Lloyd Biggle, Jr. – författare

"The top drawer of the second cabinet felt empty as she began to pull it open, but she never saw its interior. The floor dropped from under her. As she fell, she clutched wildly at the handle of the cabinet’s drawer, but her grip had been too loose. It slipped through her fingers, and for an instant she fell into nothingness. Then she landed on a steep incline of smooth metal. Her feet hit first and instantly shot out from under her, and she fell backward with a thud that stunned her. She caught a glimpse of a trap door closing over her head as she slid rapidly down the incline into darkness."A-Z Publications has provided Adelle Gernyan with a great salary and office but the mundane work assigned her doesn’t merit such treatment. Annoying colleagues, spying maintenance men and a mysterious boss add to the puzzle of her strange job. Adelle’s boredom changes to terror when she is trapped under her office building with her fellow employees. Subjected to hunger, sleep deprivation, deadly traps and the horrors of armed attack, Adelle doesn’t know that she has become part of a vicious experiment on the human mind labeled only as “The Telo-um Test”… a test with death as its final grade.This is a griping suspense story from an acknowledged master of mystery and science fiction, Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

Before his death in 2002, Dr. Lloyd Biggle, Jr. compiled a list of his early science fiction stories that he considered his finest works. His children, Kenneth Lloyd Biggle and Donna Biggle Emerson, have meticulously transcribed them from their original magazine and anthology publications and assembled this great "best of" collection -- plus one previously unpublished work, "Alien By Any Other Name." Included in this volume are:

BEACHHEAD IN UTOPIAHORNET''S NESTMATING INSTINCTTHE MADDER THEY COMETRAVELING SALESMANESIDARAP OT PIRT DNUORLESSON IN BIOLOGYON THE DOUBLETHEY LIVE FOREVERWHO STEALS MY MIND...AN ALIEN BY ANY OTHER NAME

And if you enjoy this volume, don''t forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see all the 175+ other entries in this great series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics -- and much, much more!

In the first place, Grandfather Rastin never should have bought that house in Wiston. It happened several years ago, when he was only about seventy-eight, but even so he was old enough to know better. He admits that himself.

In the second place, he should have asked his tenants for references.

He did buy the house, and he didn''t ask for references, and that''s where the trouble started...

Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (1923-2002) is most famous as a science-fiction writer who used genuine science while emphasizing human and cultural elements, especially art and music (he held a Ph.D. in Musicology.) His detective stories about Grandfather Bill Rastin in the fictitious Borg County, Michigan show this emphasis on the human element in a nostalgic, Norman Rockwell-esque world.

The 14th Science Fiction MEGAPACK® collects 28 science fiction stories, 1 novel, and interviews with Larry Niven and Joe W. Haldeman. Included are:

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHERINTERVIEW WITH LARRY NIVENINTERVIEW WITH JOE W. HALDEMANTHE AUTUMN VISITORS, by Frank Belknap LongADVANCE AGENT, by Christopher AnvilINNOCENT AT LARGE, by Poul and Karen AndersonA COLD NIGHT FOR CRYING, by Milton LesserESCAPE VELOCITY, by Charles L. FontenayFIRST STAGE: MOON, by Dick HetschelGAMES, by Katherine MacLeanINFINITY’S CHILD, by Charles V. DeVetJUNGLE IN THE SKY, by Milton LesserLITTLE BOY, by Harry NealMIRACLE BY PRICE, by Irving E. Cox, Jr.NO GREAT MAGIC, by Fritz LeiberPEACE, by Norman Arkawy and Stanley HenigQUICKIE, by Milton LesserSPATIAL DELIVERY, by Randall GarrettSTAR PERFORMER, by Robert J. SheaSTUDENT BODY, by F. L. WallaceIT TAKES A THIEF, by Walter Miller, Jr.DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGY, by Kenneth Lloyd BiggleTELEMPATHY, by Vance SimondsRESURRECTION SEVEN, by Stephen MarloweTHE CREATURE INSIDE, by Jack SharkeyTHE DEMI-URGE, by Thomas M. DischTHE HERMIT OF MARS, by Stephen BartholomewTHE LONELY, by Judith MerrilTHE PLANET WITH NO NIGHTMARE, by Jim HarmonTHE EARTH QUARTER, by Damon KnightOUR TOWN, by Jerome BixbyTHE ANGRY ESPERS, by Lloyd Biggle Jr.

On screen, the city lay shimmeringly beautiful in the morning sun. For a suspenseful moment we contemplated the confidently proud splendor, the towers and spires reared high, the orderly veins of traffic radiating to the city’s horizons, the comic clusters of scurrying transportation microbes, the buildings of all descriptions arranged in a miraculous patchwork mosaic that only high civilization can achieve.

Suddenly a grotesquely misplaced sun filled the screen, and the city dissolved in its death glow as the nuclear storm broke over it with the fury of a smashing, incandescent fist. Towers and spires toppled, streets were obliterated, and the writhing landscape vanished in a convulsive eruption of smoke and dust.

Then we were shown a close-up view. The revelation that there were people down there came as a shock. Those unfortunate enough to survive the force of the explosion were incinerated in the hideous afterglow of radiation. Even in death and torment, Earth’s people looked surprisingly human.

I realized with horror that the world on the screen was part of MY history and that I was watching my ancestors die…