Arthur Byron Cover

STARDATE: 1040 In a distant and exotic ringworld, there is one name that outshines all others... Macbeth. He's the bravest of the brave, the most loyal of all King Duncan's dragon-riding lords. But within his heart burns a secret desire to be king at all costs, including murder. When the opportunity arises, he and his wife, the ruthless Lady Macbeth seize it and kill Duncan. Yet the throne is not secure. The spilling of Duncan's blood begets the spilling of more blood as rivals and vengeance seekers rise up against Macbeth. And suddenly, King Macbeth finds himself at war-with the dragon lords, with himself, and with fate that seems to conspire more and more against him with each passing day. Set in a science-fiction world of the far future, this is a stunning graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare's classic story of ambition gone wrong.

STARDATE: 1040 In a distant and exotic ringworld, there is one name that outshines all others... Macbeth. He's the bravest of the brave, the most loyal of all King Duncan's dragon-riding lords. But within his heart burns a secret desire to be king at all costs, including murder. When the opportunity arises, he and his wife, the ruthless Lady Macbeth seize it and kill Duncan. Yet the throne is not secure. The spilling of Duncan's blood begets the spilling of more blood as rivals and vengeance seekers rise up against Macbeth. And suddenly, King Macbeth finds himself at war-with the dragon lords, with himself, and with fate that seems to conspire more and more against him with each passing day. Set in a science-fiction world of the far future, this is a stunning graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare's classic story of ambition gone wrong.

NEBULA NOMINEE AUTHOR'S BRILLIANT, PROFOUND, ZANY, OFF-THE-WALL SF EXTRAVAGANZA "Unclassifiable, brilliant, takes weird to a whole new level Highly recommended " -Goodreads 5-star reviewSPECIAL BONUS: Reprinted for the first time ever since its original 1973 appearance in the anthology "Infinity Five", the first story set in the universe of God-like Men, "IN BETWEEN THEN AND NOW." From the My Reader's Block review blog: ""The Platypus of Doom" This gigantic, bow-tie-wearing space monster can grant the winner of the "great game"* his or her heart's desire. Sounds great, right. Well, you know the old adage.... Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. *The great game appears to be ping pong, by the way: -) ]""The Armadillo of Destruction" An immortal creature that feeds off the powerful negative energy of hate. He's often on the lookout for a new energy source--which always ends badly for the source. Leopold Janifer thinks he has found a way to beat the Armadillo's system. Is he right?""The Aardvark of Despair" Can Davis, a mean-streets private eye who has been flung through a time vortex into the future, help Dr. Bishop and his family shake off the suicidal depression that the Aardvark instills in its victims?""The Clam of Catastrophe" Will the Clam, the goddess of love, teach the first and most long-lived consulting detective to love and then turn it into disillusionment. Or will the detective find the solution the one of man's oldest problems? When you meet these monsters, never fear, for there are godlike men in this book to defeat them "There is, under the near-farcical trappings, an examination of such things as love, hate, motivation, and the meaning of existence itself. Cover manages to pose his questions with a light touch that offers food for though as well as entertaining stories." - My Reader's Block reviews"Four absolutely staggering novelettes, saucy and sharp and fun. Cover plays games that are worthy of Philip Jose Farmer (until it was proven otherwise, I thought that Cover *was* Farmer ) The Platypus, et al, are small-g gods, interfering, in an Euripdean fashion, with the fates of mankind. The stories have hidden depths and riddles that reward the effort of solving, but, mostly, they entertain. This is thoughtful stuff, but also highly readable." -Amazon verified reviewFor fans of Diskworld and Xanth Cover image: Ron Miller; Design: Frankie Hill

Your mission is to find the controversial diamond necklace that helped trigger the French Revolution. In 1785 France was ready to burst into the flames of revolution. That year a Church official, the cardinal de Rohan, ordered a diamond necklace to be made in the name of the queen, Marie Antoinette. The French people assumed that the necklace was another example of the queen's extravagance. They were enraged. A scandal erupted. The queen denied any knowledge of the necklace. Eventually it was proven that the cardinal had actually intended all along to give the necklace to his court favorite, the comtesse de La Motte. The cardinal and the comtesse were punished for their trickery. Soon after, the angry French people revolted, and the necklace disappeared. You must travel back to eighteenth-century France to find the missing necklace and learn what role it played in the Revolution. But be careful. The era of the French Revolution was one of the most turbulent in history The Time Machine series challenges young readers to use their imagination and decision-making skills to write their own story. Options in the text allow readers to choose any path they like within the plot. Readers must draw on background information about the period to make the right choices. This makes the series a great educational device for youngsters to learn about history and all the different cultures, events, and periods that shaped it.

Your mission is to go back in time and discover the identity of the man who fired the first shot of the American revolution, and bring back his musket. From 1775 to 1781, the thirteen colonies on the North American continent fought a war of independence from England, then the mightiest power in the world. By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. So begins Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous poem ""Concord Hymn,"" sung at the dedication of the Battle Monument in 1837. Even then, the identity of the man who fired the first shot of the war, beginning the Battle of Lexington and Concord, in April 1775, was a mystery. The Time Machine series challenges young readers to use their imagination and decision-making skills to write their own story. Options in the text allow readers to choose any path they like within the plot. Readers must draw on background information about the period to make the right choices. This makes the series a great educational device for youngsters to learn about history and all the different cultures, events, and periods that shaped it.

I loved these books and having one set in the future, kind of the Time Machine series' version of a science fiction adventure, was a great thrill for me. -A Reviewer Radio signals have been detected from the rings of Saturn. Due to the pattern, scientists believe the signals will soon halt and resume in the year 2085. Your mission is to go into the future and find the source of the broadcast. You could be the first Earthling to meet an alien civilization. On the way you will visit many planets and meet many people of the future. Your decisions will change the future and decide if mankind makes contact with an alien life-form.

NEBULA NOMINEE AUTHOR"An East Wind Coming is a decadent smorgasbord oozing sex and nihilism, peppered with the thrills of various pulp fictions and comic-book universes. In a far future the iconic characters of nineteenth- and twentieth-century pop culture have been reborn, all of them referring to themselves coyly as "the consulting detective," "the good doctor," "the Big Red Cheese," etc. Imagine Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time reinvented by a chimera of Kim Newman, Philip Jos Farmer, and Belgian nihilist surrealist Jacques Sternberg, and you'll get an idea of the strange atmosphere of this dense and mindwarping novel. Cosmic concepts, depressing sex, horrific crimes, and pulp heroes . . . what more could you want?" The Magazine of F&SF"A dark, rich and unusual fantasy/science-fiction novel. The Golden City of the Godlike Men is haunted by a murderer -- possibly a reincarnation of Jack the Ripper. As the utopian streets run with blood, the godlike men face the ultimate crisis of their aimless, drifting existence. The murders seem to expose the underlying corruption and pointlessness of their existence. And the only hope seems to be to rouse the Consulting Detective (Sherlock Holmes) from his torpor, to finally investigate a new case that could change the nature of the godlike men's world. The literary fun-'n'-games should appeal to fans of Alan Moore's LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN or anyone who's explored the Wold-Newton playground of Philip Jose Farmer. But there's a wholly unique and utterly fascinating quality to this lonely, haunted, elegiac novel. Again and again, Cover defiantly mines new meaning and hidden power from the detritus of junk, pop, pulp culture. This lost classic of fantasy richly deserves to be rediscovered." -Amazon Review"The book is excellent. I recommend this one very highly, with the proviso that the reader will only enjoy it if they happen to like a great number of different types of writing; from great literature to comic books, pulp magazines, penny dreadfuls, etc." Casebook: Jack the RipperArthur Byron Cover's work is filled with "...agile inventiveness ... extraordinary salience and outlandishness ... astonishing imagination ... grotesque and hilarious ... honest and often truly beautiful ... shocking and exultant. ...nothing like the usual sf fare." --A. A. Attanasio, author, Radix

NEBULA NOMINEE BOOK "Three Godlike men (the lawyer, the fatman and the demon) ... seek to give a godlike humanity depression, in an attempt to make their race seek purpose and become the ultimate species in the universe. What follows is ... a novel which plunges you into an original sci-fi world which raises thought provoking questions throughout the plot. ... fast paced with engaging and unique characters ... thought provoking and emotive ... Buy it now or I will send you to the antimatter universe." -Adam Gent, Goodreads The book that ushered in the 21st century - in 1975 So far ahead of its time that no one knew what to make of it "...recommended to readers of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett." The PorPor Books Blog Autumn Angels is a fast moving, anarchistic romp, filled with pop culture references, in which the clich s and conventions of sci-fi are used as slapstick props, just like Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy - written four years before Douglas Adams. "It takes the materials of everyday entertainments-pulp heroes, movies, comics, detective stories-and transforms them .... into a gestalt that is fresh. ..: the lawyer is modeled after Doc Savage's sidekick; Ham, ' Brig. Gen. Theodore Marley Brooks; the fat man is Sidney Greenstreet; the gunsel is Elisha Cook, Jr. in The Maltese Falcon; the Big Red Cheese is Captain Marvel; the Insidious Oriental Doctor is Fu Manchu; the Queen of England who calls herself a virgin is Elizabeth I; the ace reporter is Lois Lane; the zanny imp from the Fifth Dimension is Mr. Mxyzptlk, and both the imp and Lois are, of course, from the Superman comics; the godlike man with no name is Clint Eastwood in the Sergio Leone-directed spaghetti westerns; the galactic hero with two right arms is Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero; the fuzzy (but boring) little green balls of Sharkosh are Star Trek scenarist David Gerrold's tribbles; and you can figure out for yourself the true identities or esoteric references for The Ebony Kings, the poet, the shrink, the bems, the other fat man and his witty leg man, and on and on." -Harlan Ellison No wonder Autumn Angels is over the top, the author lists as influences the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Richard Lester, the silent comedians, Woody Allen, Harry Harrison, Keith Laumer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dorothy Parker, Hemingway, Jeeves and Wooster, Phil Dick, Robert Sheckley, and Alfred Bester. "...agile inventiveness ... extraordinary salience and outlandishness ... astonishing imagination ... grotesque and hilarious ... honest and often truly beautiful ... shocking and exultant. ...nothing like the usual sf fare. I read it through in one sitting." --A. A. Attanasio, author, Radix Read Autumn Angels now, you will be glad you did.