Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) is best known as a fantasy writer, but his achievements and influence are also considerable in the horror and science fiction fields. One of his major SF works is the Change War series, about rival time-traveling armies locked in a bitter, age-old war for control of existence; the battles frequently alter the course of human history. The most important work of Leiber's Change War series is the Hugo Award-winning novel The Big Time, in which doctors, entertainers, and wounded soldiers find themselves treacherously trapped with an activated atomic bomb inside the Place, a room existing outside of space-time. It's not one of Leiber's strongest novels: the cutesy-girlish narrative voice is unconvincing, while the demands of describing time travel and time paradoxes inevitably strain the prose. But The Big Time is a tense, claustrophobic SF mystery, and possibly the ultimate locked-room whodunit.Won Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1958.

Here is a modern tale of an inner-directed sorcerer and an outer-directed sorcerer’s apprentice … a tale of— THE CREATUREFROMCLEVELAND DEPTHSBy FRITZ LEIBER

Hugo and Nebula award-winning Fritz Leiber is a science-fiction grand master with an unparalleled ability to discern the stranger side of the universe. The Green Millennium is set in a futuristic human society based on our own. The regimented, regulated and bureaucratized life style led by the misanthropic Phil Gish leaves him feeling vaguely dissatisfied and emotionally cut off from other people. He is surprised when a pure green cat appears in his room, a cat who makes him feel happier and more alive than he has ever felt. Phil decides to call the cat Lucky, hoping his life will take a turn for the better. If you consider different as change for the better, then Gish really has got something in Lucky-something that everyone else wants-including the Mob, the FBI, some nude aliens, and a gorgeous mystery woman. When Lucky seems to vanish into thin air, Phil will do anything to get him back, even if it means challenging the very powers that rule his world.

Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has one thing in common: each features some alteration in history, some divergence from historical reality, which results in a world very different from the one we know today. As well as original stories specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow, Stephen Baxter and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s story of how World War II atomic bomber the Enola Gay, having crashed on a training flight, is replaced by the Lucky Strike with profoundly different consequences.

Stories of the fall of civilisation, the destruction of the Earth and the end of the Universe itselfThe last sixty years have been full of stories of one or other possible Armageddon, whether by nuclear war, plague, cosmic catastrophe or, more recently, global warming, terrorism, genetic engineering, AIDS and other pandemics. These stories, both pre- and post-apocalyptic, describe the fall of civilization, the destruction of the entire Earth, or the end of the Universe itself. Many of the stories reflect on humankind’s infinite capacity for self-destruction, but the stories are by no means all downbeat or depressing — one key theme explores what the aftermath of a cataclysm might be and how humans strive to survive.

It was a utopian future for writers. The invention of the wordmill – nicknamed the "Silver Egghead" – did all the hard work, grinding out endless stories for an insatiable public. All the writers had to do was cash their checks and pose for publicity photos. One day the writers revolted. The time had come to get back to business, so they destroyed the wordmills. Then they discovered that they had nothing to say.

They had a dark talent the world had lost….Carr Mackay had an okay job, a beautiful woman and a lot of big plans—a pathway marked for himself through life.But one day he met a beautiful, frightened girl who didn’t quite belong in this world. An something began. Irrevocably. Something that diverted him forever from his path, shook the sleepy dust from his eyes and brought him to a startling confrontation with the furthest limits of life, death—and an alien, terrifying danger…

All eyes were watching the eclipse of the Moon when the Wanderer — a huge, garishly colored artificial world — emerged. Only a few scientists even suspected its presence, and then, suddenly and silently, it arrived, dwarfing and threatening the Moon and wreaking havoc on Earth’s tides and weather. Though the Wanderer is stopping in the solar system only to refuel, its mere presence is catastrophic. A tense, thrilling, and towering achievement.Won Hugo Award for the Best Novel in 1964.

All eyes were watching the eclipse of the Moon when the Wanderer — a huge, garishly colored artificial world — emerged. Only a few scientists even suspected its presence, and then, suddenly and silently, it arrived, dwarfing and threatening the Moon and wreaking havoc on Earth’s tides and weather. Though the Wanderer is stopping in the solar system only to refuel, its mere presence is catastrophic. A tense, thrilling, and towering achievement.Won Hugo Award for the Best Novel in 1964.

Anche pubblicato come “Ricercato... un nemico”, “Cercasi nemico” e “Cercasi... un nemico”.

Zuerst beobachteten nur ein paar Wissenschaftler das Herannahen des Planeten »Wanderer«.Dann war er plötzlich für alle Menschen sichtbar und spürbar — ein neuer Planet, der an Naturgewalt alles übertraf was die Erde in ihrer langen Evolution erlebt hatte. Dieses Phänomen machte aus der Erde einen Ameisenhaufen. Der »Wanderer« brachte den Menschen den Tod. Aber für viele bedeutete er einen neuen Lebensinhalt.Für Millionen von Menschen, die wie Ameisen über die schwankende Kruste unseres Planeten hasteten, kam der »Wanderer« als Schrecken, um die Kenntnisse der Wissenschaft zu widerlegen, um die Welt zu zerstören — aber vielleicht auch, um Herz und Verstand der Menschen zu öffnen ...Dieses weitgespannte Werk des amerikanischen Autors wurde auf der Londoner Weltkonvention als bester Roman des Jahres 1965 mit dem internationalen SF-Preis ausgezeichnet.

Na ziemskiej orbicie pojawia się, po wyjściu z nadprzestrzeni, olbrzymi obcy statek kosmiczny wielkości małej planety. Zszokowani Ziemianie obserwują jak obcy pojazd zaczyna rozwalać nasz Księżyc, wchłaniając go w siebie…