Most Popular Books by James H. Schmitz

This is a classic science fiction short story by James H. Schmitz and illustrated by Schoenherr that first appeared in Analog Science Fact and Fiction. The following passage is part of its intriguing intro: ''A novice is one who is inexperienced—but that doesn''t mean incompetent. Nor does it mean stupid!'' This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

(Excerpt): \"He was already a thief, prepared to steal again. He didn''t know that he himself was only booty! Phil Garfield was thirty miles south of the little town of Redmon on Route Twelve when he was startled by a series of sharp, clanking noises. They came from under the Packard''s hood. The car immediately began to lose speed. Garfield jammed down the accelerator, had a sense of sick helplessness at the complete lack of response from the motor. The Packard rolled on, getting rid of its momentum, and came to a stop.\"

A must read sci-fi short. With the evil that is descending on us this story shows just what it would take to get us together again. Many religions have some variation of Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You but that''s never the part that makes the news, that''s never what you hear chanted...(Goodreads)

The Seventh Star Hotel has ben rigged to explore after an illicit transaction has taken place involving the hijacking of fifty Hlats, remarkable creatures something like a cross between Chewbacca and a ghost.(Goodreads)

Set well into the future where the human race has spread throughout the galaxy, this follows Trigger Argee as she tries to unravel the disappearance of Tate and the various plasmoids that have been found in the past. In doing so she jumps from one dilemma to another and exposes conspiracy, corruption and deceit wherever she turns. (Goodreads)

(Excerpt): \"Gefty Rammer came along the narrow passages between the Silver Queen''s control compartment and the staterooms, trying to exchange the haggard look on his face for one of competent self-assurance. There was nothing to gain by letting his two passengers suspect that during the past few minutes their pilot, the owner of Rammer Spacelines, had been a bare step away from plain and fancy gibbering.\"

(Excerpt): \"There is a limit to how perfect a counterfeit can be—a limit that cannot be passed without an odd phenomenon setting in....\". Intriguing book leads you to think beyond where you are or are not.(Goodreads)

(Excerpt): \"In addition, Perrie and Dexter were volunteers for what Dr. Aloys Ormond referred to cryptically as \"very advanced experimentation.\" The group at large had not been told the exact nature of these experiments, but the implication was that they were mental exercises of such power that Dr. Al did not wish other advanced students to try them, until the brave pioneer work being done by Perrie and Dexter was concluded and he had evaluated the results.\"

The Geest gun — the Gunderland Battle trophy on the wall — attracts plotters and generates a plot. Like Rudyard Kipling''s bejeweled elephant-goad in \"The King''s Ankus\

Financier, blackmailer/conman Barney Chard is sure he''s got mark Dr. Oliver McAllen right where he wants him. He knows McAllen''s secret. He just needs to politely apply the right pressure. McAllen spends too much time fishing to be a threat.(Goodreads)

The robbery of the Dosey Asteroids Shipping Station in a remote and spottily explored section of space provided the newscasting systems of the Federation of the Hub with one of the juiciest crime stories of the season. In a manner not clearly explained, the Dosey Asteroids Company had lost six months'' production of gem-quality cut star hyacinths valued at nearly a hundred million credits. It lost also its Chief Lapidary and seventy-eight other company employees who had been in the station dome at the time. All these people appeared at first to have been killed by gunfire, but a study of their bodies revealed that only in a few instances had gun wounds been the actual cause of death. For the most part the wounds had been inflicted on corpses, presumably in an attempt to conceal the fact that disaster in another and unknown form had befallen the station. he raiders left very few clues.(Goodreads)

Welcome to \"Amazing Tales Volume 175\

This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a ''fresh and newly'' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING!

Blazing interstellar adventure by the creator of Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. Captain Pausert thought his luck had finally turned-but he did not yet realize it was a turn for the worse. On second thought, make that a turn for the disastrous! Pausert thought he had made good with his battered starship, successfully selling off odd-ball cargoes no one else could sell. And then he made the mistake of freeing three slave children from their masters (who were suspiciously eager to part with them). No good deed goes unpunished, and those harmless-looking young ladies were just trying to be helpful, but those three adorable little girls quickly made Pausert the mortal enemy of his fiancée, his home planet, the Empire, warlike Sirians, psychopathic Uldanians, the dread pirate chieftain Laes Yango-and even the Worm World, the darkest threat to mankind in all of space. And all because those harmless-looking little girls were in fact three of the notorious and universally feared Witches of Karres. A rollicking novel from the master of space adventure.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED . . . Captain Pausert thought his luck had finally turned¾but he did not yet realize it was a turn for the worse. On second thought, make that a turn for the disastrous*. Unlucky in love, unsuccessful in business, he thought he had finally made good with his battered starship Venture, cruising around the fringes of the Empire and successfully selling off odd-ball cargoes which no one else had been able to sell. He was all set to return home, where his true love was faithfully waiting for him ... he hoped. But then he made the fatal mistake of freeing three slave children from their masters (who were suspiciously eager to part with them). They were just trying to be helpful, but those three adorable little girls quickly made Pausert the mortal enemy of his fiancee, his home planet, the Empire, warlike Sirians, psychopathic Uldanians, the dread pirate chieftain Laes Yango¾and even the Worm World, the darkest threat to mankind in all of space. And all because those harmless-looking little girls were in fact three of the notorious and universally feared Witches of Karres. A rollicking novel from the master of space adventure. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Ape Man, Space Man Earth''s colonists have spread throughout the cosmos, and have almost divided into two separate species. One is the Swimmers, who have adapted to living in zero-gravity, and regard themselves as the next step in evolution, and those who prefer to live on the surface of a planet as little better than apes. The latter group, the Walkers, are not about to say farewell to the planets they grew up on, and think the Swimmers are not so much advanced as deranged. Crowell, born a Swimmer but now a Walker by choice, is caught in the middle as the two sides seem headed for war. Then he discovers the true cause of the altercation: a hidden alien race moving behind the scenes to provoke a war so that they can pick up the pieces after the two sides have obliterated each other. And if Crowell cannot head off the war and convince both sides of the existence of the real enemy, both branches of the human race may be headed for untimely extinction. This full-length novel and much more, fill a huge volume from the master of science fiction adventure. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). \"Much has been made of the ''sense of wonder'' that science fiction evokes, and believe me, there was nothing to evoke that sense quite like the worlds of James Schmitz. . . . Thank you, James Schmitz, wherever you are. And thank you, Eric Flint and Jim Baen, for bringing his Right Stuff back again.\" ¾Mercedes Lackey \"Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You''ll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands on a Schmitz book, they don''t let go!\" ¾ Janet Kagan, Hugo-winner and author of Uhura''s Song

Espionage and Intrigue in the Far Reaches of the Galaxy from the Creator of Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee The Galaxy was not a nice neighborhood, and most would have laid bets that the Vegan Confederacy was too small and weak to survive, let along prosper. But prosper it did, to the bewilderment of observers, who didn''t know about the Vegans'' secret weapon. Once, the Galactic Empire had spanned the stars and when it crumbled and fell, star systems were isolated, some barely surviving, many becoming tyrannical feifdoms, others turning to piracy, and all of them often at war with each other. The Confederacy didn''t have huge space armadas, and millions of troops to protect itself and re-civilize its neighbors, but it did have the Zone agents. Few outside the top echelons of the Confederacy even knew that they existed, and even fewer had an inkling of how the agents time and again could appear on the spot just when a push in the right place could stop a war, topple a despot, or thwart an invasion of unfriendly aliens. Their numbers were pitifully few, and they had to patrol vast stretches of space. They were helped by their ships, bristling with hidden armament and piloted by robot brains of high intelligence. But their main weapon was that the minds of their opponents were open books to them. Not all of the Agents of Vega were human, but they were the most powerful telepaths the Galaxy had ever known . . . At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). \"Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You''ll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands on a Schmitz book, they don''t let go!\" - Janet Kagan, Hugo-Winner and author of Uhura''s Song \"Wonderfully fresh imagination.\" -The Horn Book

THEY''RE DYNAMITE Telzey Amberdon is one of the most powerful xenotelepaths in the known galaxy. Trigger Argee is a crack shot, with reflexes that make lightning look lethargic, and also a top agent of the galaxy''s Federation of the Hub. Separately, they have been making life miserable for human criminals, unfriendly aliens, and nefarious members of all species. But when a danger to the entire Hub civilization brought these two together, the galaxy would never be the same! At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). \"Here, read this-you''ll love it!\" -Janet Kagan, Hugo-Winner and author of the bestseller Uhura''s Song \"Wonderfully fresh.\" -The Horn Book \"Telzey Amberdon ... is strong, competent, and fun to be with.\" -A Reader''s Guide to Science Fiction \"[A] typical James Schmitz mix of humor, strange mental powers, and mild anarchy. Delightful.\" -The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction

IF BUREAUCRACIES HAD STARSHIPS Con games Corrupt governors. Deadly rivalries between departments of the same government. And, of course, the long arm of the Mob. Even in our future among the stars, some things never change-except that the governors run (and ruin) planets, the rivalries are fought with spacecraft and energy bolts, and the mobsters smuggle real illegal aliens and make their getaways with subspace portals. It''s all just another day in that bastion of galactic peace and democracy, the Federation of the Hub -and somebody has to clean up this mess! Join secret agent Trigger Argee, scout adventurer Heslet Quillan and Holati Tate, master of intrigue, as they battle the criminal element on its own interstellar turf ... and make the future a little safer for the rest of us. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). \"Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You''ll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands an a Schmitz book, they don''t let go!\" - Janet Kagan, Hugo-winning author of Uhura''s Song \"Wonderfully fresh.\" -The Horn Book ''A. typical James Schmitz mix of humor, strange mental powers, and mild anarchy. Delightful.\"-The Ultimate guide to Science Fiction

Trade Paperback Halloween-themed science fiction anthology. Featuring a mix of classic science fiction reprints where the scary stuff happens in space. THE UNIVERSE MAY NOT BE A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD . . . _The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown,Ó the grand master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft, once wrote. And the greatest unknown is the vast universe, shrouded in eternal cosmic night. What things might be on other planets¾or in the dark gulfs between the stars? Giving very unsettling answers to that question are such writers as Arthur C. Clarke, George R. R. Martin, Theodore Sturgeon, Tony Daniel, Robert Sheckley, James. H. Schmitz, Clark Ashton Smith, Neal Asher, Sarah A. Hoyt, and more, all equally masters of science fiction and of terror. One might hope that in the void beyond the earth will be found friendly aliens, benevolent and possibly wiser than humanity, but donu0090t be surprised if other worlds have unpleasant surprises in store for future visitors. And in vacuum, no one will be able to hear your screams¾as if it would do any good if they could . . . At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Time travel is one of the staples of science fiction, right up there with aliens, space opera, and robots. Most science fiction authors have written at least one time travel story. This collection samples some of the best. TIME OUT, by Edward M. Lerner THESE STONES WILL REMEMBER, by Reginald Bretnor PROJECT MASTODON, by Clifford D. Simak 12:01 P.M., by Richard A. Lupoff TIME CONSIDERED AS A SERIES OF THERMITE BURNS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER, by Damien Broderick TIME AND TIME AGAIN, by H. Beam Piper TRY, TRY AGAIN, by John Gregory Betancourt THE ETERNAL WALL, by Raymond Z. Gallun THE MAN FROM TIME, by Frank Belknap Long OF TIME AND TEXAS, by William F. Nolan THE EDGE OF THE KNIFE, by H. Beam Piper THROUGH TIME AND SPACE WITH FERDINAND FEGHOOT (10), by Grendel Briarton TIME BUM, by C.M. Kornbluth NEBOGIPFEL AT THE END OF TIME, by Richard A. Lupoff UNBORN TOMORROW, by Mack Reynolds LOST IN THE FUTURE, by John Victor Peterson THE WINDS OF TIME, by James H. Schmitz ARMAGEDDON -- 2419 A.D., by Philip Francis Nowlan THE MAN WHO SAW THE FUTURE, by Edmond Hamilton A TRAVELER IN TIME, by August Derleth THROUGH TIME AND SPACE WITH FERDINAND FEGHOOT (71), by Grendel Briarton FLIGHT FROM TOMORROW, by H. Beam Piper IN THE CRACKS OF TIME, by David Grace SWEEP ME TO MY REVENGE!, by Darrell Schweitzer THE SOLID MEN, by C.J. Henderson THROUGH TIME AND SPACE WITH FERDINAND FEGHOOT (Epsilon), by Grendel Briarton And don''t forget to search this ebook store for \"Wildside Megapack\" to see many more entries in this series, covering westerns, mysteries, science fiction, pulp fiction, and much, much more!

When Peer and Channok grappled the derelict Ra-Twelve, they hooked a death-prize—haunted by the Yomm, stalked by the Mysterious Nine!

The story of one young woman, trapped on an island where the invading Parahuans are preparing to take over the planet, her only allies three mutated and intelligent otters. Her problem is to say alive long enough to get a message away from the island to the rest of the population and the warships of the Federation.

THE HUB IS A VERY DANGEROUS PLACE- BUT SO ARE ITS CITIZENS. The Federation of the Hub: thousands of rough, ornery and tough-minded human worlds with only the subtlest of interstellar governments holding them all together. Stable at last after centuries of war, the Hub is now prime real estate ... making it a merciless arena for the conflicting schemes of criminals, unscrupulous corporations, and invaders from beyond the edges of Federation space. But the Hub is well-defended, and not only by professional heroes such as Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. In Hub Space a citizen is expected to stand up for herself, blaster in hand, as needs must; so when Trouble comes Hubward in large doses, there are an awful lot of armed citizens waiting for it.... At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). \"Old-fashioned space opera is alive and well [in] David Weber''s The Honor of the Queen. . . .\" ¾Science Fiction Age \"The Honor of the Queen . . . is worth shouting about. . . . I want more!\" ¾Philadelphia Weekly Press \"In terms of space combat, I think David Weber may be the best writer around . . . a top-notch read.\" ¾FosFax

Captain Pausert, master of the old pirate chaser Venture has finally found his niche. Unlucky in love and unsuccessful in business on his home planet, he seems to have a knack for selling job lot cargoes around the fringes of the Empire. In fact, he''s so far ahead of the game that he even finds time for the occasional heroic act. Like rescuing three poor child slaves from their abusive masters. And then discovers he''s broke again, wanted by the authorities and at odds with the most malevolent force in all of space. For Pausert hasn''t rescued any ordinary put upon juvenile slaves but three of the legendary witches of Karres complete with awesome psi powers...

MEET TELZEY AMBERDON -SHE''S NOBODY''S TOY Telzey Amberdon was only in her teens when she discovered that she was a telepath. Not only a telepath, but a xenotelepath, able to communicate mentally not just with humans, but with alien intelligences. And she turned out to be one of the most powerful telepaths in the history of the galactic civilization called the Hub. First she had to deal with an alien race that humans hadn''t realized were intelligent, and who were about to eliminate those troublesome humans who thought they were colonizing an uninhabited world. Then, she had to fend off the secret psi agents of the Psychological Corps who took a dim view of any telepath, let alone one with Telzey''s powers, operating outside of their control. Next, she stumbled across a telepathic serial killer, who used an unstoppable predator, under his mental control, to hunt and kill his victims-and Telzey was to be the catch of the day. It was fortunate for the human race that she survived, since she next found herself in the middle of a secret war between two hidden races of genetically engineered humans. They called it the \"Lion Game,\" and they made the mistake of thinking that in this clash of predators, Telzey was just a harmless kitten. But when the dust settled, Telzey would be the only one purring.... At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). \"Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You''ll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands on a Schmitz book, they don''t let go!\" ¾Janet Kagan, Hugo-Winner and author of Uhura''s Song