Search Worlds Without End

Heir to the philosophical-fantastical tradition of Borges, Calvino, and Perec, The Golden Age is Michal Ajvaz's greatest and most ambitious work.

The Golden Age is a fantastical travelogue in which a modern-day Gulliver writes a book about a civilization he once encountered on a tiny island in the Atlantic. The islanders seem at first to do nothing but sit and observe the world, and indeed draw no distinction between reality and representation, so that a mirror image seems as substantial to them as a person (and vice versa); but the center of their culture is revealed to be "The Book," a handwritten, collective novel filled with feuding royal families, murderous sorcerers, and narrow escapes. Anyone is free to write in "The Book," adding their own stories, crossing out others, or even appending "footnotes" in the form of little paper pouches full of extra text-but of course there are pouches within pouches, so that the story is impossible to read "in order," and soon begins to overwhelm the narrator's orderly treatise.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Editor's Note: About Science Fiction (The Golden Age of Science Fiction) - (1981) - essay by Kingsley Amis
• 6 - Introduction (The Golden Age of Science Fiction) - essay by Kingsley Amis
• 29 - The Quest for Saint Aquin - (1951) - novelette by Anthony Boucher
• 49 - The Xi Effect - (1950) - short story by R. S. Richardson [as by Philip Latham]
• 72 - The Tunnel Under the World - (1955) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• 106 - Old Hundredth - (1960) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• 119 - A Work of Art - (1956) - short story by James Blish
• 137 - Harrison Bergeron - (1961) - short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• 144 - The Voices of Time - (1960) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• 180 - Specialist - (1953) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• 198 - He Walked Around the Horses - [Paratime Police] - (1948) - novelette by H. Beam Piper
• 222 - The Game of Rat and Dragon - [The Instrumentality of Mankind] - (1955) - short story by Cordwainer Smith
• 239 - The Nine Billion Names of God - (1953) - short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 247 - The Streets of Ashkelon - (1962) - short story by Harry Harrison
• 264 - The Country of the Kind - (1956) - short story by Damon Knight
• 279 - The Machine That Won the War - [Multivac] - (1961) - short story by Isaac Asimov
• 285 - Student Body - (1953) - novelette by F. L. Wallace [as by Floyd L. Wallace]
• 308 - It's a Good Life - (1953) - short story by Jerome Bixby
• 328 - Sister Planet - (1959) - novella by Poul Anderson

It's not easy being a superhero's daughter....

Carrie Vaughn has captured legions of fans with her wildly popular Kitty Norville novels. Now she uses her extraordinary wit and imagination to tell a sensational new story about superhuman heroes--and the people who have to live with them.

Most people dream of having superheroes for parents, but not Celia West. The only daughter of Captain Olympus and Spark, the world's greatest champions, she has no powers of her own, and the most exciting thing she's ever done is win a silver medal in a high school swim meet. Meanwhile, she's the favorite hostage of every crime boss and supervillain in Comemrce City. She doesn't have a code name, but if she did, it would probably be Bait Girl, the Captive Wonder.

Rejecting her famous family and its legacy, Celia has worked hard to create a life for herself beyond the shadow of their capes, becoming a skilled forensic accountant. But when her parents' archenemy, the Destructor, faces justice in the "Trial of the Century," Celia finds herself sucked back into the more-than-mortal world of Captain Olympus--and forced to confront a secret that she hoped would stay buried forever.

Like every teen, Anna has secrets. Unlike every teen, Anna has a telepath for a father and Commerce City's most powerful businessperson for a mother. She's also the granddaughter of the city's two most famous superheroes, the former leaders of the legendary Olympiad, and the company car drops her off at the gate of her exclusive high school every morning. Privacy is one luxury she doesn't have.

Hiding her burgeoning superpowers from her parents is hard enough; how's she supposed to keep them from finding out that her friends have powers, too? Or that she and the others are meeting late at night, honing their skills and dreaming of becoming Commerce City's next great team of masked vigilantes?

Like every mother, Celia worries about her daughter. Unlike every mother, Celia has the means to send Anna to the best schools and keep a close watch on her, every second of every day. At least Celia doesn't have to worry about Anna becoming a target for every gang with masks and an agenda, like Celia was at Anna's age.

As far as Celia knows, Anna isn't anything other than a normal teen. Still, just in case, Celia has secretly awarded scholarships at Anna's private high school to the descendants of the city's other superpowered humans. Maybe, just maybe, these teens could one day fill the gap left by the dissolution of The Olympiad....in Carrie Vaughn's Dreams of the Golden Age.

Asimov combines many of his science fiction favorites from the thirties with his personal reflections on his early years, interests, and influences.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Part One: 1920 to 1930 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Part Two: 1931 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• The Man Who Evolved - (1931) - shortstory by Edmond Hamilton
• The Jameson Satellite - (1931) - novelette by Neil R. Jones
• Submicroscopic - (1931) - novelette by S. P. Meek
• Awlo of Ulm - (1931) - novella by S. P. Meek
• Tetrahedra of Space - (1931) - novelette by P. Schuyler Miller
• The World of the Red Sun - (1931) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• Part Three: 1932 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Tumithak of the Corridors - (1932) - novella by Charles R. Tanner
• The Moon Era - (1932) - novella by Jack Williamson

Asimov combines many of his science fiction favorites from the thirties with his personal reflections on his early years, interests, and influences.

Table of Contents:

• Untitled Introduction - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Part Four: 1933 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• The Man Who Awoke - (1933) - novelette by Laurence Manning
• Tumithak in Shawm - (1933) - novella by Charles R. Tanner
• Part Five: 1934 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Colossus - (1934) - novelette by Donald Wandrei
• Born of the Sun - (1934) - novelette by Jack Williamson
• Sidewise in Time - (1934) - novella by Murray Leinster
• Old Faithful - (1934) - novelette by Raymond Z. Gallun

Asimov combines many of his science fiction favorites from the thirties with his personal reflections on his early years, interests, and influences.

Table of Contents:

• Before the Golden Age, Book 3 - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Part Six: 1935 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• The Parasite Planet - (1935) - novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• Proxima Centauri - (1935) - novella by Murray Leinster
• The Accursed Galaxy - (1935) - shortstory by Edmond Hamilton
• Part Seven: 1936 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• He Who Shrank - (1936) - novella by Henry Hasse
• The Human Pets of Mars - (1936) - novella by Leslie F. Stone
• The Brain Stealers of Mars - (1936) - shortstory by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Devolution - (1936) - shortstory by Edmond Hamilton
• Big Game - (1974) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• Part Eight: 1937 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• Other Eyes Watching - (1937) - essay by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Minus Planet - (1937) - novelette by John D. Clark, Ph.D.
• Past, Present and Future - (1937) - novelette by Nat Schachner
• Part Nine: 1938 - (1974) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• The Men and the Mirror - (1938) - novelette by Ross Rocklynne

My name is Calliope Reaper-Jones (Callie to my friends). I'm Death's Daughter and—as of very recently—the (reluctant) head of my father's company, Death, Inc.

I was gradually learning how to be a businesswoman. Had the power suits and shoes down, though the day to day was slow going. Then I was blindsided by Enemies Unknown and sent off to I-don't-know-where. Not a good thing.

Now not only must my friends and family be frantic, but without a CEO, Death, Inc., can't function. With the newly deceased left free to roam the Earth, it's the zombie apocalypse come true.

I've got to get back—for my sake and the sake of, oh, all humanity...

The Golden Age is Grand Space Opera, a large-scale SF adventure novel in the tradition of A. E. Van vogt and Roger Zelazny, with perhaps a bit of Cordwainer Smith enriching the style. It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the excitements of SF's golden age writers.

The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.

Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets first an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. He is an exile from himself.

And so Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is now a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms that are partly both, to recover his memory, and to learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. His quest is to regain his true identity.

The Golden Age is one of the major, ambitious SF novels of the year and the international launch of an important new writer in the genre.

The Phoenix Exultant is a continuation of the story begun in The Golden Age and like it, a grand space opera in the tradition of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny (with a touch of Cordwainer Smith-style invention).

At the conclusion of the first book, Phaethon of Radamanthus House, was left an exile from his life of power and privilege. Now he embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms, to recover his memory, to regain his place in society and to move that society away from stagnation and toward the stars. And most of all Phaethon's quest is to regain ownership of the magnificent starship, the Phoenix Exultant, the most wonderful ship ever built, and fly her to the stars.

The Phoenix Exultantis an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the verve of SF's golden age writers It is a suitably grand and stirring fulfillment of the promise shown in The Golden Age and confirms John C. Wright as a major new talent in the field. He concludes the Golden Age trilogy in The Golden Transcendence.

Begun with The Golden Age, continued with The Phoenix Exultant, and now concluding in The Golden Transcendence, The Golden Age trilogy is Grand Space Opera, an SF adventure saga in the tradition of A. E. Van Gogt, Roger Zelazny and Cordwainer Smith. It is an astounding story of super-science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the elan of SF's golden age writers in the suspenseful and passionate tale of Phaeton, a lone rebel unhappy in utopia.

The end of the Millennium is imminent, when all minds, human, posthuman, cybernetic, sophotechnic, will be temporarily merged into one solar-system-spanning supermind called the Transcendence. This is not only the fulfillment of a thousand years of dreams, it is a day of doom, when the universal mind will pass judgment on the all the races of humanity and transhumanity.

The mighty ship Phoenix Exultant is at last in the hands of her master, Phaethon the Exile is at her helm and his dream of starflight in alive once more. He is being hunted by alien agents, the eerie and deadly Lords of the Silent Oecumene, who would steal the Phoenix Exultant and turn it into a weapon.

The all-encompassing Mind of the Golden Transcendence is waking. Will it endorse Phaeton's dream or face the first interstellar war?

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction: The Age of Campbell - (1989) - essay by Isaac Asimov
• 7 - Time Wants a Skeleton - (1941) - novella by Ross Rocklynne
• 60 - The Weapons Shop - [Weapon Shops of Isher] - (1946) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt (variant of The Weapon Shop 1942)
• 97 - Nerves - (1942) - novella by Lester del Rey
• 167 - Daymare - (1943) - novelette by Fredric Brown
• 205 - Killdozer! - (1944) - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
• 269 - No Woman Born - (1944) - novella by C. L. Moore
• 313 - The Big and the Little - [Foundation (Original Stories) - 3] - (1944) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• 369 - Giant Killer - (1945) - novelette by A. Bertram Chandler
• 414 - E for Effort - (1947) - novelette by T. L. Sherred
• 462 - With Folded Hands... - [Humanoids] - (1947) - novelette by Jack Williamson