Most Popular Books by Bob Shaw

Racing from the certain vengeance of Earth''s tyrant ruler, space captain Vance Garamond flees the Solar System. And discovers the almost unimaginably vast spherical structure soon to become famous as ''Orbitsville'' - a new home for Earth''s huddled masses. Behind Garamond comes Earth''s space fleet... Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel, 1975

Shot at by aliens, eaten up by monsters, frozen up, burned up and shipped all over the galaxy¿ war was one game Private Peace didn''t want to play. So why had he joined the Space Legion? Warren Peace had joined the Space Legion to forget - exactly what, he hadn''t the faintest idea. But he was sure about one thing - however horrific the crime he''d once committed, the memory of it could hardly be more unbearable than life in the lunatic Space Legion. Private Peace knew he''d got to get out¿ The trouble was, the only way to escape his 30-year contract was to discover exactly why he''d signed it in the first place. And that meant a hair raising journey into his forgotten past to meet the one person Peace definitely didn''t want to know - Warren Peace Mark I - in other words, himself!

When Ray Jerome, a crotchety journalist on the Whiteford Examiner, is asked to investigate a case of spontaneous human combustion, his first reation is to ridicule the idea - but he is not able to back out of doing the story. To his own surprise, he becomes fascinated by the phenomenon of people who burn up for no obvious reason. It is a fascination which will make 1996 the most unbelievable year of his life.

The Price of Eternal Life In the 22nd Century, no one had to die of old age: an immortality drug was available to all. Its only drawback was the side-effect that ended a man''s sex drive, so most men waited till their youth was fading before they took the final step and became "cools." But Will Carewe became the first man to test a new variety of the drug, one without any side effects at all. The limitless future, a million tomorrows, stretched before him with golden hope - until a series of "accidents" made him realise that someone was trying to murder him. As an immortal Carewe had an infinitely greater stake in remaining alive. So he began the battle to find out who was after him, and why...

Defying time, Jack Breton crosses into a parallel world to regain Kate - the wife who, nine years earlier, was found raped and strangled in a lonely park. But, in the alternate time-stream Kate is married to his double, John. And for one husband to remain either Jack or John must die.

The chronicle of adventures of the survey ship Sarafand as it journeys through space exploring and mapping newly-discovered planets. The mission brings them into contact with man startling life-forms and menacing aliens. On one world the Sarafand sends out six survey modules and seven return: one of them is a shape-changing malevolent alien - but which? On another planet they discover a humanoid civilisation which can move around in time. Suddenly the Sarafand investigators are marooned millions of years in the past. Finally the Sarafand and its crew are stranded in a distant galaxy where everything - including them - is shrinking inexorably to zero size...

Lucas Hutchman is the Ground Zero Man The man who has his finger on the button, the man who can destroy the world - or save it, the man whose own life suddenly has no value, unless he can make the governments of Earth understand that he is the absolute master of the ultimate doomsday device - a device that can trigger every nuclear weapon in existence if Hutchman''s demands are not met in time.

Thornton''s Planet is an anti-neutrino planet detected on its approach to Earth. It can be seen only through the newly developed magniluct lenses and its arrival causes a wave of panic. When its course carries it past the earth, interest in Thornton''s Planet wanes. Then comes news from the African state of Barandi. Miners wearing magniluct lenses have seen ghosts in the mine passages. The visit of Thornton''s Planet has had effects on Earth further-ranging than anyone could have imagined¿

From the vaults of The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal introduction to the work of the award-winning Bob Shaw. Best known for his extraordinary novel of ''slow glass'', Other Days, Other Eyes, Bob Shaw was a fan favourite at conventions for his hysterical ''serious scientific talks''. This omnibus contains three of his finest works: Orbitsville, A Wreath of Stars and The Ragged Astronauts. Orbitsville: Racing from the certain vengeance of Earth''s tyrant ruler, space captain Vance Garamond flees the Solar System. And discovers the almost unimaginably vast spherical structure soon to become famous as ''Orbitsville'' - a new home for Earth''s huddled masses. A Wreath of Stars: Thornton''s Planet is an anti-neutrino planet detected on its approach to Earth. It can be seen only through the newly developed magniluct lenses and its arrival causes a wave of panic. When its course carries it past the earth, interest in Thornton''s Planet wanes. But the visit of Thornton''s Planet has had effects on Earth further-ranging than anyone could have imagined. The Ragged Astronauts: Land and Overland - twin worlds a few thousand miles apart. On Land, humanity faces a threat to its very survival - an airborne species, the ptertha, has declared war on humankind, and is actively hunting for victims. The only hope lies in migration. Through space to Overland. By balloon.

Those who tried never returned, and those who didn''t, always wondered what they were missing by not attempting the perilous journey to ''Heaven''. The official designation of the giant anti-gravity floating disc was ''International Land Extension U.S.23''. But to the people living like sardines in the fam-apts and dormitories on the ground below, it was known as ''Heaven''. Government regulations meant that it was almost impossible for a human being to get to ''Heaven'' - almost, but no quite, as Vic Sterling found out when he began to hunt for his missing half-brother Johnny Considine. For Johnny, along with over a hundred other rebels, had decided they could no longer stand the living conditions on Earth and had hitched a ride to ''Heaven'', a ''Heaven'' full of unexpected dangers for Vic when he decided to follow.

A brilliant collection of original stories. A predatory alien accidentally teleported to Earth. A mad scientist and his imprisoned ghost. A space traveller returns to face an accusation of murder.

Remote, mysterious and deadly, Verdia is a world from which no one has ever returned. But Jan Hazard is convinced his brother could still be alive and Petra knows Jan can''t make it alone...on the Killer Planet. Together they go in search for survivors - only to find themselves the next victims, trapped by the malign forces of a monstrous alien...

The second collection of short stories from the prize-winning author of Orbitsville. Nine stories demonstrate Shaw''s superb imaginative range and cynically humorous approach to the world of the future. Skirmish on a Summer Morning Unreasonable Facsimile A Full Member of the Club The Silent Partners The Giaconda Caper An Uncomic Book Horror Story The Brink Waltz of the Bodysnatchers A Little Night Flying

Rob Hasson was an Air Patrolman, one of the best, until the day someone jumped him in mid-air and sent him hurtling into a fall that should have killed him. Now his mind, still tormented by memories of the shrieking air and rushing ground, protects his patched-together body by refusing to let him fly again. And what use to anyone is an Air Patrolman who''s afraid to fly? Rob Hasson thinks he''s a coward. No one could have foreseen the chain of events that would prove him wrong.

Shrouded by its shell of drifting lunar fragments, the planet Mnemosyne is a refuge for creative artists and poets, a place isolated from the desperate, losing struggle of the humans against the Syccans. But then COMsac, theFederation''s High Command, come to Mnemosyne, and suddenly the planet is more a military colony than a place for artists. For Mack Taverner, the dilemma is stark: either go along with the brutal military visitation or join the hopeless resitance and become a ''traitor''. His choice has awesome and extraordinary consequenses . . .

Thirteen fantastical tales, including What Time Do You Call This? - a wildly ironic story about a bank robber who shuttles to an alternate universe and runs into himself. Communication - a modest plan by a shaman spiritualist gets out of hand when the dead begin to contact him. And Isles Where Good Men Lie - a space caravan of scale-armoured, bacteria-laden immigrants begins to make landings on Earth every twenty-two hours.. and is likely to do so for the next twelve centuries.

For ''refusing to co-operate'' the Emm Luther Special Police took out Earth agent Sam Tallon''s eyes and imprisoned him on a dark and eerie swamp from which nobody ever escaped. But then Tallon invented a way of seeing - ludicrous, agonizing, yet still a way to make escape possible. He ''saw'' through the eyes of a bird. A dog, a woman guard and, later, even saw himself through the eyes of his enraged Lutheran pursuers. Madness and death were his constant companions as he schemed and fought and struggled for his life. Any other man would have gladly given up, but then, Sam Tallon had no choice, for he was the unfortunate possessor of the single most important secret in the universe - a secret which had to be returned to Earth, somehow.

This is the gripping story of the collision between two vastly different human civilisations. One is Earth in the early 21st century, rushing toward self-inflicted nuclear doom. The other is the distant world of Mollan, whose inhabitants have achieved great longevity and the power to transport themselves instantly from star to star. Bob Shaw''s novel unfolds a tale which spans thousands of years and the reaches of interstellar space. On Earth''s side, there is Denny Hargate, whose indomitable courage drives him to alter the course of history. On their side is the Gretana ty Iltha, working on Earth as a secret observer, who dreams of returning to the delights of her world''s high society, but who gets caught up in a cosmic train of events leading to an explosive climax.

Land and Overland - twin worlds a few thousand miles apart. On Land, humanity faces a threat to its very survival - an airborne species, the ptertha, has declared war on humankind, and is actively hunting for victims. The only hope lies in migration. Through space to Overland. By balloon. The Ragged Astronauts - first volume in an epic adventure filled with memorable characters, intense action, engaging notions, exotic locales. Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel, 1986

The opening of The Fugitive Worlds finds Toller Maraquine II - grandson of the hero of The Ragged Astronauts and The Wooden Spaceships - bemoaning the fact that life on the twin planets of Land and Overland has become dull and uneventful compared to the stirring times in which his illustrious forebear lived. Then, while on a balloon flight between the worlds, he makes an astonishing discovery - a rapidly growing crystal disc, many miles across, is creating a barrier between Land and Overland. Precipitated for personal reasons into investigating the enigmatic disc, Toller - armed with only his sword and boundless courage - becomes a pivotal figure in events which will decide the future of entire planets and their civilizations.

''The entire head had been stripped of skin, creating a nightmarish sculpture in gelled blood...'' The hideous apparition that confronted John Redpath almost defied description. It was the beginning of a horrific ordeal that would cause him to question his own sanity... A member of a telepathic research project, Redpath believes the cause to be side-effects from the experimental drugs he is taking - but then stranger things begin to happen. He wakes up to find himself in America...he is drawn to a local house occupied by a bizarre group of people leading an artificial and peculiar life...which events are really happening? Slowly an explanation emerges, more terrifying than anything he could have imagined...

What unfathomed secrets lay sleeping in this eerie world of water? The Clan knew almost nothing about the giant sphere of water they inhabited, and even less about the sun and planets nearby in space. Living amidst a cluster of nets anchored to the roots of a giant plant, they were aware only of their unending quest for precious air bubbles; and of the unending threat from the ever-hungry Hora. Those who fell victim to the beasts'' voracious tentacles were left to sink slowly to the depths, where an awesome and unknown being awaited them. He was the greatest mystery of Clan existence - until that is, the world began to change, until the current began to draw the city down to the realms of Ka.

Two hundred years ago mankind found Orbitsville, a vast sphere whose habitable inner surface comprised living space equivalent to five billion Earths. The resulting migration was enthusiastic - and nearly total. Earth itself is a backwater now, a place with which the people of Orbitsville maintain only marginal contact. But just because it''s backward doesn''t mean it isn''t dangerous.

Twenty-four years have passed since Toller Maraquine led the population of Land to the sister planet of Overland. Somehow, those left behind have become immune to the deadly pterthacosis which caused the exodus, and their voracious ruler now lays claim to Overland. Grudgingly put in charge of his planet''s defence, Toller designs a front-line force of spaceships and satellites made of wood, which will engage the enemy fleet in the cold vastness of space, before the invaders can set food upon Overland. As the war proceeds, a far more deadly, alien menace makes itself known, which will threaten the entire existence of Overland.

Orbitsville is the scene of two of Bob Shaw''s most successful novels and is possibly the most gigantic artefact ever dreamed up by an SF writer - a vast hollow world completely enclosing its sun, habitable across its entire inner surface. At the end of ORBITSVILLE DEPARTURE the whole world was shifted to an alternative universe. In a conclusion which is both stunning and moving, ORBITSVILLE JUDGEMENT tells what happens next...

Warren Peace joined the Space Legion to forget - and forget what it was he wanted to forget. In his quest to find out who he''d been he got turned into an Oscar by a symbiotic alien parasite. Oscars are invulnerable superbeings, immune to everything and with no need for air, food or drink, let alone sex and drugs and rock''n''roll. Marooned on an airless planet with a whole bunch of them, Warren is bored witless. Then a chance encounter with a lump of pryktonite turns him back into a human, and Warren embarks on a new career- as a galactic troubleshooter. His first mission takes him (with a couple of Oscars providing the muscle) to a water-covered planet where a company producing a mind-blowing drug is having trouble with its alien work force. It seems they''re smuggling alien porn mags on to the planet, and are too...tired to work. Warren sets out to find the solution... Warren Peace is the second bizarre episode in the series that began with Who Goes Here? By the acclaimed author of Orbitsville and the Ragged Astronauts trilogy.

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The author''s fourth collection of science fiction short stories. The title story tells of a dying child and his miraculous new toy. The other 14 include a fantasy novella about the last days of magic and a tale in which the possibility of an infinite variety of worlds is considered.