a science fiction and fantasy story and art contest that was established by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983
Issue 25 seem to be the first available to kindle so i linked this one (the cover you see is the one of issue by frank frazetta :-P )
John Carter and Dejah Thoris, Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, the Lensmen, the Galactic Patrol, where are you now?
This anthology sets out to revive the spirit of former days of planetary romance, of square jawed rocketeers and raiders of the spaceways, killer robots and space princesses, beastmen and barbarians; from the desert cities of Mars to the reptile infested jungles of lost worlds that time forgot…
Astounding Tales! (Also Amazing and Astonishing!)
Tell the truth: you flat-out love science fiction and fantasy. Time travel. Space opera. Alternate history. Doesn’t matter. What you love is the story. The great idea. The adventure and action. That good old-fashioned science fiction staple, the Sense of Wonder.
We know exactly how you feel. Here’s the best of the best: new science fiction tales told by the likes of David Drake, Gregory Benford, Gene Wolfe, Esther Friesner, Mike Resnick, John Barnes, and L. E. Modesitt, Jr. The list of award-winning story-tellers and brilliant new talent goes on and on. More important: here are stories that grip you. Transport you. Expand your universe. Make you late for important appointments like bedtime and supper!
Edited by New York Times best-seller and creator of the hugely-popular “Ring of Fire” series, Eric Flint, a master story-teller in his own right, these tales are all taken from the e-pages of Jim Baen’s Universe, the new standard in science fiction storytelling created and inspired by publisher and editor Jim Baen, whose nose for a great story made him a science fiction legend!
see also The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe II
THE EPIC FIRST NOVEL OF THE LEGENDARY SCIENCE FICTION SERIES…
Thirty meters tall, seventy tons of quick-striding death and destruction, the armored war machines called BattleMechs are the front line forces of the crumbling star empire locked in the horror of the endless Succession Wars. Their pilots are MechWarriors, 31st-Century knights riding armored machines powerful enough to take a city apart.
Grayson Death Carlyle had been training to be a MechWarrior since he was 10 years old, but his graduation came sooner than expected. With his friends and family dead and his father’s regiment destroyed, young Grayson finds himself stranded on a world turned hostile. Now he must learn the hardest lesson of all: it takes more than a BattleMech to make a MechWarrior…
But to claim that title, all Grayson has to do is go out and capture one of those giant killing machines…if it doesn’t kill him first.
ABOUT BATTLETECH: Decision at Thunder Rift is one of the first of more than 100 novels set in the BattleTech universe, a 31st-century setting of constant war between planets, nations, and peoples. A ‘Mech is a 12-meter-tall, 100-ton walking war machine. Only another ‘Mech can face one. Mercenary armies battle for pay, for honor, and for causes innumerable.
Could this be the worst job interview in the entire history of the universe? Possibly. So when Elton D Philpotts lands his dream Space Corps accountancy job he can’t help wondering how it happened. And why.
Somebody in the Space Corps must need him, and they need him bad.
But the work is dull; nothing like the glamour job he expected. Until he sees things he should not have seen: A hidden ledger, dodgy accounting transactions, bogus gate receipts.
And when a whole starship disappears, who are they going to blame?
A frantic race across the Sphere of Influence takes Elton and his hapless band of followers into adventure and dangers none of them could ever have imagined.
From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, NecroTek is a gripping sci fi thriller full of ghosts, Gods, and a battle for the soul of humanity.
Neither cosmic philosopher Lars Soren, hotshot pilot Bianca Petrescu, nor the high priestess Jessica McHugh—Lady Death herself—can say quite where in the galaxy they are. But after an experiment gone horribly wrong, one thing is clear: Asphodel Station isn’t in orbit around Jupiter any longer. Worse, the monsters that live out here—ancient eldritch beings thought only to exist in stories and nightmares—have now been alerted to Earth’s existence.
Their army of Shoggoths is coming for us next.
Humanity’s only hope for survival lies on the surface of the alien world of Shadderal, where a ghost named Lost, the last of an ancient race, still haunts the vast plains of the Field of Dead Birds. But hope has a cost. Lost tells Soren about ancient derelict spacecraft awaiting on Shadderal, shapeshifting machines that blend ultra-advanced technology with the dark powers of necromancy. These ships might just be nimble enough to defend mankind against the coming invasion.
But there’s a catch: they can only be piloted by the dead.
As human starfighters fall in battle, their spirits can be called back from death to pilot these ghost ships of a fallen race. But will this new necromantic technology—NecroTek—allow humanity to stand against the vast armies of the Shoggoths? And even if it can, is the war to save the human race worth the cost of its pilots’ immortal souls?
In the deepest reaches of space, on a ship that no longer exists, six travelers stare into the abyss . . . and the abyss stares back.
Man has finally mastered the art of space travel and in a few hours passengers can travel light years across the galaxy. But, there’s a catch—the traveler must be asleep for the journey, and with sleep come the dreams. Only the sleeper can know what his dream entails, for each is tailored to his own mind, built from his fears, his secrets, his past . . . and sometimes his future.
That the dreams occasionally drive men mad is but the price of technological advance. But when a transport on a routine mission comes upon an abandoned ship, missing for more than a decade, six travelers—each with something to hide—discover that perhaps the dreams are more than just figments of their imagination. Indeed, they may be a window to a reality beyond their own where shadow has substance and the darkness is a thing unto itself, truly worthy of fear.
The Democracy is at war with the alien Traanskei Coalition. War hero Colonel Nathan Pretorius has a record of success on dangerous behind-enemy-lines missions, missions that usually leave him in the hospital. Now he’s recruited for a near-impossible assignment that may well leave him dead.
At the cost of many lives, the Democracy has managed to clone and train General Michkag, one of the Traanskei’s master strategists. Colonel Pretorius and a hand-picked team must kidnap the real Michkag if they can, assassinate him if they can’t, but no matter which, put the clone in his place, where he will misdirect the enemy’s forces and funnel vital information to the Democracy.
Against the odds, Pretorius, along with Cyborg Felix Ortega, computer expert Toni Levi, convict and contortionist Sally “Snake” Kowalski, the near-human empath Marlowe, the alien Gzychurlyx, and Madam Methuselah – the Dead Enders – must infiltrate the Fortress in Orion, accomplish their mission, and escape with their lives.
Soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds, including the IX Legion of Rome, are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing, and transported to the far side of the galaxy.
Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a stark ultimatum:
Fight or die.
Dystopian science fantasy – “Where minds are weapons and hope is heresy.”
They call it dark energy or chaos or the Warp. It leaks into our universe at an unpredictable rate.
Those sensitive to it can wield its immense power in unimaginable ways. In the Imperium of Mankind, anyone born with such a gift is labeled a psyker and outlawed at every level of society.
Enter Paric Kilhaven, a scion of a noble House and a young man as clueless as he is clever. His future was set until a genetic aberration, a freak encounter, and a curse turned his life inside out. Reality set in. He wasn’t like anyone else. He wasn’t even considered human, but at the end of the day, he was merely a pawn.
Paric navigates the darkly alluring world of his city’s underhive, hoping to escape the fate of an outlawed psyker. Rival gangs and chaotic forces align against him in a fight for the planet’s survival.
