Search Worlds Without End

The discovery of a falling golden meteor and the race to find it form the core of this exciting tale from the master of science fiction, Jules Verne. An asteroid wanders into the earth's gravitational field and is spotted by two rival Virginia astronomers. The discovery becomes a worldwide sensation when it is announced that the asteroid is solid gold and is plummeting toward earth.

The approaching disaster is brought on by the machinations of the brilliant but absent-minded French scientist and inventor Zephyrin Xirdal. Xirdal has invented a ray with which he pulls the golden asteroid from orbit and hopes to guide it to crash at a spot of his choosing. Xirdal, the two Virginia astronomers and their families, and representatives from many nations race to find and claim the golden meteor.

The Chase of the Golden Meteor is vintage Verne, artfully blending hard science and scientific speculation with a farcical comedy of manners. This unabridged edition will be sure to delight Verne's legion of fans and attract new ones.

It was one of the last novels written by the prolific French hard science fiction pioneer and was only published in 1908, three years after his death. It is one of seven such posthumous novels, many of which were extensively edited by his son. Verne himself first wrote "La Chasse au météore" in 1901 and then rewrote it before his death. Michel Verne is known to have emphasised the romantic sub plot of this novel and expanded it from 17 to 21 chapters, among other changes.

Omega, written by astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), is no less than an epic history of our future--a startling and unforgettable vision of the end of the world. Reasoned scientific speculation combined with probing philosophical inquiry lend credibility and magnitude to this tale of how humankind will physically and culturally evolve over the next several million years.

The end begins in the twenty-fifth century, when a comet threatens to collide with the earth. The consequences of that frightening cosmic event are far-reaching, setting in motion a series of physical, psychic, and social changes that will profoundly affect the planet and its people far into the future. The earth's surface drastically transforms over time. Cultures radically alter, collapse, and fade away. Nations rise and fall, species become extinct, and human beings find themselves at the end of the world, alone and changed in fundamental ways. This melancholic, poetic science fiction tale of things to come is as compelling and disturbing today as when it was first written.

Nothing will ever mystify or challenge the Wonder. He masters entire libraries and languages with little effort. No equation, no problem is too difficult to solve. His casual conversations with ministers and philosophers decimate their vaunted beliefs and crush their cherished intellectual ambitions. The Wonder compels obedience and silence with a glance. His mother idolizes him as a god. Yet no one is more hated or alone than the Wonder.

This is the chilling tale of Victor Stott, an English boy born thousands of years ahead of his time. Raised in the village of Hampdenshire, the strangely proportioned young Victor possesses mental abilities vastly superior to those of his fellow villagers. The incomprehensible intellect and powers of the Wonder inspire awe, provoke horror, and eventually threaten to rip apart Hampdenshire.

Long recognized as a classic of speculative fiction but never before widely available, The Wonder is one of the first novels about a "superman." J. D. Beresford's subtle and intriguing story of a boy with superhuman abilities paved the way for such noted works as Philip Wylie's Gladiator and A. E. van Vogt's Slan.

Also published as The Wonder.

The Sleeper Awakes is H. G. Wells's wildly imaginative story of London in the twenty-second century and the man who by accident becomes owner and master of the world. In 1897 a Victorian gentleman falls into a sleep from which he cannot be waked. During his two centuries of slumber he becomes the Sleeper, the most well known and powerful person in the world. All property is bequeathed to the Sleeper to be administered by a Council on his behalf. The common people, increasingly oppressed, view the Sleeper as a mythical liberator whose awakening will free them from misery.

The Sleeper awakes in 2100 to a futuristic London adorned with wondrous technological trappings yet staggering under social injustice and escalating unrest. His awakening sends shock waves throughout London, from the highest meetings of the Council to the workers laboring in factories in the bowels of the city. Daring rescues and villainous treachery abound as workers and capitalists fight desperately for control of the Sleeper.

A young man in modern America is terrorized by visions of an earlier, primitive life. Across the enormous chasm of thousands of centuries, his consciousness has become entwined with that of Big-Tooth, an ancestor living at the dawn of humanity. Big-Tooth makes his home in Pleistocene Africa, a ferocious, fascinating younger world torn by incessant conflict between early humans and protohumans. Before Adam is a remarkable and provocative tale that thrust evolution further into the public spotlight in the early twentieth century and has since become a milestone of speculative fiction. The brilliance of the book lies not only in its telling but also in its imaginative projection of a mindset for early humans. Capitalizing on his recognized ability to understand animals, Jack London paints an arresting and dark portrait of how our distant ancestors thought about themselves and their world.

By the year 2660, science has transformed and conquered the world, rescuing humanity from itself. Spectacular inventions from the farthest reaches of space and deep beneath the earth are available to meet every need, providing antidotes to individual troubles and social ills. Inventors are highly prized and respected, and they are jealously protected and lavishly cared for by world governments. That support and acclaim, however--as the most brilliant of scientists, Ralph 124C 41+, discovers--is not without its price.

This visionary novel of the twenty-seventh century was written by Hugo Gernsback (1887-1964), founder of the influential magazine Amazing Stories. Marvelously prophetic and creative, Ralph 124C 41+ celebrates technological advances and entrances readers with an exuberant, unforgettable vision of what our world might become. This commemorative edition makes this landmark tale widely available for the first time in decades and features the prized Frank R. Paul illustrations from the rare first edition, a list of inventions and technological devices, and Hugo Gernsback's prefaces to the first and second editions.

The first great science fiction novel of the twentieth century—now available from Penguin Classics

Strange, macabre, and, fantastical, M. P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud is a landmark work that heralded the genre of apocalyptic fiction. It tells the grandly bleak story of Adam Jeffson—the first man to reach the North Pole and the last man left alive on earth. A sweet-smelling cloud of poisonous gas has devastated the world, and as Jeffson travels the stricken globe in search of human life, he slowly succumbs to madness, unleashing fire and destruction on his planet.

A new introduction by literary scholar John Sutherland explores The Purple Cloud's apocalyptic themes and Shiel's colorful private life.

By the year 2137 Europe has become a largely forgotten, savage wilderness. Fierce bands of hunters rove the crumbling ruins of once mighty, war-ravaged cities. On the other side of the Atlantic a prosperous Pan-American Federation has emerged, claiming all lands and seas between the 30th and 175th longitudes and forbidding contact with the rest of the world. All who cross beyond thirty are sentenced to death.

Beyond Thirty is the story of Captain Jefferson Turck and the crew of his aero-submarine, who through accident and sabotage are forced beyond the thirtieth longitude and embark on an epic quest to rediscover the legendary lands of the Old World. Their adventures stand as one of Edgar Rice Burroughs's most imaginative and subtly crafted tales. Burroughs wrote the story in 1915 in reaction to the growing horrors of the First World War, and his devastating vision of its consequences provides a haunting and enduring warning for the twenty-first century.

Has also been published as The Lost Continent.

"From nearly two hundred centres, and every week added to their number, roared the unquenchable crimson conflagrations of the atomic bombs. The flimsy fabric of the world's credit had vanished, industry was completed disorganised, and every city, every thickly populated area was starving or trembled on the verge of starvation. Most of the capital cities of the world were burning; millions of people had already perished, and over great areas government was at an end."

The Last War erupts in Europe, rapidly escalating from bloody trench warfare and vicious aerial duels into a world-consuming, atomic holocaust. Paris is engulfed by an atomic maelstrom, Berlin is an ever-flaming crater, the cold waters of the North Sea roar past Dutch dikes and sweep across the Low Countries. Moscow, Chicago, Tokyo, London, and hundreds of other cities become radioactive wastelands. Governments topple, age-old cultural legacies are destroyed, and the stage is set for a new social and political order.

The Last War is H. G. Wells's chilling and prophetic tale of a world gone mad with atomic weapons and of the rebirth of human-kind from the rubble. Written long before the atomic age, Wells's novel is a riveting and intelligent history of the future that discusses for the first time the horrors of the atomic bomb, offering a startling vision of humanity purged by a catastrophic atomic war.

Originally and alternatively published as The World Set Free.

A comet rushes toward the earth, a deadly, glowing orb that soon fills the sky and promises doom. But mankind is too busy hating, stealing, scheming, and killing to care. As luminous green trails of cosmic dust and vapor stream across the heavens, blood flows beneath: nations wage all-out war, bitter strikes erupt, and jealous lovers plot revenge and murder. The earth slips past the comet by the narrowest of margins, but all succumb to the gases in its tail. When mankind wakes up, everyone is completely and profoundly different.

In the Days of the Comet is H. G. Wells's classic tale of the last days of the old earth and the extraterrestrial Change that becomes the salvation of the human race. An ill-fated romance between Willie Leadford and Nettie Stuart unfolds in a world buried in misery and bent on its own destruction. After the earth passes through the comet's tail, suffering, pettiness, and injustice melt away. Willie, Nettie, and everyone around them are reborn. They now see themselves and their world in a dramatically new and wonderful way.

Abalone, Arizona, is a sleepy southwestern town whose chief concerns are boredom and surviving the Great Depression--that is, until the circus of Dr. Lao arrives and immensely and irrevocably changes the lives of everyone drawn to its tents.

Expecting a sideshow spectacle, the citizens of Abalone instead confront and learn profound lessons from the mythical made real--a chimera, a Medusa, a talking sphinx, a sea serpent, witches, the Hound of the Hedges, a werewolf, a mermaid, an ancient god, and the elusive, ever-changing Dr. Lao himself. The circus unfolds, spinning magical, dark strands that ensnare the town's populace: the sea serpent's tale shatters love's illusions; the fortune-teller's shocking pronouncements toll the tedium and secret dread of every person's life; sensual undercurrents pour forth for men and women alike; and the dead walk again.

Dazzling and macabre, literary and philosophical, The Circus of Dr. Lao has been acclaimed as a masterpiece of speculative fiction and influenced such writers as Ray Bradbury.

In the late twentieth century, Admiral Julian 3rd can get no rest, for he knows his future. He will be reborn as his grandson in the next century to journey through space and make an ominous discovery inside the moon; he will live again in the dark years of the twenty-second century as Julian 9th, who refuses to bow down to the victorious Moon Men; and as Julian 20th, the fierce Red Hawk, he will lead humanity's final battle against the alien invaders in the twenty-fifth century. The Moon Maid is Edgar Rice Burroughs's stunning epic of a world conquered by alien invaders from the moon and of the hero Julian, who champions the earth's struggle for freedom, peace, and dignity.

The most complete version of The Moon Maid saga ever made available, this edition contains the story as published serially, along with numerous passages, sentences, and words excised from the magazine version or added later by the author. This edition also features an introduction by Terry Bisson, new illustrations by Thomas Floyd, the classic frontispiece by J. Allen St. John, essays by scholar Richard J. Golsan and writer Phillip R. Burger, a glossary by Scott Tracy Griffin, and a compendium of alterations to the text.

After attending a séance, Maskull, a restless and rootless man, finds himself embarking on a journey to the planet Tormance, which orbits Arcturus. Alone, he wanders the startling landscape, open to a bewildering range of experiences from love to ritual murder, encountering new monsters at every turn, metamorphosing, constantly seeking the truth about the divinity known as Shaping, Surtur and Crystalman.

A Voyage to Arcturus is David Lindsay's masterpiece, an extraordinary imaginative tour de force.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the invention of the airplane revolutionizes warfare and precipitates a devastating world war. Nations race to build armadas of airships; cities across the globe are bombed; flying navies clash above the Alps and India. The United States is invaded from the east and the west. German and American airships duel over the Atlantic, and New York is bombarded by German flying machines. Confederation of Eastern Asia airships soar above the Rockies, soon engaging in deadly dogfights with the German air fleet above Niagara Falls.

In The War in the Air, the astonishingly prophetic vision of H. G. Wells reveals how one invention can change the world. Before the World Wars, Wells predicted that airplanes would be used for bombing, that urban areas would become especially vulnerable to aerial attacks, that dogfights and stealth attacks by air fleets would become a normal part of warfare, and that distance and the expanse of oceans no longer would be guarantors of safety for America or other countries. Visionary in its time and chillingly relevant a century later, The War in the Air continues to remind us that humankind's greatest evil lies in devices of its own making.

The finest tale ever written of fabled Atlantis, The Lost Continent is a sweeping, fiery saga of the last days of the doomed land. Atlantis, at the height of its power and glory, is without equal. It has established far-flung colonies in Egypt and Central America, and its mighty navies patrol the seas. The priests of Atlantis channel the elemental powers of the universe, and a powerful monarch rules from a staggeringly beautiful city of pyramids and shining temples clustered around a sacred mountain.

Mighty Atlantis is also decaying and corrupt. Its people are growing soft and decadent, and many live in squalor. Rebellion is in the air, and prophecies of doom ring forth. Into this epic drama of the end of time stride two memorable characters: the warrior-priest Deucalion, stern, just, and loyal, and the Empress Phorenice, brilliant, ambitious, and passionate. The old and new Atlantis collide in a titanic showdown between Deucalion and Phorenice, a struggle that soon affects the destiny of an entire civilization.

Mark Twain's unsettling imagination and passionate curiosity roamed far and wide--racing across microscopic worlds and interstellar voids, leaping ahead to fearful futures, and speculating on dazzling inventions to come. Tales of Wonder features some of the most notable but little-known science fiction available, penned by the famed American humorist and writer. With characteristic wit and acuity, Twain embarks on an epic journey into a drop of water, catches a glimpse of an invisible man, reveals a generation-starship-type world in the heart of a drifting iceberg, and imagines futuristic devices of instantaneous communication such as the "phrenophone" and "telelectroscope."

Twain pioneered the use of time travel to the past in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. As for the future, he envisioned a radical utopia of absolute suffrage and future histories in which a global theocracy holds sway or a monarchy rules America. This entertaining and absorbing collection of tales reminds us that the former steamboat pilot dreamed about the stars, anticipated and dreaded the future, and above all was continually surprised and enchanted by the world around him.

Was also published as The Science Fiction of Mark Twain

Contents:

• ix - Texts and Acknowledgments (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer
• xiii - Introduction (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer
• 3 - Petrified Man - (1862) - shortstory
• 4 - Earthquake Almanac - (1865) - shortstory
• 6 - A Curious Pleasure Excursion - (1874) - shortstory
• 10 - The Curious Republic of Gondour - (1875) - shortstory
• 14 - Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven - (1907) - shortfiction (variant of Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven)
• 61 - The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton - (1878) - shortstory
• 77 - Time Travel Contexts from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - (1889) - shortfiction
• 96 - Mental Telegraphy - (1891) - shortstory
• 112 - Mental Telegraphy Again - (1895) - shortstory
• 117 - My Platonic Sweetheart - (1912) - shortstory
• 127 - From the "London Times" of 1904 - (1898) - shortstory
• 139 - The Great Dark - (1962) - shortfiction
• 176 - The Secret History of Eddypus, the World-Empire - (1972) - shortfiction
• 226 - Sold to Satan - (1923) - shortstory
• 233 - 3,000 Years Among the Microbes - (1966) - shortfiction (variant of Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes)
• 327 - "The Mysterious Balloonist" - (1975) - shortfiction
• 331 - Synopsis of "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" - (1945) - shortfiction
• 334 - "The Generation Iceberg" - (1979) - shortfiction
• 335 - Shackleford's Ghost - (1984) - shortstory
• 338 - "History 1,000 Years from Now" - (1972) - shortfiction
• 341 - Explanatory Notes (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer
• 381 - Selected Bibliography (The Science Fiction of Mark Twain) - (1984) - essay by David Ketterer

"Oh, I wish I were anywhere but here, anywhere out of this redtape-ridden world of ours! I wish I were in the planet Mars!"

Whisked away to the legendary red planet, the intrepid Lieutenant Gullivar Jones is caught up in the adventure of a lifetime. To win the love of a beautiful princess, he fights his way across a dying and savage planet of desolate cities, lost races, utopian societies, and the haunting and unforgettable River of Death.

This classic, influential tale of Mars, written in the utopian tradition of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, is also considered a possible inspiration for the immortal Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Both reflective and imaginative, Gullivar of Mars celebrates the acuity and storytelling power of science fiction writers of the early twentieth century and continues to influence writers and to entertain readers today.

This commemorative edition includes the full text of the classic 1905 edition, a new introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, an illustration by Thomas Floyd, and an afterword by Gary Hoppenstand.

Originally and also published as Lieut. Gulliver Jones: His Vacation

What did our ancestors dream of when they gazed up at the stars and looked beyond the present? Wildly imaginative but grounded in reasoned scientific speculation, A Journey in Other Worlds races far ahead of the nineteenth century to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Earth is effectively a corporate technocracy, with big businesses using incredible advances in science to improve life on the planet as a whole. Seeking other planets habitable for the growing human population, the spaceship Callisto, powered by an antigravitational force known as apergy, embarks on a momentous tour of the solar system. Jupiter proves to be a wilderness paradise, full of threatening beasts and landscapes of inspired beauty, where the explorers must fight for their lives. Dangers less tangible but equally deadly await the Callisto crew on Saturn, which yields profound secrets about their fate and the ultimate destiny of mankind.

Thoughtful, adventurous, and replete with a dazzling array of futuristic devices, A Journey in Other Worlds is a classic, unforgettable story of utopias and humankind's restless exploration of the stars.

Time travel, a millennium-spanning romance, and rousing action in modern African jungles and the untamed prehistoric wilderness ignite this classic adventure tale from the pen of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Nu, a warrior from the Stone Age, is buried alive in an earthquake while stalking a saber-toothed tiger. Awakening thousands of years later on Tarzan's estate in Africa, he gives his heart to Victoria Custer of Nebraska, a visitor to the estate, who is the reincarnation of Nu's Stone Age love, Nat-ul. But other men treacherously compete for the love of Victoria in modern Africa and for the heart of Nat-ul in the distant past.

Set in both a terrifyingly dangerous primeval setting and the beloved world of Tarzan, The Eternal Savage movingly reveals whether eternal love is strong enough to triumph over undying adversity.

Slithering from these pages are never-before-collected tales of suspense and wonder by the woman who invented modern-day dark fantasy: A man goes quietly to bed aboard the doomed Lusitania and awakens on a magical South Pacific Island just as the passenger liner is torpedoed. In a future where women rule the world, a sentient island becomes murderously jealous of a shipwrecked couple. Dire consequences await a human swept into the dark, magical world of elves. A deadly labyrinth coils around the dark heart of a picturesque landscape garden. Within an Egyptian sarcophagus lies the horrifying price of infidelity. Swirling unseen around us are loathsome creatures giving form to our basest desires and fears. A beautiful, veiled medium may hold the key to preventing unspeakable evil from slipping through the borderlands between life and death. On a lost island a woman pipe player and her monstrous dancing partner bring death and terror to five adventurers.

The stories in this collection have played an integral role in the development of modern dark fantasy, greatly influencing such writers as H. P. Lovecraft and A. Merritt.

Contents:

• ii - The Nightmare And Other Tales Of Dark Fantasy (frontispiece) - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• ix - Francis Stevens: The Woman Who Invented Dark Fantasy - essay by Gary Hoppenstand
• 1 - The Nightmare - (1917) - novella by Francis Stevens
• 1 - The Nightmare - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 79 - The Labyrinth - (1918) - novel by Francis Stevens
• 79 - The Labyrinth - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 193 - Friend Island - (1918) - shortstory by Francis Stevens
• 193 - Friend Island - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 204 - Behind the Curtain - (1918) - shortstory by Francis Stevens
• 204 - Behind the Curtain - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 212 - Unseen--Unfeared - (1919) - shortstory by Francis Stevens
• 212 - Unseen--Unfeared - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 227 - The Elf Trap - (1919) - shortstory by Francis Stevens (variant of The Elf-Trap)
• 227 - The Elf Trap - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 248 - Serapion - novel by Francis Stevens (variant of Possessed: A Tale of the Demon Serapion 2003)
• 248 - Serapion - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd
• 343 - Sunfire - (1926) - novella by Francis Stevens
• 343 - Sunfire - interior artwork by Thomas C. Floyd

"'What would you do if you were the strongest man in the world, the strongest thing in the world, mightier than the machine?' He made himself guess answers for that rhetorical inquiry. 'I would run the universe single-handed. I would scorn the universe and turn it to my own ends. I would be a criminal. I would rip open banks and gut them. I would kill and destroy. I would be a secret, invisible blight. I would set out to stamp crime off the earth.'"

Hugo Danner is the strongest man on earth, the result of a monstrous experiment by his scientist father. Nearly invulnerable, he can run faster than a train, leap higher than trees, lift a wrecked vehicle to rescue its pinned driver, and hurl boulders like baseballs. His remarkable abilities, however, cannot gain him what he desires most--acceptance--for Hugo Danner is desperately lonely, shunned and feared for his enormous strength.

An enduring classic in speculative fiction and the reported inspiration for the original comic hero, Superman, Gladiator is a melancholic tale of a boy set apart because of his unique gift and his lifelong struggle to come to terms with it.

Fantastic adventures at the center of the earth await a penniless Norwegian student after he plunges into a bottomless hole in a cave. Niels Klim discovers worlds within our own--exotic civilizations and fabulous creatures scattered across the underside of the earth's crust and, at the earth's center, a small, inhabited planet orbiting around a miniature sun. In an epic journey, Klim visits countries led by sentient and contemplative trees, a kingdom of intelligent apes preoccupied with fashion and change, a land whose inhabitants don't speak out of their mouths, neighboring countries of birds locked in an eternal war, and a land where string basses talk musically to one another. Brave, inquisitive, and greedy, Klim faces many challenges, the greatest of which are his own temptations.

The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground is a classic in speculative fiction and was the first fully realized novel set underground in a hollow earth. First published in 1741, it has earned comparisons to Jonathan Swift's contemporaneous fantasy, Gulliver's Travels.

Has also been published under the titles A Journey to the World Under-Ground by Nicholas Klimius and Niels Klim's Journey Under the Ground.

"The female of the species vanished on the afternoon of the second Tuesday of February at four minutes and fifty-two seconds past four o'clock, Eastern Standard Time. The event occurred universally at the same instant, without regard to time belts, and was followed by such phenomena as might be expected after happenings of that nature."

On a lazy, quiet afternoon, in the blink of an eye, our world shatters into two parallel universes as men vanish from women and women from men. After families and loved ones separate from one another, life continues in very different ways for men and women, boys and girls. An explosion of violence sweeps one world that still operates technologically; social stability and peace in the other are offset by famine and a widespread breakdown in machinery and science. And as we learn from the fascinating parallel stories of a brilliant couple, Bill and Paula Gaunt, the foundations of relationships, love, and sex are scrutinized, tested, and sometimes redefined in both worlds. The radically divergent trajectories of the gendered histories reveal stark truths about the rigidly defined expectations placed on men and women and their sexual relationships and make clear how much society depends on interconnection between the sexes.

Written over a half century ago yet brimming with insight and unsettling in its relevance today, The Disappearance is a masterpiece of modern speculative fiction.

Something is horribly wrong in the remote English village of Cainsmarsh. An elderly woman stiffens in dread at her own shadow; a terrified farmer murders a scarecrow; food prepared by others is eyed with suspicion; family pets are bludgeoned to death; loving couples are devoured by rage and violence. A spirit-corrupting evil pervades the land, infesting the minds of those who call Cainsmarsh home. Is this vision real, or a paranoid fantasy generated by an even darker, worldwide threat? And is the call to resist the danger itself a danger? These are questions that disturb the calm of an indolent croquet player who happens to hear the tale of the unlucky village.

H. G. Wells's ambiguous story of horror is a modern classic, a prophetic, disturbing glimpse of the primitive distrust and violence that gnaw at the heart of the modern world.

As the world around us becomes more fantastic, and science itself more surreal, the realms of science fiction and fantasy become correspondingly both more bizarre and more relevant. Voices of Vision offers a rare look into the inner workings of this realm and into the very thoughts and methods of those who make it tick: editors and writers of science fiction and fantasy, and creators of comic books and graphic novels. In wide-ranging interviews that are by turns intimate and thought provoking, irreverent and outrageous, Jayme Lynn Blaschke talks shop with some of the most interesting voices in these genres as well as the people behind them, such as current Science Fiction Weekly and former Science Fiction Age editor Scott Edelman.

A host of authors talk to Blaschke about what it's like to do what they do, how they work and how they started, and where they think the genre is headed. Blaschke talks to writers such as Robin Hobb, Charles de Lint, Patricia Anthony, and Elizabeth Moon; revered authors of comic books and graphic novels, including Neil Gaiman and Brad Meltzer; and icons such as Samuel R. Delany, Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison, and Jack Williamson. Editors such as Gardner Dozois, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, discuss their publishing philosophies and strategies, the origins and probable directions of their magazines, and the broader influence of such ventures. For devoted reader, aspiring writer, and curious onlooker alike, these interviews open a largely hidden, endlessly engrossing world.

Contents:

• 3 - Gardner Dozois - interview of Gardner Dozois - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 11 - Kristine Kathryn Rusch - interview of Kristine Kathryn Rusch - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (variant of Out of the Pulphouse 1998)
• 23 - Stanley Schmidt - interview of Stanley Schmidt - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 31 - Gordon Van Gelder - interview of Gordon Van Gelder - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 39 - Scott Edelman - interview of Scott Edelman - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 55 - Robin Hobb (Megan Lindholm) - interview of Megan Lindholm - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (variant of An Interview with Robin Hobb 2002)
• 65 - Patricia Anthony - interview of Patricia Anthony - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (variant of Up from Texas 1999)
• 77 - Charles de Lint - interview of Charles de Lint - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (variant of Ottawa Urban Fantasist 2001)
• 85 - Elizabeth Moon - interview of Elizabeth Moon - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 99 - Elliot S! Maggin - interview of Elliot S. Maggin - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 107 - Frank Cho and Scott Kurtz - interview of Frank Cho and Scott Kurtz - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 117 - Brad Meltzer - interview of Brad Meltzer - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 127 - Neil Gaiman - interview of Neil Gaiman - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 143 - Samuel R. Delany - interview of Samuel R. Delany - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 157 - Gene Wolfe - interview of Gene Wolfe - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
• 165 - Harlan Ellison - interview of Harlan Ellison - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (variant of The Event That Is His Life 2000)
• 185 - Jack Williamson - interview of Jack Williamson - interview by Jayme Lynn Blaschke (variant of An Amazing, Astounding Seventy Years 1999)

The Bision Edition is the fourth edition. Each edition was revised and expanded.

So, just how was Tarzan created? Eager to know the inside story about the legendary John Carter and the amazing cities and peoples of Barsoom? Perhaps your taste is more suited to David Innes and the fantastic lost world at the Earth's core? Or maybe wrong-way Napier and the bizarre civilizations of cloud-enshrouded Venus are more to your liking? These pages contain all that you will ever want to know about the wondrous worlds and unforgettable characters penned by the master storyteller Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Richard A. Lupoff, the respected critic and writer who helped spark a Burroughs revival in the 1960s, reveals fascinating details about the stories written by the creator of Tarzan. Featured here are outlines of all of Burroughs's major novels, with descriptions of how they were each written and their respective sources of inspiration. This Bison Books edition includes a new foreword by fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, a new introduction by the author, a final chapter by Phillip R. Burger, as well as corrected text and an updated bibliography.

Contents:

• 2 - Edgar Rice Burroughs and His Most Famous Creations - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 7 - Preface (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1965) - essay by Henry Hardy Heins
• 24 - Introduction to the Centennial Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff
• 28 - Introduction to Second Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1968) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff (variant of Introduction to this Edition (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure))
• 46 - John Carter Battles Green Men of Barsoom - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 76 - David Innes, Hyaenodons, and Man-Apes of Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 119 - The Land That Time Forgot - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 127 - A Scene from The Moon Men - (1965) - interior artwork by Reed Crandall
• 130 - A Scene from The Red Hawk - (1965) - interior artwork by Reed Crandall
• 162 - Carson Napier and the Klangan of Amtor - (1965) - interior artwork by Al Williamson and Reed Crandall
• 197 - David Innes, Jubal the Ugly One, Dian the Beautiful - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 219 - A Mahar casts her sinister spell - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta (variant of "She moved as one in a trance straight toward the reptile." 1973)
• 240 - Jacket Design for a Proposed Edition of Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 272 - David Innes Faces a Labyrinthodon in Pellucidar - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 286 - David Innes, a Hydrophidian, Ja the Mezop - (1965) - interior artwork by Frank Frazetta
• 305 - Bibliography (Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure) - (1965) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff
• 313 - A Checklist of Edgar Rice Burroughs Books - (1965) - essay by Richard A. Lupoff

In 1903 Lieutenant Olivier Ferrières of the French army welcomes Captain de Saint-Avit as the new commandant of his post in Algeria. Shunned by his fellow officers, the captain has been accused of the brutal murder of his friend Lieutenant Morhange, when the two were lost alone in the desert. To Ferrières's horror, Saint-Avit soon confesses to the crime, unveiling a shocking tale of lost worlds, lust, murder, and the enslavement of desire in a forgotten desert kingdom--Atlantis!

Antinea, the queen of Atlantis, seeks to destroy and imprison the men in her net through her beauty and cruelty, enshrining their electroplated bodies in a fantastic hall, assigning each doomed lover a number and a plaque in his memory. Caught in this web, Saint-Avit and Morhange attempt to escape until love, passion, and jealousy threaten their friendship and their very lives. For only one man has ever captured the heart of Antinea, and no one escapes the queen of Atlantis.

This work has also appeared under the name Atlantida.

In this satirical classic, a brilliant scientist invents the Karburator, a reactor that can create abundant and practically free energy. However, the Karburator's superefficient energy production also yields a powerful by-product.

The machine works by completely annihilating matter and in so doing releases the Absolute, the spiritual essence held within all matter, into the world.

Infected by the heady, pure Absolute, the world's population becomes consumed with religious and national fervor, the effects of which ultimately cause a devastating global war.Set in the mid-twentieth century, The Absolute at Large questions the ethics and rampant spread of power, mass production, and atomic weapons that Karel Capek saw in the technological and political revolutions occurring around him.

A classic work of science fiction, this novel was one of the first to explore the world of the atom.

The Girl in the Golden Atom is the story of a young chemist who finds a hidden atomic world within his mother's wedding ring. Under a microscope, he sees within the ring a beautiful young woman sitting before a cave. Enchanted by her, he shrinks himself so that he can join her world.

Having worked for Thomas Alva Edison, Ray Cummings (1887–1957) was inspired by science's possibilities and began to write science fiction. The Girl in the Golden Atom was enormously successful at its publication in 1923, and Cummings went on to write an equally successful sequel, The People of the Golden Atom.

An artist, poet, and prolific contributor to Weird Tales, Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1967) is an influential figure in the history of pulp fiction. A close correspondent and collaborator with H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Smith was widely celebrated as a master by his contemporaries. Back in print for the first time since 1971, Out of Space and Time showcases the many facets of Smith's unique prose that make him one of the greatest American writers of macabre and fantastic tales.

Here are tales of Averoigne, tales belonging to the Cthulhu, stories of sheer horror, and one or two of sardonic comedy. Jeff VanderMeer provides an introduction for this Bison Books edition.

Contents:

• v - Introduction (Out of Space and Time) - essay by Jeff VanderMeer
• xv - Clark Ashton Smith: Master of Fantasy - (1942) - essay by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei
• 3 - The End of the Story - [Averoigne] - (1930) - novelette
• 25 - A Rendezvous in Averoigne - [Averoigne] - (1931) - shortstory
• 43 - A Night in Malnéant - (1933) - shortstory
• 51 - The City of the Singing Flame - [Singing Flame - 1] - (1931) - novella
• 100 - The Uncharted Isle - (1930) - shortstory
• 115 - The Second Interment - (1933) - shortstory
• 129 - The Double Shadow - [Poseidonis] - (1933) - shortstory
• 144 - The Chain of Aforgomon - (1935) - novelette
• 165 - The Dark Eidolon - [Zothique] - (1935) - novelette
• 198 - The Last Hieroglyph - [Zothique] - (1935) - shortstory
• 218 - Sadastor - (1930) - poem
• 222 - The Death of Ilalotha - [Zothique] - (1937) - shortstory
• 236 - The Return of the Sorcerer - [Cthulhu Mythos] - (1931) - shortstory
• 257 - The Testament of Athammaus - [Hyperborea] - (1932) - shortstory
• 280 - The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan - [Hyperborea] - (1932) - shortstory
• 291 - Ubbo-Sathla - [Hyperborea] - (1933) - shortstory
• 303 - The Monster of the Prophecy - (1932) - novelette
• 347 - The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis - [Mars (Clark Ashton Smith)] - (1932) - novelette
• 367 - From the Crypts of Memory - (1917) - poem
• 369 - The Shadows - (1922) - poem

The Meteor Hunt marks the first English translation from Jules Verne's own text of his delightfully satirical and visionary novel. While other, questionable versions of the novel have appeared--mainly, a significantly altered text by Verne's son Michel and translations of it--this edition showcases the original work as Verne wrote it.

The Meteor Hunt is the story of a meteor of pure gold careening toward the earth and generating competitive greed among amateur astronomers and chaos among nations obsessed with the trajectory of the great golden object. Set primarily in the United States and offering a humorous critique of the American way of life, The Meteor Hunt is finally given due critical treatment in the translators' foreword, detailed annotations, and afterword, which clearly establish the historical, political, scientific, and literary context and importance of this long-obscured, genre-blending masterpiece in its true form.

An artist, poet, and prolific contributor to Weird Tales, Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1967) is an influential figure in the history of pulp fiction. A close correspondent and collaborator with H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Smith was widely celebrated as a master by his contemporaries. Back in print for the first time since 1971, Lost Worlds brings together twenty-three of Smith's classic stories, all of which were originally published in Weird Tales. Rather than center his works on heroes, Smith created fantastical worlds around which he built cycles of stories. Included here are tales from the realms of Averoigne, Zothique, Hyperborea, and others. Told in lush poetic prose, these haunting stories bring to life dark, dreamlike realms full of gothic monsters and mortals. Jeff VanderMeer provides an introduction for this Bison Books edition.

Contents:

• viii - Introduction (Lost Worlds) - essay by Jeff VanderMeer
• 3 - The Tale of Satampra Zeiros - [Satampra Zeiros] - (1931) - shortstory
• 18 - The Door to Saturn - [Hyperborea] - (1932) - shortstory
• 42 - The Seven Geases - [Hyperborea] - (1934) - novelette
• 67 - The Coming of the White Worm - [Hyperborea] - (1941) - shortstory
• 85 - The Last Incantation - [Malygris] - (1930) - shortstory
• 91 - A Voyage to Sfanomoë - [Poseidonis] - (1931) - shortstory
• 101 - The Death of Malygris - [Malygris] - (1934) - shortstory
• 119 - The Holiness of Azédarac - [Averoigne] - (1933) - novelette
• 144 - The Beast of Averoigne - [Averoigne] - (1933) - shortstory
• 159 - The Empire of the Necromancers - [Zothique] - (1932) - shortstory
• 171 - The Isle of the Torturers - [Zothique] - (1933) - shortstory
• 190 - Necromancy in Naat - [Zothique] - (1936) - novelette
• 214 - Xeethra - [Zothique] - (1934) - novelette
• 239 - The Maze of Maal Dweb - [Maal Dweb] - (1933) - shortstory
• 255 - The Flower-Women - [Maal Dweb] - (1935) - shortstory
• 271 - The Demon of the Flower - (1933) - shortstory
• 283 - The Plutonian Drug - (1934) - shortstory
• 296 - The Planet of the Dead - (1932) - shortstory
• 311 - The Gorgon - (1932) - shortstory
• 325 - The Letter from Mohaun Los - (1932) - novelette (variant of Flight into Super-Time)
• 366 - The Light from Beyond - (1933) - novelette
• 390 - The Hunters from Beyond - (1932) - shortstory
• 410 - The Treader of the Dust - (1935) - shortstory

The First English Translation of Verne's Original Manuscript...

At the extreme tip of South America, Staten Island has piercing Antarctic winds, lonely coasts assaulted by breakers, and sailors lost as their vessels smash on the dark rocks. Now that civilization dares to rule here, a lighthouse penetrates the last and wildest place of all. But Vasquez, the guardian of the sacred light, has not reckoned with the vicious, desperate Kongre gang, who murder his two friends and force him out into the wilderness. Alone, without resources, can he foil their cruel plans?

A gripping tale of passion and perseverance, Verne's testament novel paints a compelling picture of intrigue and heroism, schemes and calamities. The master storyteller returns here to the theme of civilization against its two oldest enemies: pitiless nature and men's savagery.

The Great Romance, a two-volume novella published under the pseudonym "The Inhabitant," was one of the outstanding late nineteenth-century works of utopian science fiction. Volume 1 was a possible model for Edward Bellamy's phenomenally successful Looking Backward, while volume 2 was assumed lost for over a century until uncovered in the Hocken Library in Dunedin, New Zealand. Together these volumes represent a remarkable piece of science fiction writing as they proffer one of the first serious considerations of the colonization of other planets and the impact of human beings on an alien culture. Here, for the first time, readers encounter descriptions of spacesuits and airlocks, space shuttles and planetary rovers, interplanetary colonization and cross-species miscegenation.

Behind these genre-defining elements is the story of John Hope, who, by means of a sleeping elixir, awakes to a utopian community in a distant future--a "kingdom of thought" where the struggle for existence has been eliminated and humanity operates under an unwritten law of civility and harmony, aided by telekinesis that inerrantly reveals all wrong-doers. Since only two of the probably three volumes are extant, the tale ends with a chilling cliffhanger. In his introduction Dominic Alessio discusses the cutting-edge aspects of this work and its significance in both the realm of science fiction and the history and culture of its day.

The First English Translation of Verne's Original Manuscript...

The Golden Volcano thrusts two Canadian cousins--unexpectedly bequeathed a mining claim in the Klondike--into the middle of the gold rush, where they encounter disease, disaster, extremes of weather, and human nature twisted by a passion for gold. A deathbed confidence sends the two searching for a fabulous gold-filled volcano on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. But nature, both human and physical, hasn't finished with them, and their story plays out with the nail-biting adventure of an action thriller and the moral and emotional force of high drama.

Like many of the works left unpublished when Jules Verne died, The Golden Volcano was altered and edited by his son, Michel. This first translation from the original manuscript allows readers of English to rediscover the pleasures of Verne's storytelling in its original form--and to enjoy a virtually unknown gem of action, adventure, and style from a master of French literature.

Gathered here for the first time are Miles J. Breuer's first publication, "The Man with the Strange Head"; his neglected dystopian novel Paradise and Iron (appearing here in book form for the first time); stories such as "Gostak and the Doshes" and "Mechanocracy"; and Breuer's essay "The Future of Scientifiction," one of the early critical statements of the genre. Also included are some of the author's letters from the Discussions column of Amazing Stories.

Much of what we know as science fiction saw the light--and found its themes, styles, and modes--in the science fiction magazines of the early twentieth century. It was in these magazines of the 1920s and 1930s that Breuer often led the way. Breuer himself found his inspiration in the work of H. G. Wells and in turn influenced science fiction masters from Jack Williamson to Robert A. Heinlein. The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories collects the best work of this pioneer of the genre.

Contents:

• ix - Miles J. Breuer Science Fiction Pioneer of the Nebraska Plains - essay by Michael R. Page
• 1 - The Man with the Strange Head - (1927) - shortstory
• 12 - The Appendix and the Spectacles - (1928) - shortstory
• 25 - The Gostak and the Doshes - (1930) - shortstory
• 44 - Paradise and Iron - (1930) - novel
• 257 - A Problem in Communication - (1930) - novelette
• 285 - On Board the Martian Liner - (1931) - novelette
• 312 - Mechanocracy - (1932) - novelette
• 339 - The Finger of the Past - (1932) - shortstory
• 350 - Millions for Defense - (1935) - shortstory
• 366 - Mars Colonizes - (1935) - novelette
• 394 - The Oversight - (1940) - shortstory
• 415 - The Future of Scientifiction - essay
• 419 - Selected Letters - essay
• 429 - Breuer's Science Fiction - essay by uncredited

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.

Perhaps best known for editing the popular post-World War II magazines Galaxy Science Fiction and Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Horace L. Gold also wrote comic-book scripts for DC Comics and penned numerous pulp adventures and science-fiction stories. Perfect Murders, a collection of seven of these stories, captures the timeless emotions evoked by pulp and science fiction for the twenty-first century. Though the main character is always called Gilroy, his identity shifts from story to story: the horserace handicapper fighting for his dame, the private eye sussing out the murderer, or the hard-boiled journalist exposing the mad scientist. And though Gold uses the traditional genres--time travel, Armageddon, science gone awry, murder, extraterrestrials--Perfect Murders is nothing less than a horrific, page-turning, fictional thrill ride engineered by one of the leading science-fiction writers and editors of the mid-twentieth century. The Bison Books edition is introduced by Gold's son, E. J. Gold, offering a new perspective on these classic stories.

Contents:

• vii - Introduction (Perfect Murders) - (2010) - essay by E. J. Gold
• 1 - At the Post - (1953) - novelette by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 59 - I Know Suicide - (1947) - shortstory by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 83 - Love in the Dark - (1951) - shortstory by H. L. Gold (variant of Love Ethereal) [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 107 - A Matter of Form - (1938) - novella by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 205 - The Old Die Rich - (1953) - novella by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 287 - Perfect Murder - (1940) - shortstory by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 297 - Problem in Murder - (1939) - novelette by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]

First published in 1897, The Year 3000 is the most daring and original work of fiction by the prominent Italian anthropologist Paolo Mantegazza. A futuristic utopian novel, the book follows two young lovers who, as they travel from Rome to the capital of the United Planetary States to celebrate their "mating union," encounter the marvels of cultural and scientific advances along the way. Intriguing in itself, The Year 3000 is also remarkable for both its vision of the future (predicting an astonishing array of phenomena from airplanes, artificial intelligence, CAT scans, and credit cards to controversies surrounding divorce, abortion, and euthanasia) and the window it opens on fin de siècle Europe.

Published here for the first time in English, this richly annotated edition features an invaluable introductory essay that interprets the intertextual and intercultural connections within and beyond Mantegazza's work. For its critical contribution to early science fiction and for its insights into the hopes, fears, and clash of values in the Western world of both Mantegazza's time and our own, this book belongs among the visionary giants of speculative literature.

Betrayed by his wife, Stephen Stone spirits his son, Henry, away to a remote tropical island and trains him to be an ideal physical specimen and a perfect gentleman. After years of isolation, Henry Stone is now a young man, standing a full six feet two inches tall and weighing 190 pounds. His hair is bronze, his eyes turquoise, his skin mahogany--a magnificent man. When Henry finally returns to civilization, he finds that his father's business has grown into a news empire. Though he is the owner of this huge conglomerate, a great conversationalist and excellent company, well versed in etiquette, and extraordinarily nice, Henry has never seen a woman. Indeed his father has taught him never to trust a female and that love itself is a myth. When Henry collides with the contemporary world and the modern woman, the collision is necessarily fascinating and complicated for both Henry and the society he is discovering.

The First English Translation of Verne's Original Manuscript.

Widely rumored to exist, then circulated in a corrupt form, Jules Verne's final and arguably most daring and hauntingly beautiful novel--his own "invisible man"--appears here for the first time in a faithful translation. Readers of English can rediscover the pleasures of Verne's storytelling in its original splendor and enjoy a virtually unknown gem of action, adventure, and style from a master of French literature.

Wilhelm Storitz, the son of a famous Prussian scientist (and possessor of his father's secrets--even, perhaps, a formula that confers invisibility), vows revenge on the family that has denied him the love of his life, Myra Roderich. Wilhelm's actions on the eve of Myra's wedding unfold in a surprising and sinister way, leading to an ending that will astonish the reader.

Like many works left unpublished when Jules Verne died, The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz was prepared and edited by his son, Michel. After a century of obscurity, this unique work in Verne's oeuvre is finally in the hands of readers, in a fine, authentic translation.

Jack London's fabled powers to entertain and enthrall are in full force in this collection of fifteen fantastic tales. The restless energy of his vision ranges far in time and space, from the psychological tension of an extraterrestrial encounter to a frontier tall tale of a trapper hunting a mammoth. London tells an effective Victorian gothic story and offers an intriguing consideration of the science and problems of invisibility. Particularly gripping are the well-imagined horrors and new worlds of the future, including a chilling novella depicting a world ravaged by an alien virus. These remarkable stories testify to the wide-ranging creative power of one of America's great writers.

Contents:

• A Curious Fragment - (1908) - shortstory
• A Relic of the Pliocene - (1901) - shortstory
• A Thousand Deaths - (1889) - shortstory
• Even Unto Death - (1900) - shortstory
• Goliah - (1908) - novelette
• Preface (Curious Fragments) - (1975) - essay by Philip José Farmer
• The Enemy of All the World - (1908) - shortstory
• The Red One - (1918) - novelette
• The Rejuvenation of Major Rathbone - (1899) - shortstory
• The Scarlet Plague - (1912) - novella
• The Shadow and the Flash - (1903) - shortstory
• The Strength of the Strong - (1911) - shortstory
• The Unparalleled Invasion - (1910) - shortstory
• War - (1911) - shortstory
• When the World Was Young - (1910) - shortstory
• Who Believes in Ghosts! - (1895) - shortstory

Has also been published as Curious Fragments: Jack London's Tales of Fantasy Fiction.

The book's full title is Mizora: A Prophecy: A Mss. Found Among the Private Papers of Princess Vera Zarovitch: Being a True and Faithful Account of her Journey to the Interior of the Earth, with a Careful Description of the Country and its Inhabitants, their Customs, Manners, and Government.

What would happen to our culture if men ceased to exist? Mary E. Bradley Lane explores this question in Mizora, the first known feminist utopian novel written by a woman.

Vera Zarovitch is a Russian noblewoman--heroic, outspoken, and determined. A political exile in Siberia, she escapes and flees north, eventually finding herself, adrift and exhausted, on a strange sea at the North Pole. Crossing a barrier of mist and brilliant light, Zarovitch is swept into the enchanted, inner world of Mizora. A haven of music, peace, universal education, and beneficial, advanced technology, Mizora is a world of women.

Mizora appeared anonymously in the Cincinnati Commercial in 1880 and 1881. Mary E. Bradley Lane concealed from her husband her role in writing the controversial story.

Has also been published as Mizora: A Prophecy.

The first English translation of Magellania, a unique, forceful novel that widens the scope of Verne's literary legacy and distinguishes itself in Verne's somber, philosophical questioning of society, religion, nature and man as he neared the end of his life.

Magellania--the region around the Strait of Magellan--is the home of Kaw-djer, a mysterious man of Western origin whom the indigenous people consider a demigod. A man whose motto is "Neither God nor master," he has shunned Western civilization and its hypocrisies in order to live peacefully on an island claimed by no one. But when a storm strands a thousand immigrants on his island and they ask him to be the leader of their colony, Kaw-djer must decide whether to help them live and prosper in this foreign land at the end of the world or leave them to their fate.

Robert Darvel, a young and penniless French engineer at the turn of the twentieth century, is an amateur astronomer obsessed with the planet Mars. Transported by a combination of science and psychic powers to Mars, Robert must navigate the dangers of the Red Planet while trying to return to his fiancée on earth. Through his travels, we discover that Mars can not only support life but is also home to three different types of vampires. This riveting combination of science fiction and the adventure story provides a vivid depiction of an imagined Mars and its strange, unearthly creatures that might be closer to earthly humans than we would care to believe.

Originally published in French as two separate volumes, translated as The Prisoner of the Planet Mars (1908) and The War of the Vampires (1909), this vintage work is available to English-language audiences unabridged for the first time and masterfully translated by David Beus and Brian Evenson.