A young astronaut has returned from an expedition tasked with collecting resources from Mars. He suffers through visits with the grieving families in order to deliver the letters of his dead comrades; always, he lies to the families about the manner of their loved ones’ deaths. Although he wishes to tell the families the grim truth — that Mars is often unheroic, senseless, gruesome, and that their loved ones died in exactly that manner — he realizes that it would be futile. The people need heroes, something to believe in. They also need the resources of Mars to provide the power for the luxuries to which they’ve become accustomed. His own homecoming in Ohio is a farce. He stands before the hopeful crowd, essentially the entire town, studying their eager faces. Although he wants to chastise them for sacrificing good men for their comfort, he gives them what they want. He knows that he will always feel alienated from society, always feel old.

Hugh Farris, Andre and Lys Berreau are transported into a weird world of eerie plant life, where time is slowed up and the struggle to survive rages madly on!

It was no place for a man to be. Men were tissue, blood, bone, nerve. This place was not made for them. It was made for fire and force and radiation. Go home, men…

Considered a pioneer of the science fiction/alternative fiction forms, Edmond Moore Hamilton was born in 1904 in Youngstown, Ohio. He is remembered, among other things, for his muscular and fast-paced adventure novels and serializations—the juvenile sci-fi pulp series, Captain Future; the Interstellar Patrol stories—and for his comic book writing, especially for the Superman and Batman series. Hamilton grew up in Pennsylvania and started writing early. He graduated high school at the tender age of 14, entering Westminster College. Hamilton was first published in 1926 by the classic pulp fiction magazine, Weird Tales (WT). With the appearance of the short story "The Monster-God of Marmuth" (which also later was expanded as a novel), Hamilton became a member of an august group of writers and editors who would shape the concept of a science/alternative fiction genre. This company included WT editor Farnsworth Wright and writers H.P. Lovecraft, Jack Williamson,...

Dr. John Pollard discovers that he can speed up human evolution with a shower of cosmic rays. Naturally, you wouldn't think that he'd be as daft as to try it out on himself first, but that's exactly what he does do and in short order he morphs his way from man to superman to giant brain. Each point along the way he declares himself to have greater and greater intelligence, though he seems unable to notice that being a brain the size of an Austin Mini would put a crimp in his social life. In the end, he evolves not into some sort of being of pure energy, put a small pool of pink protoplasm because evolution, for no adequately explained reason, goes in a circle, which only goes to show.

ONLY THIS UNCROWNED KING COULD STOP THE ULTIMATE WEAPON! "Poetic, moody, polished, genuinely sensitive!" says sf writer and critic James Gunn about the work of the grandmaster of space opera, Edmond Hamilton, who penned this haunting, lost classic of a man who found the stars too big a fit. When Neil Banning tries to visit his hometown, he discovers he needs a spaceship to get there. "It can't be true! It must be some kind of hoax!"' These are the words that go spinning through Neil Banning's mind when the Greenville authorities tell him that the house he had grown up in, the aunt and uncle who had raised him, never existed. Soon Banning finds himself in jail, charged with disturbing the peace, and maybe insanity. But when a stranger from outer space visits his cell at midnight and hails him as the Valkar of Katuun. Banning decides that maybe the authorities are right and he is crazy. Because his only alternative is to believe the impossible: that he really is the Valkar of Katuun, exiled emperor of a star empire, and the personality of Neil Banning nothing more than an elaborate fraud. It doesn't really matter, though, who is right. For Banning finds himself starnapped, on his way to Katuun, whether he likes it or not. And as Banning, or the Valkar, he has to save that star-world from the terror of the Sun Smasher or perish with the loyal subjects he might never even have known! Here are some of the fascinating characters you will meet in this fast-moving, colorful space opera by Edmond Hamilton, the man known for his cosmic imagination and world-wrecking weapons! Tharanya, Empress of the New Empire, who is hindered by her love for the exiled Emperor of the Old. Rolf, charged with completing a task started 90,000 years earlier. Sohmsei, fifty percent spider, fifty percent man, and one hundred percent watchdog. Jommor, a scientist so great he can turn one man into another! Or can he? Zurdis, whose honest face belies his traitor's blood. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "the scope, color, and dynamic clarity of [Hamilton's] liberated action did much to define the Sense of Wonder for generations of readers." and hailed his work as "Genuine space opera."

This eBook was created from a number of printed and digital sources. You will notice that not all the novels “look” the same on your eReader.  This is intentionally done to keep as closely as possible to the original layout, design and the font-/text-style that each novel had when originally published. I kept the original classic font styles and sizes, as well as, the design of chapter headings and novel titles. In the long run, this provides the reader with a variety of “looks” when reading each novel in this eBook. I also re-formatted all the novels to provide you with an optimal reading experience of this eBook on your eReader (or PC/Mac ereader software). Finally, I sincerely hope you enjoy these classic science fiction novels! Flyboy707 September, 2011