Speculative fiction

All Earth needed was a good stiff dose of common sense, but its rulers preferred to depend on the highly fallible computers instead.

Blue Boy's rating was high and his fans were loyal to the death-anyone's death!

Mary might have learned a more ladylike trade, but one thing is certain: she had a shining faith in that space guy from Earth.

What would you do if your best robots-children of your own brain-walked up and said "e;We want union scale"e;?

Poor Henry was an unhappy husband whose wife had a habit of using bad cliches.

The fleet came in at four o'clock.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you .

For the most part, Godwin's stories-however grim the situation-are really about triumph in the face of adversity.

The little house pet from Venus didn't like New York, so New York had to change.

Who, but the imaginative young, shall inherit the stars?

Worlds of If' was a three-time winner of the Hugo Award for best science fiction magazine.

The man is rare who will give his life for what is merely the lesser of two evils.

The weird, invisible insect depopulated an entire planet.

Poor Riuku!

"e;Rig ship for the snowbank orbit!

Naturally human work was more creative, more inspiring, more important than robot drudgery.

Bryce Carter could afford a smug smile.

The line between noble dreams and madness is thin, and loneliness can push men past it .

Julith clasped the star-man's arm with one hand, while her other arm gripped his waist.

Naturally an undertaker will get the last word.

If this story has a moral, it is: "e;Leave well enough alone.

The Emperor must be getting old, they thought, to deal so mercifully with the upstart Jursan Rebels-which was quite true.

In order to make Izaak Walton's sport complete, there must be an angler, a fish, and some bait.

Wilbur Murphy sought romance, excitement, and an impossible Horseman of Space.

"e;You wanted out?

The starways' Lone Watcher had expected some odd developments in his singular, nerve-fraught job on the asteroid.

If you ever get to drinking beer in your favorite saloon and meet a scared little guy who wants to buy you the joint, supply you with fur coats and dolls and run you for Congress-listen well!

No conceivable force could penetrate Terri's shield.

For every weapon there was a defense, but not against the deadliest weapon-man himself!

The Masters had ruled all space with an unconquerable iron fist.

Everything was aimed at satisfying the whims of women.

"e;What kind of university do they have on D'Land?

You're all alone in a deserted city.

C.

The remarkable thing about Atummyc Afterbath Dusting Powder was that it gave you that lovely, radiant, atomic look-just the way the advertisements said it would.

The aliens wooed Earth with gifts, love, patience and peace.

Worlds of If' was a three-time winner of the Hugo Award for best science fiction magazine.

I didn't have to ask whom he meant.

"e;This Ilbrahaim, though-he swears our camp's being haunted.

For a few seconds, however, the tall stranger seemed to lose all of his cockiness, and a somber look crept over his jovial features.

For in the clearing's center stood the Tree of Life.

Crowning the heights on the outskirts of a certain town on the east coast is a large, iron water-tank from which an isolated row of small villas obtains its supply.

When Carson first noticed the sounds in his cellar, he ascribed them to the rats.

"e;The price,"e; he said heavily, "e;is five hundred for the set, if you insist on buying it.

From the backwaters of the Universe came two Beings-radiant, terrible-to challenge the love of a mortal man and woman!

A strange and curious story is this, about a banker whose only fear was that he might be buried alive, like his grandfather before him.

What caught Harcourt's eye almost immediately was a disc recorder standing near the desk, together with stacks of discs, some manifestly used, others clearly not yet touched, ready for anyone who might care to use the recorder.

How I longed to discover the secret of some perfect lens, whose magnifying power should be limited only by the resolvability of the object, and which at the same time should be free from spherical and chromatic aberrations, in short from all the obstacles over which the poor microscopist finds himself continually stumbling!

It was quite impossible for him to believe that Ilalotha had died from a fatal passion: since, in his experience, passion was never fatal.

"e;So the last fly has obligingly walked into the spider's parlor,"e; he murmured, with a laugh.