Because Bron Hoddan was a serious electronics engineer, he didn't want any part of his particular planetary heritage. For he was from Zan - and Zan's only occupation was spaceship piracy! So Bron went to Walden, the most civilized planet of them all. His first step to making himself a good reputation was to invent a machine that would save the government millions. But when instead he was seized and jailed as the most unspeakable criminal in Walden's history, he realized that there was only one way open to remedy this "civilized" disaster. And that was by putting into use some of Zan's old-fashioned buccaneering techniques!
Sometimes it seems nobody loves a benefactor ... particularly nobody on a well-heeled, self-satisfied planet. Grandpa always said Pirates were really benefactors, though. Murray Leinster weaves a science fiction masterpiece!
The only links between the far-flung space colonies were the Medical Services spaceships. When these lonely travelers paid a call, they were always given a royal welcome. So why did the landing grid on Marix III try to destroy Med Serviceman Calhoun's ship?
Bron Hoddan never wanted to be a pirate, but he was born into a family of pirates, who expected him to join the family business. Bron stows away on a space ship and runs away from home. But even though he has never committed an act of space piracy, he'll soon learn it's not that easy to leave his family's legacy behind. A wild, funny science fiction romp that will leave you smiling long after you've turned the final page.
This carefully crafted ebook: "The Pirates of Ersatz" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Pirates of Ersatz tells the story of Bran Hodder, a one-time engineer who sets out on a career of interstellar piracy ostensibly to further more legitimate goals. The revised version of this tale was nominated for the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Frederik Pohl reviewed Pirates favorably, saying "It would not seem possible that after thirty years of space-pirate stories any writer could make one come alive; but Bron Hoddan is a rather unique space pirate, and Murray Leinster is a nearly unique science-fiction writer".
Engaged, passionate, and consistently entertaining, An Informal History of the Hugos is a book about the renowned science fiction award for the many who enjoyed Jo Walton's previous collection of writing from Tor.com, the Locus Award-winning What Makes This Book So Great. The Hugo Awards, named after pioneer science-fiction publisher Hugo Gernsback, and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Society, have been presented since 1953. They are widely considered the most prestigious awards in science fiction. Between 2010 and 2013, Jo Walton wrote a series of posts for Tor.com, surveying the Hugo finalists and winners from the award's inception up to the year 2000. Her contention was that each year's full set of finalists generally tells a meaningful story about the state of science fiction at that time. Walton's cheerfully opinionated and vastly well-informed posts provoked valuable conversation among the field's historians. Now these posts, lightly revised, have been gathered into this book, along with a small selection of the comments posted by SF luminaries such as Rich Horton, Gardner Dozois, and David G. Hartwell. "A remarkable guided tour through the field—a kind of nonfiction companion to Among Others. It's very good. It's great."—New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing on What Makes This Book So Great At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Welcome to The 11th Science Fiction MEGAPACK®! We hope you will enjoy the stories we have selected for you this time. There's a greater emphasis than usual on Golden Age writers (just the way it came together) -- but we have one original story as well, a posthumous collaboration with H.B. Fyfe, finishing a really terrific but not-quite-done tale he had been working on before his death. It's a bit reminiscent of James Tiptree, Jr.'s best work -- but predates Tiptree by a couple of decades. And we have novels by Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth, Murray Leinster, E. Everett Evans, and Donald Wollheim...not to mention part 2 of our serialization of Tony Rothman's mammoth 2013 novel, Firebird. And a ton of great short stories. 36 works in all, more than 1900 pages of great reading! ANGELS IN THE JETS, by Jerome Bixby A CODE FOR SAM, by Lester del Rey STAR SHIP, by Poul Anderson THE WELL-OILED MACHINE, by H.B. Fyfe JACK OF NO TRADES, by Evelyn E. Smith THE GRAVITY BUSINESS, by James E. Gunn DOOMSDAY EVE, by Robert Moore Williams MASTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, by Robert Silverberg FALCONS OF NARABEDLA, by Marion Zimmer Bradley NEW LAMPS, by Robert Moore Williams THE PIRATES OF ZAN, by Murray Leinster OUT OF THE IRON WOMB!, by Poul Anderson LATER THAN YOU THINK, by Fritz Leiber THE PLANET MAPPERS, by E. Everett Evans AFTERGLOW, by H.B. Fyfe and John Gregory Betancourt SHIPPING CLERK, by William Morrison CONTAGION, by Katherine MacLean THE LIGHT ON PRECIPICE PEAK, by Stephen Tall THE LUCKIEST MAN IN DENV, by Simon Eisner ON THE FOURTH PLANET, by J.F. Bone BIMMIE SAYS, by Sydney Van Scyoc SWEET TOOTH, by Robert F. Young SEARCH THE SKY, by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth STAR, BRIGHT, by Mark Clifton HOT PLANET, by Hal Clement TWO WEEKS IN AUGUST, by Frank M. Robinson THE ALIEN, by Raymond F. Jones BODYGUARD, by Christopher Grimm JAYWALKER, by Ross Rocklynne SECOND CHILDHOOD, by Clifford D. Simak OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS, by William Tenn POLLONY UNDIVERTED, by Sydney Van Scyoc DELAY IN TRANSIT, by F. L. Wallace A GIFT FROM EARTH, by Manly Banister ONE AGAINST THE MOON, by Donald A. Wollheim Special Feature: FIREBIRD, by Tony Rothman [Part 2 of 3] If you enjoy this volume of classic stories, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the 270+ other entries in this series, including science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, adventure, horror, westerns -- and much, much more!
