Showing results by author "David Gerrold" in All Categories

This funny and insightful science fiction classic introduces Shoogar, the greatest wizard ever known in his village. His spells can strike terror in the hearts of even his most powerful enemies. But the enemy he faces now is like none he has ever seen before. The stranger has come from nowhere and is ignorant of even the most basic principles of magic. But the stranger has an incredibly powerful magic of his own. There is no room in Shoogar's world for an intruder whose powers match his own, let alone one whose powers might exceed his.

Hella is a planet where everything is oversized. The trees are mile-high, the dinosaur herds are huge, and the weather is extreme - so extreme, the colonists have to migrate twice a year to escape the blistering heat of summer and the atmosphere-freezing cold of winter. Kyle is a neuro-atypical young man, emotionally challenged, but with an implant that gives him real-time access to the colony's computer network. When an overburdened starship arrives, he becomes the link between the established colonists and the refugees from a ravaged Earth.

HARLIE is the first self-aware intelligence engine. But instead of answers, he has questions—too many questions, and most of his questions have no answers at all. First published in 1972, When HARLIE Was One was immediately hailed as a groundbreaking debut novel, examining the most fundamental question of all: What does it mean to be human?

Still reeling from the alien plagues that killed two-thirds of the planet's population, humanity now confronts the most deadly enemy Earth has ever known - the giant man-eating Chtorr. Lieutenant James McCarthy has grown to manhood under the shadow of the terrifying invasion of the Chtorr. As a student, he learned all he could to understand their alien behavior. As a Special Forces commando, he made violent first contact. Now this battle-hardened warrior faces a profound challenge.

With the human population ravaged by a series of devastating plagues, the alien Chtorr arrive to begin the final phase of their invasion. Even as many on Earth deny their existence, the giant wormlike carnivores prepare the world for the ultimate violation--the enslavement of humanity for food!

The first work in David Gerrold's Star Wolf trilogy, this tale pits the human members of the Star Wolf space vessel against the superhuman Morthan crew. Captain Jonathan Korie, hampered by the loss of most of the human fleet to the Morthans and a nearly disabled ship of his own, faces the Morthan threat driven by the need for survival and the desire for revenge.

The Morthans were physically and mentally superior. Descended from humans, they were now, literally, “more-than" human … and considered the human race to be little better than animals. They would stop at nothing to conquer the remaining human-controlled worlds. Docked for repairs after a harrowing battle with a Morthan ship, Jonathan Korie and his crew discover they have a Morthan imp aboard—a Morthan weapon so quick they have no chance of catching it, so clever they have no hope of outsmarting it and so deadly they have no choice but to try.

This conclusion to the Star Wolf trilogy finds Executive Officer Korie and the crew of the Star Wolf answering a distress call from a mysteriously lifeless ship. On board the Norway, they discover half-wave, half-particle clusters of golden light - and a dead man. The lights are the energy form of bloodworms, a fatal infestation that feeds off the energy of living bodies, which scientists on the Norway have developed for use in the Alliance’s war against the Morthans.

McCarthy was drafted from his college biology studies and became a member of the Special Forces. Then he is given the opportunity to contact the Chtorr, but when a helicopter crash leaves him and his companions stranded in enemy territory, he must decide whether to communicate with the Chtorr--or kill them!

The story of humanity's courageous struggle for survival against the greatest threat Earth has ever known. As the tenacious invaders remake Earth's violated surface, transforming its flora and fauna into a replica of their own terrifying home world, a handful of scientists, soldiers, and citizens prepare to fight back - hoping it isn't already too late. In Mexico, a dead Chtorr leads to a stunning discovery about the aliens.

The human race has been played for a fool. Though welcomed into the galactic community and given access to the combined knowledge of thousands of intelligent species, humans are largely regarded as an evolutionary mistake. Reptilian, insectoid, and other unclassifiable species are the dominant forms of intelligence. If it hadn't been for that annoying comet, the dinosaurs would have continued their evolutionary journey to sentience. Instead the ridiculous mammalians survived. And they want to be treated as equals.

Gerrold, a science fiction writer from California, adopts a son who has a slight behavioral problem. He believes himself to be a Martian. Gerrold begins the long, involving work of trying to earn the acceptance of Dennis, a hyperactive eight-year-old who desperately wants a father's love, but is so insecure he feels he must be an alien. Gerrold's semi-autobiographical memoir of the first two years with Dennis is a funny, endearing, heartbreaking, and beautifully written testament to fatherhood.

Not all heroes are super. In this incredible short story, award-winning author David Gerrold reveals the true cost of being heroic in an uncaring world. A vivid vignette of urban fantasy.

Sherlock Holmes has died. It looks like natural causes, but Watson suspects murder. Can he prove it? The evidence isn't there, but he can't give up. This stunning novella reveals Watson's own remarkable abilities to investigate an impossible case. The dilemma is real, the solution is surprising, and the conclusion is a fitting coda to the Holmes canon. Written by David Gerrold, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author behind The Trouble with Tribbles, The Man Who Folded Himself, and The Martian Child. Read by two-time Emmy Award-winning narrator Daniel Penz.

Alternative Liberties gathers together some of the finest minds in speculative fiction to address the implications of current politics. Adam-Troy Castro answers the classic question “What happens if this keeps on?” in a riveting story of a quiet citizen undergoing an increasingly surreal house arrest. Renowned fantasy author Louise Marley writes from the perspective of a future academic, proposing a Ph.D. thesis about our times. Harry Turtledove, a master of alternate history, gives us the tale of a woman enthralled by the Terrific Leader. In Brenda Cooper’s “A Better President,” ...

Having barely escaped death at the hands of ruthless corporations who have pursued him across the harsh lunar wasteland, teenager Charles Dingillian faces yet another fateful decision: No longer able to return to his home on Earth, Charles and his two brothers must choose a new planet to call home. But which one? Charles has come into possession of a prototype HARLIE unit so revolutionary and state-of-the-art that corporations will stop at nothing - including murder - to control it.

How to Save the World brings together 11 of today's brightest authors, presenting their answers to solve a pressing problem facing the human race. From the growing energy crisis to women's rights to overpopulation to the survival of humanity in the future, the stories in this anthology examine the issues facing our planet today - and offer hope for our survival tomorrow.

In this wonderful young adult adventure, a socially maladroit teenager invents a way to become a time-slicing superhero and uses his new powers to extract an exquisite revenge on his junior high school tormentor — and in the process learns a few lessons for himself as well. This hilarious tale is a delicious evocation of adolescent geekery. Don't miss this one!

Having escaped both an Earth on the verge of global collapse and their squabbling parents in a "divorce" at Geosynchronous Station, a newly independent Charles and his two brothers find themselves alone on the Moon with very few prospects. Worse, they are being hunted by ruthless interplanetary corporations who would stop at nothing to come in possession of a memory bar the boys smuggled on board. Can they make it on their own? Who can they trust? Charles thought the moon would be a new beginning. He will be lucky just to stay alive.