Jewish extraterrestrials?

Brisket-eating zombies?

Baby robot golems?

The first Jewish diaspora began nearly three thousand years ago. Those three millennia have informed a rich story-telling tradition that will only continue to expand in the coming centuries. This volume-the literary heir to the Wandering Stars anthologies of the 1970s and '80s (and leading off with a very personal essay by Jack Dann, who edited those books)-extrapolates Jews and Judaism into a wide future. Sometimes moody, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, Publishers Weekly says these 16 appealing stories extrapolating Jewish themes into near- and far-future settings.... open diverse and challenging vistas for sci-fi fans-Jewish and gentile alike.

Between these covers, you'll find tales of the last Jew, Jewish space lasers, and the remarkable connection between brisket and zombies. You'll experience the breath-taking experiences of climbing Mt. Everest while religious, and of competing in futuristic sporting combinations in the Olympics. You'll explore the questions of just what will we do when the artificial intelligences controlling our homes become more religious than we? Or when aliens seek to convert to Judaism, and then try to return to an abandoned Jerusalem on a deserted Earth?

Featuring stories by: Esther Friesner, Harry Turtledove, Leah Cypess, Susan Shwartz, Valerie Estelle Frankel, Robert Greenberger, Randee Dawn, Barbara Krasnoff, Steven H Silver, S.I. Rosenbaum & Abraham Josephine Reisman, Shane Tourtellotte, SM Rosenberg, Riv Begun, E.M. Ben Shaul, Jordan King-Lacroix, and the debut story by New York City high school student Samantha Katz.

SAILING THE SEA OF OUTER SPACE!

Arthur C. Clarke's Sunjammer updated an ancient dream, taking millions of readers on a sailing regatta in space. His stirring tale sparked a tech revolution that's coming true today-interplanetary vehicles, navigating across the Solar System on inexhaustible torrents of sunlight!

Many others have since explored the coming, renewed age of sail. This intriguing anthology-updated for a new century-features both up-to-the-minute facts and future visions of solar sailing in a fascinating mix of stories, essays, and illustrations. Contributors range from JPL scientists to Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Kevin Anderson, and Ray Bradbury. From classics by Arthur C. Clarke, David Brin, Joe Clifford Faust, and Larry Niven, to the latest missions by NASA and the Planetary Society. Even interstellar possibilities-explored by Robert L. Forward & Joel Davis-are now carried even farther in reports by space pioneers like Les Johnson, Robert Staehle & Louis Friedman. This 21st Century Edition, specially crafted by David Brin and Stephen W. Potts, also includes a lost gem by Jack Vance.

Samuel R. Delany is the winner of two Hugos and four Nebula Awards. He has been honored with lifetime achievement awards, including SFWA's Grand Master, the Eaton Award, the Lambda Pilgrim Award, and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Dhalgren, his most popular and most controversial novel, was first published in 1975. It was nominated for the Nebula Award, remains in print to this day, and has sold close to two one million copies in a variety of editions.

In this book are collected reviews, critical essays, and in-depth analyses of Dhalgren as a novel, and as commentary on life and the world. There are also discussions of how to read the novel, and clues to unraveling some of the mysteries hidden therein. Contributors include Douglas Barbour, Mary Kay Bray, Rudi Dornemann, Harlan Ellison, Robert Elliot Fox, Jean Marc Gawron, Kenneth R. James, Gerald Jonas, John Nizalowski, Steven Paley, Darrell Schweitzer, Steven Shaviro, K. Leslie Steiner, Theodore Sturgeon, and, of course, Samuel R. Delany himself.

Includes 9 full-color plates and more than 20 black-and-white illustrations.

The relationship between Hogg and Dhalgren deserves more scholarly attention than it has so far received; the two novels benefit from being read together. -Matthew Cheney, Modernist Crisis and the Pedagogy of Form

Samuel R. Delany's influential and divisive 1975 novel Dhalgren gets a full critical treatment in this immersive and comprehensive collection.... Fans of Delaney's classic will want to snap this up. -Publishers Weekly

Ian Randal Strock's short fiction travels from the deep past to the far future, from the horrifying to the fascinating, and from just next door to the farthest reaches of the imagination. These stories represent the first three decades of his writing career, and according to 35-time Hugo nominee Stanley Schmidt, display a delightful diversity of thought-provoking ideas and engaging storytelling.

Analog Editor Trevor Quachri says This is the kind of classic, clever idea-oriented SF you'd find in the Golden Age, but built for today. Recommended for your witty friends, history buffs, time-travel fans....

Whether it's stories about inventing time travel in order to avoid being late for work, dying young to achieve immortality, colonizing the stars via conspiracy theory, or the big one: learning how to recognize your time-traveling self, Hugo Winner Robert J. Sawyer says Strock's intellect shines through on every page of this fabulous collection.

Barry N. Malzberg's fiction earned him the 1973 John W. Campbell Memorial Award, nominations for the Philip K. Dick and Theodore Sturgeon Awards, as well as two Hugo and six Nebula Award nominations. Born in 1939, he earned a degree from Syracuse University, worked for the New York City government, and made his first professional fiction sale in 1966. He wrote fiction in a variety of genres under several pseudonyms, and also worked as an agent, editor, and reviewer.

But he is perhaps best known for his essays. His two earlier collections of essays, The Engines of the Night (1982) and Breakfast in the Ruins (2007) both won the Locus Award, and both were finalists for the Hugo Award.

Collected here are nearly fifty of Malzberg's latest essays. They may upset you, may depress you, may shock you, but they will make you think, and lead you to a different view of the world. Also included are introductions by Mike Resnick and Paul Di Filippo.

The impressions and insights that abound in these columns make this book indispensable for any fan of science fiction. --Publishers Weekly

...it is very hard not to argue with Barry Malzberg's The Bend at the End of the Road--and it was just as hard to stop reading it.... it is often strikingly written and shot through with sharp observations of and confrontations with the marginal culture and economic status that has often constrained the field's aspirations. It is this merging of the interesting and insightful with the depressive and depressing that makes the collection as exasperating as it is fascinating.... the writing is dense with allusions from all over the literary-cultural landscape, products of a mind that frantically connects everything to everything. A single page of one essay contains a crescendo of references: nine writers, four composers, four books, two media franchises, plus Donald Trump, Tammany Hall, and ComicCon. Prose like this can be, despite the general atmosphere of futility and disappointing, exhilarating. --Russell Letson in Locus, June 2018

Incisive, wise, mordant, informed by a deep understanding of science fiction in all its aspects--a book of indispensable essays. --Robert Silverberg, SFWA Grand Master

Elegies and rants, a prose that Mencken might envy, seemingly eidetic recall for everything that has ever happened in science fiction's garish, slightly down-at-the-heels cabaret, plus an outlook on life as clear-eyed and weary-hearted as Edward Hopper's--you'll find them all in The Bend at the End of the Road. Barry Malzberg is sf's institutional memory, and in these pages, he transports us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when the stars were our destination and every story seemed a door into summer. But he also casts a cold eye on the fiction and fandom de nos jours. Here, then, is a full house of wise, provocative, and plangent essays--read 'em and weep. --Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary journalist

In this book, Barry Malzberg will tell you what science fiction once was, why it changed, what it changed into, and why it's no longer what it could have been. He won't talk down to you. He'll expect you to pay attention and use your intelligence. And, as he says, 'linear argument or exposition can be a bitch.' So he'll walk you around the subject, leading you gradually into his argument and his viewpoint. It's an important one. Along the way, you'll learn the names of authors you'd love and work that will consume you. And by the end, you'll have read the most important book about science fiction published in the last decade. --John-Henri Holmberg, Swedish author, critic, publisher, and translator

It all began when Professor Otto Liedenbrock discovered a coded message in an old runic manuscript, but it was his nephew, Axel, who deciphered the messages meaning. That's when the race truly started. The message pointed the way to a previously unknown world, one lurking right beneath their feet. And with that brief clue, the hunt was on. Liedenbrock, Otto, and their native guide Hans descend into the depths of the Icelandic volcano Sn fell, in search of adventure and new lands, and find it

The Blazing-World is a fanciful depiction of a utopian kingdom in another world that can be reached via the North Pole. It may be the only known work of utopian fiction by a woman in the 17th century. It can also easily be placed in the genres of science fiction, romance, adventure, and possibly even autobiography.

In the book, a young woman enters this other world, and becomes the empress of a society composed of various species of talking animals. She organizes an invasion of her home world, complete with submarines towed by fish-men and fire-stones dropped by bird-men.

Cavendish's utopia comes about, at least in part, due to having but one religion, one language, and one government. Originally published as a companion piece to her Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, it gave life to her theorizing in what was an example of rigorous 17th-century science.

This book inspired the author's husband, William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to write a sonnet which celebrates her imaginative powers. That sonnet was included in her book, and prefaces this edition.

Adventure! Drama! Mystery! Humor! It's all here in the ultimate Tales of Fortannis anthology.

Michael A. Ventrella's Fortannis setting has produced a lot of fine fantasy fiction, and this collection lets others play in his universe, maintaining the high level of quality throughout. Some of the stories are simply amusing, some tragic, and others heartwarming. Taken together, they give us a picture of a living, immense world which can cover the span of human (and biata, dwarf, elf, ogre, and goblin...) endeavor and passion.

Contributing authors: Derek Beebe, Susan Bianculli, Dominic Bowers-Mason, W. Adam Clarke, Jon Cory, Tera Fulbright, Jesse Grabowski, Christine L. Hardy, Henry The Mad Hart, Jesse Hendrix, Miles Lizak, Mark Mensch, Bernie Mojzes, Beth Patterson, Sarah Stegall, and Mike Strauss.

A wild and weird collection of fantasy stories that present some of the freshest writing around. Derring-do with a great sense of fun. Highly recommended. -New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry

The first book of the multiverse.

Dorian Hawkmoon ... Corum Jhaelen Irsei ... Elric of Melnibon . Over the years, Michael Moorcock has captivated readers with his unending versions of the Eternal Champion, the timeless warrior who serves the Cosmic Balance in the ongoing battle that rages between Law and Chaos through the many planes and levels of the multiverse. But what is the multiverse and what are its origins? In this essential novel, Michael Moorcock provides readers these critical answers.

World War Three has come and gone, and humankind has survived its brutal past to assume its place among the stars. Yet their existence is endangered nonetheless, as their entire universe is threatening to collapse. All their hopes rest on the shoulders of Count Renark von Bek, a nobleman of extraordinary psychic abilities and carefully guarded secrets.

Aided by his companions, von Bek will delve into the Sundered Worlds, a mysterious galaxy outside the space-time continuum that has materialized on the edges of known space. Inside this roving galaxy, they will uncover the secrets of the multiverse and embark upon a last desperate gamble to save humankind.

But as they will soon discover, even survival comes laden with danger, as the solutions to their dilemma may also hold the final keys to their destruction ...

Michael Moorcock has been inducted in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers or America, and received the Lifetime Achievement World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and Prix Utopiales Awards. The Sundered Worlds is one of his earlier novels, now back in print for a new generation.

SAILING THE SEA OF OUTER SPACE!

Arthur C. Clarke's Sunjammer updated an ancient dream, taking millions of readers on a sailing regatta in space. His stirring tale sparked a tech revolution that's coming true today-interplanetary vehicles, navigating across the Solar System on inexhaustible torrents of sunlight!

Many others have since explored the coming, renewed age of sail. This intriguing anthology-updated for a new century-features both up-to-the-minute facts and future visions of solar sailing in a fascinating mix of stories, essays, and illustrations. Contributors range from JPL scientists to Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Kevin Anderson, and Ray Bradbury. From classics by Arthur C. Clarke, David Brin, Joe Clifford Faust, and Larry Niven, to the latest missions by NASA and the Planetary Society. Even interstellar possibilities-explored by Robert L. Forward & Joel Davis-are now carried even farther in reports by space pioneers like Les Johnson, Robert Staehle & Louis Friedman. This 21st Century Edition, specially crafted by David Brin and Stephen W. Potts, also includes a lost gem by Jack Vance.

The Eye of Argon, by all rights, should have languished, a forgotten or ignored piece of amateur fantasy fiction published in a fanzine half a century ago. But it didn't. Somehow, it was detached from those ignoble beginnings, and gained an underground cult following at science fiction conventions. And then it grew. And the rituals involved in sharing the story grew. And now it has attained near-legendary status, sort of like the favored uncle you always seek out at family gatherings, but would be embarrassed if your real-world associates knew was related to you. Well, we're not embarrassed, though perhaps we should be....

Original story by Jim Theis, with new contributions to the mythos by: Keith R.A. DeCandido, Genevieve Iseult Eldredge, Daniel M. Kimmel, Peter Prellwitz, Hildy Silverman, Ian Randal Strock, Michael A. Ventrella, and Jean Marie Ward, with Jody Lynn Nye (introduction), and Monica Marier (art).

Night-Black Sorcery and the Wrath of Malevolent Gods

More than any writer since Robert E. Howard, Keith Taylor has a unique ability to evoke sheer terror amid the remote and haunted reaches of the ancient world. His tales of Kamose, archpriest of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death have been among the most popular features of the modern Weird Tales magazine. Kamose... awesomely powerful, yet scarred, cursed, and nearly driven mad by forces even he cannot control for long.... Here are eleven of his supernatural adventures, two of them published for the first time.

...convincing and authentic, revealing a deep knowledge of the history and cultures of the period. --The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Keith Taylor's fiction won two Ditmar Awards, and was nominated for four more, as well as for two Aurealis Awards.

David Bernstein is a 17-year-old member of the Remnant of Terra, the descendants of the 2,000 people who survived the Cataclysm that destroyed human life on Earth. The Remnant were rescued by the Wyneri, and now live among them. The species live together, but remain apart. The Remnant devote themselves to preserving the cultural heritage of Terra, while ignoring their hosts.

David, however, is fascinated by them. Xenophobia and his Wyneri friend's murder drive David to study the Terran-Wyneri relationship, and the mysteries surrounding the Cataclysm and the rescue. Has he discovered a cover-up? The true cause of the Cataclysm? Can Terrans and Wyneri actually live together? Can the Remnant even survive?

Originally published as two separate books, Jules Verne's eerily prescient tale of mankind's first visit to the Moon is properly presented here in one complete volume.

From the Earth to the Moon (first published in 1865) opens just after the close of the Civil War, the Baltimore Gun Club embarks on a massive project: to build a cannon and with it, launch a projectile to the Moon. Club President Impey Barbicane and armorer Captain Nicholl of Philadelphia feud over the feasibility of the project, and nearly duel each other to death, until French poet Michel Ardan intervenes. The three then wind up as shipmates on the adventure of a lifetime, a voyage to the Moon

Around the Moon (published in 1870) picks up our intrepid trio just after their launch. After leaving the atmosphere, they have a close encounter with a near-Earth asteroid, then suffer intoxication from an atmospheric problem (not unlike that which would later befall the crew of Apollo 13), explore the Moon, and eventually make their way back to Earth.

Verne's remarkable vision--from setting the launch site in Florida to calculating the length of the journey to a post-mission splash-down--is only slightly tempered by his use of private funding for the voyage, rather than a government project. But as we've seen in the decades since the Apollo voyages, private/corporate funding does indeed look to be the way of the future into space, so once again, Verne shows his predictive abilities were running full steam ahead.

Author Jules Verne (1828-1905) started life as a lawyer, but soon quit the profession to devote himself to writing, to the world's greater benefit. His first produced play, Les Pailles rompues (The Broken Straws), debuted in Paris in 1850, the year before he received his law license. His first published short story, L'Am rique du Sud. Etudes historiques. Les Premiers Navires de la Marine Mexicaine (The First Ships of the Mexican Navy), was published in Mus e des families in 1851. His first published novel, Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon)--the first of his Voyages Extraordinaires, and the first of more than 50 novels--finally appeared in 1863. Today, Verne is remembered as one of the founders of science fiction, and is one of the most translated authors in the world.

Now I ask you: Would you like to be yanked into the future against your will?

Okay, let's have the future delivered to your door: an alien species shows up in Boston, just a little old alien species, wandering through the neighborhood. Their space ship breaks down-damn!-and so they check into little old Motel-o Earth-o to see if they can find a new conduction bolt for their night-drive. And the next thing you know, alien technology and ideas are erasing the cultures of Earth forever.

We're trying to keep up with the aliens, keep the aliens in Boston, keep the boom, keep it, keep it, keep it. Oh it was so good back in the eighties; oh it was so bad in the teens; now it's so good again. Oh please don't take it away.

Looking over it all, the emissaries from a dozen worlds, who peer down on us from their positions on high-on our world. Who look like fire plugs and sprays of aluminum siding and willow trees. Who have names like numbers. Who slice clothes from huge salamis and hand them out as souvenirs. Who don't run the place yet-

But we aren't exactly the sole proprietors any more.

Things have disappeared...

When the first call from the stars comes, do we even dare to answer?

Life changes for everyone in general-and for physicist Dean Matthews in particular-when astronomers detect a radio signal from a nearby star. First contact forces humanity to face hard questions, and do it fast. Every answer spawns new questions. Every solution sets in motion a new and more daunting crisis to challenge Dean, his family-and an expanding number of interstellar civilizations-for generations to come.

One of the most original, believable, thoroughly thought-out, and utterly fascinating visions ever of what interstellar contact might really be like. -Stanley Schmidt, editor of Analog Science Fiction & Fact

...in InterstellarNet: Origins... Lerner proves he knows enough real-world, present-day computer science and economics to combine them into a wonderfully thought-provoking story.... Lerner's world-building and extrapolating are top notch. -SFScope

Lerner mixes physics, computer science, and economics into a series of very intellectually satisfying puzzles. Some of the puzzles involve understanding the alien, and some depend on understanding ourselves... A very satisfying read, especially for the intellectually inclined. -Mike Brotherton, author of Spider Star

Edward Lerner takes us from a first SETI detection to full scale interstellar net economics, with thrills along the way. No one had thought through what a working interstellar net would be like. Lerner has the professional heft to make sense of it, tell a story, and make us care. Good stuff, told in clear, quick prose. A groundbreaking job! -Gregory Benford, author of Timescape

David Bernstein is a 17-year-old member of the Remnant of Terra, the descendants of the 2,000 people who survived the Cataclysm that destroyed human life on Earth. The Remnant were rescued by the Wyneri, and now live among them. The species live together, but remain apart. The Remnant devote themselves to preserving the cultural heritage of Terra, while ignoring their hosts.

David, however, is fascinated by them. Xenophobia and his Wyneri friend's murder drive David to study the Terran-Wyneri relationship, and the mysteries surrounding the Cataclysm and the rescue. Has he discovered a cover-up? The true cause of the Cataclysm? Can Terrans and Wyneri actually live together? Can the Remnant even survive?

Good fences, said the poet, make good neighbors... and interstellar distances made very good fences.

Or so we thought....

Earth and its interstellar neighbors have been in radio contact for a century and a half. A vigorous commerce in intellectual property has accelerated technical progress for all the species involved. Ideas, riding on radio waves, routinely cross interstellar space-almost like neighbors chatting over the interstellar back fence. but there is a way over, or under, or around, almost any fence. Sooner or later, when we least expect it, the neighbors, friendly or otherwise, are going to pay a call....

InterstellarNet: New Order chronicles the startling events of Second Contact, upfront and personal, as humanity discovers that meeting aliens face to face is very different-and a lot more dangerous-than sending and receiving messages.

... A twisted plot complete with conspiracies, alien psychology, antimatter physics neep, AI spies, and plenty of shooting action at the end. -Internet Review of Science Fiction