Patrick Joya lifted his head to scan the southern sky and saw a dark bluish shape flicker against the clouds. Growing larger and larger the object undulated like a wide piece of cloth carried along on a moving current of water."He could hear the babble of voices around him swelling to a mounting groan of panic. The sound went racing like a cresting wave back toward the Terminal where the thousands there would be lifting their gaze skyward."Another Space Swimmer, Pat thought with sinking heart. It seemed as if it intended to swallow up the sky - for the brightness of day had blackened into night . . . .accepted their robot-like existence. Either way, the human race was doomed!

Gordon R. Dickson has entertained readers for over two decades with his tales of Jim Eckert. Now the Dragon Knight must confront the three disas-ters that lie in wait for any visitor to the English Middle Ages: war, plague, and Plantagenets. The plague is caused by a covert invasion of shapechanging goblins who seek to take over the world. Meanwhile, Eckerts castle is invaded by Plantagenets: Edward III, his son Edward The Black Prince, and Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. Against the background of a full-scale human-versus-goblin war, these worthies move in a swirl of intrigue and dynastic tension.

THE PROPHECY“You will travel, and far, by water as well as by land,” he said to Jamie in his soft, lilting voice. “The water beneath you is gray sometimes, sometimes a blue that hurts my eyes.“Also, I see a great stone city, with a dark woman there. A dark woman who calls herself friend. Battles—many battles, and many dead, and much blood. Your blood too, but not your death—not from what may be seen. What may not be seen is…”The voice trailed off, and Jamie shifted impatiently. He was not worried about dying. The question was—would he return to the valley, and if so, when?

Bill Waltham has a sneaking suspicion that a few important details were purposely withheld from him when he receives his assignment to the planet Dilbia. At first, the project - to teach the planet's bear-like inhabitants basic agricultural skills - seems a straightforward, though boring, undertaking for a young engineer on the rise. But Bill immediately senses a very keen hostility from the Dilbians toward interfering humans. And in trying to solve a major crisis on the planet, he finds himself involved in a knock-down, drag-out brawl that has all the undertones of a David-and-Goliath battle revisited.

One man is mentally linked to an alien who is spearheading an invasion of Earth; a group of soldiers fight to win new space for Earth; and a small group of men fight against a machine that controls all life.

It's obvious that Cletus Graeme—limping, mild-mannered scholarly—doesn't belong on a battling field, but instead at a desk working on his fourth book on battle strategy and tactics. But Bakhalla has more battlefields than libraries, and Graeme sees his small force of Dorsai—soldiers of fortune—as the perfect opportunity to test his theories. But if his theories or his belief in the Dorsai lead him astray, he's a dead man.

Quarantine...Ever since Earth's first starship crept out on sublight drive a hundred years ago and was met by an emissary of the Galactic Federation, man has lived as a prisoner in the solar system. The Federation decreed that unless man could demonstrate his technological maturity and leave the solar system via a faster-than-light drive, he would not leave it at all. All Earth knows the test that man must pass to win Galactic Citizenship and the freedom of the stars; the FTL drive is every physicist's top priority. But what they cannot know is that they work against both an alien time-limit and human sabotage - and time is running out. Unless John Parent's star-drive project is successful, mankind will remain trapped in the solar system, forever...