Showing results by author "Mack Reynolds" in All Categories

It's a crooked road to world peace...but it works. Warfare between nations has been banned. Taking its place are the Corporate Wars - full-scale battles between mercenary armies hired by large corporations, ostensibly to settle trade disputes. But the wars are also free entertainment for the masses. In a world where most jobs have been taken over by automation, free tranquilizers have to be issued to the vast lower class to keep them subdued.

Ten classic science fiction stories.

Volume 6 contains the following 21 stories: "Perchance to Dream" by Richard Stockham, "Father Image" by Robert Silverburg, "Tree, Spare That Woodman" by Dave Dryfoos, "Disaster Revisited" by Darius John Granger, "Subversive" by Mack Reynolds, "The Stutterer" by R. R. Merliss, "Infinite Intruder" by Alan E. Nourse, "A Bottle of Old Wine" by Richard O. Lewis, "B12's Moon Glow" by Charles A. Sterns, "A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinster, and many more.

On a future Earth wracked by strife and shortages, Roy Cos buys into a lifetime of ease through the Deathwish Policy, but his privileged status makes him a target for killers hired by the elite Worldgov.

Island One, the U.S.'s first space colony and symbol of an American renaissance, is in trouble. Low morale, shoddy workmanship, unexplained malfunctions, and avoidable accidents have become a way of life, and nobody seems to know why. Is it the Russians? Home-grown anti-technologists? Arabs afraid of cheap solar power from space - or something even more sinister?

Unfortunately, there was only one thing he could bring back from the wonderful future… and though he didn't want to…nevertheless he did...

In Ultima Thule, young Ronny Bronston has a dream of getting a United Planets job that would take him off-world. He finally gets such an opportunity when his application is accepted and heis given a provisional assignment with the Bureau of Investigation, Section G. Then he finds that the assignment is to capture the elusive terrorist, Tommy Paine, who has eluded even the most experienced operative.

Prescott stood to make a young fortune if he could capture a Martian zloor - dead or alive! Was there a catch to it? Only for the hunter!

Maw Coy climbed the fence down at the end of the south pasture and started up the side of the creek, carrying her bundle over her shoulder and puffing slightly at her exertion. She forded the creek there at the place where Hank's old coon dog, Jigger, was killed by the boar three years ago during the hunting season. Jumping from rock to rock across the creek made her puff even harder; Maw Coy wasn't as young as she once was.

The bustling port city of Tangier hosts many strange humans. One can't be too cautious about the people one meets there. They're all weirdies of one kind or another. Me? I'm a stranger here myself.

Some writers of science fiction turn out to be reasonably accurate prognosticators of the future. In Mack Reynolds’ Mercenary, the elite 1 percent control the wealth of the nation and thus the nation. War as we know it has been eliminated, and disputes between nations, unions, and corporations are settled on a battlefield by mercenary soldiers with pre-1900 weapons. These battles are televised, and the combatants become heroes, not unlike NFL players. Meet Joe Mauser, one of the best of the best; a tactician and gun for hire.

One can't be too cautious about the people one meets in Tangier. They're all weirdies of one kind or another. Me? Oh, I'm A Stranger Here Myself!

A gun is an interesting weapon; it can be hired, of course, and naturally doesn't care who hires it. Something much the same can be said of the gunman, too....

Medal of Honor is an intriguing look into the mind of someone who is above the law; who cannot commit a crime. How will he act, especially if he is a self centered drunk?

Gun for Hire explores in a lighthearted but painful way, the fact that hired guns are just that: hired. What happens when a gangster from the 20th century is brought into the future to 'handle' a problem they now cannot even think about.

Happy Ending is an SF story about the far future when the last solar system wide dictator has been finally defeated and what will he do? What will he do? This is also an exploration of mental megalomania and it's effects. His happy ending is perhaps suitable, but probably not so happy.

Who are mankind's enemies? Is it every possible to rest? A cynical exploration of the drive to dominate. Potential Enemy is story about the sad state of human minds that are ruled by fear and paranoia.

This short work of science fiction by Mack Reynolds first appeared in "Fantastic Adventures", April 1950, and the copyright was not renewed therefore putting this work into the public domain. An advanced race travels to Earth to warn them to cease their experimentation with atomic fission. Unfortunately they land in a North Dakota Cornfield on the farm of an isolationist who would support their ideas if they could only understand one another.

Every status-quo-caste society in history has left open two roads to rise above your caste: The Priest and The Warrior. But in a society of TV and tranquilizers-the Warrior acquires a strange new meaning. Welcome to the future according to science fiction master Mack Reynolds, where the population is kept happy with drugs and fake wars, and there is only one way to get ahead...