A terrifying darkness engulfed the sky while on the horizon a fire flood consumed the mountain! The ship swayed again. Flying creatures darted back and forth above the tree tops. Miles away, insensate violence reigned. Clouds of dust and smoke shot miles into the air, half a mountainside glowed white hot, and there was the sound of long-continued thunder as the ground shook and quivered… The runaway spacecraft’s rockets bellowed as it lifter. Hovering for an instant, it surged skyward. The ship vanished into emptiness. Jed Cochrane stared helplessly at the spot where it had stood. Babs gasped suddenly. She realized the situation in which she and Cochrane had been left. Shivering, she pressed close to him as the distant trail of blackened smoke spread toward the center of the sky. They were alone together among the stars!

Space Platform tells of man’s first step into outer space … of the difficulties and dangers of reaching for the stars. It is also an exciting adventure. When young Joe Kenmore came to Bootstrap to install pilot gyros in the Platform he hadn’t bargained for sabotage or murder or love. But Joe learned that ruthless agents were determined to wreck the project. He found that the beautiful girl he loved, and men like The Chief, a rugged Indian steelworker, and Mike, a midget who made up for his size by brains, would have to fight with their bare hands to make man’s age old dream of space travel come true! Long before extended space travel became a reality, prolific science fiction author Murray Leinster created a richly detailed scenario in which a project that bears a striking resemblance to the International Space Station is being planned and executed. However, several nefarious factions want the planned expedition to fail. Can unlikely hero Joe Kenmore salvage the project?

Joe had helped launch the first Space Platform–that initial rung in man’s ladder to the stars. But the enemies who had ruthlessly tried to destroy the space station before it left Earth were still at work. They were plotting to destroy Joe’s mission!

Settle in for a rollicking science-fiction adventure from golden-era star Murray Leinster. In The Fifth-Dimension Tube, a prominent scientist and his beloved daughter have become stranded in another dimension. In order to survive, they must cast their lot with rogue mathematician Tommy Reeves. To succeed in this life-or-death endeavor, Reeves has to overcome not only his own gadabout ways, but also the thugs who are pursuing him.

Beneath dense gray clouds through which no sun shone lay a forgotten planet. It was a nightmare world of grotesque and terrifying animal-plant life. Gigantic beetles, spiders, bugs and ants filled the putrid, musty earth-ready to kill and devour anything in sight. There were men amidst this horror-men who cringed and ran from the ravening monsters and huddled in the mushroom forests at night. Burl was one of these creatures. But one day inspiration hit Burl. He would find a weapon-he would fight back. And with this idea the first step was taken in man’s most desperate flight for freedom in this most horrible of all worlds. But it was only a first step.

The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack selects 25 more modern and classic science fiction stories, by talented authors new and old. Included in this volume: Mary A. Turzillo, E.C. Tubb, Murray Leinster, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, Katherine MacLean, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Jason Andrew, Larry Hodges, Carmelo Rafala, Ray Cluley, Henry Kuttner, Cynthia Ward, George H. Scithers, John Gregory Betancourt, James C. Stewart, Milton Lesser, John Russell Fearn, Marissa Lingen, Donald A. Wollheim, James K. Moran, Harry Harrison, Edgar Pangborn, Isaac Asimov, and Ayn Rand.

They were broadcasts from nowhere – sinister emanations flooding in from space – smashing any receiver that picked them up. What possible defence could Earth devise against science such as this?

Protagonist Bran Hoddan wants nothing more for himself than to be free of the taint of criminal activity that has long besmirched his clan. His plans for his future include a steady job and a fulfilling marriage. However, unforeseen circumstances have intervened, and suddenly Hoddan finds himself being pursued by a brutal group of primitive people. In desperation, he turns to his native trade – piracy – to free himself.

“I don’t know how I’m going to say it so you’ll understand, but time is just as much a dimension as length and breadth.” He frowned. He wanted to talk about Wells’s Time Machine but he knew that’d be no use – these folks didn’t read that sort of thing. “If the earth had settled down, we’d have been lower. If it had settled to one side, we’d have been moved one way or another, but as it’s settled back in the Fourth Dimension, we’re going back in time.” “Then –”

“We’re in a runaway skyscraper, bound for some time back before the discovery of America!”

There was no life on the asteroid, but the miles of rock-hewn corridors through which the earth party wandered left no doubt about the purpose of the asteroid. It was a mighty fortress, stocked with weapons of destruction beyond man’s power to understand. And yet there was no life here, nor had there been for untold centuries. What race had built this stronghold? What unimaginable power were they defending against? Why was it abandoned? There was no answer, all was dead.

But–not quite all. For in a room above the tomb-like fortress a powerful transmitter beamed its birdlike, fluting sounds toward earth. Near it, on a huge star-map of the universe, with light-years measured by inches, ten tiny red sparks were moving, crawling inexorably toward the center.

Moving, at many times the speed of light, with the acquired mass of suns … moving, on a course that would pass through the solar system. The unknown aliens would not even see our sun explode from the force of their passing, would not even notice the tiny speck called Earth as it died….

Artificial intelligence in 100 stories.

To ready us for the inevitable, here are 100 of the best short stories ever written--most of them by humans--about robots and artificial minds. Read them while you can, learn from them, and make your preparations... From 1837 through to the present day, from Charles Dickens to Cory Doctorow, this collection contains the most diverse collection of robots ever assembled. Anthropomorphic robots, invertebrate AIs, thuggish metal lumps and wisps of manufactured intelligence so delicate if you blinked you might miss them. The literature of robots and artificial intelligence is so wildly diverse, in both tone and intent, that our stories form six thematic collections.

It's Alive! is about inventors and their creations.

Following the Money drops robots into the day-to-day business of living.

Owners and Servants considers the human potentials and pitfalls of owning and...