Айзек Азимов - The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack - 25 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Stories

For the coming of that day I shall fight, I and my sons and my chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor.

And here, over the portals of my fort, I shall cut in the stone the word which is to be my beacon and my banner. The word which will not die, should we all perish in battle. The word which can never die on this earth, for it is the heart of it and the meaning and the glory.

The sacred word:

Jason Andrew lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Lisa. He is an associate member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. By day, he works as a mild-mannered technical writer. By night, he writes stories of the fantastic and occasionally fights crime. As a child, Jason spent his Saturdays watching the Creature Feature classics and furiously scribbling down stories; his first short story, written at age six, titled ‘The Wolfman Eats Perry Mason’ was rejected and caused his Grandmother to watch him very closely for a few years. You can read more about him at www.jasonbandrew.com.

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was a Russian American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.

John Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mysteries. He is the author of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series (to Roger Zelazy’s “Amber” books), as well as a dozen original novels, including The Blind Archer , Johnny Zed , Rememory , and Master of Dragons . He has published more than 100 short stories. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer’s Digest , The Washington Post , and Amazing Stories .

Ray Cluley is the co-editor of the anthology Darker Minds (with Gary McMahon). His short fiction has appeared in such diverse markets as Interzone , Black Static , Black Gate , Not One Of Us , and Best Horror of the Year .

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered states. In his later works Dick’s thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life experiences in addressing the nature of drug abuse, paranoia and schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences in novels such as A Scanner Darkl y and VALIS .

John Russell Fearn (1908–1960) was a British author and one of the first British writers to appear in American pulp science fiction magazines. Fearn was a prolific writer who wrote Westerns and crime fiction as well as science fiction. His writing appeared under numerous pseudonyms. He wrote series like Adam Quirke, Clayton Drew, Golden Amazon, and Herbert. At times these drew on the pulp traditions of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

“David Grinnell” is a pseudonym used by Donald A. Wollheim. See his entry for more info!

Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). Before becoming an editor, Harrison started in the science fiction field as an illustrator, notably with EC Comics’ two science fiction comic books, Weird Fantasy and Weird Science . He has used house names such as Wade Kaempfert and Philip St. John to edit magazines, and has published other fictions under the names Felix Boyd, Leslie Charteris, and Hank Dempsey. Harrison is now much better known for his writing, particularly his humorous and satirical science fiction, such as the Stainless Steel Rat series and the novel Bill the Galactic Hero (which satirises Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers ).

Harry’s contribution to The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack is the alternate, 1961 magazine version of his novel, Planet of the Damned .

Larry Hodges is an active member of SFWA with numerous short story sales. He was the 2010 Garden State Horror Writers Short Story Competition Grand Prize Winner. He’s a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and a full-time writer with four books and over 1300 published articles. Visit him at www.larryhodges.org.

Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Kuttner was known for his literary prose and worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore. They met through their association with the “Lovecraft Circle”, a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft.

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) was the nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays. Wildside Press has many of his works in print.

Stephen Marlowe (born Milton Lesser, 1928–2008) was an American author of science fiction, mystery novels, and fictional autobiographies of Christopher Columbus, Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, and Edgar Allan Poe. He is best known for his detective character Chester Drum, whom he created in the 1955 novel The Second Longest Night .

Marissa writes: “Like many people who write fiction for a living, I’m a good deal more comfortable making things up about other people who don’t exist than I am figuring out what to say about myself. I’ve sold enough short stories at this point that I have a standard one-sentence biography: ‘Marissa Lingen is a freelance writer who lives in Minnesota with two large men and one small dog.’ This is true but not perhaps optimally illuminating!”

Katherine Anne MacLean (born January 22, 1925) is an American science fiction author best known for her short fiction of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society.

James K. Moran writes: “My horror story, “Glimpses through the trees,” which appeared in Curtain Call: The Rolling Darkness Revue 2010 , was included by editor Ellen Datlow in her ‘Honourable Mentions’ list for Best Horror of the Year 3 . My fiction has also appeared in the Algonquin Roundtable Review and the Peter F. Yacht Club , while my poetry has appeared in various Canadian literary magazines.

Edgar Pangborn (1909–1976) was an American mystery, historical, and science fiction author. For the first 20 years of Edgar’s writing career, which started when he was 21, Edgar wrote what he referred to as “literary hackwork” for the pulp magazines. His serious work began in 1951, with the publication of his first science fiction story, “Angel’s Egg”, in Galaxy Science Fiction. By 1954 Edgar was well-known and his second science fiction novel, A Mirror for Observers won the International Fantasy Award.