1967) - novella by Richard McKenna
• Trip, Trap - (1967) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• The Dimple in Draco - (1967) - shortstory by R. S. Richardson
• I Gave Her Sack and Sherry - (1967) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• The Adventuress - (1967) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• The Hole on the Corner - (1967) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Food Farm - (1967) - shortstory by Kit Reed
• Full Sun - (1967) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss

Table of Contents:

• Mother to the World - novelette by Richard Wilson
• Bramble Bush - (1968) - novelette by Richard McKenna
• The Barbarian - (1968) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• The Changeling - (1968) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Why They Mobbed the White House - (1968) - shortstory by Doris Pitkin Buck
• The Planners - (1968) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Don't Wash the Carats - (1968) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• Letter to a Young Poet - (1968) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Here Is Thy Sting - (1968) - novelette by John Jakes

Table of Contents:

• Windsong - (1968) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• Probable Cause - (1968) - novella by Charles L. Harness
• Shattered Like a Glass Goblin - (1968) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• This Corruptible - (1968) - novelette by Joan Matheson
• Animal - (1968) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• One at a Time - (1968) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Passengers - (1968) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• Grimm's Story - (1968) - novella by Vernor Vinge
• A Few Last Words - (1968) - shortstory by James Sallis

Table of Contents:

• Winter's King - (1969) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Big Flash - (1969) - novelette by Norman Spinrad
• The Roads, the Roads, the Beautiful Roads - (1969) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• Look, You Think You've Got Troubles - (1969) - shortstory by Carol Carr
• Paul's Treehouse - (1969) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Somerset Dreams - (1969) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• The Time Machine - (1969) - novelette by Langdon Jones
• Configuration of the North Shore - (1969) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The History Makers - (1969) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Winston - (1969) - shortstory by Kit Reed
• The Rose Bowl-Pluto Hypothesis - (1969) - shortstory by R. S. Richardson
• The Price - (1969) - novelette by C. Davis Belcher

Table of Contents:

• The Second Inquisition - (1970) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• Remembrance to Come - (1970) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• How the Whip Came Back - (1970) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Goslin Day - (1970) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• Maybe Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, Was a Little Bit Right - (1970) - shortstory by Robin Scott Wilson
• The Chosen - (1970) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Entire and Perfect Chrysolite - (1970) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Sunburst - (1970) - shortstory by Roderick Thorp
• The Creation of Bennie Good - (1970) - shortstory by James Sallis
• The End - (1970) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• A Cold Dark Night with Snow - (1970) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Fame - (1970) - shortstory by Arthur Jean Cox
• Debut - (1970) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• Where No Sun Shines - (1970) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois
• The Asian Shore - (1970) - novelette by Thomas M. Disch

Table of Contents:

• The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories - (1970) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• In the Queue - (1970) - shortstory by Keith Laumer
• Continued on Next Rock - (1970) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• Eyebem - (1970) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Jim and Mary G - (1970) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Old Foot Forgot - (1970) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Pressure of Time - (1970) - novelette by Thomas M. Disch
• Woman Waiting - (1970) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• The Living End - (1970) - shortstory by Sonya Dorman
• To Sport with Amaryllis - (1970) - shortstory by Richard Hill
• April Fool's Day Forever - (1970) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• A Dream at Noonday - (1970) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois

Table of Contents:

• Horse of Air - shortstory by Gardner Dozois
• One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• Rite of Spring - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• The Bystander - shortstory by Thom Lee Wharton
• All Pieces of a River Shore - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kittee - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Tablets of Stone - shortstory by Liz Hufford
• Starscape with Frieze of Dreams - [Spacewhale] - shortstory by Robert F. Young
• The Book - shortstory by Robert E. Margroff and Andrew J. Offutt
• Inside - shortstory by Carol Carr
• Right Off the Map - shortstory by Pip Winn
• The Weather on the Sun - novelette by Theodore L. Thomas
• The Chinese Boxes - shortstory by Graham Charnock
• A Method Bit in "B" - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Interurban Queen - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Encounter - novelette by Kate Wilhelm

Table of Contents:

• Heads Africa Tails America - (1971) - shortstory by Josephine Saxton
• What We Have Here Is Too Much Communication - (1971) - shortstory by Leon E. Stover
• Dominant Species - (1971) - shortstory by Kris Neville
• The Toy Theater - (1971) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Stop Me Before I Tell More - (1971) - shortstory by Robert Thurston
• Gleepsite - (1971) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
• Binaries - (1971) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Lost in the Marigolds - (1971) - novelette by Lee Hoffman and Robert E. Toomey, Jr.
• Across the Bar - (1971) - shortstory by Kit Reed
• The Science Fair - (1971) - shortstory by Vernor Vinge
• The Last Leaf - (1971) - shortstory by W. Macfarlane
• When All the Lands Pour Out Again - (1971) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Only the Words Are Different - (1971) - shortstory by James Sallis
• The Infinity Box - (1971) - novella by Kate Wilhelm

Table of Contents:

• The Fifth Head of Cerberus - (1972) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• Jody After the War - (1972) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Al - (1972) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• Now I'm Watching Roger - (1972) - shortstory by Alexei Panshin
• Whirl Cage - (1972) - shortstory by Jack Dann
• A Kingdom by the Sea - (1972) - novelette by Gardner Dozois
• Christlings - (1972) - shortstory by Albert Teichner
• Live, from Berchtesgaden - (1972) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
• Dorg - (1972) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Gantlet - (1972) - shortstory by Richard E. Peck
• The Fusion Bomb - (1972) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm

Table of Contents:

• Alien Stones - (1972) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Counterpoint - (1972) - shortstory by Joe Haldeman
• Dissolve - (1972) - shortstory by Gary K. Wolf
• Doucement, S'il Vous Plaît - (1972) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Down by the Old Maelstrom - (1972) - shortstory by Edward Wellen
• Dune's Edge - (1972) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Father's in the Basement - (1972) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• Good-Bye, Shelley, Shirley, Charlotte, Charlene - (1972) - shortstory by Robert Thurston
• I Remember a Winter - (1972) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Machines of Loving Grace - (1972) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois
• New York Times - (1972) - shortstory by Charles Platt
• Old Soul - (1972) - shortstory by Steve Herbst
• On the Road to Honeyville - (1972) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Spectra - (1972) - shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
• The Chrystallization of the Myth - (1972) - shortstory by John Barfoot
• The Drum Lollipop - (1972) - shortstory by Jack Dann
• The Summer of the Irish Sea - (1972) - shortstory by Charles L. Grant
• They Cope - (1972) - shortstory by David J. Skal
• Things Go Better - (1972) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
• To Plant a Seed - (1972) - shortstory by Hank Davis

Table of Contents:

• Shark - (1973) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Direction of the Road - (1973) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Windows in Dante's Hell - (1973) - shortstory by Michael Bishop
• Serpent Burning on an Altar - (1973) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Woman in Sunlight with Mandolin - (1973) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• The Young Soldier's Horoscope - (1973) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Castle Scene with Penitents - (1973) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• The Red Canary - (1973) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• What's the Matter with Herbie? - (1973) - novelette by Mel Gilden
• Pinup - (1973) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• The Genius Freaks - (1973) - shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Burger Creature - (1973) - shortstory by Stepan Chapman
• Half the Kingdom - (1973) - shortstory by Doris Piserchia
• Continuing Westward - (1973) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Arcs & Secants - (1973) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• The Scream - (1974) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• Young Love - (1974) - novelette by Grania Davis
• And Name My Name - (1974) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Going West - (1974) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• My Friend Zarathustra - (1974) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Therapy - (1974) - shortstory by Gary K. Wolf
• Gardening Notes from All Over - (1974) - shortstory by W. Macfarlane
• Idio - (1974) - shortstory by Doris Piserchia
• Fantasy's Profession - (1974) - shortstory by Albert Teichner
• Spring Came to Blue Ridge Early This Year - (1974) - shortstory by Charles Arnold
• Creation of a Future World in the Tracer - (1974) - shortstory by Steve Herbst
• Coils - (1974) - shortstory by John Barfoot
• Time Bind - (1974) - shortstory by Sonya Dorman
• Everybody a Winner, the Barker Cried - (1974) - shortstory by Charles L. Grant
• Naked and Afraid I Go - (1974) - shortstory by Doris Piserchia
• Teeth - (1974) - shortstory by Grace Rooney
• Troika - (1974) - shortstory by Stepan Chapman
• Black Sun - (1974) - shortstory by Dennis Etchison
• The Mouth Is for Eating - (1974) - shortstory by William F. Orr
• Flash Point - novelette by Gardner Dozois
• Arcs & Secants - (1974) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• They Say - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight
• Tin Soldier - (1974) - novella by Joan D. Vinge
• Reasonable People - (1974) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
• Royal Licorice - (1974) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Book Reviews - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight
• Review: Billion Year Spree by Brian W. Aldiss - (1974) - review by Damon Knight
• Review: Imaginary Worlds by Lin Carter - (1974) - review by Damon Knight
• The Stars Below - (1974) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls - (1974) - novelette by Kate Wilhelm
• The Bridge Builder - (1974) - shortstory by Gary K. Wolf
• Winning of the Great American Greening Revolution - (1974) - shortstory by Murray F. Yaco
• Forlesen - (1974) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• The Memory Machine - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight
• Arcs & Secants - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

• They Say (Orbit 15) - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight
• Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread - (1974) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• Pale Hands - (1974) - shortstory by Doris Piserchia
• Why Booth Didn't Kill Lincoln - (1974) - shortstory by Edward Wellen
• If Eve Had Failed to Conceive - (1974) - shortstory by Edward Wellen
• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - (1974) - novella by Kate Wilhelm
• Melting - (1974) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• In the Lilliputian Asylum: A Story in Eight Poems & an Interrogation - (1974) - poem by Michael Bishop
• Ernie - (1974) - shortstory by Lowell Kent Smith
• The Memory Machine (Orbit 15) - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight
• Live? Our Computers Will Do That for Us - (1974) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Ace 167 - (1974) - shortstory by Eleanor Arnason
• Biting Down Hard on Truth - (1974) - novelette by George Alec Effinger
• Arcs & Secants - (1974) - essay by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

• They Say - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• Mother and Child - (1975) - novella by Joan D. Vinge
• The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• A Brilliant Curiosity - (1975) - novelette by Doris Piserchia
• Phoenix House - (1975) - shortstory by Jesse Miller
• Jack and Betty - (1975) - shortstory by Robert Thurston
• Prison of Clay, Prison of Steel - (1975) - shortstory by Henry-Luc Planchat
• Heartland - (1975) - shortstory by Gustav Hasford
• Sandial - (1975) - shortstory by Moshe Feder
• The Memory Machine - (1975) - essay by uncredited
• In Donovan's Time - (1975) - shortstory by Charles L. Grant
• Ambience - (1975) - shortstory by David J. Skal
• Binary Justice - (1975) - shortstory by Richard Bireley
• The House by the Sea - (1975) - shortstory by Eleanor Arnason
• Euclid Alone - (1975) - novelette by William F. Orr
• Arcs & Secants - (1975) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• They Say - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• The Anthropologist - (1975) - shortstory by Kathleen M. Sidney
• The Man with the Golden Reticulates - (1975) - shortstory by Felix C. Gotschalk
• The Steel Sonnets - (1975) - shortstory by Jeff Duntemann
• Toto, I Have a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore - (1975) - shortstory by Jeff Millar
• Autopsy in Transit - (1975) - shortstory by Stepan Chapman
• House - (1975) - shortstory by John Barfoot
• Fun Palace - (1975) - shortstory by Raylyn Moore
• When We Were Good - (1975) - shortstory by David J. Skal
• The Memory Machine - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight
• Which in the Wood Decays - (1975) - shortstory by Seth McEvoy
• Great Day in the Morning - (1975) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Maze - (1975) - shortstory by Stuart Dybek
• Quite Late One Spring Night - (1975) - shortstory by John Michael Curlovich
• Under the Hollywood Sign - (1975) - novelette by Tom Reamy
• Arcs & Secants - (1975) - essay by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

• They Say - (1976) - essay by Damon Knight
• Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis - (1976) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• The Hand with One Hundred Fingers - (1976) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Meathouse Man - (1976) - novelette by George R. R. Martin
• Rules of Moopsball - (1976) - shortfiction by Gary Cohn
• Who Was the First Oscar to Win a Negro? - (1976) - shortstory by Craig Strete
• In Pierson's Orchestra - (1976) - shortstory by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Memory Machine - (1976) - essay by Damon Knight
• Mary Margaret Road-Grader - (1976) - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
• The Family Winter of 1986 - (1976) - shortstory by Felix C. Gotschalk
• The Teacher - (1976) - shortstory by Kathleen M. Sidney
• Coming Back to Dixieland - (1976) - novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
• A Modular Story - (1976) - shortstory by Raylyn Moore
• The M&M Seen as a Low-Yield Thermonuclear Device - (1976) - shortstory by John Varley
• The Eve of the Last Apollo - (1976) - novelette by Carter Scholz
• Arcs & Secants - (1976) - essay by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

• They Say - (1977) - essay by Damon Knight
• Lollipop and the Tar Baby - (1977) - novelette by John Varley
• State of Grace - (1977) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Many Mansions - (1977) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Veil Over the River - (1977) - novelette by Felix C. Gotschalk
• Fall of Pebble-Stones - (1977) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Memory Machine - (1977) - essay by Damon Knight
• Tomus - (1977) - shortstory by Stephen Robinett
• Under Jupiter - (1977) - novelette by Michael W. McClintock
• To the Dark Tower Came - (1977) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Vamp - (1977) - novelette by Mike Conner
• Beings of Game P-U - (1977) - shortstory by Phillip Teich
• Night Shift - (1977) - shortstory by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
• Going Down - (1977) - shortstory by Eleanor Arnason
• The Disguise - (1977) - novella by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Arcs & Secants - (1977) - essay by Damon Knight

Table of Contents:

• They Say - (1978) - essay by uncredited
• Moongate - (1978) - novella by Kate Wilhelm
• The Novella Race - (1978) - shortstory by Pamela Sargent
• Bright Coins in Never-Ending Stream - (1978) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• The Synergy Sculpture - (1978) - shortstory by Terrence L. Brown
• The Memory Machine - (1978) - essay by uncredited
• The Birds Are Free - (1978) - shortstory by Ronald Anthony Cross
• A Right-Handed Wrist - (1978) - shortstory by Stepan Chapman
• "They Made Us Not to Be and They Are Not" - (1978) - novelette by Philippa C. Maddern
• Seven American Nights - (1978) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• Arcs & Secants (Orbit 20) - (1978) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: About Fifteen Years of Orbit - (1980) - essay by Damon Knight
• Love, Death, Time, and Katie - (1980) - shortstory by Richard Kearns
• The Greening - (1980) - shortstory by Eileen Roy
• Abominable - (1980) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• Underwood and the Slaughterhouse - (1980) - shortstory by Raymond G. Embrak
• Hope - (1980) - shortstory by Lelia Rose Foreman
• The Mother of the Beast - (1980) - shortstory by Gordon Eklund
• Robert Fraser: The Xenologist as Hero - (1980) - shortstory by Sydelle Shamah
• Persephone - (1980) - shortstory by Rhondi A. Vilott Salsitz
• The Smell of the Noose, The Roar of the Blood - (1980) - novelette by John Barfoot
• And the TV Changed Colors When She Spoke - (1980) - shortstory by Lyn Schumaker
• The Only Tune That He Could Play - (1980) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Survivors - (1980) - shortstory by Rita-Elizabeth Harper
• On the North Pole of Pluto - (1980) - novella by Kim Stanley Robinson

In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor faÇade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.

Contents of Tor Double:

• 1 - Introduction: Beauty, Stupidity, Injustice, and Science Fiction - essay by Damon Knight (variant of Beauty, Stupidity, Injustice, and Science Fiction 1990)
• 19 - Rule Golden - (1954) - novella by Damon Knight
• 103 - Double Meaning - (1953) - novella by Damon Knight Note: An expanded version of this story was published under the title "The Rithian Terror" by Ace Books(1965).

Rule Golden:

As a newspaper publisher, Robert James Dahls found the news disconcerting; in fact, inexplicable. News items like two boxers simultaneously knocking each other out, prison guards sick and unable to guard the prisoners, policemen shooting fleeing culprits and collapsing themselves, battered wives with husbands suffering the same injuries that they inflicted.

Dahl catches wind of a large experimental facility that is being led by the U.S. Department of Defense. His suspicions coincide with the strange, beyond-coincidental behavior that he's been observing. For what's on the grounds of the facility is much more radical than anything that was claimed to be found in Roswell. Not just an alien but one that has a strange effect on the human race. Where the Golden Rule in reversed: Be done by as you do to others. How can we get along without conflict? What will happen to the human race? Dahl soon finds himself a fugitive helping a bizarre alien save or destroy the Earth!

Double Meaning:

A psychological thriller that follows an Earth security officer in the future who is racing against time to locate an alien spy.

First published in 1953, this is probably the first sci-fi book to feature a surveillance drone.