From The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal sample introduction to the fantastic work of E. E. 'Doc' Smith, one of the most influential authors of the pulp era. Working with legendary ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION editor, John W. Campbell, Smith revolutionised space opera, giving it many of the tropes still evident today. This volume reprints the four novels of his classic Skylark series: THE SKYLARK OF SPACE SKYLARK THREE SKYLARK OF VALERON SKYLARK DUQUESNE

In Ursula K. Le Guin, Consent, and Metaphor, Kate Sheckler constructs a new method to categorize metaphor, arguing that the moment of consent that exists in the form determines the effects of the interchange. Using the fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, with the work of Paul Ricoeur as a primary theoretical focus, Sheckler identifies both the dangers and necessity of understanding the interplay that determines by whom and at what point consent is offered within the dynamic shift that occurs in metaphor. In doing so, she identifies the way marginalized groups and cultures can be reconstructed in service to an outside force and notes the absolute necessity of metaphor as a constructive force in a world where we must imagine new ways to approach the future.

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world in the year's best short stories. This venerable collection brings together award winning authors and masters of the field such as Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Damien Broderick, Elizabeth Bear, Paul McAuley and John Barnes. And with an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.

Ancient Greece and Rome in Modern Science Fiction introduces and analyses the reception of classical antiquity in contemporary science fiction. By using up-to-date methods from classical reception theory, science-fiction analysis and fictional-world studies, the book will help furnish the reader’s understanding of the ways in which the literature, culture, history and mythology of ancient Greece and Rome are appropriated and represented across multiple media platforms in the science-fiction genre today. The book will therefore serve as an entry point into several areas of study: the reception of classics in popular culture, antiquity in modern media, the uses of the ancient world in science-fiction, and broader science-fiction criticism. The chapters – structured by medium – principally offer a roughly chronological overview of that medium and its treatment of ancient history, mythology, literature and culture. An abundance of case studies from literature, film and television and videogames including Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Fallout: New Vegas, the Mass Effect franchise and Assassin’s Creed show how classical antiquity is reused, encountered, re-encountered by creators and consumers of the present – how we bounce off it, and it bounces off us, and how this reciprocation creates new visions of Greece and of Rome.

We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Will you support our efforts with a donation? The Skylark of Space is said to be the seminal space opera. Dr. Seaton accidentally discovers a source of energy which could be used to travel to other star systems, but when he tries to show others, it fails to work. Most of his colleagues ridicule him, and he quits his career to focus on trying to refine the process. Meanwhile Dr. DuQuesne realizes the truth, and is willing to do anything to have that power. Both scientists refine the process well enough to build a spaceship and visit other planets, but who will these new civilizations side with? This version of The Skylark of Space was originally published in three parts during 1928 Amazing Stories. The novelization, which was published later, differs significantly.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Skylark of Valeron" by Edward Elmer Smith. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

A FEW GOOD CON MEN.... The starship crew was stuck on a planet where the well-meaning schemes of ivory tower social engineers had created a nightmare of battling gangs. So they pretended to be the "Royal Legions" from a distant star kingdom in hot pursuit of an unspeakably evil and nearly all-powerful villain who was hiding somewhere on the planet. Things went even better than they had hoped, and the planet was rapidly becoming civilized . . . and then the real Royal Flagship showed up. They thought they were doomed, but instead the new arrivals (who also weren't quite what they claimed to be) thought the crew had shown just the sort of initiative and ingenuity that the Interstellar Patrol was looking for. So they were inducted into the Patrol. And that was just the beginning. . . . At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "I am delighted that someone is making Christopher Anvil's work available once again. Especially the Interstellar Patrol stories. I've always loved Anvil's . . . peculiar sense of humor." ¾David Weber "[Anvil is] insistently readable!" ¾The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Big Planet is Jack Vance's first major sf novel, and in the words of the Encyclopedia of SF, "provided an sf model for the planetary romance which has been of significant use for forty years". The huge world of the title is home to a range of colourfully detailed and imaginative human societies, which Vance explores with the zest and humour which are hallmarks of his work. All Jack Vance titles in the SFGateway use the author's preferred texts, as restored for the Vance Integral Edition (VIE), an extensive project masterminded by an international online community of Vance's admirers. In general, we also use the VIE titles, and have adopted the arrangement of short story collections to eliminate overlaps. Big Planet was cut almost in half for its first publication, but sadly the excised pages are lost.

The enemy spacefleet arrowed toward the armored mountain-nerve center of the Galactic Patrol. The Patrol battle cruisers swerved to meet them, and a miles-long cone of pure energy ravened out at the invaders, destroying whatever it touched. But the moment before the force beam struck, thousands of tiny objects dropped from the enemy fleet and, faster than light, flashed straight at their target-each one an atom bomb powerful enough to destroy Patrol Headquarters by itself! The Galactic Patrol-and civilization itself-had seconds to live. Unless a miracle happened.... **