Clifford D. Simak – författare

On a far future Earth, mankind''s achievements are immense: artificially intelligent robots, genetically uplifted animals, interplanetary travel, genetic modification of the human form itself.

But nothing comes without a cost. Humanity is tired, its vigour all but gone. Society is breaking down into smaller communities, dispersing into the countryside and abandoning the great cities of the world.

As the human race dwindles and declines, which of its great creations will inherit the Earth? And which will claim the stars?

Asher Sutton has a book in his hands - a book that would change the history of the galaxy, a book by himself...that he had never written. Or had he? Or would he?

Jay Vickers was an ordinary man, or so he thought. All he wanted was to be left in peace to finish his next book. However, strange things started happenin - from his discovery of a mouse that was not a mouse, to the visit of an old neighbor that was not a man. Or at least he was not an ordinary man. For as it turned out, neither was Jay Vickers. This is the story of human mutation - the next step in the evolution of the species. What if mutants walked among us already? What if they were organized? What if they had unbelievable powers, such as the ability to cross between alternate worlds or dimensions at will, or to intuitively reach the absolutely correct answer by intuition or "hunch", or to telepathically reach out to the stars? Such supermen would automatically try to conquer lesser men, would they not? Or would they do everything in their power to free the rest of humanity from slavery and suffering? Just what would the political and corporate powers-that-be do to keep their power and their slaves? How would mutants undermine the power of these bosses to set mankind free? This is a story of unlimited freedom, of worlds without end, ready for the taking. It is also the story of powerful, benevolent beings that exist only to help those who need that help. This is a future of a lop-sided mechanical culture of technology that could provide creature comfort for a few, but not human justice or security for the many. It is a future of hate, and war, and worry. Nothing like the way the world really turned out - after all, there couldn''t really be an underground of mutants working to free humanity . . . could there?

Without setting foot on another planet, people like Shep Blaine were reaching out to the stars with their minds, telepathically contacting strange beings on other worlds. But even Blaine was unprepared for what happened when he communed with the soul of an utterly alien being light years from Earth. After recovering from his experience, he becomes a dangerous man: not only has he gained startling new powers - but he now understands that humankind must share the stars. Hunted through time and space by those who he used to trust, Blaine undergoes a unique odyssey that takes him through a nightmarish version of small-town America as he seeks to find others who share his vision of a humane future. Blaine has mastered death and time. Now he must master the fear and ignorance that threatened to destroy him!

Money was worthless!It had no value!It couldn''t buy a home, clothes, food. Someone with enormous quantities of cash was buying houses and tearing them down - buying stores and closing them.A few people could have stopped the transaction before it was too late. They could have said that Earth was being taken over by alien beings in the shapes of bowling balls, talking dogs, dolls that walked like men.In fact, they did say it. The trouble was, no one believed them.

Imagine a future where cryogenics has become commonplace . . .Imagine a future where one dominant corporation has a monopoly on the process: freezing and preserving everyone in the world, until either a cure for their disease - or for ageing itself - is discovered . . .Imagine a future in which people work their entire lives to scrape together enough money for the corporate ''trust fund'' required to maintain their frozen bodies . . .Now, imagine that all of this is a giant scam. No one has ever been revived - and no one ever will be.Imagine that you have unwittingly stumbled over the great lie at the heart of this future - and the corporation knows that you know . . .

Having just returned to Earth from an intergalactic research mission, Professor Peter Maxwell, specialist in Supernatural Phenomena, finds himself in desperate straits. Earth, as he is aware, is well advanced in many areas; perfected time travel, for instance, enables all creatures (goblins, dinosaurs, and Shakespeare!) to coexist. But Maxwell has accidentally discovered a mysterious crystal planet containing a storehouse of secret information not yet known to Earth. Knowing the value of the planet for the future of Earth, he attempts to convince those in power that they must, at any cost, get control of it. But his efforts are thwarted by a startling fact: Maxwell was ingeniously duplicated on his return trip. The ''other'' him came back before he did, and was soon after ''accidentally'' killed. Now no one will believe the original Maxwell exists.

The planet beckoned them from space - and closed round them like a Venus Fly Trap! Assailed by strange perils and even stranger temptations, the little group stumbled towards its destiny - Mike Ross, the pilot, Sara Foster, the big game hunter, blind George Smith, and the odious Friar Tuck. Before them was a legend made flesh, around them were creatures of myth and mystery, close behind them stalked Nemesis. The doll, the little wooden painted doll, was to be their salvation. Or their damnation, for each might choose, and find, his own Nirvana.

An adventure of the near future - brought on by a catastrophe in the far future. On a summer''s day like any other, holes appeared in the air and people from nowhere walked through them into our world. They came, and they kept coming, until they numbered in the millions. They said they came from the future - they were our children''s children. They said there was trouble "up there". They knew they were a terrible burden on our economy, and all, but - well, we couldn''t just let them starve, could we? Then more facts became apparent.The "holes in the air" were time tunnels, one-way tunnels from the future. The trouble up there was in the form of alien creatures - ravening beasts with teeth, claws, and tentacles, that reproduced like bacteria and were intelligent.They were utterly uncontrollable and so our children''s children fled through the time tunnels, which, they claimed, were securely guarded. The beasts, whatever or whoever they were, couldn''t get through. So they claimed. But then somebody up there slipped and the beasts were abroad.

After a thousand years in space the earth vessel lands on a remote planet capable of supporting human life, Shakespeare''s Planet. But due to a systems malfunction Carter Horton is the only crew member to awaken from his long sleep. And on the strange alien planet he finds only the bizarre creature named Carnivore. Soon he discovers that the two of them must leave the planet immediately - or face certain death. But his space-ship is now obsolete and the inner-space tunnel, their only escape-route to safety, has broken down...

Thousands of years into the future man has completely destroyed a technology-based society and lives a tribal existence, worshipping the ''brain''-cases of long-rusted robots. Here and there pockets of knowledge remain, and young Tom Cushing lives in one such university. His imagination fired by reading of the fabled ''Place of Going to the Stars'' in an ancient manuscript, Tom sets out on a long odyssey to find out if the legend is true. His journey encompasses excitement, danger and some strange and colourful companions who commune with plants, can sense life and include the very last robot. But nothing he meets along the way compares with what he and his motley group find at Thunderhead Butte, the Place of Going to the Stars, their journey''s end. Here wonder abounds almost as at the edge of the universe. A new challenge, for man to rediscover his destiny, to fulfil his heritage and recover his lost knowledge.

This was medieval England in the 1970s, again beset by the ancient Evil that had kept the Dark Ages from ever lightening. Half the country was in the grip of the fell Harriers, and it was through these Harried Lands that Duncan of Standish would have to make his way to Oxenford. His mission was to authenticate a long-lost testament which offered the only hope against the terror.Beset by Harriers, Duncan is saved by Diane, great-granddaughter of a renegade wizard, and joined by the strangest company ever assembled: a timid hermit, a ghost who knows nothing of ghosthood, a banshee, a grumpy goblin, a witch who could never quite make herself evil enough, and a demon who is AWOL from Hell.Duncan believes himself protected by the talisman of a wizard''s bauble. But when the Evil forces detect the company and mount a final assault against them, Duncan sees his only hope crumble in failure.He is left with only his courage and his mission . . .

Asa Steele was unprepared for the incredible events that began to unfold when Rila Eliot - a long-lost love - stepped out of the past and his faithful dog Bowser started loping into it through time trails he''d discovered in his own backyard. Rila''s appearance was mere coincidence, but Bowser''s retrieval of fresh dinosaur bones was as inexplicable as was the curious crater in Asa''s backyard that seemed to have been made by a spaceship from the stars. Soon Asa himself tripped in time, led into prehistoric eras by an enigmatic cat-faced alien. In short order, the time trails in the quiet town of Willow Bend became the focus of global attention and government scrutiny. Then time-travelling turned into big business and led to big trouble, when Asa and Rila uncovered an interstellar mystery from before recorded time!

What looked like a big black box - perhaps fifty feet high, two hundred long - had settled squarely on Jerry Conklin''s car. The townspeople of Lone Pine, Minnesota, were the first to see it - and one of them was the first and only human to shoot at it. He paid for his rashness with instant death. Within hours the public knew something strange had happened and was beginning to face the incredible possibility that the Earth harboured something from outer space. A machine? An intelligent being? There was no way to know. But Jerry Conklin knew. The Visitor had scooped him up, held him prisoner for several hours, then let him go. Jerry knew the Visitor was a living intelligent creature!

On the Rim planet fittingly called End of Nothing, a bizarre society of robots and humans toiled for a thousand years to perfect a religion that would create a new and all-embracing faith - no novelty in a galaxy crowded with religions. But one project was hidden from the hordes of pilgrims welcomed at Vatican-17 on End of Nothing. A group of trained human sensitives were sending their minds ranging through all of time and space, gathering information. With that information, a computer of infinite knowledge, wisdom and infallibility was being constructed in secret - the ultimate Pope.Of the three outsiders allowed residence on End of Nothing, one was tolerated at a distance by Vatican-17, one was welcome - and one was a threat to be countered.Decker hardly mattered. His lifeboat had landed him on the remote planet, and he kept to himself in the wilderness. Neither the human nor robot authorities knew of the unseen companion who whispered constantly in Decker''s mind.Dr Jason Tennyson had fled the political furies of his homeworld. Here, Vatican-17''s physician had died, and Tennyson''s skills were desperately needed and well rewarded.Jill Roberts was a journalist in quest of a sensational story she had scented. Vatican-17 knew she could not be allowed to break the news of Project Pope before it was completed - and debated two possible ways of stopping her.The one of the Searcher sensitives threw Vatican-17 into turmoil, threatening its very existence and involving the three outsiders in a sudden power struggle between human and robot.Drifting in unsuspecting dimensions, the woman had encountered Heaven!

Secretly and in stealth four puny humans set out to invade the heartland of Evil - the so-called Empty Lands, filled with every evil creature from the darkest of mankind''s myths.Harcourt went reluctantly to rescue his long-lost and almost forgotten fiancée. The Knurley Man, who was somewhat other than quite human, went to find the death that would be kinder than the future he foresaw. The abbot sought to recapture a fabulous prism in which the soul of a saint had been trapped. And the girl Yolanda was seeking the answer to a mystery and a question she did not know.But already their coming and their purpose was known. The denizens of the Empty Lands were girding for war.And behind all the Evil lay the most ancient of dark Powers, waiting patiently for the humans whose souls should set it free.

It all began simply enough. A client had vanished, and Jay Corcoran went to investigate the man''s empty hotel suite. But Corcoran''s trick vision spotted the room-sized box stuck to the outside wall of the suite. There was no way to get into the box, so Corcoran cabled his long-time pal Tom Boone. Boone had a talent. When threatened he could "step around a corner" into some otherwhere. Boone stepped into the box, taking Corcoran with him. The box turned out to be a time traveler machine that transported them back to 1745 England, where they found a family of refugees from a million years in the future. In that far future, alien Infinites were converting humanity to incorporeal form. When the family had refused conversion, they had to flee. For more than a century, the family had lain hidden in their time bubble. Suddenly, the Infinites'' killer monster broke through--and things grew complicated as the family fled to the distant past and the farther future.