The year 2032 A.D. The Gloria Mundi, a star ship built and manned by the new United States of Europe, touches down on the planet, Alatair Five. Disaster strikes, leaving only one apparent survivor — an Englishman named Paul Marlow, whose adventures in the lair of a strange primeval race knowan as the Bayani leads him firstly to their God, the omnipotent and omniscient Oruri, and eventually to an unlimited power that is so great that it must include a built-in death sentence. The forces that have remained static for centuries overcome both the forces of the future and the quest for unlimited knowledge

This collection contains one long novella, 'The Firebird', which some critics regard this as Edmund Cooper's finest work. Two stories were written especially for the collection and the remaining stories were written and published over a number of years in various magazines but have not been collected together before in book form. The theme of all the stories is fantasy. Edmund Cooper is fascinated by worlds of the imagination as much as the real world which he sometimes satirises in his books. In this collection, there are elements of tragic fantasy and also of humorous and satirical fantasy. Here are the best of his fantasy stories in one volume. This book contains the following: Introduction, The Firebird, Jahweh, The Diminishing Dragon, The Snow Crystals, Second Chance, I Am a Ghost

Philip Shane, journalist for the London Sunday Sentinel and undercover agent for the British Government, sets out, at the Prime Minister's request, to investigate the death of key scientists on the moon. His fellow travellers are Claire Scott, daughter of Sir Fabian Scott, pioneer of Lunar City; Professor Denis Quarles, a one-man Investigating Commission; Gaff Midley, a psychiatrist; the Ferry Rocket Commander and crew. At Woomera, firing base for the Ferry Rockets in the year AD 2050, Shane is drugged and sabotage occurs. On the Commonwealth Space Station, 1079 miles above the Earth the Ferry Rocket Commander is killed. Who is responsible, and why?

The day Gabriel Chrome, a failed book sculptor contemplating his suicide on the Thames Embankment, stumbled on the suicide bid of the naked Camilla Greylaw, was a day of hopeful redemption for a corrupt and violent world. For the lovely form that he chanced to preserve was the sole carrier of a contagious venereal disease. A bug which would inhibit the aggressive instinct, rendering total placidity in all humans. At once Gabriel’s life has new meaning and purpose. To save mankind becomes his hardened ambition. But mankind seems far from hope

Sixteen people, passengers on a jet aircraft from Stockholm to London, wake up in plastic coffins in the middle of a road that leads to nowhere. On one side of the road is an hotel— empty. On the other side is a supermarket—also empty. There are two cars on the road without batteries or engines. And all around there is nothing but forest and wilderness… So begins an adventure in which the appearance of medieval knights, Stone Age warriors and ‘fairies’ leads to an exciting denouement. For the abducted passengers and their new companions are not on Earth. They have been brought to an alien world for reasons which, at the end, are movingly explained by their captors

He was the subject of an experiment seventy light years away from Earth. It lay in the grass, tiny and white and burning. He stooped, put out his fingers. And then there was nothing. Nothing but darkness and oblivion. A split second demolition of the world of Richard Avery. From a damp February afternoon in Kensington Gardens, Avery is precipitated into a world of apparent unreason. A world in which his intelligence is tested by computer, and which he is finally left on a strange tropical island with three companions, and a strong human desire to survive. But then the mystery deepens: for there are two moons in the sky, and the rabbits have six legs, and there is a physically satisfying reason for the entire situation

Nel sottosuolo vicino a Londra viene scavato un immenso magazzino dove, grazie a opportuni accorgimenti, potranno essere conservati enormi quantitativi di generi alimentari. Lo scopo dell’impresa è quello di preservare le scorte di cibo da un inquinamento radioattivo, nel caso che si scateni una guerra atomica. Dei lavori si è interessato l’ingegnere John Markham. Così, quando viene segnalata una irregolarità negli impianti elettronici, è Markham a scendere nei sotterranei per un controllo. A un tratto, una scossa violentissima, seguita da altre, poi un crollo improvviso. L’ingegnere pensa a un terremoto o a un errore di costruzione. Comunque, lì vicino c’è una delle tante nicchie col telefono collegato all’esterno. Vi arriva scavalcando i detriti, ma l’apparecchio non funziona. Be’, si tratterà di aspettare un po’. Fuori si accorgeranno che è successo qualcosa e scenderanno a cercarlo. E deve proprio essere andata così perchè Markham, adesso, è in un lettino. Si sente un po’ debole ma è sano e salvo. Però ha freddo. Molto freddo. E quella donna che si china su di lui è Katy! No, non è lei. Ma Dio Santo come le assomiglia. E quello strano dottore che dice cose tanto strampalate... Insomma, affrettatevi a leggere questo romanzo per poter dire a John Markham dove esattamente si trova e cosa gli è successo