The 14th Science Fiction MEGAPACK®

Joe W. Haldeman, Poul Anderson, Lloyd Biggle Jr., Niven Larry

Description

The 14th Science Fiction MEGAPACK® collects 28 science fiction stories, 1 novel, and interviews with Larry Niven and Joe W. Haldeman. Included are:

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

INTERVIEW WITH LARRY NIVEN

INTERVIEW WITH JOE W. HALDEMAN

THE AUTUMN VISITORS, by Frank Belknap Long

ADVANCE AGENT, by Christopher Anvil

INNOCENT AT LARGE, by Poul and Karen Anderson

A COLD NIGHT FOR CRYING, by Milton Lesser

ESCAPE VELOCITY, by Charles L. Fontenay

FIRST STAGE: MOON, by Dick Hetschel

GAMES, by Katherine MacLean

INFINITY’S CHILD, by Charles V. DeVet

JUNGLE IN THE SKY, by Milton Lesser

LITTLE BOY, by Harry Neal

MIRACLE BY PRICE, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.

NO GREAT MAGIC, by Fritz Leiber

PEACE, by Norman Arkawy and Stanley Henig

QUICKIE, by Milton Lesser

SPATIAL DELIVERY, by Randall Garrett

STAR PERFORMER, by Robert J. Shea

STUDENT BODY, by F. L. Wallace

IT TAKES A THIEF, by Walter Miller, Jr.

DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGY, by Kenneth Lloyd Biggle

TELEMPATHY, by Vance Simonds

RESURRECTION SEVEN, by Stephen Marlowe

THE CREATURE INSIDE, by Jack Sharkey

THE DEMI-URGE, by Thomas M. Disch

THE HERMIT OF MARS, by Stephen Bartholomew

THE LONELY, by Judith Merril

THE PLANET WITH NO NIGHTMARE, by Jim Harmon

THE EARTH QUARTER, by Damon Knight

OUR TOWN, by Jerome Bixby

THE ANGRY ESPERS, by Lloyd Biggle Jr.

Informations

• Publié par: Wildside Press LLC
• Date de parution: 07 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781479442430
• Langue: English

Extrait

Table of Contents
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
INTERVIEW WITH LARRY NIVEN
INTERVIEW WITH JOE W. HALDEMAN
THE AUTUMN VISITORS, by Frank Belknap Long
ADVANCE AGENT, by Christopher Anvil
INNOCENT AT LARGE, by Poul and Karen Anderson
A COLD NIGHT FOR CRYING, by Milton Lesser
ESCAPE VELOCITY, by Charles L. Fontenay
FIRST STAGE: MOON, by Dick Hetschel
GAMES, by Katherine MacLean
INFINITY’S CHILD, by Charles V. DeVet
JUNGLE IN THE SKY, by Milton Lesser
LITTLE BOY, by Harry Neal
MIRACLE BY PRICE, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.
NO GREAT MAGIC, by Fritz Leiber
PEACE, by Norman Arkawy and Stanley Henig
QUICKIE, by Milton Lesser
SPATIAL DELIVERY, by Randall Garrett
STAR PERFORMER, by Robert J. Shea
STUDENT BODY, by F. L. Wallace
IT TAKES A THIEF, by Walter Miller, Jr.
DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGY, by Kenneth Lloyd Biggle
TELEMPATHY, by Vance Simonds
RESURRECTION SEVEN, by Stephen Marlowe
THE CREATURE INSIDE, by Jack Sharkey
THE DEMI-URGE, by Thomas M. Disch
THE HERMIT OF MARS, by Stephen Bartholomew
THE LONELY, by Judith Merril
THE PLANET WITH NO NIGHTMARE, by Jim Harmon
THE EARTH QUARTER, by Damon Knight
OUR TOWN, by Jerome Bixby
THE ANGRY ESPERS, by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
Wildside Press’s MEGAPACK® Ebook Series
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
It’s been quite a while since the 13th volume of this series appeared. We’ve been busy with a lot of new projects (and other volumes of the MEGAPACK® series)-but we’re back with one of our best science fiction anthologies yet! This one features The Angry Espers , a short novel by Lloyd Biggle, Jr, plus a brand new short story by Ken Biggle, Lloyd’s son. (Writing talent doesn’t skip a generation, apparently.)
Plus we have tales by some of the all-time greats: Poul Anderson, Damon Knight, Walter M. Miller, Fritz Leiber, Thomas M. Disch, Randall Garrett, and more. Plus Darrell Schweitzer contributes two more interviews, this time with Larry Niven and Joe Haldeman. Fun stuff.
Enjoy!
-John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press LLC
wildsidepress.com
ABOUT THE SERIES
Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK® ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”
The MEGAPACK® ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Sam Cooper, Helen McGee and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)
RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?
Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the MEGAPACK® ebook series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://wildsidepress.forumotion.com/ (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).
Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.
TYPOS
Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.
If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [e-mail] or use the message boards above.
INTERVIEW WITH LARRY NIVEN
Conducted by Darrell Schweizter
Larry Niven is of course one of the great masters of “hard” SF, the author of the classic Ringworld and its sequels, the Known Space series, and, with Jerry Pournelle, such additional classics as The Mote in God’s Eye and Inferno. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus Award, Ditmar, etc. He was made a Grandmaster by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2015. This interview as recorded at Eeriecon, April 30, 2011.
* * * *
Q: What do you think is the most fruitful area for science fiction speculation right now?
Niven: I’d have to say exoplanets. Mind you, I don’t dig very deep into medical speculation, or other areas of science. I prefer astrophysics. Exoplanets keep turning up and they’re wonderful.
Q: I think there are now over a thousand of them known. What I wonder is why more science fiction writers don’t seem to be excited about them. You’d think we’d be seeing an explosion of outward-looking, space-oriented SF, and we’re not. Any ideas?
Niven: I’ve done a little of it. There was speculation in one of the magazines about other earths. It seems that Earth is at the lower end of the range of possible masses. Earthlike environments will be on planets two or three or four times the size of Earth. Some of them will have formed out where water is frozen, and they will have water shells tens of miles thick with exotic forms of ice at the bottom.
Q: Not very useful for human colonization.
Niven: No. It doesn’t sound like they’d have land masses. But that’s easy enough. I’d give them a life form that forms floating coral islands.
Q: Are you writing anything like this?
Niven: I did that in a short story, but I could do more of it. There’s lots of room.
Q: There seems to be a malaise over science fiction today. A lot of SF writers seem to be losing interest in other planets and outer space at precisely the moment when these are the most exciting. I am wondering what is going on.
Niven: I wonder what is going on too, but the truth is I can’t read everything, so I have no reason to think that what I am reading is representative. I read collections of the best short stories of the year and keep up that way. There are some good writers out there. There is some speculation on planets, although the really ambitious writers seem to go right to the end of the universe.
Q: I wonder if the public might not be just taking space travel for granted. How old do you have to be now to remember when there were no spaceships?
Niven: I think you’ve almost put your finger on the solution, that space travel is being taken for granted. It is the immense expense that is being taken for granted, the loss of the ability to visit other planets as human beings. Writers have to go through too much planning and thinking and research to come up with something that would even make the trip. There’s less story left in the end.
Q: Isn’t that essentially the writer’s job? Where is the new Hal Clement, who would be doing all this at vast length?
Niven: A writer’s job is whatever he will accept as his job. The writers of today are choosing from wherever the inspiration comes from. They don’t plan out where they are going, most of them.
Q: In a conversation with a magazine editor who will remain nameless, I remarked that he needed more explicitly science-fictional imagery on his covers. How about a spaceship? He replied that he didn’t want people to think the magazine was devoted to nostalgia, as if the future is behind us now. So, is the culture itself losing its interest in the future?
Niven: The culture itself is facing the fact that spacecraft cost tax money. Too many boondoggles already. We have lost faith that we can search the universe easily. That is some of us have. The rest, they go as far as we went, and then keep on going. There is a speculation, a lot of science being done on the beginning and ending of the universe. If you go far enough, you find yourself facing the expansion of the universe, dark energy increasing our expansion rate. Some writers are very ambitious, and it will take that kind of ambition to do realistic interstellar travel.
Q: I wonder how we can encourage this. Maybe it is a sign of my age, but a lot of science fiction seems less exciting now. I have a feeling that a lot of people are quitting, turning their backs on the possibilities precisely when they shouldn’t. I don’t see as much space advocacy either. I might reasonably ask whatever happened to the L-5 Society.
Niven: I believe you’re right. We’re losing our urge. And yet the reasons to go to space have become more by one. Meteorite impacts are a certain threat. Stopping the next giant meteor is very likely to require men in space. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to find.
Q: It used to be argued that you could go into space and get rich.
Niven: I think somebody is going to go into space and get rich. What I really think is that somebody needs to demonstrate that it can be done within the next few years. Up to now it is certainly true that the only people who have gotten rich out of space are the people who build the spacecraft. That’s not the way you got rich off voyaging to the New World.
Q: But there was something in the New World which you could immediately steal, that is to say Aztec gold. We don’t have the equivalent of that for space. You’d have to voyage someplace else and then work for it.
Niven: Right. Nothing to steal on the Moon, and nobody to stop you from taking anything you like. Getting water on the Moon is another matter. I was told this for my sense of proportion. If you were to find concrete on the Moon, it would be worth mini