Books in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Stories Collection series

Meet Chuck Lambert, who, though not exactly a fool, is guilty of letting his imagination get the best of his wits. That's because our young, naive Lambert wants his own planet. But rather than purchase one legally from the Interior Department of the Outer Galactic Control, he soon succumbs to the flashy advertising of an unsavory galactic swindler named Madman Murphy- the purported King of Planetary Realtors. What Madman is the king of, is selling the unwary a planet that isn't quite right, a planet where one can't sit down because there's something the matter with its matter. And that's exactly what becomes the matter for our unlucky voyager, after Chuck toils for eleven grueling years to scrape together enough money to finally buy a planet of his own.

Things are disappearing. Parts of buildings, parts of people, parts of the whole worldthey're here today, gone tomorrow. Old Shellbacka character as crazy-smart as Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Futurethinks he needs glasses. But all he really has to do is open his eyes . . . and see the light.Or so says George Smileyotherwise known as the Messiah. George claims that the reason things are vanishing is because he wants them to go away. He has no more use for the world . . . and so it goes. Say goodbye. But Old Shellback has a different idea, and since he is the most stubborn man in the universe, you might want to hear him out.What's Shellback's idea? That two can play at this game. While George is making this world disappear, Old Shellback will make another one appear. Join him on an amazing odysseyas he heads back to a future of his own making.By the spring of 1938, Hubbard's stature as a writer was well established. As author and critic Robert Silverberg puts it: he had become a ';master of the art of narrative.' Hubbard's editors urged him to apply his gift for succinct characterization, original plot, deft pacing and imaginative action to a genre that was new, and essentially foreign, to himscience fiction and fantasy. The rest is Sci-Fi history.Also includes the Science Fiction adventures, A Can of Vacuum, in which a practical joke on a space station proves that a good sense of humor is timeless, and 240,000 Miles Straight Up, the thrilling story of a race to the moon . . . and the one man who may be able to save the earth from Armageddon.

Is Greed good? The future of Earth and all of mankind may hang on that one question. And George Marquis Lorrilarda space age ace-pilot, adventurer and fortune-hunter to rival Hans Solo of Star Warsis just the man to answer it. The world is divided between Asia and the United Continentstwo great super powers locked in eternal warfare. But the balance of power is about to shift in Asia's favor. They have developed a top-secret weaponthe cohesion projectorthat could lead to annihilation on an unprecedented scale. . . . But as far as Lorrilard is concerned, the number one problem with the projector is that it stands in the way of his profits. Can he find a way to subvert the powerful weapon and resume his enterprising exploits? For millions of people on Earth survival may ultimately depend on the power of one man's Greed.Greed was the last L. Ron Hubbard story published in Astounding Science Fiction in April 1950, marking the end of an era. Over a decade before, he had been a key figure in the opening of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Now, as he turned his attention to other writings, the Golden Age drew to a close. But some three decades after this story appeared, Hubbard would make a triumphant return to the field with the publication of his bestselling novel Battlefield Earth and the extraordinary ten-volume series Mission Earth. Also includes the science fiction adventures, The Final Enemy, in which Earth discovers it faces a distant, yet devastating new foe, the identity of which is the most shocking blow of all, and The Automagic Horse, the story of a Hollywood special effects wizard who is about to apply his movie magic to a project that is out of this world.A wonderfully rich and textured experience, complete with realistic sound effects and moody atmospheric music. Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award winner for 2008