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" 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! Williamson, Michael Z.: The Weapon: Kenneth Chinran was a disaffected youth who joined the military and was recruited for an elite deep cover unit, shrugging off training and exercises so tough that several of the recruits did not survive. Then he was sent by his star nation to infiltrate a fascistic, militaristic planet—Earth. He lived in deep cover for years, marrying and having a daughter. Then the Earth forces attacked his home system, and he and his team came out of hiding, attacking and destroying the infrastructure of the crowded planet, disabling transportation and communications in city after city. As a result of his attacks, billions died for lack of the food, water and power which the ravaged system could no longer supply. His sabotage was successful, but the deaths of so many weighs heavily on his mind, making him wonder if he can stay sane. Then the secret police discovered his identity. With his daughter, the only thing in his life that had so far kept him human, he was on the run, while the resources of a planetwide police state were tracking him down. He could see no way to escape from the planet, no way to keep hiding, and if he and his daughter were caught, death was the very least that they could expect. But Chinran is a warrior to the core, and even if he loses this last battle, he won't go down without a fight that his pursuers—the ones who survive—will never forget Warren, Christine: Love Bites: Discover the world of The Others in Love Bites: The beginning of the Others bundle. Bundle includes: One Bite With a Stranger-When Regina’s friends insist on setting her up a “Fantasy Fix” to help her get over her cheating ex, she dreams up some kinky out-of-this-world encounters that they could never possibly bring to life. But the next thing Regina knows, her friends have got her laced into a shiny black corset, tight leather pants, and a sexy pair of stilettos. It’s time for some downtown vampire-fantasy fun. Big Bad Wolf- Missy Roper’s fantasies have revolved around Graham Winters since the moment they met. But the imposing leader of the Silverback werewolf clan always seemed oblivious to Missy’s existence. At least he was, until Missy collides with him at a party and then abruptly runs away—arousing Graham’s interest...and wild desires Williamson, Michael Z.: Rogue: #6 in the Freehold Universe series. In a war-torn interplanetary future, a tactical forces specialist transformed into a sociopathic killing machine – and the only one who can stop him is his former commander. Kenneth Chinran commanded the elite unit assigned to take out an entire planet in a terrible war. Millions died; billions more perished in the aftermath. One doesn't send a sociopath on such a mission. A sociopath might not stop. Chinran did stop – but in the process nearly lost his sanity and his soul. But one of Chinran’s men was a sociopath going in. Now he’s a trained sociopath with the knowledge and firepower to take out entire tactical teams, evaporate through security cordons and change identity at will. Who do you send after a killer like that? There’s only one answer: the man who trained him. The man who made him Williamson, Michael Z.: Freehold: Sergeant Kendra Pacelli is innocent, but that doesn't matter to the repressive government pursuing her. Mistakes might be made, but they are never acknowledged, especially when billions of embezzled dollars earned from illegal weapons sales are at stake. But where does one run when all Earth and most settled planets are under the aegis of one government Answer: The Freehold of Grainne, the only developed system that belongs to neither the UNES nor the Colonial Alliance. There, one may seek asylum and build a new life in a society that doesn't track its residents' every move, which is just what Pacelli has done. But now things are about to go royally to hell. Because Earth's government has found out where she is . . "Kenneth Chinran commanded the elite unit assigned to take out an entire planet in a terrible war. Millions died; billions more perished in the aftermath. One doesn't send a sociopath on such a mission. A sociopath might not stop. Chinran did stop; but in the process nearly lost his sanity and his soul. But one of Chinran's men was a sociopath going in. Now he's a trained sociopath with the knowledge and firepower to take out entire tactical teams, evaporate through security cordons and change identity at will. Who do you send after a killer like that? There's only one answer: the man who trained him. The man who made him."--Provided by publisher Kenneth Chinran commanded the elite unit assigned to take out an entire planet in a terrible war. Millions died, billions more perished in the aftermath. One oughtn't send a sociopath on such a mission. A sociopath might not stop. Chinran did stop--but in the process nearly lost his sanity and his soul. But one of Chinran's men was a sociopath going in. Now he's a trained sociopath with the knowledge and firepower to take out entire tactical teams, evaporate security cordons and change identity at will. Who do you send after a killer like that? There's only one answer: the man who trained him. The man who made him Scalzi, John: Old Man's War: John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding Galenorn, Yasmine: Out of the Dark: The Galactic Hegemony has been around a long time, and it likes stability--the kind of stability that member species like the aggressive, carnivorous Shongairi tend to disturb. So when the Hegemony Survey Force encountered a world whose so-called "sentients"—"humans," they called themselves—were almost as bad as the Shongairi themselves, it seemed reasonable to use the Shongairi to neutralize them before they could become a second threat to galactic peace. And if the Shongairi took a few knocks in the process, all the better Galenorn, Yasmine: Witchling: We’re the D’Artigo sisters: Half-human, half-Faerie, we’re savvy—and sexy—operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But our mixed-blood heritage short-circuits our talents at all the wrong times. My sister Delilah shapeshifts into a tabby cat whenever she’s stressed. Menolly’s a vampire who’s still trying to get the hang of being undead. And me? I’m Camille—a wicked-good witch. Except my magic’s as unpredictable as the weather, as my enemies are about to find out the hard way.. Warren, Christine: The Demon You Know: As a research grunt at a local television station, Abby Baker tends to blend into the background, which is where she's most comfortable. But when she ends up being the last resort to cover a hot story, Abby discovers a whole new side to her personality when she is possessed by a fiend--a type of rogue demon. Suddenly everyone wants a piece of her. And now the demon Rule--also a hunter of his own kind who have gone astray--is Abby's only hope... Galenorn, Yasmine: Changeling: The first in an engrossing new series, [Witchling was] a whimsical reminder of fantasy's importance in life (Publishers Weekly). Now comes Changeling-again featuring Camille, the good witch, Menolly, the vampire, and Delilah, a feline shapeshifter. They're the D'Artigo sisters, half-human, half-Faerie supernatural agents who are now enlisted to find the fiends responsible for slaughtering the weres of Rainier Puma Pride Galenorn, Yasmine: Darkling: The D'Artigo sisters, Camille, Delilah, and Menolly, are half-human, half- Fae operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. When humans begin to go missing, then turn up as newly born vampires, Menolly- an acrobat extraordinaire-turned-vampire- must face the demons haunting her memories