The colonists of the planet Newmanhome realized something was terribly wrong, apparently beyond the laws of physics, when their planet's star began to shift, the climate began to cool down, and the colony was forced into a desperate struggle to survive. And something seemed to have gone wrong with the fundamental laws of physics. Viktor Sorricaine was determined to discover what force had suddenly sent his world hurtling toward the ends of the universe. But the answer was something beyond the wildest imagination of any merely human mind . . .

“A mind-expanding experience.” —The Washington Post

“Frederick Pohl succeeds where others wouldn't even dare . . .” —The Denver Post

“Pohl's sparkling wit attaches itself to macro- and microcosmic themes in a novel which pits a luckless human hero against a childlike being of inordinate power and extraordinary paranoia. Grand in scope, poignant in delivery; highly recommended.” —Booklist

Years ago, Nolly Stennis had been a promising baritone. On the threshold of a great career on the operatic stage, illness had ruined his voice. Then a cellist friend received an offer from a company called Narabedla, only to disappear shortly thereafter. When Nolly investigated, he uncovered many more inexplicable disappearances of talented musicians, and found out too much about the shadowy figures behind Narabedla. Now Narabedla is determined to keep him quiet—by making his greatest dreams come true . . .

Sandy Washington was a pretty normal guy. The only unusual thing about him was that Sandy had been raised by aliens on their spaceship. The kangaroo-like Hakh'hli had done everything they could to give Sandy a normal human boyhood—of course, their idea of “normal” was based on somewhat limited information. Now, finally, the Hakh'hli were bringing Sandy home to Earth. And, as long as they were in the neighborhood, they were going to give humanity some extraordinary gifts. The Hakh'hli seemed to have Sandy's—and humanity's—best interests at heart. But the people of Earth weren't so sure . . .

“Pohl's unerring gift for satire delivers a splendidly skewed alien-eye-view of human culture while spinning a touching, slightly quirky story of a young man's coming of age. Highly recommended.” —Booklist

When the computers which had been developed to translate one human language into another were tried out on the languages of animals, a new level of interspecies communication began. Now anyone could find out what a dog or cat was trying to tell them. It worked in the other direction, too. At first it was just a scientific curiousity, but then global war came, between the western nations and an eastern confederation of religious fanatics, and every man had to do his part (the Boy Scouts had been designated a fighting force, and drafted en masse). And every woman. And every monkey, dog, cat, bird . . . But even that might not be enough, since the enemy seemed to have a weapon which could kill members of the telepath corps far behind the battle lines. And it might start killing non-telepaths at any time.

“. . . an authentically convincing picture of a wartime navy and . . . a think-tank tickler.” —Galaxy

Technical writer and volunteer fireman Charles Forrester died at age 37. But his insurance covered freezing in liquid nitrogen against the possibility of someday being thawed, repaired, and returned to life. Which is how he woke up in 2527, with a quarter of a million dollars coming to him from the same insurance policy. Not that he was rich—he was quickly informed that two million was a bare subsistence income. He needed a job, and quick. While looking, he somehow unintentionally insulted a man who took out a license to injure or kill him, attracted the attention of a woman who wanted to begin a relationship, said relationship being very unlike anything Forrester had heard of in his time—and he found a job. However, his employer was an alien, one of a group being held captive on Earth to keep them from getting home and giving the location of Earth to a civilization which might be hostile. And that was when things really became interesting.

SFWA Grand Master Frederik Pohl, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner, offers a dozen possible diverse futures in this collection of stories written with his usual acerbic wit and authoritative command of cutting-edge science. Meet a man who is well paid to experience both exhilarating experiences, and morbidly depressing ones, while unknown buyers electronically share his emotions. Follow a boy who has never before seen the world outside of a sealed-environment city and has to survive in the strange and deadly new environment. And more, including a short novel of the gigantic seafaring ships of the future—and what happens when the owner dies, and his landlubber business partner must take on responsibilities completely outside his experience.

Mars was harsh and unforgiving, but for the colonists who called it home, its future was as bright as the comets that hung in the night sky, for locked in those icy bodies were the water and gases that would make Mars live again, mined from the vast Oort Cloud beyond Pluto. Young Dekker DeWoe yearned to become an Oort miner. But when he finally arrived on Earth to begin training, he learned that the price that Mars might have to pay for Earth’s financial help would be decades of near-slavery. He had barely begun training when the mining project was abruptly canceled. Then he began to hear rumors of a plan to force the restoration of the mining—a plan that would result in the deaths of millions . . .

“Pohl is a master at the intricacies of space adventure, and his realistic detail and likable, if ingenuous protagonist make this a good choice . . .” —Library Journal

Barry di Hoa, antimatter engineer assigned to the Moon, was all set to propose marriage to his girlfriend when he was suddenly shanghaied to Paya, a planet light-years away. Worse, the planet was seismically unstable. Even worse, the human colonists were religious fanatics who were awaiting the end of the world. And they not only expected it soon, and were looking forward to it, but they had a plan to bring it about. Barry somehow had to stop them, but his only allies were the caterpillar-like indigenous aliens. And without the drugs he depended on to keep from going into a manic-depressive cycle, being a hero would be even more complicated. But Barry was the only potential hero in sight, manic-depressive or not . . .

“The novel reminds the reader just how much fun these world-building stories can be, especially when they are written by a master like Pohl.” —Publishers Weekly

“. . . classic sf adventure, enlivened by the author’s acerbic wit and storytelling expertise.” —Library Journal

Evesham Givt was making a living by freelancing for Earth corporations (and diverting a portion of the corporate funds into his pockets) when he learned of the colony world of Tupelo, settled by five different alien species, where he and his girlfriend Rina could get a new start. When he and Rina arrived on Tupelo, and he almost immediately was elected mayor of the human colonists, it seemed too good to be true. Of course, it was. But Evesham’s Earth-honed skills at computer hacking and skimming money without anyone realizing that it had been skimmed stood him in good stead as he discovered that the colony’s books had been cooked as part of a gigantic con game.

“SF grand master Pohl brings the high-action, no-frills appeal of pulp SF to . . . [this] satire of human foibles.” —Booklist

Frederik Pohl was the editor of two science fiction pulps in the 1930s before he was out of his teens. And he was one of the pioneer writers of SF as well. The Early Pohl presents his first published writings, eight stories and a poem, from the early 1940s, in the heyday of the pulps—stories filled with action and the science speculation of the day. In addition, Mr. Pohl has written introductions and afterwords for the stories, telling how they came to be written, and giving anecdotes about, and insight into the science fiction field at the time it was beginning to shake off its pulp adventure trappings and become a sophisticated literature of the possible technologies and societal form of the future.