The definitive collection of the best in science fiction stories between 1929-1964.

This book contains twenty-six of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for The Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.

Robert Heinlein in The Roads Must Roll describes an industrial civilization of the future caught up in the deadly flaws of its own complexity. Country of the Kind, by Damon Knight, is a frightening portrayal of biological mutation. Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov, one of the greatest stories in the science fiction field, is the story of a planet where the sun sets only once every millennium and is a chilling study in mass psychology.

Originally published in 1970 to honor those writers and their stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume One, was the book that introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction. Too long unavailable, this new edition will treasured by all science fiction fans everywhere.

The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume One, includes the following stories:

Introduction by Robert Silverberg
A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Twilight by John W. Campbell
Helen O'Loy by Lester del Rey
The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein
Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
The Weapon Shop by A. E. van Vogt
Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett
Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak
Arena by Frederic Brown
First Contact by Murray Leinster
That Only a Mother by Judith Merril
Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith
Mars is Heaven! by Ray Bradbury
The Little Black Bag by C. M. Kornbluth
Born of Man and Woman by Richard Matheson
Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber
The Quest for Saint Aquin by Anthony Boucher
Surface Tension by James Blish
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
It's a Good Life by Jerome Bixby
The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin
Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester
The Country of the Kind, Damon Knight
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny

Acclaimed writer and editor Robert Silverberg gathered eleven of the finest writers in Fantasy to contribute to this collection of short novels. Each of the writers was asked to write a new story based on one of his or her most famous series: from Stephen King's opening piece set in his popular Gunslinger universe to Robert Jordan's early look at his famed Wheel of Time saga, these stories are exceptionally well written and universally well told.

Features short stories set in the worlds of...
...Stephen King's The Dark Tower
...Terry Pratchett's Discworld
...Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth
...Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker
...Robert Silverberg's Majipoor
...Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea
...Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
...George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire
...Anne McCaffrey's Pern
...Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga
...Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time

From Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Robert Silverberg, Lord of Darkness is a classic swashbuckling adventure.

Captured by pirates and brought to the west coast of Africa, young British seaman Andrew Battell longs for his home in seventeenth-century England. His only hope of returning is to work hard and be awarded freedom by his Portuguese captors--a freedom he is consistently denied.

As he is moved farther and farther inland, away from the coast and any hope of a boat back to England, Battell's dreams of freedom begin to dwindle. Finally, taking matters into his own hands, he escapes and takes sanctuary among the Jaqqas, a tribe of cannibalistic warriors lead by the sinister Lord of Darkness ...

Battell recounts his own story in a vivid novel of furious force, singular passion, and intimate detail.

From multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Robert Silverberg, Roma Eterna takes an in-depth look at an alternative history in which the Roman Empire survives into the twenty-first century and beyond.

What would happen if Imperial Rome never fell? Roma Eterna, spanning fifteen hundred years of global history, follows the reign of the Roman Empire from its inception to the present day. Empire continues to expand, creeping across the globe and through the annals of history from the conquest of the Mayans to the first circumnavigational voyage, and finally the attempt of the Hebrews to flee Rome's tyranny by escaping to another planet.

Originally published as a series of short stories, Roma Eterna presents a powerful new world written by an endlessly imaginative writer.

A tale of transcendence, Downward to the Earth is a remarkable novel from one of the most imaginative minds in science fiction.

Edmund Gunderson--former Terran governor of the colony world of Belzagor--returns eight years after the planet has gained independence, drawn back for reasons he can't quite explain. Things have changed significantly since he left, and he plays his part well--slightly pompous former government official--for the tourists he encounters on the way down.

But this is more than a simple sight-seeing visit. As Gunderson comes face-to-face with the consequences of his former attitudes and actions, he finds himself on a journey--both physical and spiritual--to the legendary mountain of rebirth.

In 1972, Robert Silverberg, even then an acknowledged leader in the science fiction field, published a book that was immediately hailed as a masterpiece.

More than three decades later, Dying Inside has stood the test of time and has been recognized as one of the finest novels the field has ever produced. Never wasting a word, Silverberg persuasively shows us what it would be like to read minds, painting an unforgettable portrait of a man shaped by that unique power; a power he is now inexorably losing.

Acclaimed upon first publication by SF critics and mainstream reviewers alike, Dying Inside is overdue for reintroduction to today's SF audience. This is a novel for everyone who appreciates deeply affecting characterization, imaginative power, and the irreplaceable perspective unique to speculative fiction of the highest order.

Up the Line is a ribald, Byzantine tale of time-tourism from multiple Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Robert Silverberg.

It's 2059 and Jud Elliott--former law clerk and failed Harvard history student--is at loose ends. Having left his previous job out of boredom, he finally takes a position as a Time Courier showing tourists around medieval and ancient Byzantium. Maybe that unfinished master's degree will come in handy after all ...

Jud is careful and he (mostly) plays by the rules, not wanting to get on the wrong side of the Time Patrol. But, on one trip up the line, he meets and falls in love with his great-great-multi-great grandmother and suddenly the rules don't seem as important anymore ...

Welcome to Urban Monad 116. Reaching nearly two miles into the sky, the one thousand stories of this building are home to over eight hundred thousand people living in peace and harmony. In the year 2381 with a world population of over seventy-five billion souls, the massive Urbmon system is humanity's salvation.

Life in Urbmon 116 is highly regulated, life is cherished, and the culture of procreation is seen as the highest pinnacle of god's plan. Conflict is abhorred, and any who disturb the peace face harsh punishment--even being sent down the chute to be recycled as fertilizer.

Jason Quevedo, a historian, searches records of the twentieth century hoping to find the root of his discontent with the perfection of Urbmon life.

Siegmund Kluver, a young and ambitious administrator, strives to reach the top levels of the Urbmon's government and discovers the civilization's dark truths.

Michael Statler, a computer engineer, harbors a forbidden desire. He dreams of leaving the building--of walking in the open air and visiting the far-off sea. This is a dream he must keep secret. If anyone were to find out, he'd face the worst punishment imaginable.

The World Inside is a fascinating exploration of society and what makes us human, told by a master of speculative fiction.
The World Inside is a 1971 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novella.

In Illinois, the one-hundred-foot Cahokia Mound spreads impressively across sixteen acres, and as many as ten thousand more mounds dot the Ohio River Valley alone. The Mound Builders traces the speculation surrounding these monuments and the scientific excavations which uncovered the history and culture of the ancient Americans who built them.

The mounds were constructed for religious and secular purposes some time between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., and they have prompted curiosity and speculation from very early times. European settlers found them evidence of some ancient and glorious people. Even as eminent an American as Thomas Jefferson joined the controversy, though his conclusions--that the mounds were actually cemeteries of ancient Indians--remained unpopular for nearly a century.

Only in the late 19th century, as Smithsonian Institution investigators developed careful methodologies and reliable records, did the period of scientific investigation of the mounds and their builders begin. Silverberg follows these excavations and then recounts the story they revealed of the origins, development, and demise of the mound builder culture.

A team of space archaeologists makes an astonishing discovery about an ancient alien race in this science fiction tale from a master of his craft (Los Angeles Times).
Graduate student Tom Rice is thrilled to embark on his first deep-space archeological expedition. He is part of a team from Earth, venturing out in search of artifacts from a civilization that ruled the universe many millennia ago. Called the High Ones, the members of this long-gone society left tantalizing clues about their history and culture scattered throughout space. One such clue, a message cube containing footage of the ancient ones, is more interesting than all of the others combined. It seems to indicate that the High Ones aren't extinct after all--and just like that, Tom Rice's archeological mission has become an intergalactic manhunt, one filled with ever-increasing danger that will send the explorers hurtling headlong into the greatest adventure--and peril--of their lives.

This story, To See the Invisible Man, written in June of 1962, marks the beginning of my real career as a science-fiction writer, I think. The 1953-58 stories collected in To Be Continued, the first of this series of volumes, are respectable professional work, some better than others but all of them at least minimally acceptable--but most of them could have been written by just about anyone. Aside from a few particularly ambitious items, they were designed to slip unobtrusively into the magazines of their time, efficiently providing me with regular paychecks. But now, by freeing me from the need to calculate my way around the risk of rejection, Fred Pohl allowed--indeed, required--me to reach as deep into my literary resources as I was capable of doing. I knew that unless I gave him my very best, the wonderful guaranteed-sale deal I had with him would vanish as quickly as it had appeared. Therefore I would reach deeper and deeper, in the years ahead, until I had moved so far away from my youthful career as a hack writer that latecomers would find it hard to believe that I had been emotionally capable of writing all that junk, let alone willing to do it. In To See the Invisible Man the distinctive Silverberg fictional voice is on display for just about the first time. --Robert Silverberg

The peaceable Pueblo Indians seemed an unlikely people to rise emphatically and successfully against the Spanish Empire. For eighty-two years the Pueblos had lived under Spanish domination in the northern part of present-day New Mexico. The Spanish administration had been led not by Coronado's earlier vision of god but by a desire to convert the Indians to Christianity and eke a living from the country north of Mexico. The situation made conflict inevitable, with devastating results.

Robert Silverberg writes: While the missionaries flogged and even hanged the Indians to save their souls, the civil authorities enslaved them, plundered the wealth of their cornfields, forced them to abide by incomprehensible Spanish laws. A long drought beginning in the 1660s and the accelerated raids of nomadic tribes contributed to the spontaneous revolt to the Pueblos in August 1680.

How the Pueblos maintained their independence for a dozen years in plain view of the ambitious Spaniards and how they finally expelled the Spanish is the exciting story of The Pueblo Revolt. Robert Silverberg's descriptions yield a rich picture of the Pueblo culture.

A thrilling retelling of the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh from the Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning author of Lord Valentine's Castle.
Gilgamesh's appetite for wine, women, and warfare is insatiable. As the King of Uruk, he oppresses his people and burdens his city. To temper his excesses, the gods create Enkidu, Gilgamesh's equal, who becomes his greatest friend. Together they wander the kingdom as brothers, conquering demons until a cruel twist changes Gilgamesh's path forever. Two parts god and one part man, Gilgamesh is mortal--a fate he now resolves to overcome, no matter what the price. And so he embarks on another journey, in pursuit of vengeance and the ultimate prize for a mortal king: eternal life.

With a new introduction by author Robert Silverberg, and the first-ever map of Borthan, this classic sci-fi novel A Time of Changes, out of print since 1992, will delight fans of dystopian fiction

In the far future, Earth is a worn-out backwater and humanity is spread across the galaxy on worlds that began as colonies, but now feel like home, each with its own long history of a thousand years or more, and each with its own unique culture. One of the strangest is on Borthan, where the founding settlers established the Covenant, which teaches that the self is to be despised, and forbids anyone to reveal his innermost thoughts or feelings to another. On Borthan, the filthiest obscenities imaginable are the words I and me.

For the heinous crime of self-baring, apostates have always paid with exile or death, but after his eyes are opened by a visitor from Earth, Kinnall Darival, prince of Salla, risks everything to teach his people the real meaning of being human.

In the twenty-first century, a battered world is ruled by a crafty old tyrant, Genghis II Mao IV Khan. The Khan is ninety-three years old, his life systems sustained by the skill of Mordecai Shadrach, a brilliant young surgeon whose chief function is to replace the Khan's worn-out organs. Within the vast tower-complex, the most advanced equipment is dedicated to three top-priority projects, each designed to keep the Khan immortal. Most sinister of these is Project Avatar, by which the Khan's mind and persona are to be transferred to a younger body.
Shadrach makes the unsettling discovery that it is his body that is to be used. His friends beg him to flee, but he refuses to panic. Instead, and with startling composure, he evolves a dangerous plan that could change the face of the earth or, if it backfires, mean the end of life.
Shadrach in the Furnace is at once a broad, sweeping novel and a harsh, abrasive, irreverent book about a life-and-death battle between two titans--one the epitome of evil, the other a paragon of idealism--in a society pushed to extremes.

The stories in this volume were written between July of 1990 and March of 1995-the second half of the fifth decade of my career as a science-fiction writer. I don't think I could have imagined, when I began that career in the early 1950s, that science-fiction publishing would evolve the way it did over the next forty years. Here, then, is the cream of the Silverberg output, 1990-95. I suppose I wrote more short stories in the first six months of 1957 than in that entire six-year period; but so be it. It's a different world today. I look back nostalgically on the small-town atmosphere of the era in which I began my career, and there are times when I'd be glad to 'call back yesterday, bid time return.' As Shakespeare pointed out, though, that can't be done. The one recourse is the one I have chosen, which is to soldier staunchly onward through the years, come what may, writing a story or two here and a book there, while the world changes out of all recognition around me. And so-to leap neatly from the Bard of Avon to F. Scott Fitzgerald-'so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.' -Robert Silverberg, from the Introduction

The first of two volumes of original short novels by some of the greatest writers in fantasy fiction, including Anne McCaffrey, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Robert Silverberg, and Raymond E. Feist

Legends II picks up where its illustrious predecessor left off. All of the bestselling writers represented in Legends II return to the special universe of the imagination that its author has made famous throughout the world. Whether set before or after events already recounted elsewhere, whether featuring beloved characters or compelling new creations, these masterful short novels are both mesmerizing stand-alones--perfect introductions to the work of their authors--and indispensable additions to the epics on which they are based.

ROBIN HOBB returns to the Realm of the Elderlings with Homecoming, a powerful tale in which exiles sent to colonize the Cursed Shores find themselves sinking into an intoxicating but deadly dream . . . or is it a memory?

ROBERT SILVERBERG spins an enthralling tale of Majipoor's early history--and remote future--as seen through the eyes of a dilettantish poet who discovers an unexpected destiny in The Book of Changes.

TAD WILLIAMS explores the strange afterlife of Orlando Gardiner, from his Otherland saga, in The Happiest Dead Boy in the World.

ANNE McCAFFREY shines a light into the most mysterious and wondrous of all places on Pern in the heartwarming Beyond Between.

RAYMOND E. FEIST turns from the great battles of the Riftwar to the story of one soldier, a young man about to embark on the ride of his life, in The Messenger.

Winner of the Hugo Award: This classic is an evocative look at a crumbling Earth of the far future and a human race struggling to survive (George R. R. Martin).
Roum is a city built on seven hills. They say it was a capital of man in one of the earlier cycles. I knew nothing of that, for my guild was Watching, not Remembering. For a thousand years, mankind has lived under the threat of invasion from an alien race. After the oceans rose and the continents were reshaped, people divided into guilds--Musicians, Scribes, Merchants, Clowns, and more. The Watchers wander the earth, scouring the skies for signs of enemies from the stars. But during one Watcher's journey to the ancient city of Roum with his companion, a Flier named Avluela, a moment of distraction allows the invaders to advance. When the Watcher finally sounds the alarm, it's too late; the star people are poised to conquer all. And so, with the world in turmoil, the Watcher sets out alone for the Hall of the Rememberers, keepers of the past, where humanity's last hope for survival might be hidden . . .

Perfect for readers of Greg Bear and Ursula K. Le Guin, renowned, award-winning author Robert Silverberg's science fiction novel represents the best of the genre and beyond.

In this epic, [a] brilliant concept of the imagination, an amnesiac wanderer rediscovers his destiny as ruler of a vast planet (Chicago Sun-Times).

Valentine, a drifter who remembers nothing except his name, finds himself on the fringes of a great city. Joining a motley troupe of jugglers and acrobats, he travels with them across the magical planet of Majipoor. All the while, he hopes to meet someone who can help him retrieve his past.

Then Valentine begins to dream--and to receive messages in those dreams. Messages that tell him he is a lord, a king turned out of his castle. Now his travels have a purpose: to return to his home, discover what enemy took his memory, and claim the destiny that awaits him.

An imaginative fusion of action, sorcery, and science fiction. --The New York Times Book Review

Absorbing . . . a wildly imaginative universe. --People

A remarkable collection, Robots through the Ages includes stories from some of the best writers of science fiction, both old and new.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad--in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus with minds and wisdoms--humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce's tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are--and who creates them--can be drastically different.

This book collects a broad selection of short stories from celebrated authors such as Philip K. Dick, Seanan McGuire, Roger Zelazny, Connie Willis, and many more. Robots through the Ages not only celebrates the history of robots and the genre of science fiction, but the dauntless nature of human ingenuity.