The Best of Frederik Pohl (SSC)

" The most consistently able writer science fiction has yet produced. " -- Kingsley Amis " [Pohl's] tales are known for their gritty, straightforward style and for their insightful ideas about our political, social and ecological future. " -- Publishers Weekly. Star of Wonder, Gatekeeper of the Galaxy He's Mr. Science Fiction. He's done it all from founding pulp pioneer to book editor of the best of the best to best-selling author himself...Frederik Pohl has done it all. Lifelong friend to the likes of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke -- and just about every science fiction writer of note during the genre's Golden Age and beyond. And THEN came the 1970s to the present, when Pohl proved he'd just begun to create science fiction and a torrent of amazing stories poured forth. If you take your SF with a sense of wonder. With sparkling wit. With a bit of social satire that doesn't for a moment feel heavy-handed or one-sided, you'll find Pohl is a bountiful font. Okay -- he's more like a Niagara Falls of Wonder, to tell the truth. So much -- and all of it of such quality -- that it seemed almost impossible to sample, much less collect. We've done it. Here is Volume I of two compelling volumes of the best of Frederik Pohl. Here you'll find the "Heechee" saga -- the novels and stories of the super-advance technology of the Heechee and what humanity did to itself and the universe when it discovered this portal to the stars. These are stories abounding in mind-blowing ideas: say you escape a black hole into which your lover falls. And yet she is still alive -- still young -- on the event horizon, even as you live out your life and attempt to rescue her. Stories peopled with every-man heroes faced with a universe that does not necessarily have the survival and prosperity of the common man at the base of its design. Yes, these are the "Gateway" and "Heechee" tales that garnered Pohl every major award in the field. But we're just getting started. Also in Volume I are Jem, Black Star Rising, Drunkard's Walk -- novels of sparkling wit that are both fascinating explorations of alien and futuristic human culture and subtle commentary on the excess, charlatanism, and general wackiness of our own contemporary times. But the books have a serious side as well. Pohl's classic Jem, for instance, explores a planet where the collectivist, individualist and "middle way" types have a chance to really duke it out in a frontier setting. And you'll get some darker glimpses through the looking glass, as well, with chilling SF standards such as The Demon in the Skull (what if, in a monstrous experiment, a voice in your head turned you into a killing machine while you were forced to look on helplessly?). And we top off Volume I with a look into the mind of the author himself. Yep, we've included The Way the Future Was, Pohl's amazing memoir of his early years -- years that would encompass two or three career's worth of accomplishment and incredible friends for a mere mortal. You'll experience the explosion that was science fiction in its early, gusher days. Here you'll meet the founders of science fiction as a story-telling medium. First meetings among the legends. The creation of fandom with the Futurians. Pohl was there, and in on it all. He even instigated a good part of it! Here's the skinny on Volume I: Heechee Rendezvous The Gateway Trip Annals of the Heechee Starburst Black Star Rising Jem Drunkard's Walk The Demon in the Skull The Best of Frederik Pohl The Way the Future Was A massive Pohl compilation of wonder. No shipping costs. No dead tree crumble. Big thought. Huge adventure. Massively wonder-inducing ideas. And, of course, all presented in the reader-friendly, unencrypted formats Webscriptions is known for. For the next two months, Volume I of the Best of Frederick Pohl will go for $40. Then the e-volume dissolves and we offer the individual e-book titles for $5 each. Frederik Pohl. Galactic Gatekeeper. SF Cornerstone and Grandmaster. Legend of legends. Builder-of-worlds. Give yourself the journey of several lifetimes, with ideas and adventure spanning from Pohl to Pohl! Soccer mom and demon fighter Barabara Everette is back in this intricately interwoven monster noir thriller, the sequel to bestselling Princess of Wands by eight times New York Times best-seller, John Ringo. Barbara Everette has a problem. It seems Janea, Barbaras assistant andThe Foundation for Love and Universal Faith'sbest operative, has been thrown into a coma by some very nasty magic shes stirred up. Barbara must track down the perpetrators and break the spell or Janea's soulwill be forever lost on the astral plane. Oh, and if she can't break the spell, zombies will destroy all mankind. Meanwhile, Janea, a high-dollar call girl, stripper and High Priestess of Freya when she isnt fighting demons, must contend with a spiritual journey of her own. Its a journey into Janeas acceptance of herself in all her dimensions (and what dimensions they are!). Where to locate ones true inner essence? At a science fiction convention, of course. But when rescuers pursue Janea into her vision of a geeky alternate reality, we find this is one science fiction convention where the Guest of Honor could turn out to be Death Himself. Finally, the Christian soccer mom and the Norse priestess stripper face their greatest challenge ever when an ancient Old One rears Her ugly face, and the Mother of Darkness walks among us. Since this is one Mother who is quite immune to any conventional power, includingnuclear weapons, it seems humanitys only hope is God. The question being: Is God willing to save humanity? Fortunately for the rest of us, Barbara and Janea are determined to fight to the last ounce of faith to find out. Soccer mom and demon fighter Barbara Everette has a problem. It seems Janea, Barbara s assistant and The Foundation for Love and Universal Faith's best operative, has been thrown into a coma by some very nasty magic she s stirred up. Barbara must track down the perpetrators and break the spell or Janea's soul will be forever lost on the astral plane. Oh, and if she can't break the spell, zombies will destroy all mankind. Meanwhile, Janea, a stripper and High Priestess of Freya when she isn t fighting demons, must contend with a spiritual journey of her own. Where to locate one s true inner essence? At a science fiction convention, of course. But when rescuers pursue Janea into her vision of a geeky alternate reality, we find this is one science fiction convention where the Guest of Honor could turn out to be Death Himself A selection of the cream of the crop from three decades of science fiction stories by one of the field’s most honored and popular writers. Includes such classics as “Day Million,” “The Midas Plague,” “The Day the Martians Came,” and sixteen more stories. With an afterword by the author.