Maxima Library

An elite soldier is asked to take part in problem researching sophisticated physical and mental testing, and to take university coursework as their computers direct. He finds out that more is going on than this, the creation of a mental and physical elite, going way beyond supergenius IQ into physical abilities and even immortality.

It is the far future. Earth is a beautifully planned, efficiently run and happily united. But still it is a world with problems—people have become so lazy, so self-satisfied, that human progress has all but ceased. Addicts of the newly-developed “programmed dreams” are increasing at an enormous rate. Only a few individuals realize that the human race is destroying itself. This book is about what those few people do.

The odds were right for victory. The problem with computer warfare is that the computer is always logical while the human enemy is not—or doesn’t have to be. And that’s what the Betastani enemy were doing—nothing that the Alphaland computers said they would. Those treacherous foemen were avoiding logic and using such unheard-of devices as surprise and sabotage, treason and trickery. They even had Alphaland’s Deputy of Information believing Betastani propaganda without even realizing it. Of course he still thought he was being loyal to Alphaland, because he thought that one and one must logically add up to two. And that kind of thinking could make him the biggest traitor of them all.

The time is the future. The government is a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, mainly concerned with protecting the profits of large corporations. The Movement is a new and non-violent revolutionary group seeking to replace the political mess with a just and scientifically efficient socioeconomic system. The Movement was staffed by some of the world’s greatest intellectuals and scientists; unfortunately, they were amateurs in the business of revolution. The government could call on an army of ruthless professional agents--and they had no scruples about violence.

His words alone could change the world—his words alone DID change the world. Was it mass hypnosis, a hex, or THE POWER?

First published as

“Of Godlike Power”

.

Definire insolito un romanzo di fantascienza, e raccomandarlo come tale ai lettori, può sembrare il colmo dell’ingenuità e del semplicismo. Eppure è proprio quest’aggettivo, insolito, che conviene prima di ogni altro al lungo e straordinario romanzo che presentiamo in questo numero di Natale: insolito per l’intreccio, d’una semplicità, e nello stesso tempo d’una sapienza unica nel dosaggio e nella progressione dei colpi di scena; insolito per l’acutezza dell’osservazione psicologica, superiore non solo a quella della fantascienza media, ma perfino a quella di uno specialista del «mordente» come Sheckley; insolito per la raffinatezza della scrittura, e per l’incredibile spigliatezza con cui affronta le situazioni «sociologiche» più sbalorditive, traendone effetti di un irresistibile realismo; insolito per un umorismo che, senza nuocere alla drammaticità della narrazione, arriva facilmente e senza parere, a vette di alta letteratura; insolito infine e soprattutto, per una carica fantastica che lo qualifica senz’altro, a nostro avviso, come il più nutrito e divertente di tutti i romanzi americani di fantascienza e non di fantascienza, tradotti in Italia quest’anno. Siamo doppiamente lieti, perciò, di poterlo presentare ai nostri Lettori col nostro «Buon Natale».

It was the highest and most coveted award of all time. It was given to only the bravest among those defending Earth from the mysterious Kradens. Many had sacrificed their lives for it. The current bearer of the medal became the idol of all mankind—a man above the law, a man who would never want for anything. One man was going to cheat to win it—and live to regret it. This is an extended version of the novelette Medal of Honor first published in Amazing Stories magazine in Nov 1960.

A world had collapsed around this man—a world that would never shout his praises again. The burned-out cities were still and dead, the twisted bodies and twisted souls giving him their last salute in death. And now he was alone, alone surrounded by memories, alone and waiting ...

When the world’s ace secret agents crash a party in Spain, they’re onto something monstrous—an ominous threat to world peace.

It looked like a Convention of Secret Agents, thought the famous columnist Quentin Jones. Not one of them had been invited to the party of the distinguished Hungarian scientist. The Hungarian was known for advocating World Government—and for grafting a second head on a dog—but Quentin Jones suspected him of far more chilling experiments. Quentin runs up against former Nazi war criminals, and a series of weird murders that lead straight to… him.

Dedicated men can often employ the most unethical of tactics—and sometimes with a clear conscience… Here is a tale of such a man, but one who developed a conscience.

A spaceship has crashed on a planet, and the descendants of the original colonists have all but forgotten their origins. But they have built a culture around the “holy books” that have survived the wreck—books of Indian lore and the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Then this culture in contact with a crew from a Company spaceship, coming from a society that is high-tech, opportunistic, and ruthless. We see the action through the eyes of the native warrior, John-of-the-Hawks. Can his bravery and cunning win the day? Or will his people be destroyed? The book is a “fixup” novel based on three long novelettes originally published in Analog magazine in 1966 under the pseudonym of Guy McCord.

He sought the ultimate pleasure.

With the devil’s help, he got it!