The Demon in the Skull

" 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! After the extinction asteroid DOESN’T strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving -- but so do the mammals. We mammals have achieved human-like shapes, but now it’s cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats. After the extinction asteroid DOESN’T strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving -- but so do the mammals. We mammals have achieved human-like shapes, but now it’s cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats. In a heroic, bronze-age world similar to 300, the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands are expanding their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic. It’s mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and will that will determine which line shall inherit the Earth. First entry in a new series with linked novellas from multiple best-sellers S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, Jody Lynn Nye, John Ringo, Michael Z. Williamson! Contents: The Mrem Go West / Harry Turtledove; A Little Power / S .M. Stirling; Battle's Tide / Michael Z. Williamson; Cata / John Ringo, Jody Lynn Nye. Cover art by Stephen Hickman First entry in a new series with three big all new linked novellas from multiple best-sellers Harry Turtledove, John Ringo & Jody Lynn Nye, S.M. Stirling, and Michael Z. Williamson! After the extinction asteroid DOESN’T strike Earth, the dinosaurs keep evolving – but so do the mammals. We mammals have achieved human-like shapes, but now it’s cold-blooded, magic-using reptiles against the hot-blooded, hot-tempered descendants of cats. In a heroic, bronze-age world similar to 300, the Mrem Clan of the Claw and its sister warbands are expanding their rough-and-tumble territory, but now they face the Lishkash, masters of a cold-blooded empire of slave armies and magic. It’s mammalian courage and adaptation against reptile cunning in a clash of steel and will that will determine which line shall inherit the Earth.