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Omnibus edition featuring: The City And The Stars: Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar. For millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rule the stars. But then, as legend has it, the invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique, to break through Diaspar's stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders. The Deep Range: A hundred years into the future, humanity lives mostly on the oceans - tending vast whale herds and plankton farms. Walter Franklin works on a submarine patrol - and his adventures under the sea are told in this riveting tale, set against the backdrop of a world both futuristic and familiar...A Fall Of Moondust: For a million years the bubble had been growing, like a vast abscess, below the root of the mountains. Now the abscess was about to burst. Captain Harris had left the controls on autopilot and was talking to the front row of passengers as the first tremor shook the boat. For a fraction of a second he wondered if a fan blade had hit some submerged obstacle; then, quite literally, the bottom fell out of his world. It fell slowly, as all things must upon the Moon. The sea was alive and moving . . . Every stage of that nightmare transformation was pitilessly illuminated by the earth light, until the crater was so deep that its firewall was completely lost in shadow, and it seemed as if Selene were racing into a curving crescent of utter blackness – an arc of annihilation. In darkness and in silence, they were sinking into the Moon...Rendezvous With Rama: At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at an inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence. It will kindle their wildest dreams... and fan their darkest fears. For no one knows who the Ramans are or why they have come. And now the moment of rendezvous awaits — just behind a Raman airlock door... -
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke Volume II. In this volume: Rescue Party; Guardian Angel; Breaking Strain; The Sentinel; Jupiter V; Refugee; The Wind From The Sun; A Meeting With Medusa; The Songs Of Distant Earth. Cover art by Lebbeus Woods. -
Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar. For millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rule the stars. But then, as legend has it, the invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique, to break through Diaspar's stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders. Cover art by Peter Goodfellow. -
The Overlords appeared suddenly over every city - intellectually, technologically, and militarily superior to humankind. Benevolent, they made few demands: unify the Earth, eliminate poverty and end war. With little rebellion, humankind agreed, and a golden age began. But at what cost? With the advent of peace, man ceases to strive for creative greatness and a malaise settles over the human race. To those who resist, it becomes evident that the Overlords have an agenda of their own. As civilisation approaches the crossroads, will the Overlords spell the end for humankind...or the beginning? Cover art by W. F. Phillipps. -
After a terrifying nightmare in outer space, Walter Franklin had to discover a reason for living. He found it in the ocean depths, where strangers defied death to give life back to him. Freedom to roam above and below the great waters would have been enough for any man - but Franklin is haunted by the memory of an echo - an echo that could solve the oldest mystery of the sea...Cover art by W. F. Phillipps. -
Eighteen shorts by the master of sci-fi: In this volume: The Nine Billion Names of God: A Tibetan monastery hires a super-computer to list the nine billion names of God - with horrific results. All the Time in the World: Time is altered so that the world's treasures can be stolen. But who's behind it? Encounter at Dawn: A survey starship with three scientists aboard find a planet on the far rim of the Milky Way, inhabit by bipeds very similar to themselves, but with vastly lower levels of technology. The Sentinel: A lunar exploration mission stumbles across a sentinel left by an ancient space-faring civilisation. Into the Comet: A space ship exploring the nucleus of a comet experiences a dangerous computer malfunction. 'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...': A young lad living in a lunar colony is curious about his home planet of Earth. The Forgotten Enemy: After the solar system dives into a cloud of cosmic dust and Britain's climate turns from temperate to arctic, a professor who has elected to stay with his books gets to observe some very sudden changes. The Reluctant Orchid: Keating, a timid orchid breeder with an overbearing aunt, comes across a carnivorous orchid - can he use it to commit the perfect murder and get rid of his hateful aunt? Security Check: A set designer for a science fiction TV programme seems to get too close to the truth. No Morning After: An advanced alien race attempts to warn humans that the Sun is about to explode - but the only human they can find is a drunk! Who's There? A space-station supervisor, receives a call that there is a small object in the same orbital projectory and that someone needs to go retrieve it. He decides to go himself - but has he just put on a haunted space-suit? Hide and Seek: During an interplanetary war, an agent must outrun the enemy and get his vital information to his mother ship. Robin Hood, FRS: A tale of the efforts by the joint expedition members to recover an automatic supply rocket that has landed just out of reach, through a very unorthodox method. Feathered Friend: Sven, a space construction worker, smuggles his pet canary aboard the space station. An Ape About the House: A bored housewife encourages her laboratory-bred serving ape to take up painting - and astonishes the art world. Green Fingers: A Russian team member - a botanist - secretly engineers plant life that could survive on the Moon's surface. Trouble with the Natives: Aliens visit a small English village and get frustrated with trying to communicate! Cover art by Peter Elson. -
A lunar cruise ends in disaster after a moonquake sinks the cruiser Selene beneath a sea of liquid-fine lunar dust on the Moon's Sea of Thirst. Facing enormous environmental barriers, the rescue team finds their courage, ingenuity, and resources tested to the breaking point - as trapped passengers and crew slowly run out of time... -
When Earth's sun went nova, the Magellan barely escaped in time, with its precious cargo of one million sleepers and gene banks of plants and animals. Five hundred years into the voyage they stopped for repairs on the idyllic planet of Thalassa. But whilst the awakened Earth people envied them their stable, harmonious world, the hospitable Thalassans were drawn to the long quest of the interstellar voyagers. And when Lt Commander Loren Lorenson met beautiful Thalassan Mirissa, their destinies became inextricably and tragically entwined. Cover art by Michael Whelan. -
The year: 2142 A.D. The place: Taprobane, a tropical island paradise. The project: A giant space elevator to transport men and materials to a point outside the the earth's atmosphere. The man: Ace engineer Vannevar Morgan. The problem: The only suitable site is a sacred mountain jealously guarded by monks...Cover art by Chris Moore.
