A. Bertram Chandler – författare

Lost in space...lost in time. There can be no more terrifying situation for any spaceman to be in, and such was the problem when Commodore Grimes'' Faraway Quest broke free from the mysterious Kinsolving''s Planet.Because the universe was vast and they had been out beyond the Galactic Lens. Because time is infinite and they had slipped beyond their own epoch. Because in whatever universe they were in they could raise no etheric word, no telepathic beacon, no other star vessel.But for John Grimes, a veritable Commodore Hornblower of the future space seas, there had to be a way back. The first step was to locate Earth, the launching place for all humanity.But Earth turned out to be legend and myth and faith - and Grimes'' rebellious crew were to enact roles already fabled before they were born.

Meet John Grimes at the very beginning of a career that will lead him to fame and glory out at the edge of the galaxy, out where the laws of men are nonexistent, and those of nature itself are sometimes tenuous.Someday Grimes will be a Commodore in the secessionist Rim Worlds Navy, but for now he is merely a very junior lieutenant in another space navy entirely: that of the Federation. If he keeps his nose clean, one day he can be an admiral in that Service; all he has to do is follow regulations regardless of the consequences, and obey orders regardless of whether they are right or wrong - and he is determined to do just that.But being John Grimes, he will find it a more difficult task than he expects - especially when he must turn a blind eye to the piratical acts of the Waldegrenese Navy, or ignore the plight of a beautiful damsel in distress. That''s why, although he doesn''t know it yet, he is already on . . . the Road To The Rim.

"When Kinsolving''s Planet crosses your path, beware!"Commodore John Grimes would have done well to heed this warning. But the evil magic of Kinsolving draws him on, pulling him on a journey through the universes. Is Grimes a swiftly facing literary ghost, doomed to disappearance for the inadvertent theft of a meerschaum pipe? Or, is he a flesh and blood Commodore, sailing the spaceways from world to world, enjoying dangerous voyages to momentary safe ports?It does not matter what role is the "true" John Grimes for none can protect him from the grasp of Kinsolving''s Planet, an abandoned colony which reaches out for man, for the target, John Grimes, who is inexorably sucked toward his final destiny ...

Commodore John Grimes was finally getting his space wings back. On his old ship, Faraway Quest, Grimes was to venture forth to the very Rim of the known worlds, seeing ... The Outsider."The Outsider''s Ship ... is a storehouse of science and technology ... we, and the Federation, and the Shaara Empire, and probably quite a few more, have sent expeditions. Every one has ended disastrously."So, it is out to the Rim and find The Outsider. But the mystery ship is not always easy to find. And other worlds, too, yearn for the treasures of the alien technology. What Commodore Grimes finds at the Rim, and what finds him there, sends him racing through time tracks, surrounded by enemies and temporary friends, trying endlessly to discover the secret dangers of ... The Outsider.

A selection of John Grimes short stories including:With Good IntentionsThe SubtracterThe Tin MessiahThe Sleeping BeautyThe Wandering BuoyThe Mountain MoversWhat You Know

Being lost in space was no new experience to John Grimes, whose career as an interstellar officer had brought him into many such dilemmas. But being lost inside a colossal alien spacecraft had no precedent.Complicating the matter was the discovery that the very universe was not their own but an alternate and that their captor seemed to be the omnipotent force of that entire other cosmos.As Grime''s only companion was the comely policewoman, Una Freeman, the fate that the Alien God selected for them required the creation of a Garden of Eden. But there were two serpents in this one - both of them bicycles!

The Far Traveler was hardly the sort of starship to use in the study of lost space colonies. Lost colonies were likely to be desperate, eccentric and otherwise unappreciative. And The Far Traveler was a rich woman''s toy, constructed of gold and directed by an omniscient, dictatorial and feminine computer known as Big Sister.John Grimes had become that golden vessel''s captain. A captain in name only because nobody could talk back to Big Sister or the haughty beauty who owned everything aboard. But Grimes was a man of many resources and lost space colonies were placed that did not observe the civilized rules. You could be sure, therefore, that the man known as the Commodore Hornblower of Outer Space would be likely to come through okay, even if the ladies - mechanical and physical - never expected him to!

In his long and fabulous career as the Captain Hornblower of space, John Grimes was to experience many strange things, rising through the ranks of the Interstellar Federation - from triumph to disaster - and ultimately becoming the most famous of the Rim Runners, far out along the edge of the Milky Way.But there was a period when Grimes fell between one cosmic empire and another, on his own, commander of a single deep-space pinnace and looking for work.And that was when he became a god! He thought he was just doing a mailman''s job, bu the price of the postage turned out to be divinity - with a lovely nude postmistress certified for a goddess!

Derek Calver touches down on Lorn and is determined to join the Rim Runners to explore desolate planets. He joins the crew of Lorn Lady and sets forth for Mellise, inhabited by intelligent amphibians; for Groller, where the natives have just qualified as humanoids; for Stree with its tea loving lizards; and for Tharn, home of a pre-industrial civilization.

In luck and out of luck, John Grimes was a living legend of the spaceways. He had been an officer of the service, he had been the victim of a mutiny, he had discovered lost worlds, he had served under strange masters and on strange ships, but he had never turned space pirate. Until this adventure.How it happened was a complex story to begin with, but typical Grimes luck. How he became the terror of the star lanes developed, as usual, from his own efforts to make an honest living and other''s efforts to use him for devious diversions.This is a story of the loot of the stars, of how Grimes graduated from operator of a space courier ship to master of a fleet of dreaded carriers of the skull and crossbones!

His wild career as a space pirate ended, Grimes faced his toughest assignment - he was "punished" by being made governor of the anarchists'' own planet! John Grimes, living legend of the spaceways, had been in and out of some cosmic catastrophes but this threatened to reach his luck''s ultimate breaking point!An influx of planetary refugees had made that world a paradise of cheap labor and the original anarchist colonists had become such masters of wealth that no mere outsider could hope to dictate "law and order" to them. They had their own ideas which included slavery, treachery, and utter villainy.Grimes'' first task as governor would be simply to stay alive with a whole world plotting his murder!

Originally, Sparta was an all-male planet - an all-male population with everything that implies: babies - male babies only - produced by the so-called Birth Machine from an almost unending supply of fertilized ova brought by Sparta''s founding father, a dyed-in-the-wool misogynist. But unnatural situations rarely stand the test of time, and it wasn''t too long before Sparta bowed to Mother Nature.But there was still something rather strange about Sparta when John Grimes landed there to await the arrival of his beloved ship Sister Sue. It seemed to him that among the recently transplanted women of Sparta, there was a strange movement afoot. And when the Archon was kidnapped by a group of militant women the press claimed were men, he knew he couldn''t just stand by and watch!

ALAN KEMP HAD A DREAM FEW SPACEMEN EVER SAW COME TRUE. BUT IN THE RIM WORLD ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE...Alan Kemp was a man obsessed. Stranded with his crew on the Rim planet Elsinore, he saw a chance to realise that dream - and took it. When a gausjammer crash-landed on Elsinore, Kemp rebuild the second-hand, obsolete starship and set out to establish a shuttle between the Rim planets.But before they reached their destination, Kemp and his comrades were waylaid by an alien colony. A colony inhabited by giant mechanical spiders who imprisoned their captives in a palace of pleasure whey the chance - or desire to escape - is precisely zero.

HAUNTED BY THE PAST, JOHN PETERSEN WOULD GIVE ANYTHING TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK...OR WOULD HE?When Lightning blasts off without him, Second Officer John Petersen is finished as far as Trans-Galactic Clippers are concerned. Branded a deserter, stranded on Carinthia and desperate for a job, there are very few places left to go. The Rim Runners would have him - they''ll have anyone who''s still warm and can flash some kind of certificate. But there may be a less than unpleasant alternative...Private detective Steve Vynalek needs Petersen. Has a fanatical scientist on the planet Wenceslaus really found a way to beat the time travel problem, a way to bring back yesterday? The Presidents of Carinthia and Vynalek are convinced that Petersen is the only man for the job. In the airless wastes of Wenceslaus, Petersen finds himself reliving the past, trapped in a terrible cycle of familiarity - a cycle that only he can break.

A journey to the Rim Worlds takes you straight to the edge of the unknown or right to the gaping void of the abyss. Out there you''re beyond the borders, hovering between the warped contours of troubled space and time...Captain Clavering bought his ship on a lottery win. Now he''s holed up on the dismal planet of Lorn filling in the time on a chemical-blasted airstrip waiting for a contract. Somewhere there must be a newly colonized planet needing charters or some threatened world that needs evacuating. He''d risk anything for money in the bank - even a dodgy landing on the gas-blasted plains of Eblis, if the Rim Runners fancy paying hard cash for an expedition to hell...