Mercury Shell, Venus Shell, Earth, Mars, Asteroid, Jupiter, Saturn. Each shell concentric, studded with artificial planets, each planet embedded in its shell, spinning like a ball-bearing. The whole Zeus-created in the service of Man but now beyond his control. Now mathematics and space physics, converging, suggested another shell, its existence hidden from Man. A shell of utter darkness, cold and silence where only extreme mutants could survive. To find that shell, the three were journeying again: Maq Ancor, Master Assassin, Magician Cherry and Sine Anura, Mistress of the Erotic. Together, daring the all-seeing, all-sensing hostility of Zeus.

Future and Fantastic Worlds embodies an unusual approach to the field of bibliographic research, including over 700 annotations of every DAW book published through mid-1987, with indexes by author, artist, and title, providing a massive guide to modern SF writers and their works, with much background data. Interspersed throughout the book are numerous wry, irreverent, and amusing observations offered by the late and highly respected researcher in this extremely valuable genre tool.

This reference tracks the development of speculative fiction influenced by the advancement of science and the idea of progress from the eighteenth century to the present day. The major authors and publications of the genre and significant subgenres are covered. Additionally there are entries on fields of science and technology which have been particularly prolific in provoking such speculation. The list of acronyms and abbreviations, the chronology covering the literature from the 1700s through the present, the introductory essay, and the dictionary entries provide science fiction novices and enthusiasts as well as serious writers and critics with a wonderful foundation for understanding the realm of science fiction literature. The extensive bibliography that includes books, journals, fanzines, and websites demonstrates that science fiction literature commands a massive following.

The Unorthodox Engineers are a misfit bunch of engineers, commanded by maverick engineer Fritz van Noon and including, amongst others, a convicted bank robber as quartermaster (on the entirely-sound grounds that he was likely to be the most capable person for the job). They solve problems of alien technology and weird planets in the future. The Unorthodox Engineers contains: The Railways Up on Cannis (1959) The Subways of Tazoo (1964) The Pen and the Dark (1966) Getaway from Getawehi (1969) The Black Hole of Negrav (1975)

Roget was a backward world, yet important to the Company as a Free Trade Port. It was up to Agent Tito Ren to keep that culture stable and the Port free of expensive strife - in spite of Rogetians like the "Imaiz," self-styled Wizard of the great city of Anharitte, and his meddlesome social tampering. But when the "Imaiz's" activities became known, all the well-meaning Tito Rens in the Galaxy couldn't stand between Roget and Free Trade warships. It was up to the Wizard of Anharitte and his uncanny abilities to defend the world he was reshaping.

The Star King had bet on Colonel Bogaert's ability to survive...and the fate of Terra was at stake!

Smoothly, remorselessly, inhumanly, the controlled flow of people continued. As each of the great planetary shells approached population maximum, the surplus of mass of humanity was transported out: Mars shell, Asteroid, Jupiter. Inexorably they filled the space made ready for them by Zeus, the master-minding intelligence. Jupiter shell, Saturn, Uranus... But at Uranus shell the ordered, ever-outward flow stopped and the pressure of the countless billions had pushed the shell to the very edge of catastrophic breakdown. Beyond Uranus lay ready Neptune shell. Zeus-designed, Zeus-built but no longer Zeus-controlled. Another giant intelligence had usurped all power, was refusing to operate the system that alone gave any future to Solaria. And so it was that Maq Ancor, Master Assassin, Magician Cherry and Sine Anura became the eyes of Zeus as they journeyed to the place where all systems failed, where chaos and the Tyrant of Hades ruled.