Showing results by author "Frederik Pohl" in All Categories

Frederik Pohl was on a streak when this Hugo Award-finalist novel was published in 1980. Now back in print after an absence of nearly a decade, this unique science fiction novel is as fresh and entertaining as ever. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth....

When prospector Bob Broadhead went out to Gateway on the Heechee spacecraft, he decided he would know which was the right mission to make him his fortune. Three missions later, now famous and permanently rich, Robinette Broadhead has to face what happened to him and what he is...in a journey into himself as perilous and even more horrifying than the nightmare trip through the interstellar void that he drove himself to take!

After millennia had passed, Mankind discovered the Heechee legacy (an alien culture that fled to the relative safety of a black hole) - in particular an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft. Robinette Broadhead, who had led the expedition that unlocked the many secrets of Heechee technology, is now forced once more to make a perilous voyage into space - where the Heechee are waiting. And this time the future of Man is at stake....

Roger Torraway watched in horror as the monster lurched, toppled over and died. Project Man Plus had gone suddenly and drastically wrong. The race to colonize Mars was too important, too costly, and America was already too committed, for plans to be scrapped. They would have to make a new Martian. And Roger Torraway was it, candidate for the endless surgery, operation after painful operation, that would enable him to survive on that faraway planet.

Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all-powerful alien race intent on the utter destruction of all intelligent life reappears after eons of silence, and threatens the lives of all heechee and humans.

Wan-To was the oldest and must powerful intelligence in the universe, a being who played with star systems as a child plays with marbles. Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice.

The Boy Who Would Live Forever has a sense of wonder and excitement that will satisfy those who loved Gateway and will delight new listeners as well. In Gateway, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space-station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core, where they now lived in peace.

Incredible Science Fiction: Amazing Tales from the 50's and Beyond, Volume Two collates a collection of some of the very best science-fiction stories published in the '50s together. All these stories (with the exception of The Anatomy of Fear) are now in the public domain and were original published in various science-fiction magazines that were very popular in the 1950s. This is a lovingly curated collection of some of the very best stories published during this time. This collection includes a further story from the Hugo Award-nominated Rog Phillips.

Twenty-four of the greatest science fiction stories of all time in this fourth sci-fi short story collection, including works by Jerry Dunham, Emmett Dowell, James Causey, Gordon Randall Garrett, James A. Cox, Phyllis Sterling Smith, Richard A. Sternbach, Robert Sheckley, E. G. Von Wald, Keith Laumer, Jerome Bixby, Frederik Pohl, Roger Dee, Arnold Marmore, James H. Schmitz, Lester del Rey, Cordwainer Smith, Ray Bradbury, and Philip K. Dick.

The Earth has been ripped from the solar system by a runaway alien planet, whose inhabitants have their own sinister plans for Earth's resources. Humankind is dying out, but there are those who defy convention and refuse to give in. Feared by ordinary citizens, these wolves are preparing to fight back against the aliens. Wolfbane is widely regarded as one of the very best science fiction stories from the 1950s.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

A scientist who can transfer minds from one body to another seeks to keep his work from the military. Based on the story by Frederik Pohl, this episode of X Minus One originally aired on July 25, 1957.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, it gave so little warning that Pompeiians were caught unawares, and many bodies were preserved in volcanic ash. Two thousand years later, in 2079, Pompeii is a popular theme park eagerly anticipating Il Giubeleo, the Jubilee celebration of the great anniversary. But Vesuvius is still capable of erupting, and even more threatening are terrorists who want to use the occasion to draw attention to their cause by creating a huge disaster.

Auf dem Asteroiden "Gateway" nahe der Sonne werden knapp eintausend außerirdische Raumschiffe einer verschollenen Rasse gefunden, den "Hidschi". Niemand weiß, wie diese Raumschiffe funktionieren und wohin ihr Kurs führt. Es finden sich aber genügend wagemutige Piloten, sogenannte Prospektoren, die sie zu ihren unbekannten Zielen fliegen, um dort nach Hitschi-Technologie zu suchen. Obwohl die Verlustrate extrem hoch ist, verstehen die Menschen die Hitschi-Schiffe als Chance, dem Elend auf der ausgeplünderten Erde zu entkommen.

Dive into this gripping tale by Frederik Pohl that delves into the realms of cybernetic robots and implanted personalities, challenging our perceptions of reality. What if that wall you see is not quite what it seems? Who are we beneath the surface? Meet Guy Burckhardt, who awakens from a nightmarish vision filled with explosions, fire, and choking gas. Was it merely a dream, or is there something more sinister at play? Unravel the mystery in this inventive and chilling narrative that will keep you on the edge of your seat. (summary by Phil Chenevert)

In the hauntingly atmospheric tale of Search the Sky, we follow Ross, a junior trader on the desolate Halseys Planet. Despite his promising career, he feels an overwhelming sense of despair as he witnesses the slow decay of his world—a once-thriving colony now fading into oblivion. The population dwindles day by day, yet apathy reigns among the inhabitants. The arrival of the first interstellar transport in three decades brings a chilling revelation the ship has visited six other colonies, all devoid of life. Where has humanity gone? As Ross grapples with this existential crisis, he is ...

In the gripping science fiction novel Wolfbane, set in the year 2203, a rogue planet has whisked Earth away from the Solar System, plunging it into the depths of interstellar space. This peculiar planet is home to enigmatic machines known as Pyramids. Meanwhile, the moon has been transformed by alien technology into a miniature sun, creating a peculiar orbit between the two celestial bodies. As the narrative unfolds, the moons rekindling—a crucial event that occurs every five years—is perilously close to being overdue, igniting fears among the inhabitants that it may never be ...

Die Erde wird von terroristischen Organisationen in Angst und Schrecken versetzt. Außerdem treten die Hitschi erstmals in Erscheinung. Aufgeschreckt durch Berichte ihrer Außenposten verlassen sie ihr Schwarzes Loch, um nach dem Rechten zu sehen. Broadheads lange verschollene Geliebte Klara wird von Wan, der in verschiedenen schwarzen Löchern nach seinem verschollenen Vater sucht, kaum gealtert aus dem schwarzen Loch geholt, findet Broadhead aber nur noch als KI vor.

Der mittlerweile schwerreiche Robinette Broadhead finanziert einen Forschungsflug in die Oortsche Wolke, um eine zuvor dort entdeckte Nahrungsmittelfabrik der Hitschi zu untersuchen. Wie bei Gateway handelt es sich um einen ausgehöhlten Asteroiden, angefüllt mit Hitschi-Technik.

McCauley is a secret agent of Tri Planetary Justice, the only law for almost 30 inhabited worlds. His assignment is to visit the asteroid world of Palas, a lump of rock floating through space with no apparent value. However, not all is as it seems on the underground world of Palas. A narcopeen drug trade flourishes among the con men and thieves that populate Palas.