Search Worlds Without End

This volume of science fiction thrillers contains a novel and seven short stories centered on the semi-autobiographical character Sandor Courane. The collection's feature novel In The Wolves of Memory, paints a world where Earth's governing body, the Representatives, has relinquished control to an increasingly intelligent and self-aware computer known as TECT. Deemed a social misfit and banished from Earth to Planet D for his inability to fall in line. Sandor finds the new planet's idyllic environment and fulfilling lifestyle to his liking - at first. Upon discovering that all the inhabitants of Planet D succomb to an insidious, debilitating disease, Sandor embarks on a race against time to discover the meaning behind Planet D, the motives of TECT, and the mysterious malady.

Utilizing a unique approach with the use of Flashbacks, this powerful story, with poignant and sardonic tones, is a heartrending display of one man's pain and absolution.

Includes:

• The Wolves of Memory
• Fatal Disk Error
• In the Wings
• From The Desk of
• The Wicked Old Witch
• Mango Red Goes to War
• The Thing From the Slush
• Posterity

Hugo Award nominated short story. It orginally appeared in the anthology Universe 1 (1971), edited by Terry Carr. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year #1 (1972), edited by Terry Carr and Windows into Tomorrow (1974) edited by Robert Silverberg. It is included in the collection Live! from Planet Earth (2005).

A dark and gritty trip into the imagination of one of science fiction's most gifted authors, this collection presents all nine tales of the Budayeen gathered together in one archival-quality volume, available for the first time in more than 20 years.

Here is Budayeen: a grity fusion of Bogart's Casablanca, new orleans' notoriously seedy French Quarter, and a futuristic Muslim city, all welded together and serving as the perfect backdrop for Marid, a drug-addled policeman and anti-hero of world-class proportion.

This is a collection to get lost in, from the city's sorid underbelly to the glamorous excesses of the "sex moddy" industry, from the tall ancient mosque towers to the strong-voiced muezzin calling the faithful to morning devotions, the Budayeen leaps to sudden life, making claims to its own reality as only the best science fiction can.

The following stories are included in this collection:

• Schrodinger's Kitten
• Marid Changes His Mind
• Slow, Slow Burn
• Marid and the Trail of Blood
• King of the Cyber Rifles
• Marid Throws a Party
• The World As We Know It
• The City On The Sand
• The Plastic Pasha

Utopia 3 is a movement spreading through the world, a project designed to mold everyone into people devoted to brotherhood and peace. A large portion of Europe is set aside for members of the pilot program. Each member is permitted to travel anywhere in the project, do anything, take anything without limit. Each person undergoes an indoctrination designed to prevent destructive or harmful acts. This is the meaning and hope of Utopia 3.

This story focuses on three people: Eileen Brant, a weary young woman escaping the dead-end life she was leading; Justin Benareck, a man who tries either too hard or not at all; and Bo Staefler, who, accompanied by a silent Arab boy, accidentally joins Utopia 3 by standing too near the genuine members at the wrong moment. These three people are caught up in a growing scheme, a deadly and evil plan that threatens to destroy the project and, ultimately, the entire world. A conflict greater than any war in history is about to be unleashed and only Brant, Benareck and Staefler can hope to prevent it.

In these eleven short stories by speculative fiction master George Alec Effinger, New York's populace must deal with the realisies of a bi-polar existance; patients brains are cut to tiny pieces in a clinical search for the medical definition of bliss; a child's natural fear of the dark is exploded into new mind-bending phobias and a cartoon favorite pays a personal visit to an aging, aching fan. Humor, sheer audacity and an eclectic array of human fears and expectations placed against each other all make this collection a perfect representation of Effinger's unique voice. He is truly a remarkable talent and one not to be missed.

Includes:

• New New York new Orleans
• Contentment, Satisfaction, Cheer, Well-being, gladness, Joy, Comfort, And Not Having to Get Up Early Any More
• Strange Ragged Saintliness
• Heartstop
• Timmy Was Eight
• Live, From Berchtesgaden
• The Mothers' March on Ecstasy
• B.K.A. The Master
• Sand and Stones
• Chase Iur Blues Away
• Contest Results

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 1989. The story can also be found in the anthology What Might Have Been? Volume 1: Alternate Empires (1989), edited by Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg. It is included in the collection Live! from Planet Earth (2005).

In HEROICS, Irene-- like everyone in the future-- struggles with boredom. Food, clothing, all the necessities of human life have been taken care of. But, what does that leave of life itself? At eighty-two, Irene sets out on a pilgrimage across America hoping to find the answer. Along the way, she becomes transformed, both physically and by her interations with other civilians all trying to cope with this new world.

Filled with humor and fantastic symbolism, HEROICS mixes adventure and philosophy in a way both engrossing and entertaining. Of this book, friend and fellow writer Harlan Ellison said, "It is the best Effinger yet...and for those of us who have been watching with amazement that is about as rich a compliment as you can expect from other envious authors. Damn him, he's good!"

Includes:

• Naked to the Invisible Eye
• From Downtown at the Buzzer
• The Exempt
• 25 Crunch Split Right On Two
• The Pintch Hiters
• Breakaway
• The Horse With One Leg
• Heartstop

The Death of a pet fish signals an ominous threat of worldwide tragedy... Delta Company "plays" out a war light years away...A running back for the Cleveland Browns gives his all to relive a night from his past...

In IRRATIONAL NUMBERS, as with much of his work, author George Alec Effinger straddles the line between allegorical fantasy and science fiction. It's a vein Effinger mines for a deep, meaningful understanding of human nature. Challenging and disquieting in the way only the best fiction can be, this collection of eight magnificent pieces of fiction will have readers clamoring for more.

George Alec Effinger was a true master of sateriecal Science Fiction. Before his death in 2002, he gained the hightest esteem amongst his peers for his pitch-perfect stylistic mimicry and his great insight into the human condition. Despite a life filled with chronic illness, Effinger was a prolific novelist and short story writer, earning multiple Nebula and Hugo Award Nominations.

Includes:

• Lydectes: On The Nature of Sports
• And Us To, I Guess
• 25 Crunch Split, Right on Two
• Hard Times
• At the Bran Foundry
• Curtains
• How It Felt
• Biting Down on Hard Truth

Originally intended to be a collaboration with the author, this collection of the most memorable shortstories of the late George Alec Effinger is a tribute from those who best knew his work - his firends, fellow writers, and editors.

In addition to handpicking their favorite pieces, Micheal Bishop, Neil Gaiman, Barbara Hambly, Mike resnick, Howard Waldrop, and others have contributed a personal introduction or Afterward to accompany each selection that reveals their deep respect for and insight into the author. The short stories "The Aliens Who knew, I mean, Everything" and "Everything but Honor," both Hugo award finalists, are among those included.

Of special interest are seven previously uncollected short stories and a poem written under the authors pen name, O Niemand. Introduced by Gardner Dozois, former editor of Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, these stories are uniquely written in the style of other authors including Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, James Thurber, and Mark Twain. Considered by Effinger to be "sympathetic homage" rather than parody or caricature, they present his perspective on how these noted authors would have tackled science fiction, such as "The Man Outside," the John Steinbeck-inspired story about a loner in a domed city on as asteroid deep in space.

Includes:

• Introduction to The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything - Michael Bishop
• The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything
• Afterward to The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything - George Zebrowski
• Introduction to All the Last Wars at Once - Mike Resnick
• All The Last Wars At Once
• Introduction to Two Sadnesses - Howard Waldrop
• Two Sadnesses
• Introduction to Target: Berlin! - Pamela Sargent
• Target: Berlin!
• Introduction to One - Barbara Hambly
• One
• Introduction to My Old Man - Lawrence Person
• My Old Man
• Introduction to Everything but Honor - Neal Barrett Jr.
• Everything But Honor
• Introduction to Solo in The Spotlight - Bradley Denton
• Solo In the Spotlight
• Introduction to At The Bran Foundry - Jack Dann
• At the Bran Foundry
• Introduction to Housebound - Richard Gilliam
• Housebound
• Introduction to Glimmer, Glimmer - Bradley Denton
• Glimmer, Glimmer
• Introduction to From Downtown at the Buzzer - Mike Resnick
• From Downtown at the Buzzer
• Introduction to The O. Niemand Stories - Gardner Dozois
• The Wooing of Slowboat Sadie
• The Man Outside
• Afternoon Under Glass
• Two Bits
• The Artist Passes it By
• The Day The Invaders Came
• The Wisdom of Having Money
• Put Your Hands Together
• Introduction to Seven Nights in Slumberland - Neil Gaiman
• Seven Nights in Slumberland
• Introduction to My First Game as an Immortal - Barbara Hambly
• My First Game as an Immortal

Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordperson is a 1993 anthology by George Alec Effinger, with cover and interior illustrations by Ken Kelly. They collect all his stories about Maureen "Muffy" Binrbaum, a Jewish American Princess who is magically teleported to various fantasy and science fiction universes, and later recounts the tales to her best friend, "Bitsy" Spiegelman.

Originally written on his own initiative, the character proved popular enough for Effinger to gain several requests from authors to have versions of their work visited by Muffy. In addition to satirizing and spoofing the various stories, they had a feminist undertone, as Maureen delt with the often sexist reactions of the inhabitants of the worlds she met, struggled to find the Martian price she had fallen in lovewith, and contrasted her adventures with Bitsy, a housewife with an increasingly unhappy marriage.

This collection includes:

• Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson
• Maureen Birnbaum at the Earth's Core
• Maureen Birnbaum on the Art of War
• Maureen Birnbaum After Dark
• Maureen Birnbaum Goes Shopynge
• Maureen Birnbaum and the Giant Graal
• Maureen Birnbaum at the Looming Awfulness
• Maureen Birnbaum's Lunar Adventure

Nightmare Blue: the most addictive drug in the universe. The alien race known as the Aensalords alone know from whence it comes, and are its sole purveyors. Already its effects are visible on Earth--in the stark, raving eyes of the hopelessly addicted and enslaved. Now two agents set out to find the source: Jaeger, the last private detective in the peaceful world of the future, and Corcail Sendijen, a lobster-like alien once a servant of the Aensalords themselves. But Earth alone is not all that is at stake--for it seems humans are merely test subjects, and the Aensalords have plans that could endanger the entire galaxy.

Ernest Weinraub, Ernst Weinraub, Ernst Weintraub--three slightly different versions of the same name, the same man. Each incarnation of Weintraub/Weinraub inhabits a slightly different version of our world: Ernest Weinraub lives in a maddeningly overcrowded New York, a hellish near-future world where sanity and life are imperiled by a nightmare of pollution, overpopulation and manic power games played by the six despotic men who rule Earth; Ernst Weinraub is a poet and an intellectual who lives in a decadent world in which America has never been colonized, Europe and Asia are crumbling, and Africa has only one populated city, a world where drink, drugs and sex reduce human being to little more than animals and a man feels himself being sucked under with all the others; Ernst Weintraub, an idealistic revolutionary, lives in a world in which the Allies lost the First World War to "Jermany" and people are forced into a terror-ridden underground existence as tyranny rides roughshod over man and civilization.

The single factor uniting these startlingly different worlds is Weinraub/Weintraub. But even he is molded and distorted, it would appear, by the various environments and societies, and his problems seem entirely different in each of the three worlds. Yet, as the book progresses, both he and the reader learn that neither time nor place matters--every person must sooner or later make certain basic decisions.

RELATIVES is a novel about personality and about duty, chiefly one's duty to the state. The Weinraub/Weintraub variations are carefully orchestrated so that each tells the same story while presenting vastly varying reasons for a single outcome. Once having experienced these three powerful visions of an individual's interaction with society, one is compelled to consider, and reconsider, the foundations of moral and social responsibility.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1984. The story can also be found in the anthologies The 1985 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, Best SF of the Year #14 (1985), edited by Terry Carr, Nebula Awards 20 (1985), edited by George Zebrowski, The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: A 40th Anniversary Anthology (1989), edited by Edward L. Ferman and Alien Contact (2012), edited by Marty Halpern. It is included in the collections The Old Funny Stuff (1989) and Live! from Planet Earth (2005).

Millard Fillmore Pierce, Class 2 Arbiter, is lost. And when you're in the service of the Spiral Federation, getting found again is no easy task. The paperwork alone could take years.

But when Pierce's ship is captured by an alien dreadnought, the nightmare only gets worse: The aliens are intent on galactic conquest, and they intend to start with Pierce.

The plot gets thicker and thicker from that point on, as three of science fiction's most accomplished storytellers attempt to write each other into a corner.

With Glorian prodding him ever onward, Mirakles descends into the Great Underground Empire where he encounters Spike the Protector, the Dragon's Lair, the Wizard's Workroom, the winged vampire were-unicorn, and the warm boot of Frobozz...

"Because it's there..."

That was why men climed Mt. Everest and why, in 2017, they set out for the distant star, Wolf 359. They learned in 1988 that intelligent inhabitants from a planet orbiting Wolf 359 had been signalling Earth. That fact was the reason enough to dispatch a manned and womaned probe to explore and investigate.

But perhaps there was another reason for the journey. A reason too incredible for Earth people to ever imagine. A reason they might never understand even when they land on the planet they call Jennings' World.

Doctor, watch out! As Dore stood by, he saw the Doctor backing slowly into the corner where he would meet his fate. Initially defending himself with a torch, the Doctor searched frantically for a new method of defense. The crimson mass is lunging forward using long, tentacle-like attachments: what is that thing? Slowly the subhuman blob comes in to focus, and Dore realizes . . . it's a colossal radish! This is a monster never before wrestled with; what are they going to do? After reading this vegetative tale, you won't look at your garden the same way again...

Table of Contents:

• The Old Funny Stuff: An Introduction - essay
• The Thing from the Slush - (1982) - short story
• White Hats - (1984) - short story
• My First Game as an Immortal - (1985) - poem
• Mars Needs Beatniks - (1984) - short story
• CHESS.BAT: A New Wave Story - (1989) - short story
• The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything - (1984) - short story

Hugo, Nebula and Sturgeon Award winning novelette.

Jehan nervously awaits the dawn in a dark alley, watching for the boy she knows will assault her, unsure if she will use the dagger in her sleeve... this decision will determine which of the many futures from her visions will come to pass. Life on the streets as a defiled woman... beheading in the public square... or assistant to the German physicist who buys her life from the executioner's sword.

The story originally appeared in Omni, September 1988. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection (1989), edited by Gardner Dozois
• The 1989 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha
• Nebula Awards 24 (1990), edited by Michael Bishop
• The New Hugo Winners, Volume III: (1989-91) (1994), editee by Connie Willis

The story is also included in the collection Budayeen Nights (2008).

Hugo Award nominated novelette. The story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1973. It is included in the collection Budayeen Nights (2003).

Nebula Award nominated novella. Effinger was also nominated for the Hugo but withdrew the story from consideration. It was originally published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, May 1989. The story is included in Budayeen Nights (2008).

In a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hardway. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he's available... for a price.

For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can't refuse.

The 200-year-old "godfather" of the Budayeen's underworld has enlisted Marid as his instrument of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most sophisticated of surgical implants before he dares to confront a killer who carries the power of every psychopath since the beginning of time.

Marid Audran has become everything he once despised. Not so long ago, he was a hustler in the Budayeen, an Arabian ghetto in a Balkanized future Earth.

Back then, as often as not, he didn't have the money to buy himself a drink. But he had his independence.

Now Marid works for Friedlander Bey, "godfather" of the Budayeen, a man whose power stretches across a shattered, crumbling world. During the day, Marid is a policeman... and Bey's personal envoy to the police. His new position has brought him money and power which he would abandon in a moment if he could return to a life of neither owning nor being owned. Which, unfortunately, isn't one of his options.

It's also not an issue. For something dark is afoot. Something that is sending the city into chaos. Helping a child-mutilator to avoid arrest. Sending a killer to murder Marid's partner. Murdering prostitutes and savaging their remains. Signs point to the hand of Abu Adil-the one man in the city whose power rivals Friedlander Bey's. Whatever happens next, it's not going to be good news for Marid Audran...

Marîd Audran has risen from hustling on the streets of the decadent Budayeen ghetto to being the right-hand man of one of the Maghreb’s most feared men. As an enforcer for the powerful Friedlander Bey, Marîd is just beginning to enjoy his newfound wealth and privilege, when he and Bey are betrayed by a rival and accused of murder.

Sentenced to exile and abandoned to die in the vast Arabian desert, Marîd and Bey must somehow survive the searing sands and make their way back to the now-hostile Budayeen-and, then, take their vengeance.

By turns thrilling and philosophical, The Exile Kiss is the culmination of one of the great works of modern SF.

The fantastic adventures of astronauts Alan Virdon and Pete Burke, accidentally time-warped 1000 years into the future -- to the Planet of the Apes...

Of Zaius, head of the Council of Apes, who forbids any knowledge of mankind's long dead civilization....

Of Urko, gorilla leader, who hates all humans and vows death to those who claim superiority....

Of peace-loving Galen, who could forgive Zaius' fear of knowledge -- but not his hatred of humans nor his vengeance upon the two men who carry the secrets of the past.

Contains the novellizations of the episodes "The Cure" and "The Good Seeds".

"Savages, they're nothing but savages!"
"They must be caught and punished!"
"They must be taught their place!"
"They must be obliterated like the plague!"

So began the reign of terror. Humans, already enslaved, were now to be exterminated. The Dragoons, a band of vicious apes, swore to drive the humans from their land, burn their huts, murder their children, and imprison the last sorry survivors in the Forbidden Zone.

Only Galen, Virdon and Burke stood between the doomed humans and their terrible fate. Only they could expose the Dragoons and their dangerous secret. Only they could keep the apes from destroying an entire race and every remnant of their dead civilization.

But in this desert of brutality, small flames of reason and kindness still flickered. An ape doctor and a frightened blind female become the unwitting aides of human salvation....

Contains the novellizations of the episodes "The Surgeon" based on the teleplay by Barry Oringer, and, "The Deception" based on the teleplay by Anthony Lawrence and Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.

THE DEADLIEST CHOICE OF ALL -- A SINGLE HUMAN LIFE... OR THE SECRET OF THE AGES

The ancient projector cranks into motion. The old reel begins to unwind. Civilization, human civilization lives. Its secrets unfold before astonished eyes.

Then the rusty, outdated machine grinds to a halt. The secrets will remain secrets forever.

Unless the machine can be made to work. Only two men have the key, only two men can empower the machine that will unlock the mysteries of the ages.

But a vicious band of bloodthirsty gorillas have seized one of them. The other's choice is simple: the machine or the man, the sum total of scientific knowledge or the life of a friend!

Contains the novellizations of the episodes "The Legacy" and "The Horse Race".

Take two astronauts time-warped 1000 years into the future to find Human civilization destroyed and the Apes in control - and you have a terrifying vision of what the world may someday be like.

The Orangutans rule.

The clever Chimpanzees are the administrators and the bureaucrats.

The powerful and brutal Gorillas staff the military and police.

And Humans are enslaved.

Only the astronauts Burke and Vurdon and the companion Galen are free in this savage world. But theirs is the freedom of perpetual fugitives...

'The tyrant,' based on the teleplay by Walter Black. 'The gladiators,' based on the teleplay by Art Wallace.