Mind Fields was originally conceived as a collection of Jacek Yerka's paintings, but when Harlan Ellison was approached to write the introduction, he was so overcome that instead he penned a short story for each piece. The result of this synergistic melding of talents, Mind Fields shows two masters at their best. Each of the nearly three dozen stor...more

The three laws of Robotics:1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Secon...more

In 1965 Harlan Ellison introduced an unsuspecting world to The Harlequin, a non-conformist (and perpetually late) rebel in a future society where conformity and punctuality are the gods of a totalitarian world. Taking time to stop and smell the roses, The Harlequin becomes a disruptive diversion to an otherwise well-ordered, suppressed popu...more

SPECIAL 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE PAST TWO DECADES Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just ex...more

Includes 33 stories that represent Cordwainer Smiths entire SF works except for the novel Norstrilia. These stories are "classics" of the field such as "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "The Game of Rat and Dragon," "Scanners Live in Vain," and "A Planet Named Shayol." Appearing for the first time in print are "Himself in Anachron" and the c...more

From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year's hype...more

Taxation has been abolished, the government has been privatized, and employees take the surname of the company they work for. It's a brave new corporate world, but you don't want to be caught without a platinum credit card--as lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneak...more

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work? Turn to "Novels for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; autho...more