Search Worlds Without End

Half finished upon Bester's death, and completed by Zelazny, "Psychoshop" envisions a commercial establishment that attracts customers ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to a sorcerer intent on fabricating the Beast of Revelations.

>In a breathtaking sci-fi shocker, L.P. Davies brings together three men from the farthest regions of space and time, spinning a web of excitement and intrigue which turns a peaceful, sleepy village into a nightmare of violence, horror and death.

There was Murchison, the long haired youth in a black leather jacket, a wanderer who stood at the side of a lonely country road thumbing a lift... in any direction. There was Edward Garvey, who cowered in his room, afraid to sleep because of the fantastic dreams that sleep would bring. And a million light years away, on the planet Andrida, somewhere on the dark fringes of the Galaxy, there was Argred, the dying man who dragged himself through the caverns of the Lost Moon in search of a legendary secret.

CITY OF FORCE

Huge prisms, obelisks, cubes, cylinders, rhombohedrons, domes ,pyramids shimmered with glowing colors, coruscating essence, blinding radiance...

HERE WERE THE LORDS OF THE PSYCHON!

And Horror Day was fast approaching, the dreadful day when Earth was held inescapably in a grid of luminescent, evil energy, the day when Earth might be torn into another universe!

A little band of ragged men, the pitiful remnant of the Army and Navy of the United States was all that stood between this unimaginable fate and the Lords of the Psychon.

Eron Osa had faced the ultimate penalty. Not death, but the removal of his fam. Without the augmentation of his brain by his electronic familiar, he can barely function amidst the bewildering complexities of everyday life on Splendid Wisdom.

Here, on the capital world of the galaxy's Second Empire, everyone from the meanest citizen to the ruling Pscholars has depended upon a fam since childhood. Without one, simply navigating the streets and levels of the planetary megalopolis is a paralyzing challenge. Lost along with such everyday survival skills were many of Eron's memories and his professional knowledge. The crime he committed must have been terrible to warrant such a dreadful punishment. If only he could remember what it was...

Alas, poor Satan. He's not happy. No one seems to like or understand him; people have got him all wrong. And his relationship with God is a hostile one. Unloved and misunderstood, he's come back to Earth in search of a psychotherapist; he's prepared-- if cured-- to deliver the all-important Great Answer.

In Jeremy Leven's wildly original comic novel, we follow the Prince of Darkness through his seven amazing therapy sessions. And we watch him grow increasingly well adjusted while his therapist, the unfortunate Dr. Kassler, descends deeper and deeper into hell.

A time travel murder mystery from a brilliantly original new voice. Perfect for readers of Naomi Alderman's The Power and Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven.

1967.
Four female scientists invent a time travel machine. They are on the cusp of fame: the pioneers who opened the world to new possibilities. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril...

2017.
Ruby knows her beloved Granny Bee was a pioneer, but they never talk about the past. Though time travel is now big business, Bee has never been part of it. Then they receive a message from the future - a newspaper clipping reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady...

2018.
When Odette discovered the body she went into shock. Blood everywhere, bullet wounds, that strong reek of sulphur. But when the inquest fails to find any answers, she is frustrated. Who is this dead woman that haunts her dreams? And why is everyone determined to cover up her murder?

This short story originally appeared in Chinese in September 2015. A translation by Emily Jin and Ken Liu appeared in Clarkesworld, Issue 133, October 2017.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

The psychologist may appear in science fiction as the herald of utopia or dystopia; literary studies have used psychoanalytic theories to interpret science fiction; and psychology has employed science fiction as an educational medium. Science Fiction and Psychology goes beyond such incidental observations and engagements to offer an in-depth exploration of science fiction literature's varied use of psychological discourses, beginning at the birth of modern psychology in the late nineteenth century and concluding with the ascendance of neuroscience in the late twentieth century.

Rather than dwelling on psychoanalytic readings, this literary investigation combines with history of psychology to offer attentive textual readings that explore five key psychological schools: evolutionary psychology, psychoanalysis, behaviourism, existential-humanism, and cognitivism. The varied functions of psychological discourses in science fiction are explored, whether to popularise and prophesy, to imagine utopia or dystopia, to estrange our everyday reality, to comment on science fiction itself, or to abet (or resist) the spread of psychological wisdom. Science Fiction and Psychology also considers how psychology itself has made use of science fiction in order to teach, to secure legitimacy as a discipline, and to comment on the present.

Lynda Hilburn writes paranormal fiction. More specifically, she writes stories about vampires, witches, psychics, ghosts and other supernatural characters. After a childhood filled with invisible friends, sightings of dead relatives and a fascination with the occult, turning to the paranormal was a no-brainer. In her other reality, she makes her living as a licensed psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, professional psychic/tarot reader, university instructor and workshop presenter.

For more information, visit Lynda's website: www.lyndahilburnauthor.com and her blog: www.paranormalityuniverse.blogspot.com.

Kismet Knight is the Vampire Shrink. She's capable, intelligent and grounded, and she knows exactly how to handle her patients, whether they're vampire wannabes – or the real thing. But when it comes to her love-life she's on less steady ground, for Devereux, her mysterious and sexy-as-hell vampire lover, has become preoccupied and possessive. Needing a break, Kismet heads to the American Psychological Association's annual conference in New York – but it's not long before her new life intrudes. The monster who stalked her three months earlier reappears, her bloodsucking clients won't leave her alone, and there are ghosts haunting the hotel.

So much for Kismet's nice, ordinary life...

The late, great Robert Bloch (author of Psycho) was a master of macabre humor: he was fond of clever, grisly one-liners, often used as twist endings. He also liked to write about psychotic and psychopathic killers. This solid anthology, put out by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and completed after Bloch's death, honors his legacy with 22 tales about murderers and crazies of various stripes. A good many of the stories, most memorably Esther Friesner's "Lonelyhearts," have Blochian twists at the end. The weakest of the bunch have no other flaw than predictability, and the strongest, such as Ed Gorman's powerful "Out There in the Darkness" are classics of traditional storytelling. You'll find excellent stories here by Denise M. Bruchman, Del Stone Jr., Edo van Belkom, Gary A. Braunbeck, and others. Stephen King contributes a little gem of a tale in which the narrator finds himself in an autopsy room: "It fits. It fits everything with a horrid prophylactic snugness. The dark. The rubbery smell.... Dear God, I'm in a body bag."

When the Bates Motel loomed up out of the storm, Mary Craine thought it was her salvation. The rooms were musty but clean, and the manager, Norman Bates, seemed like a nice enough fellow, if a little strange....

Then Mary met Norman's mother. And the butcher knife.

The nightmare had just begun....

You remember Norman Bates-the shy motel manager with the fatal mother fixation. Now, years after his bout of butchery that horrified the world, Norman is at large again, breaking free from the psycho ward, cutting a shocking swath of blood all the way to Hollywood-where, so it happens, they are making a movie about Norman's life and crimes. A movie that suddenly and terrifyingly becomes a lot like real life....

The new Bates Motel is a tourist attraction, a recreation of the murder site, and the developers are already counting their profits. And there's a new exhibit, one nobody expected: the bloody corpse of a teenage girl crumpled in the front hall, stabbed to death.

Among the avalanche of press and publicity is reporter Amelia Haines, true-crime book writer. She's studying the original Psycho killings and to Amy, the new murders are a golden opportunity-if she can be part of the investigation, perhaps track down the killer herself, then her fame, and her fortune, will be assured. But catching the madman won't be easy . . . the town is full of suspects, and Amy's best informants keep turning up murdered. If she isn't careful, Amelia Haines may be the next permanent guest at the Bates Motel. . . .

Was Andas an android - or the rightful Emperor, held prisoner on a distant planet while an android impersonated him on the Empire's throne world? Was Tallhasseee Mitford a modern archaeologist suffering from strange delusions, or has an ancient Egyptian ankh somehow hurled her personality far back in the mists of time to a Nubian kingdom where she is now a warrior princess named Ashake, caught up in a struggle between the gods of Egypt? Two very different heroes in the grip of forces beyond control, beyond comprehension, both destined to be the only hope of doomed civilisations...

This is the omnibus edition of the two books in the Psychocrat duology, Android at Arms and Wraiths of Time.

Awaking from a mind-frozen state, Andas Kastor must discover if he is the rightful human Emperor of Inyanga or an evil android double.

Hurtled through space and time into the ancient Nubian kingdom of Meroe, a museum expert in African archaeology finds she must play a key role in preserving their civilization from evil power-seekers.

Psychodrome- An intergalactic scavenger hunt that sends its players across the stars in a game player for keeps... a game where the lines between reality and computer-generated fiction blur, and the only sure thing is that there is no sure thing.

Now Arkardy O'Toole has entered Psychodrome. A gambler down on his luck, O'Toole hopes to pick up quick cash- and avoid some nasty characters that he's accidentally crossed. But his past has followed him into the game, and he and his teammates soon find out that if Psychodrome doesn't kill them, reality will...

When humans arrived at Draconis 9, the only life on the planet was docile race of mammals. Humans do what they always do when they arrive on a new planet; they begin to kill things. It turns out the mammals were tasty. Little did the colonists know the animals were actually a race of telepathic shapechangers. Faced with being hunted for food, the shapechangers took the form of humans and began to learn how to face their new predator. The race was docile no longer.

Richard Garrison, a Corporal in the British Military Police, loses his sight while trying to save the wife and child of millionaire industrialist Thomas Schroeder from a terrorist bomb. While Garrison is recovering from his injuries, Schroeder makes him an offer the young man cannot refuse-refuge at Schroeder's luxurious mountain retreat and rehabilitation from the best doctors who can treat Garrison's blindness and if not cure him at least teach him a new way of life.

But Thomas Schroeder has a secret. He is dying and determined not to lose his life. The doctors tell him his body cannot be saved. But about his mind? Garrison's healthy young body would make an excellent replacement for Schroeder's failing corpus, if the machines to perform the operation can be perfected in time.

Garrison has no secrets of his own. Since the bombing that caused a loss of his sight, Garrison has become aware of new abilities slowly developing in his mind: mental powers he is beginning to master; strengths Schroeder cannot expect.

Richard Garrison and Thomas Schroeder, two strong-willed men locked in battle for the greatest prize-life itself.

After Richard Garrison lost his sight in a terrorist explosion, he developed vast mental powers that more than compensated for his blindness. He mastered the Psychomech machine, then used it to conquer his enemies and restore his dead love to full and vibrant life. Psychomech also revealed to Garrison the Psychosphere, a startling reality where mental powers reigned supreme and could influence people and events on Earth.

Once he was nearly godlike-or demonic, if one dared become his enemy-but now Garrison's mental abilities grow weaker with each use. He tries desperately to conserve his energies, but he has begun to have strange visions of a mind so different from his own as to be other than human, and knows he must stay alert and strong.

Charon Gubwa has invaded the Psychosphere. Twisted and evil, sexually and mentally warped, physically corrupt, Gubwa's desires are simple: More. More drugs. More sex. More power. More of the Earth under his dominion.

Richard Garrison must battle Gubwa in the Psychosphere and on Earth. And he must win, no matter the cost to himself or those he loves, or all mankind will be lost.

Richard Garrison was once a corporal in the British Military Police, until a terrorist's bomb destroyed his eyesight and his career. Repaying Garrison for saving his wife and child from the blast, millionaire industrialist Thomas Schroeder introduced him to the Psychomech, an amazing machine that could either gift its users with astonishing mental powers-or destroy them utterly.

Having successfully harnessed the Psychomech, Garrison discovered the Psychosphere, a strange plane of existence where mental abilities were all. Thought became intent, word became deed, and Garrison became like unto a god.

Two decades later, Garrison is utilizing his unique powers to explore the universe. On Earth, his son, Richard Stone, is happily in love, until his beloved falls victim to "The Gibbering," a plague of madness that destroys men and women by destroying their minds. There is no obvious cause. There is no cure. There are no survivors.

When Richard Stone himself is infected by the Gibbering, the mental powers he inherited from his father enable him to defeat the madness, at least for a while. Then, to his horror, Stone discovers that the Psychomech has run amok and that the Gibbering is the result! Even though the insanity it creates batters his struggling mind, Stone realizes he is the only man with the knowledge and power capable of destroying the berserker mind-machine.

The son of Garrison is at war with Psychomech. Who will survive the final battle, man or machine?

Amelia Scarcliffe's monstrous brood, harbingers of Cthulhu, will soon spawn. Her songs spell insanity, death... and illimitable wealth. And Moriarty will do anything to get his hands on gold, even if it means tearing down the walls between this world and a realm of horrors.

Meanwhile, after Sherlock Holmes's last tangle with the Order of Dagon, horrifying monsters haunt the Thames, and madness stalks the streets of Whitechapel. Gang war between Moriarty's thugs and the powerful cult can only bring more terror--unless Holmes and Dr. Watson can prevent it. But can they find the cause of the neural psychoses before Watson himself succumbs?

Continuing its journey through space, the Moon Base enters an unknown area of invisible radiation, transforming the Alpha personnel into super psychics capable of fulfilling their every wish merely by thought. Koenig decides to investigate the roots of this potentially dangerous situation - but with disastrous results.

While he recovers from his mind-shattering experience, the Moon receives some unexpected and welcome visitors. Aboard what seems to be a Superswift from Earth are longlost friends and relations who the Alphans believed they would never live to see again. But only Koenig sees the truth - the visitation is nothing but a mass hallucination disguising the terrifying invasion of jelly-like aliens - and somehow he must find a way to alert the others before it is too late.

The first of three volumes collecting ALL of the Psychotechnic League future history stories, from multiple Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author Poul Anderson. After World War III ravages the globe, humanity, led by the Psychotechnic Institute, bands together to create peace on Earth and to spread that peace throughout the solar system and beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew. Includes short stories never before collected in a Psychotechnic League volume.

FROM THE ASHES OF WORLD WAR III

World War III has ravaged the globe. Once great nations have been brought to their knees. Now, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. While peace reigns on Earth, humankind ventures out into the Solar System--and to the stars beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

The first of three volumes collecting all of multiple Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning author Poul Anderson's massive future history magnum opus. Includes short stories previously uncollected in a Psychotechnic League volume!

FROM THE RAVAGES OF WAR, HOPE FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW

After World War III has ravaged the globe and toppled once-great nations, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. Peace reigns on Earth. Humankind shakes off the tyranny of gravity and ventures out into the galaxy. But no sooner is utopia realized than the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

The second of three volumes collecting all of multiple Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning author Poul Anderson's massive future history magnum opus. Includes short stories previously uncollected in a Psychotechnic League volume!

Table of Contents:

• Quixote and the Windmill - (1950) - short story
• Holmgang - (1955) - novelette
• Cold Victory - (1957) - novelette
• What Shall It Profit? - (1956) - short story
• The Troublemakers - (1953) - novella
• The Snows of Ganymede - (1955) - novella
• Brake - (1957) - novelette
• Gypsy - (1950) - short story
• Star Ship - (1950) - novelette

Volume three of three collecting ALL of the Psychotechnic League future history stories, from multiple Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author Poul Anderson. Includes stories never before collected in a Psychotechnic League volume! After World War III ravages the globe, humanity, led by the Psychotechnic Institute, bands together to create peace on Earth and to spread that peace throughout the Solar System and beyond. But soon the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

After World War III has ravaged the globe and toppled once-great nations, a new science offers hope for the future: Psychodynamics, the ability to influence government and popular opinion. Led by the Psychotechnic Institute, humanity denounces its violent ways, once and for all. Peace reigns on Earth. Humankind shakes off the tyranny of gravity and ventures out into the galaxy. But no sooner is utopia realized than the cycle of war and destruction begins anew.

The final of three volumes collecting all of multiple Hugo- and Nebula-Award winning author Poul Anderson's massive future history magnum opus. Includes short stories previously uncollected in a Psychotechnic League volume!

Table of Contents:

• The Acolytes - (1951) - short story
• The Green Thumb - (1953) - novelette
• Virgin Planet - (1957) - novella
• Teucan - (1954) - novelette
• The Pirate - (1968) - novelette
• Entity - (1949) - short story with John Gergen
• Symmetry - (1954) - short story
• The Chapter Ends - (1954) - novelette

"Five of our worlds are missing". That was the essence of the report that shocked the galactic Nomads at their annual meeting. For each of the mighty star-ships reported vanished was a world of its own - a man-made, self-sustaining city-state housing thousands of people. The Nomads themselves were an unplanned by-product of man's conquest of the stars. They were the gypsies of the distant future, the restless rovers of outer space. But to Joachim of the peregrine tey represented a way of life that was to be dearly defended. So it fell to him to make his own world-ship the bait in a cosmic trap set to catch the galaxy's unknown foemen!

FOR 300 YEARS THE PLANET OF WOMEN AWAITED THE COMING OF MAN. THEN ONE ARRIVES...

He is Davis Bertram, a space-explorer. But how can he convince the he really is a man? Their legends have built Men into gods.

Trying to worthy of the Coming, the women imitate masculine virtues. they are warlike, ambitions, ruthless. Unless Davis can convince them he is a man, they will kill him for blasphemy. But if he does convince them, the Coctor-Priests will kill him to protect their own iron control of the planet....

IN THE BEGINNING WAS WORLD WAR III...

Out of the flames was born a new civilization, a new humanity dedicated to one world rather than to many nations, to one peace rather than many wars. Never again on Planet Earth would one group of humans "defend" themselves against another group equally convinced that all their actions were "defensive." Never again on Planet Earth.

But cycles repeat themselves endlessly. Earth is only the beginning of the human story. Next coms planer against planet, and then the stars themselves. Through it all the impersonal forces of historical necessity will tend to force that story into the pathways of tyranny, stasis, and war. And in the end they must prevail. But ever will humankind win free once more...

Table of Contents:

• 10 - Foreword (The Psycho-Technic League) - essay by Sandra Miesel
• 13 - Marius - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - short story
• 31 - Un-Man - [Psychotechnic League] - (1953) - novella
• 131 - The Sensitive Man - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novella
• 201 - The Big Rain - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novella
• 283 - Author's Note (The Psycho-Technic League) - essay

The Psychotechnic Institute

Born in the radioactive ashes of world War Three the Institute for Applied Psychotechnics had guided Planet Earth to a period of plenty that for the first time fulfilled Science's promise. But it is the central irony of human existence that prosperity bears the seeds of its own destruction, this time not just Earth but the entire Solar System would endure the flames of war. Cold Victory.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Foreword (Cold Victory) - essay by Sandra Miesel
• 15 - Quixote and the Windmill - [Psychotechnic League] - (1950) - short story
• 31 - The Troublemakers - [Psychotechnic League] - (1953) - novella
• 112 - Holmgang - [Psychotechnic League] - (1955) - novelette
• 165 - Cold Victory - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - novelette
• 196 - What Shall It Profit? - [Psychotechnic League] - (1956) - short story
• 225 - Brake - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - novelette

THE WARS ARE OVER...

The conflicts of Planet Earth are forgotten now. Even The Solar System War with its Cold Victory is barely a memory. In this the third and final volume of The Psychotechnic League, the scale is immeasurably greater in Sace, in Time... and in violence.

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Foreword (Starship) - essay by Sandra Miesel
• 12 - Gypsy - [Psychotechnic League] - (1950) - short story
• 36 - Star Ship - [Psychotechnic League] - (1950) - novelette
• 83 - Virgin Planet - [Psychotechnic League] - (1957) - novella
• 183 - Teucan - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novelette
• 211 - The Pirate - [Psychotechnic League] - (1968) - novelette
• 253 - The Chapter Ends - [Psychotechnic League] - (1954) - novelette
• 283 - A Chronology of the Psychotechnic Series - essay by Sandra Miesel