Author: jmstine

She Ruled the World, but Not Her Own Heart!

Margot of Urbs and her brother were brilliant scientists and immortal tyrants who had stopped Earth's decline back into savagery after a devastating series of wars. But their harsh rule, designed to eradicate those who would destabilize the Pax Urbana, had earned them many enemies who were determined to revolt at the first chance.

Then a man from the past awakens and changes the balance of power, for he joins those who are determined to rule against the cool, imperious, raven-haired Margot, also known as the Black Flame. But instead of hatred, the two spark flames of romance. What Margot does not know is that he intends to betray her and her brother at the first opportunity.

Here is unforgettable romance, deft characterization, and spellbinding pulp storytelling from Startling Stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum, who Isaac Asimov calls "a science fiction nova!"

HE RULED AMERICA WITH AN IRON HAND – BUT NOT HIS SISTER'S HEART

"Stanley G. Weinbaum was a leader of science fiction, with his easy style and realistic descriptions. [The Dictator's Sister] is a darned good story. What a writer that man was." —Isaac Asimov

Steel Jeffers stood America's enemies and his personal enemies up against the wall and had them shot without a trial. His ability to stir crowds to blind enthusiasm with fear and glowing promises had won him the presidency of the United States. The scores of yes-men—Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and minor officials—all carefully handpicked because they had sworn subservience to him and not the Constitution, had made Steel Jeffers Dictator.

But his own sister, who had once supported him uncritically, had deserted the cause and disappeared as he tightened his iron grip ruthlessly around democracy's throat day by day. Simeon Baldwin, head of the growing underground movement to remove Steel Jeffers from office, felt there was something suspicious about her disappearance he had to find out, and he had the perfect man for the job: the Dictator's personal military aide, Lieutenant Jack Adams, of the Federal Guards. Lt. Adams took one look at her photograph and gulped, he knew he would do anything to find her if she were still alive and to avenge her if she had been murdered.

Thus begins one of the strangest and most brilliant science fiction novels ever written by Stanley G. Weinbaum, one of its most influential practitioners. The Dictator's Sister is reprinted straight from the pages of the October 1938 Amazing Stories where it was dubbed "best in issue" by all the readers who wrote into in the magazine's letter department. Here is one of science fiction's greatest classics—brimming with adventure, peril, romance, sound science and pointed social commentary. A visionary novel from the 1930s with a scientific twist you will never forget, and which will set many readers thinking, even today—over eight decades later.

Hugo Nominee's Classic Novel of Possible Earths!

What if a single event in the past had a different result? What would the world be like? Dr. Simon Finch offers John Dow the possibility of entering such a world of 'if'.

Finch is especially interested in having John visit this particular World of If because previous volunteers have mentioned John in their own reports. Finch is eager to find out if John's experiences will be similar. John agrees, and brings along one of his employees and best friend, Joe Pace, to keep tabs on the proceedings. John has a feeling Finch has ulterior motives. There are some results the good doctor prefers not to share with his 'volunteer.'

Once under hypnosis, John goes back to the mid '50s when the presidential election has alternate results. Reflecting '50s Cold War concerns, the United States has been taken over by Communism and life is 'iffy' at best. While Dow may have the same job and family, the possibilities in this world are intriguing as well as dangerous. Survival is a matter of going along with the establishment and ruthlessly grabbing whatever opportunities present themselves. One wrong move or word and your life is over.

Here is a perceptive thinker's suspenseful take on the big issues of his time that still have eerie implications for our own. "Phillips is a master!" raved Robert Silverberg. Rog Philips Hugo Award nominee novelette, Rat in the Skull, is also available from Futures Past Editions.

In Colonial America, two lovers find themselves at the center of a series of bizarre and horrifying events. Here is a marvelous werewolf thriller set in upstate New York in the days close after the American Revolution. First the French Comte de Saint Loup arrives with a hound named DeRetz. Then the town is besieged by a giant wolf, possessed with evil intelligence and savage fury, who sates its desire for blood in a series of horrifying and supernatural killings.

Wolf in the Garden is a classic werewolf tale. First published in 1931, this long-forgotten novel may be the finest werewolf thriller ever written.

To Save the Universe, Johnny Mayhem Risked His Life—Over and Over and Over.

He could travel anywhere mentally and enter the body of anyone on any planet. But if he stayed longer than thirty days, Mayhem died.

An encounter with aliens had given him an extrahuman power. But it had also put him beyond the pale of love and friendship forever. For the first time ever in book form, here are the never-reprinted adventures of one of the most popular and notable pulp science fiction series heroes of the mid-1950s. Mayhem is literally "the man who saved the universe"—and the price he pays for it is a terrible one. But such is the life of the man who became Johnny Mayhem, and his origin is told in the first story of this series, "My Name is Mayhem." Contains the first three Mayhem novelettes.

Cover: Valigursky for the Johnny Mayhem story "The Burning Man."

The Ultimate Adventures in Space! Forget Star Wars! Star Trek, Ho Hum!

Each Planets of Adventure reprints two complete book-length novels of space adventure from the supreme exemplar of highly-charged, vividly-colored space opera, the legendary pulp Planet Stories. Fasten your seatbelts for atomic-powered thrills, alien landscapes, daring heroes, intrepid heroines, fiendish villainesses.

From the 1940s, we bring you "Sword of Fire: A Novel of an Enslaved World" by Emmett McDowell. He was a plain, ordinary Jones, so his spaceman father named him Jupiter, hoping it would help him stand out. But he remained a plain, ordinary Jones—until the space warp cast him, naked and helpless, into the slime of that vile world. Then Jupiter Jones cursed the fate that marooned him among the planet's groveling mutants. He only wanted to escape—but the mutants' rising, excited whispers proclaimed him a knight in shining armor who alone could save them. And the strange sword he'd found was, they said, the one weapon that could prevail against the vicious octopoids who enslaved them.

Then, you'll thrill to "The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears: A Novel of Peril on Alien Worlds" by Keith Bennett. Their fighting song was known from Terra's hinterlands to Ganymede's glittering domes: "Oh, the Rocketeers have shaggy ears. They're dirty sons of space!" Someday, there will be a legend like this. Someday, from Steamy Venus or Arid Mars, the shaking, awe-struck words will come whispering back to us, building the picture of a glory so great that our throats will choke with pride. Pride in the Rocketeers of Terra.

Science Fiction's First Heroine, Available Again at Last!

Out of print for more than 50 years! Here again at last are the action-packed exploits of Gerry Carlyle, Interplanetary Huntress, on assignment from the London Interplanetary Zoo to capture the rarest alien lifeforms in the solar system—and "bring 'em back alive." The only fly in the ointment of this intrepid woman is pilot Tommy Strike, who's just as determined to prove no woman is his superior. Their battles with the most fearsome of otherworldly critters are nothing compared to their battle with each other!

Interplanetary Huntress: The Adventures of Gerry Carlyle #1 by Golden Age science fiction writer Arthur K. Barnes is delightful, lighthearted interplanetary adventure from the pages of the legendary pulps. Here are the trio of classic novelettes that introduced the woman who the Femme Fatales: Pulp's Crime-Fighting Heroines website hails as an "adventuress of the first water. She traveled to distant planets to collect exotic specimens to bring to Earth's zoos." Gerry, known as "the interplanetary bring 'em back alive girl" was inspired by those real life bring-'em-back-alive African wild animal trappers of the 1930s, Clyde Beaty and Frank Buck.

In the first volume of her adventures Gerry, determined to prove herself the superior of any man, takes on the giant, saw-tongued whiposarus of Venus, the deadly twinned menace of the dual world, and the fire-breathing, rocklike Cacus of Satellite V.

Genre historian Sam Moskowitz calls her "master science fictioneer Barnes's most original creation, whose exploits combined thrilling space opera with a hilarious, romantic battle of the sexes." Imagine Rosalind Russell and Clark Gable in a typical South Seas comedy-adventure movie, then mentally transpose it to outer space and you have an idea of what happens when the indomitable Gerry Carlyle and Tommy Strike cross paths. As Amazing Stories noted, "Between watching the intrepid pair capture or slaughter the BEMs [bug-eyed monsters], and then squabble among themselves, there's plenty of action for any deep-dyed thud-and-blunder fan."

Even after seventy years, their adventures "are still surprisingly readable—sizzling stuff. If you like a huge collection of assorted BEMs and well-thought-out gimmicks in tight situations, you will assuredly go for this," according to Galaxy Science Fiction. "I loved Gerry Carlyle," said sci-fi master A. E. Van Vogt. You'll love Gerry Carlyle, too!

The first in a three-volume edition. See the "Related Products" tab for Volumes 2 and 3!

A complete book-length sf novel of an interstellar lawyer-sleuth at work on a case of Murder in Space by Batman author, and Deadshot creator, David V. Reed; plus cosmic stories and novelettes by award-winning writers like Ray Bradbury, Edmond Hamilton, Emil Petaja, and more—along with all the original illustrations, editorials, letter columns, and back-of-the-magazine advertisements—in this keepsake page-by-page reproduction of the May 1944 issue of the legendary pulp magazine Amazing Stories.

If you are looking for the genuine pulp magazine experience, here it is. Magazines from the Golden Age of the pulps often sell for $100 or more apiece, and are far beyond the price range of the average reader. That is why Experimenter Publishing Company is proud to present this new series of licensed replicas printed on high-quality paper for lasting value and selected from the best issues of Amazing Stories' groundbreaking 90-year run. At last, modern readers can recapture the full pulp experience, for a modest price—without having to take out a mortgage on their home or bankrupt their savings accounts. A must for every science fiction library!

SCIENCE FICTION GOES TO WAR!
Every Story By A Soldier Fighting In WWII.

From the original September 1944 Editor’s Introduction by Raymond A. Palmer: “Our editors believe this issue to be one of the most unusual we have ever presented; and we also believe it to be one of the finest. Every story, every article (with one exception), every filler, every letter, a good proportion of the illustrations, and the front and back cover is by someone who is serving his country in the armed forces in one way or another! Readers, these fighting men are real men! When the chips are down, they're holding a full house! When you've finished reading this issue you'll understand the kind of spirit that will carry the beachheads of Europe and Japan no matter what the opposition! We take our hats off to the American fighting writer. He's got what it takes!”

Here is the original table of contents:

STAR BASE X
By Pvt. Robert Moore Williams
A telepathic message came to John Dawson's mind—and it led him to an incredible alien base...

THE THINKING CAP
By Sgt. William P. McGivern
A thinking cap would be a great help to a man. Yes indeed! That is, if if thought straight!

PRIVATE PRUNE SPEAKING
By Cpl. David Wright O'Brien
Private Prune certainly didn't intend to say the things he did; they just popped out of his mouth!

PROFESSOR THORNDYKE'S MISTAKE
By Sgt. P. F. Costello
Mack wouldn't have minded if cats had nine lives—especially this particular cat! But it didn't—

DOLLS OF DEATH
By Pvt. E. K. Jarvis
What was Herkles' reason for making these dolls? Certainly not to be used as harmless toys!

WEAPON FOR A WAC
By Sgt. Morris J. Steele
If Uncle Whitfield thought a fairy tale about a sword would make Mary join the WAC, he was all wet!

DOUBLE-CROSS ON MARS
By Sgt. Gerald Vance
Terry Lester had to get involved with a bunch of wrong guys to find out who the right guys were.

WARBURTON'S INVENTION
By Pvt. Russell Storm
A pound of metal should always weigh a pound, shouldn't it? Even when it's part of a thinking robot.

OVERLORD OF VENUS
By Lt. William Lawrence Hamling
Usually when a man walks into the sea and under it, he drowns. Was that what was happening on Venus?

MATCHES AND KINGS
By Cpl John York
It was all a trumped up publicity slogan; lighting three on a match just sold matches, not Death.

I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN
By Cpl. Duncan Farnsworth
No matter what waited over Berlin, he'd promised to come back to her in the springtime, and he did!

A rare pulp science fiction treasure, reprinted with all the original ads, articles, letters and every single page.

This is a complete page-by-page replica of the legendary 1927 Amazing Stories Annual, produced by Hugo Gernsback. Few copies the 1927 Annual survive today—in fact, one of the original issues recently sold on eBay for over $350. It featured one of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom novels, The Master-Mind of Mars, in its first appearance anywhere. It was especially written for Amazing Stories and features eleven illustrations from the grandfather of science fiction art, Frank R. Paul, who produced some of his finest illustrative work ever.

The Annual also featured two stories from the opposite end of the science fiction spectrum fans had been begging Gernsback to reprint: A. Merritt’s best short novel, “The Face in the Abyss,” and his celebrated short, “The People of the Pit,” again with Paul’s inimitable illustrations. Merritt was considered the finest U.S. science fiction writer of the time (a position confirmed in 1999 when he was inducted posthumously into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame).

The annual also featured Austin Hall’s celebrated “The Man Who Saved the Earth,” A. Hyatt Verrill’s “The Man who Could Vanish,” a straight-faced jape from the distinguished ethnologist; and “Under the Knife,” an incomparable story by the incomparable H.G. Wells. This replica reprint is an essential addition to any fan's library.