Maxima Library

The first colonists to reach Tigris thought they had found Eden--but the planet had a horrifying effect on their children. Babies born there developed frightening telekinetic powers at the age of five.

The Pax Comitus, rulers of Earth, send a spy into the heart of the Empyrean colonies to investigate the mysterious "angels," particles emitted by a nearby black hole, which the Empyreans use to ensure the ethical behavior of their officials.

In the Hugo Award-winning Cascade Point, faster-than-light travel leads to adventure and danger, and in the Nebula Award-winning Hardfought, alien warfare lights up the skies.

Because of the deadly "effect sphere," the only way into or out of the system containing the metal-rich Ring Mines of Solitaire is by performing a human sacrifice. Now every ship heading there carries two death-row felons. It's a bizarre, but effective method of execution--until it's discovered that one of the doomed criminals is an innocent man.

In love with fellow telepath Colleen Isaac, Dale Ravenhall realizes that the very thing that enables him and Colleen to read each other's minds would kill them both if they came within twenty miles of each other.

When Matt Raimey had his accident, he thought his life was over. He never dreamed, in his wildest fantasies, that he'd end up in a spot like this. In the toxic atmosphere of Jupiter, born into the body of an enormous creature that looked like a cross between a manta ray and a dolphin, he is living a new life, unlike any humankind had previously experienced. An unbelievable turn of events, it gave him a reason to live, to survive, no matter what happened . . . but every second chance comes with conditions and responsibilities. And as those who brought him to this strange destiny have their authority stripped from them and he discovers the truth that only he can know about the giant alien creatures he now calls family, this man reborn as the one they now call Manta suddenly isn't sure he wasn't better off before. . . .

Nineteen original tales of the pandora legend-as no one has ever imagine it before.

When Pandora's Box was opened, so the ancient tale goes, all the evils that would beset humanity were released into the world. When the box was all but empty, the only thing that remained was hope. Now some of fantasy's finest writers have taken on the task of opening Pandora's closet. It is naturally chock full of an assortment of items, including a ring that can bring its wearer infinite health, a special helmet found in the most unlikely of places, a mysterious box that holds a legendary piece of cloth, and a red hoodie that transforms a woman's world. These stories are of items claimed by people, but only at their own peril. After indulging in these stories, readers will certainly look at their own closets in a whole new light.

15 all-new stories of tomorrow from 15 of the best sci-fi writers of today

The challenge and lure of space exploration has long been fertile ground for some of the finest science fiction stories. Here, fifteen of the best chroniclers of the day after tomorrow present unique tales of space stations both in our own solar system and far beyond.

This neat little theme anthology contains a satisfying mixture of old hands’ and newcomers’ stories. In the opener, Timothy Zahn’s “The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson,” a space fort that is crumbling into disrepair as an unpopular tourist destination wins its first battle—finally—though only by means of the vagaries of decaying equipment. In Jean Rabe’s “Auriga’s Streetcar,” a gem of a piece, an old “spacer” finds herself on the way to a distant star in the belly of an even older space observatory towed by unknown aliens. Robert J. Sawyer’s “Mikeys” relates the work of those who go almost to the target and the unexpected event that brings them to the forefront. The closer, Gregory Benford’s “Station Spaces,” is a doozy about what happens when human merges with machine, and the building of human habitation on Luna. Despite, or possibly as a result of, a literally (i.e., spacially) limited topic, these stories cover a lot of ground.

Understanding is nice, but sometimes practical application comes first.

Good hosts try to accommodate their guests—which in the case of alien diplomats, may mean far more than they anticipate!