This book, first published in 1980, is a guide to the major forces in the subculture of science fiction. It analyses the history of the field and the related developments, for instance the Bomb, that have shaped the literature. It examines the complex of activity and background tradition, the body of accepted beliefs and conventions, and the ethics and values of the world of science fiction.

When a planet, moving faster than Earth, entered the Solar System out beyond Pluto, the reporters, for want of a better name, termed it "Planet X." "Planet X, that astronomical curiosity," became, in a few short weeks, an object of stark terror to the billions of people scattered on the planets around our Sun, from blazing Mercury to frigid Pluto. To Bob Griffith's father, Commander of the Ninth Wing of the Solar Federation's Space Navy, fell the task of investigating the strange visitor whose black ships moved through space without rocket exhaust, and whose weapons literally melted spaceships out of the heavens. As his father's aid, aboard the gleaming LANCE OF DEIMOS that led the reconnaissance fleet, Bob watched in horror the first incident that would start a war which the Solar Federation "could not win." This gripping tale that rockets from Neptune's tiny moon of Outpost, base of the Federation's Navy, to the orbit of an Earth threatened with destruction, features a young space cadet and his father, who, while preparing for war, desperately search for peace. How Bob Griffith finds himself a captive on the mysterious planet, Thule; details of life on a world that has learned how to overcome the forces of gravity and momentum; the discussions that rage over the acceptance of a "wandering planet" into the Solar alliance come alive in a book that vividly creates a troubled era in a fascinating universe of the future! Lester del Rey (1915 - 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.

The Pyrotechnics of Lester del Rey SF's most protean personality--writer, editor, critic, publisher--sets off an incomparable fireworks display in these tales of robots and humans, animals and aliens, ghosts and gods, science and the supernatural . . . HELEN O'LOY If you want an ideal mate, build her! HEREAFTER, INC. This is Heaven? The hell it is! LITTLE JIMMY The invisible kid was a ghost for sure. But whose? INSTINCT The robots labored to re-create the extinct human species-- but there was one element they somehow left out. FOR I AM A JEALOUS PEOPLE "In God We Trust" is a great motto--until you find you can't. And much more!

Musaicum Books presents to you this meticulously edited Lester del Rey collection. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Badge of Infamy The Sky Is Falling Police Your Planet Pursuit Victory ...And It Comes Out Here Let'em Breathe Space Operation Distress Dead Ringer No Strings Attached The Dwindling Years Earthbound

An accident releases radioactive chaos at a peacetime atomic plant.